i860.] AGASSIZ, WAGNER. 33 1 



volens, have to go further. He says he is going to review 

 me in [his] yearly Report. My good and kind agent for the 

 propagation of the Gospel i. e. the devil's gospel. 



Ever yours, 



C. Darwin. 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, August nth [i860]. 



... I have laughed at Woodward thinking that you were 

 a man who could be influenced in your judgment by the voice 

 of the public ; and yet after mortally sneering at him, I was 

 obliged to confess to myself, that I had had fears, what the 

 effect might be of so many heavy guns fired by great men. 

 As I have (sent by Murray) a spare ' Quarterly Review,' I 

 send it by this post, as it may amuse you. The Anti-Jacobin 

 part amused me. It is full of errors, and Hooker is thinking 

 of answering it. There has been a cancelled page ; I should 

 like to know what gigantic blunder it contained. Hooker 



says that has played on the Bishop, and made him 



strike whatever note he liked ; he has wished to make the 

 article as disagreeable to you as possible. I will send the 

 AtJienseum in a day or two. 



As you wish to hear what reviews have appeared, I may 

 mention that Agassiz has fired off a shot in the last ' Silliman/ 

 not good at all, denies variations and rests on the perfection 

 of Geological evidence. Asa Gray tells me that a very clever 

 friend has been almost converted to our side by this review 

 of Agassiz's . . . Professor Parsons * has published in 

 the same ' Silliman ' a speculative paper correcting my 

 notions, worth nothing. In the ' Highland Agricultural 

 Journal ' there is a review by some Entomologist, not worth 

 much. This is all that I can remember. . . . As Huxley 

 says, the platoon firing must soon cease. Hooker and 



* Theophilus Parsons, Professor of Law in Harvard University. 



