The Apostle of Evolution. 177 



our enterprise, and acted accordingly. The literary editor, 

 Mr. Ripley, is a fine scholar, but a Unitarian clergyman to 

 begin with, and classical to the core, and infected with Ger- 

 man metaphysics an unpromising subject certainly, and, 

 most of all, pointedly and publicly committed against the 

 new views of Herbert Spencer. The notice of the Educa- 

 tion, I must confess, was fairly battted into the Tribune 

 through friend Greeley's influence, Mr. Ripley vehemently 

 protesting against this new evangel of education. He had 

 not read it, and would not look at it. But an old copy of 

 your Essays (found in Beecher's library, when he went to 

 Europe, with the margins of the pages written full of notes) 

 fell into his hands, arrested his attention, and changed the 

 current of his opinion. Since that time his views have been 

 gradually modifying,* and the upshot of the matter is, that 

 I have been able to get the long notice in all the editions of 

 the Tribune (a copy of each of which I send you), the 

 daily having a circulation of 400,000, the scmiweekly of 

 30,000, and the weekly of 160,000. Advertising in the latter 

 is one dollar per line, the market value of the space allowed 

 me being $960. Considering that the Tribune circulates 

 mainly among that class which it is important to reach, and 

 is moreover of great influence with other newspapers, this 

 gain is a telling one. I published the notice in the daily 

 the very day the work was advertised. 



I send you the New York Observer, the most bigoted of 

 our religious journals. The criticism is surprisingly mild, 

 the editor having evidently read only the introductory no- 

 tice, which I aimed to make a sort of religious breakwater 

 to protect First Principles from the rush of the pious flood. 

 The Independent is the most largely circulated and influen- 

 tial religious journal in the country, having six or eight 

 thousand clergymen on its subscription lists. I have 



* In course of time Mr. Ripley became an unqualified adherent of Mr. 

 Spencer's philosophy. 



