He constantly referred to Tyndall, Huxley, and Darwin,
in a way which suggested his familiarity with their writings.
I have seen a copy of the "Origin of Species" owned by Lanier, --
the marks and annotations indicating the most careful and thoughtful
reading thereof. In his lectures on the English Novel,
in contrasting ancient science with modern science, he says:
"In short, I find that early thought everywhere, whether dealing
with physical fact or metaphysical problems, is lacking in what I may call
the intellectual conscience, -- the conscience which makes Mr. Darwin
spend long and patient years in investigating small facts
before daring to reason upon them, and which makes him state the facts
adverse to his theory with as much care as the facts which make for it."
Again he refers to him as "our own grave and patient Charles Darwin."
He did not write about science at second-hand, either, -- he studied it.
Mrs. Sophie Bledsoe Herrick, Lowell's Baltimore friend,
tells of Lanier's interest in microscopic work: "Mrs. Lanier and family
were not with him then, and he was busy writing some articles
on the science of composition. Evening after evening he would bring
the manuscript of these articles and read them, and talk them over.
"I was at that time intensely interested in microscopic work.
It was curious and interesting to see how Mr. Lanier kindled to the subject,
so foreign to his ordinary literary interests. I was too busy
with editorial work to go on with my microscopic work then,
and it was a great pleasure to leave my instrument and books on the subject
with him for some months.
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