10 SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [1863. 



No one but a good anatomist could unravel Owen's letter ; 

 at least it is quite beyond me. 



. . . Lyell's memory plays him false when he says all anato- 

 mists were astonished at Owen's paper ;* it was often quoted 

 with approbation. I well remember Lyell's admiration at this 

 new classification ! (Do not repeat this.) I remember it, 

 because, though I knew nothing whatever about the brain, I 

 felt a conviction that a classification thus founded on a single 

 character would break down, and it seemed to me a great 

 error not to separate more completely the Marsupialia. . . . 



What an accursed evil it is that there should be all this quar- 

 relling within, what ought to be, the peaceful realms of science. 



I will go to my own present subject of inheritance and 

 forget it all for a time. Farewell, my dear old friend, 



C. DARWIN. 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray. 



Down, Feb. 23 [1863]. 



... If you have time to read you will be interested by 

 parts of Lyell's book on man ; but I fear that the best part, 

 about the Glacial period, may be too geological for any one 

 except a regular geologist. He quotes you at the end with 

 gusto. By the way, he told me the other day how pleased 

 some had been by hearing that they could purchase your 

 pamphlet. The Parthenon also speaks of it as the ablest 

 contribution to the literature of the subject. It delights me 

 when I see your work appreciated. 



The Lyells come here this day week, and I shall grumble 

 at his excessive caution. . . . The public may well say, if such 

 a man dare not or will not speak out his mind, how can we 

 who are ignorant form even a guess on the subject? Lyell 

 was pleased when I told him lately that you thought that 

 language might be used as an excellent illustration of deriva- 



* "On the Characters, &c., of the Class Mammalia," 'Linn. Soc. 

 Journal,' ii. 1858. 



