You ask me whether I adhere to my notions before expressed, without at all showing me how they have been impugned.
I should rather expect Guyot to indorse Beaumont; a theological bias would act strongly.
But I rely most on Lartet, Coulon, and Pictet, for the age of deposit. Yet it may still be an open question....
Darwin, on account of his health, has to live away from London, and is a recluse. I give no letters to him, least of all to a lively inquisitive Yankee like Beecher, who would give him a fit of dyspepsia at once, from mere excitement.
I have the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg honorary membership; quite a feather, as they are choice and few. Diploma just come.
Ever yours,
A. Gray.
TO R. W. CHURCH.
May 7, 1861.
It was very good of you to write to me (by your letter of 28th of March) when I believe that a former letter of yours was still unacknowledged by me. Your letters always give me much pleasure.
What you say of “Essays and Reviews” seems to me most sensible and well considered; the best thing I have read about the book, viz., that, “with many good and true things in it, it is a reckless book,” and that some of the writers had not taken the trouble to clear up their own thoughts and to form orderly and consistent notions before publishing upon such delicate topics.