i86i.] DR. GRAY'S PAMPHLET DESCENT THEORY. ^3 



father had a good deal of correspondence with Professoi 

 Asa Gray on a subject to which reference has already been 

 made the publication in the form of a pamphlet, of Pro- 

 fessor Gray's three articles in the July, August, and October 

 numbers of the ( Atlantic Monthly,' 1860. The pamphlet was 

 published by Messrs. Triibner, with reference to whom my 

 father wrote, " Messrs. Triibner have been most liberal and 

 kind, and say they shall make no charge for all their trouble. 

 I have settled about a few advertisements, and they will 

 gratuitously insert one in their own periodicals." 



The reader will find these articles republished in Dr. Gray's 

 4 Darwiniana,' p. 87, under the title u Natural Selection not 

 inconsistent with Natural Theology." The pamphlet found 

 many admirers among those most capable of judging of its 

 merits, and my father believed that it was of much value in 

 lessening opposition, and making converts to Evolution. His 

 high opinion of it is shown not only in his letters, but by the 

 fact that he inserted a special notice of it in a most prominent 

 place in the third edition of the 'Origin.' Lyell, among 

 others, recognised its value as an antidote to the kind of 

 criticism from which the cause of Evolution suffered. Thus 

 my father wrote to Dr. Gray : " Just to exemplify the use 

 of your pamphlet, the Bishop of London was asking Lyell 

 what he thought of the review in the * Quarterly,' and Lyell 

 answered, * Read Asa Gray in the ' Atlantic.' ' : It comes out 

 very clearly that in the case of such publications as Dr. Gray's, 

 my father did not rejoice over the success of his special view 

 of Evolution, viz. that modification is mainly due to Natural 

 Selection ; on the contrary, he felt strongly that the really 

 important point was that the doctrine of Descent should be 

 accepted. Thus he wrote to Professor Gray (May n, 1863), 

 with reference to Lyell's ' Antiquity of Man ' : 



u You speak of Lyell as a judge ; now what I complain of 

 is that he declines to be a judge. ... I have sometimes 

 almost wished that Lyell had pronounced against me. When 

 I say ' me,' I only mean change of species by descent. That 

 seems to me the turning-point. Personally, or course, I care 



