120 DABWINIAN INTERESTS 



... I forgot to tell you that I read all over about you 

 to Thomson, who thought I had ' drawn it very mild.' 

 Bentham and Oliver do not think that I said a word too 

 much. 



The astronomers do not quite like my allusions to them. 

 I had a long talk with Adams, 1 who is a most charming fellow. 

 He will not agree with me, but won't give me any definite 

 answer. He does not allow that Astronomy is in fault in 

 the matter of the sun's distance no more it is in one sense ; 

 but astronomers are, and the science of Astronomy is simply 

 the exponent of astronomers' knowledge. 



For the toil of the concluding day, with more than twelve 

 hours of continuous committees and councils and lectures and 

 social functions, punctuated with speechmaking at each, he paid 

 with a sleepless night and consequent fatigue. The redeeming 

 point was the evident enjoyment of his wife, who was able to 

 make her gracious presence felt everywhere. She 



did enjoy it all most thoroughly, and proved herself ' as 

 strong as a woman.' I am sure that without her the whole 

 thing would have been to me simply intolerable. 



As he told Macleay (September 4), ' Without her I really 

 should have been miserable, I was so disappointed at her not 

 being present at Oxford and Cambridge when I was doctored. 

 I feel I do want somebody who can help me to take so much 

 more than my deserts.' 



To Charles Darwin 



January 18, 1869. 



I have got tremendously pitched into for quoting (Spencer) 

 in my address, as I expected ; and for declaring the power 

 above us to be inscrutable. My last flagellation is from 

 Pritchard the Astronomer, who blames me for not being 

 complimentary enough to the Almighty. I have answered 

 him that I think the concluding three verses of Palgrave's 

 poem is enough for the occasion. 



1 John Couch Adams (1819-92), the Cambridge astronomer and co-discoverer 

 of Neptune ; President of the Royal Astronomical Society 1851-3 and 1874-6 ; 

 Copley Medallist 1848. 



