CHARLES EGBERT DARWIN. 379 



in this view of life, with its several powers, having 

 been originally breathed by the Creator into a few 

 forms or into one ; and that, whilst this planet has 

 gone cycling on according to the fixed law of grav- 

 ity, from so simple a beginning endless forms, most 

 beautiful and most wonderful, have been and are 

 being evolved." Darwin always felt grateful to 

 Asa Gray for his defence. He wrote him : " I 

 declare that you know my book as well as I do 

 myself ; and bring to the question new lines of 

 illustration and argument, in a manner which ex- 

 cites my astonishment and almost my envy ! . . . 

 I said, in a former letter, that you were a lawyer, 

 but I made a gross mistake ; I am sure that you 

 are a poet. Xo, I will tell you what you are, a 

 hybrid, a complex cross of lawyer, poet, naturalist, 

 and theologian ! " 



Darwin wisely made no reply to his critics. He 

 said, years later : " My views have often been 

 grossly misrepresented, bitterly opposed and ridi- 

 culed, but this has been generally done, as I be- 

 lieve, in good faith. On the whole, I do not 

 doubt that my works have been over and over 

 again greatly overpraised. I rejoice that I have 

 avoided controversies, and this I owe to Lyell, who, 

 many years ago, in reference to my geological 

 works, strongly advised me never to get entangled 

 in a controversy, as it rarely did any good, and 

 caused a miserable loss of time and temper. 



" Whenever I have found out that I have blun- 

 dered, or that my work has been imperfect, and 



