l86/.] ENCOURAGEMENT. 73 



introduction was a complete surprise to me, and I dare say 

 has injured the book in France ; nevertheless ... it shows, 

 I think, that the woman is uncommonly clever. Once again 

 many thanks for the renewed courage with which I shall 

 attack the horrid proof-sheets. 



Yours affectionately, 



CHARLES DARWIN. 



P.S. A Russian who is translating my new book into 

 Russian has been here, and says you are immensely read in 

 Russia, and many editions how many I forget. Six editions 

 of Buckle and four editions of the ' Origin.' 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray. 



Down, October 16 [1867]. 



MY DEAR GRAY, I send by this post clean sheets of 

 Vol. I. up to p. 336, and there are only 411 pages in this vol. 

 I am very glad to hear that you are going to review my book ; 

 but if the Nation * is a newspaper I wish it were at the 

 bottom of the sea, for I fear that you will thus be stopped 

 reviewing me in a scientific journal. The first volume is all 

 details, and you will not be able to read it ; and you must 

 remember that the chapters on plants are written for natural- 

 ists who are not botanists. The last chapter in Vol. I. is, 

 however, I think, a curious compilation of facts ; it is on bud- 

 variation. In Vol. II. some of the chapters are more interest- 

 ing ; and I shall be very curious to hear your verdict on the 

 chapter on close inter-breeding. The chapter on what I call 

 Pangenesis will be called a mad dream, and I shall be pretty 

 well satisfied if you think it a dream worth publishing ; but 

 at the bottom of my own mind I think it contains a great 

 truth. I finish my book with a semi-theological paragraph, 

 in which I quote and differ from you ; what you will think of 

 it, I know not. . . . 



* The book was reviewed by Dr. Gray in the Nation, Mar. 19, 1868. 



