_Dear Sir_,—_I knew you were ill and I never meant to give you the fatigue of writing to me_. _Please do not trouble yourself to do so again_. _As you kindly ask my plans I may say that_, _though I very probably may return to New Zealand in three or four years_, _I have no intention of doing so before that time_. _My study is art_, _and anything else I may indulge in is only by-play_; _it may cause you some little wonder that at my age I should have started as an art student_, _and I may perhaps be permitted to explain that this was always my wish for years_, _that I had begun six years ago_, _as soon as ever I found that I could not conscientiously take orders_; _my father so strongly disapproved of the idea that I gave it up and went out to New Zealand_, _stayed there for five years_, _worked like a common servant_, _though on a run of my own_, _and sold out little more than a year ago_, _thinking that prices were going to fall_—_which they have since done_. _Being then rather at a loss what to do and my capital being all locked up_, _I took the opportunity to return to my old plan_, _and have been studying for the last ten years unremittingly_. _I hope that in three or four years more I shall be able to go on very well by myself_, _and then I may go back to New Zealand or no as circumstances shall seem to render advisable_. _I must apologise for so much detail_, _but hardly knew how to explain myself without it_. _I always delighted in your_ ORIGIN OF SPECIES _as soon as I saw it out in New Zealand_—_not as knowing anything whatsoever of natural history_, _but it enters into so many deeply interesting questions_, _or rather it suggests so many_, _that it thoroughly fascinated me_. _I therefore feel all the greater pleasure that my pamphlet should please you_, _however full of errors_. _The first dialogue on the_ ORIGIN _which I wrote in the_ PRESS _called forth a contemptuous rejoinder from_ (_I believe_) _the Bishop of Wellington_—(_please do not mention the name_, _though I think that at this distance of space and time I might mention it to yourself_) _I answered it with the enclosed_, _which may amuse you_. _I assumed another character because my dialogue was in my hearing very severely criticised by two or three whose opinion I thought worth having_, _and I deferred to their judgment in my next_. _I do not think I should do so now_. _I fear you will be shocked at an appeal to the periodicals mentioned in my letter_, _but they form a very staple article of bush diet_, _and we used to get a good deal of superficial knowledge out of them_. _I feared to go in too heavy on the side of the_ ORIGIN, _because I thought that_, _having said my say as well as I could_, _I had better now take a less impassioned tone_; _but I was really exceedingly angry_.