XXIV] SIR CHARLES LYELL 



417 



made to carry out my suggestion in the article above referred 

 to (reprinted in my Studies," vol. ii., under the title, " Epping 

 Forest and Temperate Forest Regions There still remains 

 in the open moors and bare wastes, forming outlying parts 

 of the New Forest, ample space on which to try the experi- 

 ment, and at all events to extend the forest character of the 

 scenery. 



My failure to obtain the post at Epping Forest was 

 certainly a disappointment to me, but I am inclined to think 

 now that even that was really for the best, since it left me 

 free to do literary work which I should certainly not have 

 done if I had had permanent employment so engrossing and 

 interesting as that at Epping. In that case I should not 

 have gone to lecture in America, and should not have written 

 Darwinism," perhaps none of my later books, and very few 

 of the articles contained in my "Studies." This body of 

 literary and popular scientific work is, perhaps, what I was 

 best fitted to perform, and if so, neither I nor my readers 

 have any reason to regret my failure to obtain the post of 

 superintendent and guardian of Epping Forest. 



Among the eminent men of science with whom I became 

 more or less intimate during the period of my residence in 

 London, I give the first place to Sir Charles Lyell, not only 

 on account of his great abilities and his position as one 

 of the brightest ornaments of the nineteenth century, but 

 because I saw more of him than of any other man at all 

 approaching him as a thinker and leader in the world of 

 science, while my correspondence with him was more varied 

 in the subjects touched upon, and in some respects of more 

 general interest, than my more extensive correspondence with 

 Darwin. My friend, Sir Leonard Lyell, has kindly lent me 

 a volume containing the letters from his scientific corre- 

 spondence which have been preserved, and I am therefore 

 able to see what subjects I wrote about, and to give such 

 portions of the letters as seem to be of general interest. 



Early in 1864 Sir Charles was preparing his presidential 

 address for the meeting of the British Association at Bath, 



VOL. I. 2 E 



