MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



491 



of your mind, by which you wait the doom of inexorable nature. How much I should like to talk 

 with you, as we did formerly, upon this subject, and its collateral, Pantheism, and the probability 



of an actual though immaterial existence after this mortal life. Bui however much I should like to 



compare present thoughts and conclusions with you bj the "living voice," 1 find myself alto- 

 gether unable to write about it. Doubt, doubt, and still doubt. But all gravitating to the theory 

 of development from simple attributes, properties, or tendencies, inherent in matter, of the origin 

 of which we can form no conception. The legitimate tendency of all this is, as it seems to me, 

 the reception of Darwin's idea of the law of "natural selection under the struggle for life," and 

 thus (the order or laws of nature being established of 7iecessitg') it becomes possible to conceive 

 of the formation of both the material and of the organic or living world without design. Who 

 that shall receive this conception as true, — and it seems to me that the whole tendency of the 

 scientific discovery of the age is towards this theory of development, — who, I say, that shall re- 

 ceive this will not find his mind sooner or later lean to the conclusion that man, or the human 

 mind, is the highest self-conscious intelligence (or intellectual po we r) in the universe? . . . 



You ask me to write to you about the present state of my health and of my occupations, or 

 the way in which I pass my time. The last two and a half years which have passed since I saw 

 you have told severely upon my strength. Still I have kept up "the struggle for life," have rodo 

 almost every day, and have walked some ; and although I have broken much in mental as well as 

 in bodily health, I am still capable of some enjoyment. I have certainly been less afflicted with 

 that cruel pain, for which I was obliged to resort to the use of opium, than formerly, so that for 

 the last two months I have been able to live entirely without taking it. But having now passed 

 my seventy-seventh year, I am fully sensible that the end is very near me, and that all that I can 

 hope is that it may come without the pain that sometimes attends it. It is hardly to be expected 

 that you and I can ever meet again (although I will not give up the hope that we shall). 1 trust, 

 however, that you will continue to write to me often, even if I should live after I become unable 

 to answer your letters. With this, and my best respects — shall I not say love? — to Mrs. Sweet- 

 ser, and communicating Mrs. Treadwell's love and best wishes to you both, I take my leave for 

 the present, with the assurance that, living or dying, I shall remain your sincere friend. 



D. Treadwell. 



Dr. Asa Gray to Daniel Treadwell. 



American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 



Boston, Massachusetts, May 30, 1871. 



My dear Sir, — At the annual meeting of the Academy held this day, I had the pleasure to 

 read the letter which you did me honor to address to me as President, enclosing your check for 

 two hundred dollars, to be applied to the making of a full and complete index of the Works of 

 Count Rumford, which the Academy is now collecting and editing. And I have indorsed over 

 the check to the Treasurer, who is instructed to hold the proceeds as a separate fund, safely in- 

 vesting it until the time for using it arrives, when the Academy is pledged to expend it in the 



production of as perfect an index as can be made. 



And the Academy, on motion of Professor Agassiz, seconded by the Chairman of the Rumford 

 Committee, unanimously voted, " That the cordial thanks of the Academy be presented to its 

 associate, Professor Daniel Treadwell, for this very thoughtful and generous gift." 



In the ordinary course, this vote would have been communicated to you, in an attested copy, 

 by the Recording Secretary ; but I offered to attend myself to this duty, in order that the grateful 

 acknowledgments of your associates in the Academy might the earlier be presented to you, and 



