Botanists -- United States -- Correspondence; Gray, Asa, 1810-1888 -- Correspondence
I had a mere glimpse of Miss Fox at Montreal, and a little more of her
cousin. She came late to Philadelphia, where Mrs. Gray (who was not at
Montreal) and I had a most pleasant chat with her at a garden reception.
The next day I went out to the suburban place where she was visiting,
and came near to winning her for our expedition, at least as far as to
Luray cave, and the Natural Bridge in the Valley of Virginia. But the
engagements she had made could not be reconciled. Her hostess was to
take her to this neighborhood, but too early for us to receive her here.
All good people in this country think so much of Caroline Fox that they
wished to know her sister.
I have not seen the book by Mr. Arthur on difference between physical
and moral laws, and am not sure that I ever heard of it or of the
author. Who is the publisher? I might find it at the university library.
No, I never had the fortune to see, much less to know Maurice. Of course
I have always known a good deal about him and of the remarkable
influence he exerted, both in person and in his writings, “in which were
some things hard to understand,” such as his liking for the Athanasian
creed, but nothing that was not most excellent in spirit.
Of course I well remember Miss Wedgewood; and we had occasional
correspondence up to the time when Darwin died, and she, on the part of
the family, announced it to me. I am glad to know that she wrote the
sketch of Maurice in the “British Quarterly.”
And now about ourselves. I got the Compositæ off my mind late in the
spring, but not off my hands until sometime in August. At the end of
August and of the pleasant part of the summer here (for it was
delightful in Cambridge, so cool and quiet, and Mrs. Gray away only for
three weeks with her friends on the coast) I went to the meeting of the
British Association at Montreal; enjoyed it much; read a paper,[128] a
sort of address, to the botanists coming over to North America, which
the Section seemed to like and voted to print in extenso. (I will first
print it here, and send you a copy. Not that there is much novelty in
it, but it may be readable.) I had to leave the meeting after three or
four days, and return here; sorry to leave our friend Mr. Walter Browne
ill at the hospital with typhoid fever. He and his poor wife received
every kind attention, but he died in a few days.
It is agreed that the British meeting was a distinguished success. It
brought over a throng of English people, and the American savants (I
cannot abide the word “scientists”) were in good force. We were repaid
by the large attendance of British Association members at Philadelphia,
where they contributed to make our meeting large and notable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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