1 8 54-] HUMBOLDT AGASSIZ. 43 



grievous how often any change knocks me up. I will further 

 pledge myself, as I told Lyell, to resign after a year, if I did 

 not attend pretty often, so that I should at worst encumber 

 the Club temporarily. If you can get me elected, I certainly 

 shall be very much pleased. Very many thanks for answers 

 about Glaciers. I am very glad to hear of the second Edit.* 

 so very soon ; but am not surprised, for I have heard of 

 several, in our small circle, reading it with very much pleasure. 

 I shall be curious to hear what Humboldt will say : it will, I 

 should think, delight him, and meet with more praise from 

 him than any other book of Travels, for I cannot remember 

 one, which has so many subjects in common with him. What 

 a wonderful old fellow he is. ... . By the way, I hope, 

 when you go to Hitcham,| towards the end of May, you will 

 be forced to have some rest. I am grieved to hear that all 

 the bad symptoms have not left Henslow ; it is so strange 

 and new to feel any uneasiness about his health. I am 

 particularly obliged to you for sending me Asa Gray's letter ; 

 how very pleasantly he writes. To see his and your caution 

 on the species-question ought to overwhelm me in confusion 

 and shame ; it does make me feel deuced uncomfortable. . . . 

 It is delightful to hear all that he says on Agassiz : how very 

 singular it is that so eminently clever a man, with such 

 immense knowledge on many branches of Natural History, 

 should write as he does. Lyell told me that he was so 

 delighted with one of his (Agassiz') lectures on progressive 

 development, &c. &c, that he went to him afterwards and 

 told him, " that it was so delightful, that he could not help 

 all the time wishing it was true." I seldom see a Zoological 

 paper from North America, without observing the impress of 

 Agassiz' doctrines, another proof, by the way, of how great 

 a man he is. I was pleased and surprised to see A. Gray's 

 remarks on crossing, obliterating varieties, on which, as you 

 know, I have been collecting facts for these dozen years. 



* Of the Himalayan Journal. f Henslow's living. 



