14 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



widely different views, with the same facts before them ; 

 but this seems to be almost regularly our case, and much do 

 I regret it. I am fairly well, but always feel half dead with 

 fatigue. I heard but an indifferent account of your health 

 some time ago, but trust that you are now somewhat 

 stronger. 



" Believe me, my dear Wallace, 



" Yours very sincerely, 



"Ch. Darwin." 



It is really quite pathetic how much he felt difference of 

 opinion from his friends. I, of course, should have liked to 

 have been able to convert him to my views, but I did not 

 feel it so much as he seemed to do. In letters to Sir Joseph 

 Hooker (in February and August, 1881) he again states his 

 view as against mine very strongly f ' More Letters," iii. 

 pp. 25 and 27) ; and this, so far as I know, is the last reference 

 he made to the subject. The last letter I received from him 

 was entirely on literary and political subjects, and, as usual, 

 very kind and friendly. As it makes no reference to our 

 controversies, and touches on questions never introduced before 

 in our correspondence, I think it will be interesting to give it 

 entire. 



''Down, July 12, 1881. 



**My dear Wallace, 



" I have been heartily glad to get your note and 

 hear some news of you. I will certainly order * Progress and 

 Poverty,' for the subject is a most interesting one. But I 

 read many years ago some books on political economy, and 

 they produced a disastrous effect on my mind, viz., utterly 

 to distrust my own judgment on the subject, and to doubt 

 much every one else's judgment ! So I feel pretty sure that 

 Mr. George's book will only make my mind worse confounded 

 than it is at present. I also have just finished a book which 

 has interested me greatly, but whether it would interest any 

 one else I know not. It is the * Creed of Science,' by W. 

 Graham, A.M. Who or what he is I know not, but he 



