18461878] MISCELLANEOUS 237 



all with the comfort of hopeful hearts you and your wife, Letter 570 

 and your sons and daughters ! 



You were talking about my style of writing, I send you 

 my last specimen, and it will probably continue to be my 

 last. It is the continuation of a former pamphlet of which 

 I have not one spare copy. I do not ask you to read it. 

 It is addressed to the old people in my native Dale of Dent, 

 on the outskirts of Westmorland. While standing at the 

 door of the old vicarage, I can see down the valley the Lake 

 mountains Hill Bell at the head of Windermere, about 

 twenty miles off. On Thursday next (D.V.) I am to start for 

 Dent, which I have not visited for full two years. Two years 

 ago I could walk three or four miles with comfort. Now, 

 alas ! I can only hobble about on my stick. 



I remain your true-hearted old friend 



A. Sedgwick. 



To C. Lyell. Letter 571 



Down, Sept. 3rd [1874]. 



Many thanks for your very kind and interesting letter. 

 I was glad to hear at Southampton from Miss Heathcote a 

 good account of your health and strength. 



With respect to the great subject to which you refer 

 in your P.S., I always try to banish it from my mind as 

 insoluble ; but if I were circumstanced as you are, no doubt 

 it would recur in the dead of the night with painful force. 

 Many persons seem to make themselves quite easy about 

 immortality l and the existence of a personal God, by intuition ; 

 and I suppose that I must differ from such persons, for I 

 do not feel any innate conviction on any such points. 



We returned home about ten days ago from Southampton, 

 and I enjoyed my holiday, which did me much good. But 

 already I am much fatigued by microscope and experimental 

 work with insect-eating plants. 



When at Southampton I was greatly interested by looking 

 at the odd gravel deposits near at hand, and speculating 

 about their formation. You once told me something about 

 them, but I forget what ; and I think that Prestwich 2 has 



1 See Life a?id Letters, I., p. 312. 



2 Prof. Prestwich contributed several papers to the Geological 

 Society on the Superficial Deposits of the South of England. 



