1874.J DR - GRAY. 367 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray. 



Down, June 5 [1874]. 



My dear Gray,— I have now read your article* in 'Na- 

 ture,' and the last two paragraphs were not included in the 

 slip sent before. I wrote yesterday and cannot remember 

 exactly what I said, and now cannot be easy without again 

 telling you how profoundly I have been gratified. Every one, 

 I suppose, occasionally thinks that he has worked in vain, 

 and when one of these fits overtakes me, I will think of your 

 article, and if that does not dispel the evil spirit, I shall know 

 that I am at the time a little bit insane, as we all are occa- 

 sionally. 



What you say about Teleology f pleases me especially, and 

 I do not think any one else has ever noticed the point.J I 

 have always said you were the man to hit the nail on the 



head. 



Yours gratefully and affectionately, 



Ch. Darwin. 



[As a contribution to the history of the reception of the 

 ' Origin of Species,' the meeting of the British Association in 

 1874, at Belfast, should be mentioned. It is memorable for 

 Professor Tyndall's brilliant presidential address, in which a 

 sketch of the history of Evolution is given culminating in an 

 eloquent analysis of the ' Origin of Species,' and of the nature 

 of its great success. With regard to Prof. Tyndall's address, 

 Lyell wrote (' Life,' ii. p. 455) congratulating my father on the 



* The article, " Charles Darwin," in the series of Scientific Worthies 

 (' Nature,' June 4, 1874). This admirable estimate of my father's work in 

 science is given in the form of a comparison and contrast between Robert 

 Brown and Charles Darwin. 



f " Let us recognise Darwin's great service to Natural Science in bring- 

 ing back to it Teleology : so that instead of Morphology versus Teleology, 

 we shall have Morphology wedded to Teleology." 



\ See, however, Mr. Huxley's chapter on the ' Reception of the Origin 

 of Species' in vol. i., p. 554. 



