T ^8 SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [1862. 



C. Darwin to Maxwell Masters. * 



Down, Feb. 26 [1862]. 

 My dear Sir, — I am much obliged to you for sending 

 me your article,! which I have just read with much interest. 

 The History, and a good deal besides, was quite new to me. 

 It seems to me capitally done, and so clearly written. You 

 really ought to write your larger work. You speak too gen- 

 erously of my book ; but I must confess that you have 

 pleased me not a little ; for no one, as far as I know, has 

 ever remarked on what I say on classification — a part, which 

 when I wrote it, pleased me. With many thanks to you for 

 sending me your article, pray believe me, 



My dear Sir, yours sincerely, 



C. Darwin. 



[In the spring of this year (1862) my father read the sec- 

 ond volume of Buckle's ' History of Civilization.' The fol- 

 lowing strongly expressed opinion about it may be worth 

 quoting : — 



" Have you read Buckle's second volume ? it has inter- 

 ested me greatly ; I do not care whether his views are right 

 or wrong, but I should think they contained much truth. 

 There is a noble love of advancement and truth throughout ; 

 and to my taste he is the very best writer of the English lan- 

 guage that ever lived, let the other be who he may."] 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray. 



Down, March 15 [1862]. 

 My dear Gray, — Thanks for the newspapers (though 

 they did contain digs at England), and for your note of Feb. 



* Dr. Masters is a well-known vegetable teratologist, and has been for 

 many years the editor of the Gardeners' Chronicle. 



\ Refers to a paper on " Vegetable Morphology," by Dr. Masters, in 

 the * British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review ' for 1862. 



