l86l.] BATES'S BOOK AMERICAN WAR. 38 1 



C. Darwin to H. W. Bates. 



Down, April 18, 1863. 



Dear Bates, I have finished vol. i. My criticisms may 

 be condensed into a single sentence, namely, that it is the 

 best work of Natural History Travels ever published in 

 England. Your style seems to me admirable. Nothing can 

 be better than the discussion on the struggle for existence, 

 and nothing better than the description of the Forest 

 scenery.* It is a grand book, and whether or not it sells 

 quickly, it will last. You have spoken out boldly on Species ; 

 and boldness on the subject seems to get rarer and rarer. 

 How beautifully illustrated it is. The cut on the back is 

 most tasteful. I heartily congratulate you on its publication. 



The Athencenm\ was rather cold, as it always is, and inso- 

 lent in the highest degree about your leading facts. Have 

 you seen the Reader ? I can send it to you if you have not 

 seen it. . . . 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray. 



Down, Dec. 11 [1861]. 

 My DEAR Gray, Many and cordial thanks for your two 

 last most valuable notes. What a thing it is that when you 

 receive this we may be at war, and we two be bound, as good 

 patriots, to hate each other, though I shall find this hating 

 you very hard work. How curious it is to see two countries, 

 just like two angry and silly men, taking so opposite a view 

 of the same transaction ! I fear there is no shadow of 

 doubt we shall fight, if the two Southern rogues are not given 



* In a letter to Lyell my father Travels ever published in England. 



wrote : " He [i.e. Mr. Bates] is He is bold about Species, &c, 



second only to Humboldt in de- and the Athenesum coolly says 



scribing a tropical forest." ' he bends his facts ' for this pur- 



t "I have read the first volume pose. ; ' (From a letter to Sir J. D. 



of Bates's Book ; it is capital, and Hooker.) 

 I think the best Natural History 



