MEMOIR OF DANIEL TEEADWELL. 



473 



with a little more attention to the subject, I have no doubt but we might produce such an increase 

 as would save ourselves from the labor required for the appliance of tar and oil and zinc plate, 

 and all other methods by which we seek, though with very imperfect success, to destroy our 

 mischievous insects. 



To Pkofessor Daniel Theadwell. 



Boston, September 18, 1858. 



Dear Sir, — At the first September meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, the 

 Society was greatly entertained and instructed by a communication on the food of the American 

 robin, from yourself. I am desired to communicate to you the thanks of the Society for your 

 valuable paper, in accordance with a unanimous vote passed on that occasion. 



I remain, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 



S. L. Abbot, Corresponding Secretary. 



\ 



To Dr. William Sweetser. 



Cambridge, January 1, 18G0. 



My dear Sweetser, — Never did I expect (but a few years ago) to make it a date, 

 and yet there it is. It is upon us, not only a new year, but a new decade, and the last I shall 

 ever shake hands with. It behooves me, therefore, to make the best possible use of it, and get as 

 much innocent enjoyment out of it as I may ; and you have aided me in this by the very kind 

 letter that you have just sent me, and which I take in the light of a most acceptable new year's 

 present. 



First, it gives me great pleasure to see that you and Mrs. Sweetser are passing on in such 

 a comfortable, quiet, healthful way together. Whatever j r ou may say about " life being hardly 

 worth the possession," there are spots of it when it is a great good, and the consciousness of 

 enjoyment is worth taking great pains to attain. At any rate, I am willing to hold on at present, 

 and I hope you will stop and keep me company. I would that you were a little nearer, that we 

 might exchange fresh thoughts without this artifice of writing, to which I have a constitutional 

 antipathy. . . . 



I am now reading a book that I think will make as great a noise as that made a few years 

 ago by the " Vestiges of Creation." It is " On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selec- 

 tion, etc.," by Charles Darwin, M. A. Mr. Darwin is a correspondent of my friend, Dr. Gray, 

 and Gray says — as indeed his book bears witness — that he is a very thorough naturalist, 

 having been devoted to the study, under the most favorable circumstances, in London, for many 

 years, during many of the last of which he has been elaborating his theory by experiments on 

 plants and animals, and collecting information by correspondence with naturalists everywhere. 

 The result is this book of about five hundred pages, as the precursor of a more complete treatise. 

 I have not yet finished the present volume, but as far as I have read it seems to me a very able 

 work in support of the " Development Theory." Many of his views are quite new to me, and 

 indeed he claims for them the honors of a discovery as his theory. He will certainly succeed in 

 setting afloat the old " Plan of Creation " in the organic world, if he does not destroy it. The 

 tendency of the work is most decidedly atheistical, or pantheistical. I hope and trust that 

 it will be searchingly reviewed by some great and broad naturalist, for in this way only can we 



