My dear M^r Darwin

On my return from Germany yesterday I found your letter of the 6 June awaiting me with its pleasant intimations of approval.¹

Yes, I certainly do intend to treat of Pangenesis, & without any evasion, as the most remarkable hypothesis yet put forth on that mystery; but I cannot yet determine whether I shall have room for it in the Review, or shall be forced to leave it for the volume I have in contemplation—“Chapters on Darwin”.² The fact is that greatly as I was interested in your book & the subject, I was with difficulty persuaded to write on it for the Review, having discharged my first feelings in the Pall Mall.³ I was unwilling to set aside the work on which I was engaged, but once having done this & taken up your book, the subject grew & grew, till after telling the editor I must write two, then three articles, I finally declared it necessary to write four or five, & make a book out of this nucleus!⁴

After three articles were written I had to go abroad (I found all young scientific Germany Darwinian) & have come back again with the hope of getting the articles at least speedily finished—⁵ the book may then proceed leisurely.

I have said all this with a purpose— now that you know whither I am tending you may perhaps give me the benefit of your objections— I do not mean that you should occupy your time in discussion, or dissertation (you have other work to do) but if you would note on the margin any passages to which you demur, any facts you dispute, any inaccuracies you may detect, or any obscurities worth clearing up, it would greatly benefit my book.

Meanwhile believe me | Yours very faithfully | G. H. Lewes

Have you a carte de visite you could spare? I have never seen you in the flesh, though I have several times met your brother.⁶