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Darwin Correspondence Project

To F. M. Balfour   6 July 1881

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)

July 6th 1881

My dear Balfour

I thank you heartily for the present of your grand book, & I congratulate you on its completion. Although I read almost all of Vol. I I do not feel that I am worthy of your present, unless indeed the fullest conviction that it is a memorable work, makes me worthy of receiving it.—1

But now I am puzzled what to do; I have received Vol. 2o from my booksellers, who sent me Vol. I, & it seems to me a downright sin that there should be two copies in my house, whilst there are so many men (or Libraries) who would be delighted by receiving a copy from you & who would profit by it. Therefore shall I not send the clean copy back to you, or despatch it myself with a slip in your hand-writing “From the Author” to any quarter which you may direct? Once again accept my thanks, for I am proud to receive a book from you who I well know will some day be the chief of the English Biologists

Believe me yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

P.S. An idea has just occurred to me & I am going to be so impudent as to suggest it,—viz to send my spare copy to Fritz Müller of Blumenau St Catharina, Brazil. He is poor & has lately lost almost all his books by a dreadful flood, & he is as you know an embryologist. He seems to me a splendid observer & I shd be delighted to be the means of his receiving from you a valuable book.2

Footnotes

CD had ordered the first volume of A treatise on comparative embryology (Balfour 1880–1) from Williams & Norgate in September 1880 (Correspondence vol. 28, letter to Williams & Norgate, [before 4 September 1880]); see also ibid., letter to F. M. Balfour, 4 September 1880). There is a copy of Balfour 1880–1 in the Darwin Library–Down.
See Correspondence vol. 28, letter from Hermann Müller, 30 November 1880 and n. 3.

Bibliography

Balfour, Francis Maitland. 1880–1. A treatise on comparative embryology. 2 vols. London: Macmillan & Co.

Summary

Comments on FMB’s book [Treatise on comparative embryology, 2 vols. (1880–1)]. Had already purchased copy. Could second copy be sent to someone else? Fritz Müller?

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13235
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Francis Maitland Balfour
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (L DC AL 1/21)
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13235,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13235.xml

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