ASA GRAY 175 



to that between Gray and Darwin will find it all 

 in Gray's Darwiniana, 1876, and will note that 

 he, while accepting Darwin's theory, was a firm 

 theist. He tells Darwin ( 1871 ) , in thanking him 

 for his Descent of Man: 



" I have not had time to read any of it, so keep 

 it well out of sight, not caring to look just yet 

 at any of the pages which you think likely to 



' aggravate ' me You have such a way of 



putting things, and you write in such a captivat- 

 ing way. One can only say: ' Almost thou per- 

 suadest me to have been a hairy quadruped of 

 arboreal habits, furnished with a tail and pointed 

 ears,' etc." 



In 1872 he resigned his professorship at Har- 

 vard, asking still to be Curator of the Herba- 

 rium. This resignation left him free for excur- 

 sions, for writing, and for lecturing on outside 

 topics, notably two on Natural Science and Re- 

 ligion before the Yale Theological School in 

 1880; but that same year he was off to Europe, 

 and again in 1887, but always writing and plan- 

 ning new work, the results of which may be seen 

 in the complete list published in the Letters of 

 Asa Gray. 



On the morning of his 75th birthday came a 



wonderful silver vase from 180 of his American 



botanical friends. On it were represented many 



of the North American flora, and Gray had great 



14 



