118 CHARLES DARWIN. 



" As to close of my article, to match close of your book, — 

 you see plainly I was put on the defence by your reference to 

 an old hazardous remark of mine. I found your stone-house 

 argument unanswerable in substance (for the notion of design 

 must after all rest mostly on faith, and on accumulation of 

 adaptations, &c.) ; so all I could do was to find a vulnerable 

 spot in the shaping of it, fire my little shot, and run away 

 in the smoke. 



" Of course I understand your argument perfectly, and feel 

 the might of it." 



From this last letter I think we may conclude 

 that Asa Gray's feelings on this subject rested, as 

 he says, "on faith," and that, intellectually, he saw 

 no way of meeting Darwin's arguments. 



