l86l.] BATES'S BOOK AMERICAN WAR. 381 



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 Athen(zuni\\;&5, 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 

 of the same transaction ! I fear there is no shadow of 

 doubt we shall fight, if the two Southern rogues are not given 



* In a letter to Lyell my father Travels ever published in England, 



wrote : " He [i.e. Mr. Bates] is He is bold about Species, &c., 



second only to Humboldt in de- and the Athenceiitn coolly says 



scribing a tropical forest." ' he bends his facts ' for this pur- 



t " I have read the first volume pose." (From a letter to Sir J. D, 



of Bates's Book ; it is capital, and Hooker.) 

 I think the best Natural History 



