496 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, 



last was eighty-five days old ! Indeed, you ought to 

 have had it then. . . . 



TO CHARLES DARWIN. 



January 27, 1863. 



I have been far too busy to write letters ; have 

 been interrupted, too, by visitors, etc. . . . 



You " wish to heaven the North did not hate us 

 so." We equally wish the English did not hate us so. 

 Perhaps we exaggerate the ill will in England against 

 us. You certainly over-estimate that of the United 

 States against England, which an influential part of 

 your press exaggerates and incites for the worst pur- 

 poses. But, after all, after the first flurry, we think 

 and say very little about you, and shall live in peace 

 with you, if you will let us. There should have been, 

 and might have been, the most thorough good will be- 

 tween us. I do not think it is all our fault that it is 

 not so. 



In reply to your question : 



If oak and beech had large, colored corolla, etc., I 

 know of no reason why it would be reckoned a low 

 form, but the contrary, quite. But we have no basis 

 for high or low in any class, say, dicotyledons, ex- 

 cept perfection of development or the contrary in 

 the floral organs, and even the envelopes ; and as we 

 know these may be reduced to any degree in any order 

 or group, we have really, that I know of, no philoso- 

 phical basis for high and low. Moreover, the vege- 

 table kingdom does not culminate, as the animal 

 kingdom does. It is not a kingdom, but a common- 

 wealth ; a democracy, and therefore puzzling and un- 

 accountable from the former point of view. 



I have just read De Candolle's paper on oaks and 



