i853-] EDUCATION. 353 



a strong mechanical turn, and we think of making him an 

 engineer. I shall try and find out for him some less classical 

 school, perhaps Bruce Castle. I certainly should like to see 

 more diversity in education than there is in any ordinary 

 school no exercising of the observing or reasoning faculties, 

 no general knowledge acquired I must think* it a wretched 

 system. On the other hand, a boy who has learnt to stick at 

 Latin and conquer its difficulties, ought to be able to stick at 

 any labour. I should always be glad to hear anything about 

 schools or education from you. I am at my old, never-end- 

 ing subject, but trust I shall really go to press in a few months 

 with my second volume on Cirripedes. I have been much 

 pleased by finding some odd facts in my first volume believed 

 by Owen and a few others, whose good opinion I regard as 

 final. ... Do write pretty soon, and tell me all you can 

 about yourself and family ; and I trust your report of your- 

 self may be much better than your last. 



... I have been very little in London of late, and have 

 not seen Lyell since his return from America ; how lucky he 

 was to exhume with his own hand parts of three skeletons of 

 reptiles out of the Carboniferous strata, and out of the inside 

 of a fossil tree, which had been hollow within. 



Farewell, my dear Fox, yours affectionately, 



CHARLES DARWIN. 



C. Darwin to W. D. Fox. 



13 Sea Houses, Eastbourne, 



[July isth? 1853]. 



MY DEAR Fox, Here we are in a state of profound idle- 

 ness, which to me is a luxury; and we should all, I believe, 

 have been in a state of high enjoyment, had it not been for 

 the detestable cold gales and much rain, which always gives 

 much ennui to children away from their homes. I received 

 your letter of i3th June, when working like a slave with Mr 

 Sowerby at drawing for my second volume, and so put oft 

 answering it till when I knew I should be at leisure. I was 



