The Life and Letters-2 [80]
judge thought my Journal very poor; now that it is in print, I happen to know, he likes it. I am sure you will understand why I am so egotistical.
I was a LITTLE disappointed in Wallace's book ('Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro,' 1853.) on the Amazon; hardly facts enough. On the other hand, in Gosse's book (Probably the 'Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica,' 1851.) there is not reasoning enough to my taste. Heaven knows whether you will care to read all this scribbling...
I am glad you had a pleasant day with Hooker (In a letter to Sir J.D. Hooker (December 1861), my father wrote: "I am very glad to hear that you like Bates. I have seldom in my life been more struck with a man's power of mind."), he is an admirably good man in every sense.
[The following extract from a letter to Mr. Bates on the same subject is interesting as giving an idea of the plan followed by my father in writing his 'Naturalist's Voyage:'
"As an old hackneyed author, let me give you a bit of advice, viz. to strike out every word which is not quite necessary to the current subject, and which could not interest a stranger. I constantly asked myself, would a stranger care for this? and struck out or left in accordingly. I think too much pains cannot be taken in making the style transparently clear and throwing eloquence to the dogs."
Mr. Bates's book, 'The Naturalist on the Amazons,' was published in 1865, but the following letter may be given here rather than in its due chronological position:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO H.W. BATES. Down, April 18, 1863.
Dear Bates,
I have finished volume i. My criticisms may be condensed into a single sentence, namely, that it is the best work of Natural History Travels ever published in England. Your style seems to me admirable. Nothing can be better than the discussion on the struggle for existence, and nothing better than the description of the Forest scenery. (In a letter to Lyell my father wrote: "He [i.e. Mr. Bates] is second only to Humboldt in describing a tropical forest.") It is a grand book, and whether or not it sells quickly, it will last. You have spoken out boldly on Species; and boldness on the subject seems to get rarer and rarer. How beautifully illustrated it is. The cut on the back is most tasteful. I heartily congratulate you on its publication.
The "Athenaeum" ("I have read the first volume of Bates's Book; it is capital, and I think the best Natural History Travels ever published in England. He is bold about Species, etc., and the "Athenaeum" coolly says 'he bends his facts' for this purpose."--(From a letter to Sir J.D. Hooker.)) was rather cold, as it always is, and insolent in the highest degree about your leading facts. Have you seen the "Reader"? I can send it to you if you have not seen it...
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY. Down, December 11 [1861].
My dear Gray,
Many and cordial thanks for your two last most valuable notes. What a thing it is that when you receive this we may be at war, and we two be bound, as good patriots, to hate each other, though I shall find this hating you very hard work. How curious it is to see two countries, just like two angry and silly men, taking so opposite a view of the same transaction! I fear there is no shadow of doubt we shall fight if the two Southern rogues are not given up. (The Confederate Commissioners Slidell and Mason were forcibly removed from the "Trent", a West India mail steamer on November 8, 1861. The news that the U.S. agreed to release them reached England on January 8, 1862.) And what a wretched thing it will be if we fight on the side of slavery. No doubt it will be said that we fight to get cotton; but I fully believe that this has not entered into the motive in the least. Well, thank Heaven, we private individuals have nothing to do with so awful a responsibility. Again, how curious it is that you seem to think that you can conquer the South; and I never meet a soul, even those who would most wish it, who thinks it possible--that is, to conquer and retain it. I do not suppose
I was a LITTLE disappointed in Wallace's book ('Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro,' 1853.) on the Amazon; hardly facts enough. On the other hand, in Gosse's book (Probably the 'Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica,' 1851.) there is not reasoning enough to my taste. Heaven knows whether you will care to read all this scribbling...
I am glad you had a pleasant day with Hooker (In a letter to Sir J.D. Hooker (December 1861), my father wrote: "I am very glad to hear that you like Bates. I have seldom in my life been more struck with a man's power of mind."), he is an admirably good man in every sense.
[The following extract from a letter to Mr. Bates on the same subject is interesting as giving an idea of the plan followed by my father in writing his 'Naturalist's Voyage:'
"As an old hackneyed author, let me give you a bit of advice, viz. to strike out every word which is not quite necessary to the current subject, and which could not interest a stranger. I constantly asked myself, would a stranger care for this? and struck out or left in accordingly. I think too much pains cannot be taken in making the style transparently clear and throwing eloquence to the dogs."
Mr. Bates's book, 'The Naturalist on the Amazons,' was published in 1865, but the following letter may be given here rather than in its due chronological position:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO H.W. BATES. Down, April 18, 1863.
Dear Bates,
I have finished volume i. My criticisms may be condensed into a single sentence, namely, that it is the best work of Natural History Travels ever published in England. Your style seems to me admirable. Nothing can be better than the discussion on the struggle for existence, and nothing better than the description of the Forest scenery. (In a letter to Lyell my father wrote: "He [i.e. Mr. Bates] is second only to Humboldt in describing a tropical forest.") It is a grand book, and whether or not it sells quickly, it will last. You have spoken out boldly on Species; and boldness on the subject seems to get rarer and rarer. How beautifully illustrated it is. The cut on the back is most tasteful. I heartily congratulate you on its publication.
The "Athenaeum" ("I have read the first volume of Bates's Book; it is capital, and I think the best Natural History Travels ever published in England. He is bold about Species, etc., and the "Athenaeum" coolly says 'he bends his facts' for this purpose."--(From a letter to Sir J.D. Hooker.)) was rather cold, as it always is, and insolent in the highest degree about your leading facts. Have you seen the "Reader"? I can send it to you if you have not seen it...
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY. Down, December 11 [1861].
My dear Gray,
Many and cordial thanks for your two last most valuable notes. What a thing it is that when you receive this we may be at war, and we two be bound, as good patriots, to hate each other, though I shall find this hating you very hard work. How curious it is to see two countries, just like two angry and silly men, taking so opposite a view of the same transaction! I fear there is no shadow of doubt we shall fight if the two Southern rogues are not given up. (The Confederate Commissioners Slidell and Mason were forcibly removed from the "Trent", a West India mail steamer on November 8, 1861. The news that the U.S. agreed to release them reached England on January 8, 1862.) And what a wretched thing it will be if we fight on the side of slavery. No doubt it will be said that we fight to get cotton; but I fully believe that this has not entered into the motive in the least. Well, thank Heaven, we private individuals have nothing to do with so awful a responsibility. Again, how curious it is that you seem to think that you can conquer the South; and I never meet a soul, even those who would most wish it, who thinks it possible--that is, to conquer and retain it. I do not suppose