2/j.O EVOLUTION [CHAP. Ill 



Letter 166 the Principles} assume an absurdly unwarrantable position 

 with respect to Lyell. It is too bad to treat an old hero in 

 science thus. I can see from a note from Falconer (about 

 a wonderful fossil Brazilian Mammal, well called Meso- or 

 Typo-therium) that he expects no sympathy from me. He 

 will end, I hope, by being sorry. Lyell lays himself open to 

 a slap by saying that he would come to show his original 

 observations, and then not distinctly doing so ; he had better 

 only have laid claim, on this one point of man, to verification 

 and compilation. 



Altogether, I much like Lyell's letter. But all this 

 squabbling will greatly sink scientific men. I have seen a 

 sneer already in the Times. 



Letter 167 To H ' W Bates - 



At Rev. C. Langton, Hartfield, Tunbridge Wells, April 3oth [1863]. 



You will have received before this the note which I 

 addressed to Leicester, after finishing Vol. I., and you will 

 have received copies of my little review l of your paper. 

 .... I have now finished Vol. II., and my opinion 

 remains the same that you have written a truly admirable 

 work, 2 with capital original remarks, first-rate descriptions, 

 and the whole in a style which could not be improved. 

 My family are now reading the book, and admire it ex- 

 tremely ; and, as my wife remarks, it has so strong an air 

 of truthfulness. I had a letter from a person the other 

 day, unknown to you, full of praise of the book. I do 

 hope it may get extensively heard of and circulated ; but 

 to a certain extent this, I think, always depends on chance. 



I suppose the clicking noise of surprise made by the 

 Indian is that which the end of the tongue, applied to the 

 palate of the mouth and suddenly withdrawn, makes? 



I have not written since receiving your note of April 

 2Oth, in which you confided in me and told me your pro- 

 spects. I heartily wish they were better, and especially 

 more certain ; but with your abilities and powers of writing 

 it will be strange if you cannot add what little you 

 require for your income. I am glad that you have got a 



1 Nat. Hist. Review, 1863, p. 219. A review of Bates' paper on 

 Mimetic Butterflies. 



3 The Naturalist on the Amazons, 1863. 



