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CHAPTER VI. 



MISCELLANEA (continued} A REVIVAL OF GEOLOGICAL 

 WORK THE BOOK ON EARTHWORMS LIFE OF ERASMUS 

 DARWIN MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS. 



1876-1882. 



[WE have now to consider the work (other than botanical) 

 which occupied the concluding six years of my father's life. 

 A letter to his old friend Rev. L. Blomefield (Jenyns), written 

 in March, 1877, shows what was my father's estimate of his 

 own powers of work at this time : 



" MY DEAR JENYNS (I see I have forgotten your proper 

 names), Your extremely kind letter has given me warm 

 pleasure. As one gets old, one's thoughts turn back to the 

 past rather than to the future, and I often think of the 

 pleasant, and to me valuable, hours which I spent with you on 

 the borders of the Fens. 



" You ask about my future work ; I doubt whether I shall 

 be able to do much more that is new, and I always keep 



before my mind the example of poor old , who in his old 



age had a cacoethes for writing. But I cannot endure doing 

 nothing, so I suppose that I shall go on as long as I can 

 without obviously making a fool of myself. I have a great 

 mass of matter with respect to variation under nature ; but so 

 much has been published since the appearance of the ' Origin 

 of Species,' that I very much doubt whether I retain power of 

 mind and strength to reduce the mass into a digested whole. 

 I have sometimes thought that I would try, but dread the 

 attempt. . . ." 



P 2 



