

Characterisation, especially by Letters 471 



Inglewood, Bedford Park, Turnham Green. April 27, 1882. 



My dear Mr Galton, I thank you heartily for your note. And I so fear to trespass 

 upon the profound sorrow that tills the home at Bromley that I cannot venture to obtrude 

 directly even an expression of the gratitude I feel that my name should have been remembered 

 in giving out invitations to the funeral. It was, indeed, with deep satisfaction that I learned 

 that our Minister, Mr Lowell, was to be a pall-bearer, and his countrymen will regard it as a 

 most happy circumstance that they were represented, on such an occasion, by no mere politician 

 but by a man so worthy to bear the pall of Charles Darwin. I see also that the venerable 

 Robert C. Winthrop was present, the President of the Massachusetts Historical Society and 

 in many ways a representative American. 



The experience you speak of, in connection with the generalisation worked out by your 

 great relative, corresponds with the experiences of others who were watching by night when 

 the glory of this new star shone around them. A few years ago when, through that considerate- 

 ness of a heart which could hold a workl and at the same time not overlook the smallest 

 opportunity for kindness in it, I was invited to Down, and when I was walking with him in 

 his garden, I felt as if I would fain clasp his feet and try to tell him what he had been to me. 

 At night I well remember lying sleepless for some hours tracking the steps of my pilgrimage 

 which had begun in an Egypt of Darkness and been able to clear Wildernesses by his aid. 

 This spiritual effect of a pure scientific generalisation, as I have known it in myself and in 

 many other minds, is the most significant phenomenon of this age. It is a thing to be pondered 

 on by those who consider what is to be the God-spell or glad tidings of the coming time. 



On Sunday last I had a very large audience to attend our memorial service and discourse 

 in honour of Darwin. I am now engaged in preparing a sort of memoir which I shall probably 

 deliver before the American Assoc, for Advancement of Science at their meeting in August. 

 It occurs this year at Montreal, and Steny Hunt has tempted me to cross the ocean merely to 

 remain one month. (I wish I could tempt you to go also.) I shall aim, in what I am writing, 

 to give the facts of Darwin's personal life, so far as I can obtain them ; the dates of his works, 

 etc. I shall also try to trace carefully the history of the doctrine of evolution — tracing it 

 from the empirical suggestions of Newton, and then Bufibn, to Erasmus Darwin, then to 

 Lamarck, Oken, Goethe, Geoffroy St Hilaire, and Darwin. (And by the way, do you know 

 that more than forty years ago Ralph Waldo Emerson was basing his entire idealistic 

 philosophy on evolution 1 — in his first book, 183G, writing — 



" And striving to be man, the worm 

 Mounts through all the spires of form." 



As for this matter of a memoir concerning Darwin, I should hope to consult you about it 

 at some time. 



I send you an American paper with a little Essay of mine written last year. I sent it to 

 Mr Darwin in January. It is not much, but may interest you and Mrs Galton. 



Ever yours, Moncure D. Conway. 



Harlech House, Bournemouth. March 26, 1883. 

 My DEAD PROFESSOR*, Thank you much for your pretty cloud problem. I have been on 

 the look out for an opportunity of experimenting with it, but have not hitherto had a chance. 

 It has however suggested to me a plan which I enclose, and which I have tried, that really 

 looks as though it might be regularly employed in many stations where there are cliffs or 

 neighbouring hills, and which might even give good results for clouds up to 2000 or so feet. 

 I experimented by using the Kew Pagoda to serve as the AC in the enclosed. The sea here is 

 bare of ships, but I have tried the method this morning upon one that happened to be passing 

 and it seemed very convenient. Very sincerely yours, Francis Galton. 



5, Bertie Terrace, Leamington. September 27, 1883. 



Mv hear .MillyI, From your very liberal standpoint, the arguments in the Chapter on 

 Prayer have necessarily little value. They are directed to those who either (1) like the great 



* Professor G. G. Stol: 



f Mrs Millicent Lethbridge, daughter of (ialton's Sister Addle, Mrs Bunbury. Galton is 

 referring to the section on Prayer in his Inquiries into Human- Faculty: see our Vol. II, 

 pp. 100-101, 115-117, 258-2G1. 



