658 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1876, 
the idea of fixity and clear limitation which does 
not well or wholly represent the reality, is natural 
enough; is, indeed, inevitable. The object in these 
works is to set forth the differences, and put them in 
the strongest and clearest light, so that the forms may 
be readily discriminated. The nearer two forms are 
alike, the more pains the naturalist takes to set forth 
the differences, while the likeness ‘“ goes without say- 
ing,” and is therefore overlooked by the outsider, 
though it may have been almost an even chance that 
the describer merged the two in one. 
The thoughtful and experienced naturalist does not 
get a wrong impression from all this, but the out- 
sider inset certainly wi A.G 
January 14, 1876. 
Dear Mr. Wricut, — Thanks for your line of the 
8th. 
By this week’s “ Nation,’! you see that, long as 
the talk is, I have not yet touched the critical ques- 
tion, nor have I yet got an opportunity to apply myself 
to it. But I hope to do so soon. 
Meanwhile, the number of the ‘“ Westminster Re- 
view,” which you called my attention to, has passed 
through my hands in our book club, and I shall soon 
have it in my hands again. It makes a very strong 
presentation, and the question is, how its points are 
to be met on purely scientific grounds. If I can meet 
them fairly, and reéstablish the evidence of design on 
the basis it ought to stand upon, I shall be satisfied 
and happy. Anyway, it is a help to me to have this 
able presentation brought before me. 
1 Review of Darwin’s Insectivorous and Climbing Plants, in The 
Nation, Nos. 549 and 550. 
