
          I am very sorry for the miscarriage of my first letter. 
 It was sent thro' [through] Hale's Post Office.


 I have not time to enter into particulars respecting 
 Drapers book. I have served up the chemico-
 physiological part of it, and made some fun of his 
 bombast. All the new ideas, and they are very few, 
 all false, fanciful, or absurd. I have compared it, 
 the introduction chapter in particular, to an 
 omelette soufflée, of which Dumas may have 
 furnished the egg, Humboldt & Lyell the condiments, 
 and Dr. Draper the intumescence! Don't repeat 
 it. Though I do not know whether the editor will 
 allow this and a few other bits to pass. A long 
 piece of twaddle in the chapter on the nervous system 
 in plants, has enabled me to advance an apt quotation 
 from Bottom. I am hungry for letters 
 though I am able to write little myself. Tell Mrs. T. [Torrey]
 that as yet I have from her only a couple of 
 postscripts to letters of yours. I expect you here 
 with a pair of the girls, the evening before Christmas.


 Affectionately Yours 


 A. [Asa] Gray


 Wednesday Morning. No news, no 
 letter by the Post Office. But there was a 
 bad night I suppose on the sound. 


 In great haste 


 Yours 


 A.G. [Asa Gray]
        