i88o.] in plants.' 335 



letter has done more than please me, for its kindness has 

 touched my heart. I often think of old days and of the 

 delight of my visits to Woodhouse, and of the deep debt of 

 gratitude which I owe to your father. It was very good of 

 you to write. I had quite forgotten my old ambition about 

 the Shrewsbury newspaper ; * but I remember the pride 

 which I felt when I saw in a book about beetles the impressive 

 words " captured by C. Darwin." Captured sounded so grand 

 compared with caught. This seemed to me glory enough for 

 any man ! I do not know in the least what made the Times 

 glorify me,f for it has sometimes pitched into me ferociously. 

 I should very much like to see you again, but you would 

 find a visit here very dull, for we feel very old and have no 

 amusement, and lead a solitary life. But we intend in a few 

 weeks to spend a few days in London, and then if you have 

 anything else to do in London, you would perhaps come and 

 lunch with us.J 



Believe me, my dear Sarah, 



Yours gratefully and affectionately, 



Charles Darwin. 



[The following letter was called forth by the publication 

 of a volume devoted to the criticism of the ' Power of 

 Movement in Plants ' by an accomplished botanist, Dr. Julius 

 Wiesner, Professor of Botany in the University of Vienna :] 



* Mrs. Haliburton had reminded " Of all our living men of science 



him of his saying as a boy that if none have laboured longer and to 



Eddowes' newspaper ever alluded more splendid purpose than Mr. 



to him as " our deserving fellow- Darwin." 



townsman," his ambition would be % My father had the pleasure of 



amply gratified. seeing Mrs. Haliburton at his 



f The following is the opening brother's house in Queen Anne 



sentence of the leading article : — Street. 



