30 EARLY LETTERS [CHAP. I 



Letter 10 Emma, I earnestly pray, you may never regret the great, and 

 I will add very good, deed, you are to perform on the Tuesday : 

 my own dear future wife, God bless you. . . . The Lyells 

 called on me to-day after church ; as Lyell was so full of 

 geology he was obliged to disgorge, and I dine there on 

 Tuesday for an especial conference. I was quite ashamed of 

 myself to-day, for we talked for half an hour, unsophisticated 

 geology, with poor Mrs. Lyell sitting by, a monument of 

 patience. I want practice in ill-treating the female sex, I did 

 not observe Lyell had any compunction ; I hope to harden 

 my conscience in time : few husbands seem to find it difficult 

 to effect this. Since my return I have taken several looks, as 

 you will readily believe, into the drawing-room ; I suppose 

 my taste [for] harmonious colours is already deteriorated, for 

 I declare the room begins to look less ugly. I take so much 

 pleasure in the house, 1 I declare I am just like a great over- 

 grown child with a new toy ; but then, not like a real child, 

 I long to have a co-partner and possessor. 



The following passage is taken from the MS. copy of the Auto- 

 biography ; it was not published in the Life and Letters which appeared 

 in Mrs. Darwin's lifetime : 



You all know your mother, and what a good mother she 

 has ever been to all of you. She has been my greatest 

 blessing, and I can declare that in my whole life I have never 

 heard her utter one word I would rather have been unsaid. 

 She has never failed in kindest sympathy towards me, and 

 has borne with the utmost patience my frequent complaints 

 of ill-health and discomfort. I do not believe she has ever 

 missed an opportunity of doing a kind action to any one near 

 her. I marvel at my good fortune that she, so infinitely my 

 superior in every single moral quality, consented to be my 

 wife. She has been my wise adviser and cheerful comforter 

 throughout life, which without her would have been during 

 a very long period a miserable one from ill-health. She has 

 earned the love of every soul near her. 



1 No. 12, Upper Gower Street, is now No. no, Gower Street, and 

 forms part of a block inhabited by Messrs. Shoolbred's employes. We 

 are indebted, for this information, to Mr. Wheatley, of the Society 

 of Arts. 



