LETTER 286. TO J.W. JUDD. Down, June 27th, 1878.

I am heartily glad to hear of your intended marriage. A good wife is the
supreme blessing in this life, and I hope and believe from what you
say that you will be as happy as I have been in this respect. May your
future geological work be as valuable as that which you have already
done; and more than this need not be wished for any man. The practical
teaching of Geology seems an excellent idea.

Many thanks for Neumayr, (286/1. Probably a paper on "Die Congerien
und Paludinenschichten Slavoniens und deren Fauna. Ein Beitrag zur
Descendenz-Theorie," "Wien. Geol. Abhandl." VII. (Heft 3), 1874-82.),
but I have already received and read a copy of the same, or at least of
a very similar essay, and admirably good it seemed to me.

This essay, and one by Mojsisovics (286/2. See note to Letter 285.),
which I have lately read, show what Palaeontology in the future will do
for the classification and sequence of formations. It delighted me to
see so inverted an order of proceeding--viz., the assuming the descent
of species as certain, and then taking the changes of closely allied
forms as the standard of geological time. My health is better than it
was a few years ago, but I never pass a day without much discomfort and
the sense of extreme fatigue.

(286/3. We owe to Professor Judd the following interesting recollections
of Mr. Darwin, written about 1883:--

"On this last occasion, when I congratulated him on his seeming better
condition of health, he told me of the cause for anxiety which he had in
the state of his heart. Indeed, I cannot help feeling that he had a
kind of presentiment that his end was approaching. When I left him, he
insisted on conducting me to the door, and there was that in his tone
and manner which seemed to convey to me the sad intelligence that it
was not merely a temporary farewell, though he himself was perfectly
cheerful and happy.

"It is impossible for me adequately to express the impression made upon
my mind by my various conversations with Mr. Darwin. His extreme
modesty led him to form the lowest estimate of his own labours, and
a correspondingly extravagant idea of the value of the work done by
others. His deference to the arguments and suggestions of men greatly
his juniors, and his unaffected sympathy in their pursuits, was most
marked and characteristic; indeed, he, the great master of science, used
to speak, and I am sure felt, as though