122 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANES issi- 



the Council of the Linnean nominated me Zoological 

 Secretary, and some of the members having pressed 

 me to accept, I have accepted. I also hear that your 

 son is to be on the same Council, and that Sir 

 John Lubbock is to be the new President. 



I have at length decided on the arrangement of 

 my material for the books on Animal Intelligence 

 and Mental Evolution. I shall reserve all the heavier 

 parts of theoretical discussion for the second book — 

 making the first the chief repository of facts, with 

 only a slender network of theory to bind them into 

 mutual relation, and save the book as much as 

 possible from the danger that you suggested of being 

 too much matter-of-fact. It will be an advantage to 

 have the facts in a form to admit of brief reference 

 when discussing the heavier philosophy in the second 

 book, which will be the more important, though the 

 less popular, of the two. 



Just then some correspondence had been going 

 on in the ' Times ' on the subject of Vivisection, and 

 Mr. Darwin wrote to Mr. Eomanes as follows : — 



Down, Beckenham, Kent : April 25, 1881. 



My dear Eomanes, — I was very glad to read your 

 last notes with much news interesting to me. But I 

 write now to say how I, and indeed all of us in the 

 house, have admired your letter in the ' Times.' 1 It 

 was so simple and direct. I was particularly glad 

 about Burdon Sanderson, of whom I have been for 

 several years a great admirer. I was, also, especi- 



1 A letter written at the end of April 1881. 



