To G. H. Darwin 3 October [1873]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Oct 3d
My dear George
Your letter seems to me excellent & it was very good of you to take so much trouble. I doubt much whether a second letter is worth publishing on so hypothetical an assumption.2 In fact I ought not to have written the latter part of the article, but I did not then see how I could first test it.3 But as it is published, you may say it ought to be made clear. Do as you Diliberately think best. But I shd not like to publish even a son’s letter as my own. You could by altering a few words in the beginning, make the whole your own.— You cd. say that “My Father finds … & he has asked me to give a fuller explanation”,— or some such words.—
I have altered a few words & added a few. But I again say think before you send it. I am sure, however, that the letter is very good & clear. You cd. ask for proof to be sent to Trin. Coll..4
Yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin
Your last & previous notes interested us greatly about yourself & Edmund L.—5
Footnotes
Bibliography
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
CD thinks GHD’s letter is an excellent clarification [of CD’s conjectural view on the elimination of useless parts in species], but does not want to publish it as his [CD’s] own. Asks GHD to think carefully before he publishes it.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9085
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George Howard Darwin
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 210.1: 12
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9085,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9085.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21