1858-64.] ASA GRAY. 117 



interesting. He says, " Lyell considers the case [trans- 

 mutation question] as not yet ripe for a decision." 

 " Lyell does not come out as an advocate of natural 

 selection, transmutation ' (both Darwin and Hooker 

 complain of it). " Lyell has presented the case of 

 transmutation so as to commend it as much as possible 

 to us orthodox people. [Huxley would have put it in a 

 way to frighten us (orthodox) off.] " Here is the great 

 obstacle between Gray and Huxley, and even Darwin. 

 Gray says, "As to the Exeter meeting of the British 

 Association, I am, on the whole, glad enough to keep 

 away, especially from Darwinian discussions, in which 

 I desire not to be at all mixed up with the prevailing 

 and peculiarly English materialistic, positivistic line of 

 thought, with which I have no sympathy, while in 

 natural history I am a sort of Darwinian " (" Letters 

 of Asa Gray," Vol. II., p. 592). And in two other 

 places Gray says : " In Darwin's contributions to tele- 

 ology, there is a vein of petite malice, from my knowing 

 well that he rejects the idea of design." "You (Dar- 

 win) see what uphill work I have in making a theist of 

 you of good and reputable standing." Darwin is in 

 favour of chances, while Gray feels a "cold chill" when 

 Darwin brings him to the point of co-adaptations in 

 orchids. Certainly the association of an orthodox Pres- 

 byterian, or strict Puritan of the old school, like Gray, 

 with the agnostic and materialistic Darwin and Huxley 

 is curious. Circumstances made Gray a Darwinian, for 



the successive changes of forms do not occur always in the direction of a 

 greater development, being sometimes in the direction of simplification or 

 even of the production of monstrosities ("Darwin," 2d edition, p. 35; 

 Geneve, 1882). 



