DECLINING YEARS (1873-1893) 295 



do not believe that man comes from a proto- 

 plasm, in company with sea-anemones, crocodiles, 

 monkeys, &c. 



" In a very clever sermon by Pritchard (now 

 Savilian Professor at Oxford, and formerly Presi- 

 dent of the Astronomical Society), preached before 

 the British Association when Grove presided, he 

 exposes the folly of this stuff, and in his appendix 

 to a print of it, proves that the chances against 

 the eye being formed by development are more in 

 number than those of Darwin's book being taken 

 by the printer to pieces and tumbled into a bag, and 

 then thrown back on the table in the same order as 

 they went in. 



" But I am not going to write a treatise, and only 

 add that I am, yours respectfully, 



" HATHERLEY. 



"The Rev. F. O. MORRIS." 



So, too, Lord Selborne, writing to him on June 4, 

 1877, although he had not then had time to read 

 through the pamphlet which my father had lately 

 published, knew enough of its contents to be able 

 to say, " Your opinion of ' Darwinism ' is evidently 

 the same as my own." 



To this same period may be assigned many of his 

 letters to the Times, to some of which allusion has 

 already been made elsewhere. Most of these letters 

 had reference to birds, though by no means all. 

 Among these communications may be found letters 

 on "Thrift," " Gleaning," "Humanity Teaching in 

 Schools," " The Rat," &c. 



