Saturday [November 12th, 1859].

...Thank you much for asking me to Brighton. I hope much that you will
enjoy your holiday. I have told Murray to send a copy for you to Mansion
House Street, and I am surprised that you have not received it. There are
so many valid and weighty arguments against my notions, that you, or any
one, if you wish on the other side, will easily persuade yourself that I am
wholly in error, and no doubt I am in part in error, perhaps wholly so,
though I cannot see the blindness of my ways. I dare say when thunder and
lightning were first proved to be due to secondary causes, some regretted
to give up the idea that each flash was caused by the direct hand of God.

Farewell, I am feeling very unwell to-day, so no more.

Yours very truly,
C. DARWIN.


CHARLES DARWIN TO JOHN LUBBOCK.
Ilkley, Yorkshire,
Tuesday [November 15th, 1859].

My dear Lubbock,

I beg pardon for troubling you again. I do not know how I blundered in
expressing myself in making you believe that we accepted your kind
invitation to Brighton. I meant merely to thank you sincerely for wishing
to see such a worn-out old dog as myself. I hardly know when we leave this
place,--not under a fortnight, and then we shall wish to rest under our own
roof-tree.