262 THE SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [ch. xiv. 



courageous exposition, always referred to in terms of the 

 highest admiration. And among your warmest friends no 

 one rejoiced more heartily in the just appreciation of Charles 

 Darwin than did, 



Yours very truly. 



My father replied : 



Down [June 24, 1861]. 



My dear Falconer, I have just received your note, 

 and by good luck a day earlier than properly, and I lose not 

 a moment in answering you, and thanking you heartily for 

 your offer of the valuable specimen ; but I have no aquarium 

 and shall soon start for Torquay, so that it would be a thou- 

 sand pities that I should have it. Yet I should certainly 

 much like to see it, but I fear it is impossible. Would not 

 the Zoological Society be the best place ? and then the in- 

 terest which many would take in this extraordinary animal 

 would repay you for your trouble. 



Kind as you have been in taking this trouble and offer- 

 ing me this specimen, to tell the truth I value your note 

 more than the specimen. I shall keep your note amongst a 

 very few precious letters. Your kindness has quite touched 

 me. 



Yours affectionately and gratefully. 



My father, who had the strongest belief in the value of 

 Asa Gray's help, was anxious that his evolutionary writings 

 should be more widely known in England. In the autumn 

 of 18G0, and the early part of 1861, he had a good deal of 

 correspondence with him as to the publication, in the form 

 of a pamphlet, of Gray's three articles in the July, August, 

 and October numbers of the Atlantic Monthly, 1860. 



The reader will find these articles republished in Dr. 

 Gray's Darwiniana, p. 87, under the title " Natural Selec- 

 tion not inconsistent with Natural Theology." The pam- 

 phlet found many admirers, and my father believed that it was 

 of much value in lessening opposition, and making converts 

 to Evolution. His high opinion of it is shown not only in 

 his letters, but by the fact that he inserted a special notice 

 of it in a prominent place in the third edition of the Origin. 

 Lyell, among others, recognised its value as an antidote to 

 the kind of criticism from which the cause of Evolution 

 suffered. Thus my father wrote to Dr. Gray: "Just to 

 exemplify the use of your pamphlet, the Bishop of London 



