I845-] SLAVERY. 



341 



in this for the general reader; certainly all that the most 

 clear and light style could do, has been done. To myself 

 the geology was an excellent, well-condensed, well-digested 

 resume of all that has been made out in North America, and 

 every geologist ought to be grateful to you. The summing 

 up of the Niagara chapter appeared to me the grandest part ; 

 I was also deeply interested by your discussion on the origin 

 of the Silurian formations. I have made scores of scores 

 marking passages hereafter useful to me. 



All the coal theory appeared to me very good ; but it is 

 no use going on enumerating in this manner. I wish there had 

 been more Natural History ; I liked all the scattered frag- 

 ments. I have now given you an exact transcript of my 

 thoughts, but they are hardly worth your reading. . . . 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, August 2 5th [1845]. 



MY DEAR LYELL, This is literally the first day on which 

 I have had any time to spare ; and I will amuse myself by 

 beginning a letter to you. . . . 



I was delighted with your letter in which you touch on 

 Slavery ; I wish the same feelings had been apparent in your 

 published discussion. But I will not write on this subject, I 

 should perhaps annoy you, and most certainly myself. I 

 have exhaled myself with a paragraph or two in my Journal 

 on the sin of Brazilian slavery ; you perhaps will think that 

 it is in answer to you ; but such is not the case. I have 

 remarked on nothing which I did not hear on the coast of 

 South America. My few sentences, however, are merely an 

 explosion of feeling. How could you relate so placidly that 

 atrocious sentiment* about separating children from their 

 parents ; and in the next page speak of being distressed at 

 the whites not having prospered ; I assure you the contrast 



* In the passage referred to, Lyell does not give his own views, but 

 those of a planter. 



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