i854.] HUMBOLDT— AGASSIZ. 403 



I will therefore come up to London for every (with rare ex- 

 ceptions) Club- day, and then my head, I think, will allow me 

 on an average to go to every other meeting. But it is griev- 

 ous how often any change knocks me up. I will further 

 pledge myself, as I told Lyell, to resign after a year, if I did 

 not attend pretty often, so that I should at worst encumber 

 the Club temporarily. If you can get me elected, I certainly 

 shall be very much pleased. Very many thanks for answers 

 about Glaciers. I am very glad to hear of the second Edit.* 

 so very soon ; but am not surprised, for I have heard of 

 several, in our small circle, reading it with very much pleasure. 

 I shall be curious to hear what Humboldt will say : it will, I 

 should think, delight him, and meet with more praise from 

 him than any other book of Travels, for I cannot remember 

 one, which has so many subjects in common with him. What 



a wonderful old fellow he is By the way, I hope, 



when you go to Hitcham, towards the end of May, you will 

 be forced to have some rest. I am grieved to hear that all 

 the bad symptoms have not left Henslow ; it is so strange 

 and new to feel any uneasiness about his health. I am 

 particularly obliged to you for sending me Asa Gray's letter ; 

 how very pleasantly he writes. To see his and your caution 

 on the species-question ought to overwhelm me in confusion 

 and shame ; it does make me feel deuced uncomfortable. . . . 

 It is delightful to hear all that he says on Agassiz : how very 

 singular it is that so eminently clever a man, with such immense 

 knowledge on many branches of Natural History, should 

 write as he does. Lyell told me that he was so delighted with 

 one of his (Agassiz) lectures on progressive development, &c., 

 &c., that he went to him afterwards and told him, ''that it 

 was so delightful, that he could not help all the time wishing 

 it was true." I seldom see a Zoological paper from North 

 America, without observing the impress of Agassiz's doc- 

 trines — another proof, by the way, of how great a man he is. 

 I was pleased and surprised to see A. Gray's remarks on 



* Of the Himalayan Journal. 



