xT. 72.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 747 
central part of the State, a lawyer, who makes consid- 
erable sacrifice in taking the governorship, is chosen 
in his place, and there is a majority of two thirds in 
both branches of the legislature to support him. We 
hope that this makes an end of Butler’s power for 
harm, or at least cripples it. He is a desperate 
- demagogue. 
I doubt if either of the friends you mentioned 
came to Cambridge at all. My friend Agassiz had 
the pleasure of ‘neGing them at Newport, and was 
greatly taken with them. .. . 
I am beginning to print the Composite for my 
“Flora of North America ;” and am revising for the 
last time some of the more difficult and more unsatis- 
factory portions. My wife now excuses me to her 
friends for outbreaks of ill-humor, the excuse being 
that I am at present “in the valley of the shadow of 
the Asters.” This is “ sic itur ad astra,” with a ven- 
geance. If only I can have done with the printer by 
the close of the winter months, with any life left in 
me, then we will go in for a holiday. 
I am very well, and Mrs. Gray passably so. We 
have seen just a little of Matthew Arnold, with wife 
and daughter ; shall probably see more of them. 
TO R. W. CHURCH. 
November 12, 1883. 
. I have just seen the first proof of the portion 
i - Flora of North America ” that I have been moil- 
ing over for so long; and over them and the ever-re- 
newed touches to the ever-growing Composite, I may 
expect a toilsome winter. That done, I hope about the 
time that the clear and biting, but rather enjoyable, 
winter subsides into the inclemencies of our early 
