The Apostle of Evolution. 1 59 



The unconsciousness of the opening paragraph ot 

 Mr. Spencer's next letter is charming: 



6 HINDE STREET, MANCHESTER SQUARE, November 18, 1863. 



MY DEAR YOUMANS : I have been hoping for sotne 

 time past to hear from you. I suppose, however, that the 

 getting out of your Chemistry has absorbed all your atten- 

 tion ; and also, perhaps, that you have nothing special to 

 report. 



I fear that the present disastrous state of things with 

 you will have an injurious effect on your literary enter- 

 prise, as well as on the enterprises of others. It is reported 

 here that the New York publishers have agreed to bring 

 out no more new books for the present. Is this true ? and, 

 if so, how will it affect you ? . . . 



November 21. Had it not been that I had lost my copy 

 of the Reader which contained the accompanying extract, 

 and that I have been delayed in getting another copy, I 

 should have posted the enclosed sheet to you three days 

 ago that is, before the arrival of your welcome letter, 

 which reached me last night. 



The energy and self-sacrifice you continue to show in 

 the advancement of my scheme quite astonishes me ; and 

 while in one respect it is very gratifying to me, yet in an- 

 other it gives me a certain uncomfortable sense of obliga- 

 tion more weighty than I like to be under. If it were not 

 that this sense of obligation is in some degree qualified by 

 the consciousness that you are in great part prompted to 

 what you do by your love of truth and your philanthropic 

 desire to aid the spread of it, my feeling on the matter 

 would be really oppressive. Similarly, though in a smaller 

 degree, the results of the tour you describe give me a 

 pleasure which, though great, is not unmixed. While I 

 am rejoiced to find so much interest felt by many of your 

 countrymen in the diffusion of my writings, yet the con- 

 sciousness that they run any risk in aiding this diffusion is 



