1882 ME. DAEWIN ON EAETHWOEMS 127 



much pleased by it, but at the same time you so 

 over-estimate the value of what I do, that you make 

 me feel ashamed of myself, and wish to be worthy of 

 such praise. I cannot think how you can endure to 

 spend so much time over another's work, when you 

 have yourself so much in hand ; I feel so worn out, 

 that I do not suppose I shall ever again give re- 

 viewers trouble. 



I hope that your opus magnum is progressing well, 

 and when we meet later in the autumn I shall be 

 anxious to hear about it. 



In a few days' time we are going to visit Horace 

 in Cambridge for a week, to see if that will refresh me. 



Pray give my kind remembrances to Mrs. Romanes, 

 and I hope you are all weU. 



Grarvock, Bridge of Earn, Perthshire : October 16, 1881. 



My dear Mr. Darwin, — If I did not know you so 

 weU, I should think that you are guilty of what our 

 nurse calls ' mock modesty.' At least I know that if 

 I, or anybody else, had written the book which I re- 

 viewed, your judgment would have been the first to 

 endorse all I have said. I never allow personal friend- 

 ship to influence what I say in reviews ; and if I am 

 so uniformly stupid as to ' over-estimate the value of 

 all you do,' it is at any rate some consolation to know 

 that my stupidity is so universally shared by all the 

 men of my generation. But your letters are to me 

 always psychological studies, and especially so when, 

 as in this one, you seem without irony intentionally 

 grim to refer to my work in juxtaposition with your 

 own. 



