202 EVOLUTION [Chap. Ill 



Letter 138 differ to a considerable degree. I have been atrociously 

 abused by my religious countrymen ; but as I live an inde- 

 pendent life in the country, it does not in the least hurt me 

 in any way, except indeed when the abuse comes from 

 an old friend like Professor Owen, who abuses me and then 

 advances the doctrine that all birds are probably descended 

 from one parent. 



I wish the translator 1 had known more of Natural 

 History ; she must be a clever but singular lady, but I never 

 heard of her till she proposed to translate my book. 



Letter 139 To Asa Gray. 



Down, July 23rd [1S62]. 



I received several days ago two large packets, but have 

 as yet read only your letter ; for we have been in fearful 

 distress, and I could attend to nothing. Our poor boy had 

 the rare case of second rash and sore throat . . . ; and, as if 

 this was not enough, a most serious attack of erysipelas, with 

 typhoid symptoms. I despaired of his life ; but this evening 

 he has eaten one mouthful, and I think has passed the crisis. 

 He has lived on port wine every three-quarters of an hour, 

 day and night. This evening, to our astonishment, he asked 

 whether his stamps were safe, and I told him of one sent by 

 you, and that he should see it to-morrow. He answered, " I 

 should awfully like to see it now " ; so with difficulty he 

 opened his eyelids and glanced at it, and, with a sigh of 

 satisfaction, said, " All right." Children arc one's greatest 

 happiness, but often and often a still greater misery. A man 

 of science ought to have none — perhaps not a wife ; for then 

 there would be nothing in this wide world worth caring for, 

 and a man might (whether he could is another question) 

 work away like a Trojan. I hope in a few days to get my 

 brains in order, and then I will pick out all your orchid 

 letters, and return them in hopes of your making use of 

 them. . . . 



Of all the carpenters for knocking the right nail on the 

 head, you are the very best ; no one else has perceived that 

 my chief interest in my orchid book has been that it was 

 a " flank movement " on the enemy. I live in such solitude 

 that I hear nothing, and have no idea to what you allude 



1 Mdlle. Royer, who translated the first French edition of the Origin. 



