ch. xin.] REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS, 1860. 239 



C. D. to Asa Gray. Down, January 28th [I860]. 



My dear Gray, Hooker has forwarded to me your 

 letter to him ; and I cannot express how deeply it has 

 gratified me. To receive the approval of a man whom one 

 has long sincerely respected, and whose judgment and 

 knowledge are most universally admitted, is the highest 

 reward an author can possibly wish for ; and I thank you 

 heartily for your most kind expressions. 



I have been absent from home for a few days, and so 

 could not earlier answer your letter to me of the 10th of 

 January. You have been extremely kind to take so much 

 trouble and interest about the edition. It has been a mis- 

 take of my publisher not thinking of sending over the 

 sheets. I had entirely and utterly forgotten your offer of 

 receiving the sheets as printed off. But I must not blame 

 my publisher, for had I remembered your most kind offer I 

 feel pretty sure I should not have taken advantage of it ; 

 for I never dreamed of my book being so successful with 

 general readers : I believe I should have laughed at the idea 

 of sending the sheets to America.* 



After much consideration, and on the strong advice of 

 Lyell and others, I have resolved to leave the present book 

 as it is (excepting correcting errors, or here and there insert- 

 ing short sentences), and to use all my strenth, which is out 

 little, to bring out the first part (forming a separate volume, 

 with index, &c.) of the three volumes which will make my 

 bigger work ; so that I am very unwilling to take up time 

 in making corrections for an American edition. I enclose a 

 list of a few corrections in the second reprint, which you 

 will have received by this time complete, and I could send 

 four or five corrections or additions of equally small impor- 

 tance, or rather of equal brevity. I also intend to write a 

 short preface with a brief history of the subject. These I 

 will set about, as they must some day be done, and I will 

 send them to you in a short time the few corrections first, 

 and the preface af terwards,Junless I hear that you have given 

 up all idea of a separate edition. You will then be able to 

 judge whether it is worth having the new edition with your 



* In a letter to Mr. Murray, 18*30, my father wrote : " I am amused by Asa 

 Gray's account of the excitement my book has made amongst naturalists in 

 the U. States. Agassiz has denounced it in a newspaper, but yet in such terms 

 that it is in fact a fine advertisement ! " This seems to refer to a lecture given 

 before the Mercantile Library Association. 



