ch. xiv.] 18611871. 263 



was asking Lyell what he thought of the review in the 

 Quarterly, and Lyell answered, 'Read Asa Gray in the At- 

 lantic? " 



On the same subject he wrote to Gray in the following 

 year : 



" I believe that your pamphlet has done my book great 

 good ; and I thank you from my heart for myself : and be- 

 lieving that the views are in large part true, I must think 

 that you have done natural science a good turn. Natural 

 Selection seems to be making a little progress in England 

 and on the Continent ; a new German edition is called for, 

 and a French one has just appeared." 



The following may serve as an example of the form as- 

 sumed between these friends of the animosity at that time 

 so strong between England and America * : 



" Talking of books, I am in the middle of one which 

 pleases me, though it is very innocent food, viz. Miss Coop- 

 er's Journal of a Naturalist. Who is she? She seems a 

 very clever woman, and gives a capital account of the battle 

 between our and your weeds. \ Does it not hurt your 

 Yankee pride that we thrash you so confoundedly ? I am 

 sure Mrs. Gray will stick up for your own weeds. Ask her 

 whether they are not more honest, downright good sort of 

 weeds. The book gives an extremely pretty picture of one 

 of your villages ; but I see your autumn, though so much 

 more gorgeous than ours, comes on sooner, and that is one 

 comfort." 



A question constantly recurring in the letters to Gray is 

 that of design. For instance : 



" Your question what would convince me of design is 

 a poser. If I saw an angel come down to teach us good, 

 and I was convinced from others seeing him that I was not 

 mad, I should believe in design. If I could be convinced 

 thoroughly that life and mind was in an unknown way a 



* In his letters to Gray there are also numerous references to the Ameri- 

 can war. I give a single passage. ' ; I never knew the newspapers so pro- 

 foundly interesting. North America does not do England justice ; I have not 

 seen or heard of a "soul who is not with the North, borne few, and I am one 

 of them, even wish to God, though at the loss of millions of lives, that the 

 North would proclaim a crusade against slavery. In the long-run, a million 

 horrid deaths would be amply repaid in the cause of humanity. What won- 

 derful times we live in ! Massachusetts seems to show noble enthusiasm. 

 Great God ! how I should like to see the greatest curse on earth slavery 

 abolished ! " 



t This refers to the remarkable fact that many introduced European weeds 

 have spread over large parts of the United States. 



18 



