Some one sent me (perhaps you) the 'Parthenon,' with a good review. The "Athenaeum" (May 24, 1862.) treats me with very kind pity and contempt; but the reviewer knew nothing of his subject."
"There is a superb, but I fear exaggerated, review in the 'London Review,' (June 14, 1862.) But I have not been a fool, as I thought I was, to publish (Doubts on this point still, however, occurred to him about this time. He wrote to Prof. Oliver (June 8): "I am glad that you have read my Orchis-book and seem to approve of it; for I never published anything which I so much doubted whether it was worth publishing, and indeed I still doubt. The subject interested me beyond what, I suppose, it is worth."); for Asa Gray, about the most competent judge in the world, thinks almost as highly of the book as does the 'London Review.' The "Athenaeum" will hinder the sale greatly."
The Rev. M.J. Berkeley was the author of the notice in the 'London Review,' as my father learned from Sir J.D. Hooker, who added, 'I thought it very well done indeed. I have read a good deal of the Orchid-book, and echo all he says."
To this my father replied (June 30th, 1862):--
"My dear Old Friend,
You speak of my warming the cockles of your heart, but you will never know how often you have warmed mine. It is not your approbation of my scientific work (though I care for that more than for any one's): it is something deeper. To this day I remember keenly a letter you wrote to me from Oxford, when I was at the Water-cure, and how it cheered me when I was utterly weary of life. Well, my Orchis-book is a success (but I do not know whether it sells.)"
In another letter to the same friend, he wrote:--
"You have pleased me much by what you say in regard to Bentham and Oliver approving of my book; for I had got a sort of nervousness, and doubted whether I had not made an egregious fool of myself, and concocted pleasant little stinging remarks for reviews, such as 'Mr. Darwin's head seems to have been turned by a certain degree of success, and he thinks that the most trifling observations are worth publication.'"
Mr. Bentham's approval was given in his Presidential Address to the Linnean Society, May 24, 1862, and was all the more valuable because it came from one who was by no means supposed to be favourable to evolutionary doctrines.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY. Down, June 10 [1862].
My dear Gray,
Your generous sympathy makes you overestimate what you have read of my Orchid-book. But your letter of May 18th and 26th has given me an almost foolish amount of satisfaction. The subject interested me, I knew, beyond its real value; but I had lately got to think that I had made myself a complete fool by publishing in a semi-popular form. Now I shall confidently defy the world. I have heard that Bentham and Oliver approve of it; but I have heard the opinion of no one else whose opinion is worth a farthing...No doubt my volume contains much error: how curiously difficult it is to be accurate, though I try my utmost. Your notes have interested me beyond measure. I can now afford to d-- my critics with ineffable complacency of mind. Cordial thanks for this benefit. It is surprising to me that you should have strength of mind to care for science, amidst the awful events daily occurring in your country. I daily look at the "Times" with almost as much interest as an American could do. When will peace come? it is dreadful to think of the desolation of large parts of your magnificent country; and all the speechless misery suffered by many. I hope and think it not unlikely that we English are wrong in concluding that it will take a long time for prosperity to return to you. It is an awful subject to reflect on...
[Dr. Asa Gray reviewed the book in 'Silliman's Journal' ('Silliman's Journal,' volume xxiv. page 138. Here is given an account of the fertilisation of Platanthera Hookeri. P. hyperborea is discussed in Dr. Gray's 'Enumeration' in the same volume, page 259; also, with other species, in a second notice of the Orchid-book at page 420.), where he speaks, in strong terms, of the fascination which it must have for even slightly instructed readers.