184 GROWTH OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. [Ch. X 



as perfect as ever I can. I shall not go to press at soonest 

 for a couple of years." 



The letter which foUows, written from his favourite resting 

 place, the Water- Cure Establishment at Moor Park, comes in 

 like a lull before the storm, — the upset of all his plans by the 

 arrival of Mr. Wallace's manuscript, a phase in the history of 

 his life to which the next chapter is devoted. 



C. D. to Mrs. Darwin. Moor Park, April [1858]. 



The weather is quite delicious. Yesterday, after writing to 

 you, I strolled a little beyond the glade for an hour and a half, 

 and enjoyed myself — the fresh yet dark green of the grand 

 Scotch firs, the brown of the catkins of the old birches, with 

 their white stems, and a fringe of distant green from the 

 larches, made an excessively pretty view. At last I fell fast 

 asleep on the grass, and awoko with a chorus of birds singing 

 around me, and squirrels running up the trees, and some wood- 

 peckers laughing, and it was as pleasant and rural a scene as 

 ever I saw, and I did not care one penny how any of the 

 beasts or birds had been formed. I sat in the drawing-room 

 till after eight, and then went and read the Chief Justice's 

 summing up, and thought Bernard * guilty, and then road a 

 bit of my novel, which is feminine, virtuous, clerical, philan- 

 thropical, and all that sort of thing, but very decidedly flat. I 

 say feminine, for the author is ignorant about money matters, 

 and not much of a lady— for she makes her men say, " My 

 Lady." I like Miss Craik very much, though we have some 

 battles, and differ on every subject. I like also the Hun- 

 garian ; a thorough gentleman, formerly attache at Paris, and 

 then in the Austrian cavalry, and now a pardoned exile, with 

 broken health. He does not seem to like Kossuth, but says, 

 he is certain [he is] a sincere patriot, most clever and eloquent, 

 but weak, with no determination of character. . . . 



* Simon Bernard was tried in April 1858 as an accessory to Orsini'a 

 attempt on the life of the Emperor of the French. The verdict was " not 

 guilty." 



