214 EVOLUTION [Chap. Ill 



Letter 146 I have another plant to beg, but I write on separate paper 

 as more convenient for you to keep. I meant to have said 

 before, as an excuse for asking for so much from Kevv, that 

 I have now lost two seasons, by accursed nurserymen not 

 having right plants, and sending me the wrong instead of 

 saying that they did not possess. 



Letter 147 To J. D. Hooker. 



Down, 24th [Nov., 1862]. 



I have just received enclosed for you, and I have thought 

 that you would like to read the latter half of A. Gray's letter to 

 me, as it is political and nearly as mad as ever in our English 

 eyes. You will see how the loss of the power of bullying is 

 in fact the sore loss to the men of the North from disunion. 



I return with thanks Bates' letter, which I was glad to see. 

 It was very good of you writing to him, for he is evidently 

 a man who wants encouragement. I have now finished his 

 paper (but have read nothing else in the volume); it seems to 

 me admirable. To my mind the act of segregation of varie- 

 ties into species was never so plainly brought forward, and 

 there are heaps of capital miscellaneous observations. 



I hardly know why I am a little sorry, but my present 

 work is leading me to believe rather more in the direct action 

 of physical conditions. I presume I regret it, because it 

 lessens the glory of Natural Selection, and is so confoundedly 

 doubtful. Perhaps I shall change again when I get all my facts 

 under one point of view, and a pretty hard job this will be. 1 



Letter 148 To H. W. Bates. 



Down, Nov. 25th [1S62?]. 



I should think it was not necessary to get a written 



agreement. 2 I have never had one from Murray. I suppose 



you have a letter with terms ; if not, I should think you had 



better ask for one to prevent misunderstandings. I think 



1 This paragraph was published in Life and Letters, II., p. 390. It 

 is not clear why a belief in "direct action" should diminish the glory of 

 Natural Selection, since the changes so produced must, like any other 

 variations, pass through the ordeal of the survival of the fittest. On the 

 whole question of direct action see Mr. Adam Sedgwick's Presidential 

 Address to the Zoological Section of the British Association, 1899. 



2 Mr. Bates' book, A Naturalist on the Amazons, was published 

 in 1863. 



