412 MAN OF SCIENCE. 



the one to the First Impressions, the other to the Foot- 

 prints of the Creator, require no introduction, 



' Athenaeum Club, London, April 19th, 1847. 



'Mr DEAR SIR, 



'Many thanks for the acceptable present of 

 your First Impressions of England. I hope they may 

 not be the last, and that during your next visit you will 

 endeavour to find your Ross-shire contemporary, who is 

 located in Belgrave Square. Now, however, I am on 

 the wing for a year's Continental touring, and this time 

 it is the Mediterranean, Sicilian, and Spanish type 

 which allures me. I shall, however, be back for the 

 Oxford Meeting of the British Association, where I 

 shall give up the chair to my successor, and shall 

 doubtless have to undergo the annual persecution of the 

 able but bigoted Times. 



( I feel deeply indebted to you, on public as well as 

 private grounds, for your vigorous defence of the noble 

 cause of science, and for the enlightened manner in 

 which you entwine it with Christianity. Such reason- 

 ing ought to put to shame the efforts of those who 

 would put down science as antagonistic to religion. 



' I am also much flattered by your passing allu- 

 sions to my Silurian labours. On two points, however, 

 I have to offer critical remarks. The first of these is 

 purely personal, and may be considered as a little 

 symptom of Silurian (not Scotch) pride. 



' In your excellent work you speak of Buckland 

 haranguing the philosophers of the British Association in 

 the Dudley Caves. Now, the fact is, that in virtue of 

 my labours on that ground, I was named generalissimo 

 of the expedition, and I executed my duties, I assure 

 you, like an autocrat. When all the barges, laden with 



