132 GEOBGE JOHN ROMANES i88i- 



Down : October 14. 



My dear Komanes, — I have just read the splendid 

 review of the Worm book in ' Nature.' I have been 

 much pleased by it, but at the same time you so 

 over-estimate the value of what I do, that you make 

 me feel ashamed of myself, and wish to be worthy of 

 such praise. I cannot think how you can endure to 

 spend so much time over another's work, when you 

 have yourself so much in hand ; I feel so worn out, 

 that I do not suppose I shall ever again give re- 

 viewers trouble. 



I hope that your opus magnum is progressing well, 

 and when we meet later in the autumn I shall be 

 anxious to hear about it. 



In a few days' time we are going to visit Horace 

 in Cambridge for a week, to see if that will refresh me. 



Pray give my kind remembrances to Mrs. Komanes, 

 and I hope you are all well. 



Garvock, Bridge of Earn, Perthshire : October 16, 1881. 



My dear Mr. Darwin, — If I did not know you so 

 well, I should think that you are guilty of what our 

 nurse calls ' mock modesty.' At least I know that if 

 I, or anybody else, had written the book which I re- 

 viewed, your judgment would have been the first to 

 endorse all I have said. I never allow personal friend- 

 ship to influence what I say in reviews ; and if I am 

 so uniformly stupid as to ' over-estimate the value of 

 all you do,' it is at any rate some consolation to know 

 that my stupidity is so universally shared by all the 



