DR. THOMAS BROWN AND DR. ERASMUS DARWIN. 33 



himself (in this reply) not at all! Of this latter Dr. 

 Welsh says, " As this letter could not have been designed 

 for publication, I do not feel justified in inserting it ; but 

 the answer of Dr. Brown must not be suppressed ! " 

 Something, however, of the nature of this unseen reply 

 of Dr. Darwin's we may guess from certain expressions in 

 the rejoinder of Dr. Brown. Dr. Brown, too, must have 

 written at once ; for the date now is only December 5. 



" SIR, I this morning received your letter. Its asperity I might 

 possibly have retorted, had I been in the slightest degree irritated 

 by it ; but it was too profuse to excite any other emotion than that 

 of surprise. From the contemptible light in which you view the 

 manuscript it can no longer be interesting to you. I shall therefore 

 expect to receive it by the first conveyance. I am, Sir, yours." 



So far as we may venture to judge of the probable 

 unpleasantnesses that may have invaded his ear, a very 

 excellent self-control must have been exercised by the 

 young man here. Brown, indeed, was never wanting to 

 himself in that sort of formal dignity. One of those 

 who started the Edinburgh Review, and even writing the 

 leading article in its second number, he was offended 

 with " some of the liberties that were taken with one of 

 his papers by the gentleman who had the superintendence 

 of the publication of the third number, and he withdrew 

 his assistance from the work." " Though repeatedly and 

 earnestly solicited to join again, he constantly declined." 

 Dr. Welsh remarks of Brown's article on Kant, which is 

 here in reference, " every one who has attended to the 

 subject will allow that he has made it as intelligible as 

 its nature admits ; " and he presently declares of Brown 

 that he " dipped deeply into the German philosophy ! " 



Evidently, however, so far as the position itself is 



concerned, Darwin must have read in a fume and written 



in a fume must have written, in fact, rudely or even 



coarsely. We are not allowed to see much more of the 



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