i86i.] BATES'S BOOK— AMERICAN WAR. 173 



published in 1865, but the following letter may be given here 

 rather than in its due chronological position :] 



C. Darwin to H. W. Bates. 



Down, April 18, 1863. 



Dear Bates, — I have finished vol. i. My criticisms may 

 be condensed into a single sentence, namely, that it is the 

 best work of Natural History Travels ever published in 

 England. Your style seems to me admirable. Nothing can 

 be better than the discussion on the struggle for existence, 

 and nothing better than the description of the Forest scenery.* 

 It is a grand book, and whether or not it sells quickly, it will 

 last. You have spoken out boldly on Species ; and boldness 

 on the subject seems to get rarer and rarer. How beautifully 

 illustrated it is. The cut on the back is most tasteful. I 

 heartily congratulate you on its publication. 



The Athenceum \ was rather cold, as it always is, and inso- 

 lent in the highest degree about your leading facts. Have 

 you seen the Reader ? I can send it to you if you have not 

 seen it. . . . 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray. 



Down, Dec. 11 [1861]. 

 My dear Gray,— Many and cordial thanks for your two 

 last most valuable notes. What a thing it is that when you 

 receive this we may be at war, and we two be bound, as good 

 patriots, to hate each other, though I shall find this hating 

 you very hard work. How curious it is to see two countries, 

 just like two angry and silly men, taking so opposite a view 



* In a letter to Lyell my father wrote : " He \i. e. Mr. Bates] is second 

 only to Humboldt in describing a tropical forest." 



f " I have read the first volume of Bates's Book ; it is capital, and I 

 think the best Natural History Travels ever published in England. He 

 is bold about Species, &c, and the Athenceum coolly says 'he bends his 

 facts ' for this purpose." — (From a letter to Sir J. D. Hooker.) 



