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From Ernst Krause1   10 February 1881

Berlin N.O. Friedenstrasse 11.

den 10.2.81.

Hochverehrter Herr!

Vor Allem sende ich Ihnen zu Ihrem Geburtstage meine innigsten und tiefgefühltesten Wünsche für Ihr Wohlbefinden und Ihre Schaffensfreudigkeit;2 wozu sich der meinen Gedanken jetzt besonders lebhafte Wunsch gesellt, dass Sie niemals wieder von so boshaften und gewissenlosen Angriffen zu leiden haben mögen, wie die gegenwärtigen. Die Frechheit derselben wird einzig noch durch ihre Raffinirtheit überboten.

Auf Butlers Erwiedrung nochmals zu antworten, halte ich auch meinerseits für vollkommen überflüssig.3 Er würde sich darüber höchstens freuen, da er dann eine neue Gelegenheit hätte, seine unverschämten Schmähungen zu wiederholen. Er sagt jetzt, dass er alle die von mir wiederlegten Behauptungen und Unterstellungen gar nicht gemacht habe,4 und es ist wahr, er hat das alles nicht mit klaren Worten vorgebracht und zwischen den Zeilen seine Angriffe versteckt, um sie nachher keck abläugnen zu können. Ich sehe aber, dass der Kritiker der St. James-Gazette und Mr. Romanes, dasselbe aus seinen Redensarten herausgelesen hatten, wie ich selbst; es lag also alles darin, was er jetzt läugnet, gesagt zu haben, darum sucht er jetzt auch den Angriff von einer andern Seite fortzusetzen.5 Mit grossem Vergnügen habe ich den Artikel von Mr. Romanes gelesen; es ist vielleicht ganz richtig, einen solchen Menschen einfach lächerlich zu machen, und dazu sind die Citate: “How I wrote Life and Habit” u.s.w. ganz ausgezeichnet.6 Ich danke Ihnen sehr für die freundliche Übersendung der beiden Nummern, aber ich halte es ebenfalls ganz überflüssig, ihm nochmals Anlass zu neuen Expectorationen zu bieten.

Das Datum des Briefes, in welchem Sie mir Ihre Absicht, den Artikel übersetzen zu lassen, mittheilten, habe ich absichtlich nicht genannt, weil es der albernen Unterstellung Butler’s günstig wäre; der Brief ist vom 9 März. Die erste Erwähnung des Butler’schen Buches in Ihren Briefen, die ich als werthvolles Andenken natürlich sorgfältig aufbewahrt habe, ist vom 13 May, in einem von Basset (Southampton) datirten Briefe. “I see announced a book about Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck by Samuel Butler and I will write to the booksellers and tell them to send you a copÿ.”7 Wahrscheinlich war Ihnen damals auf Ihrer Erholungsreise von Mr. Dallas zuerst Mittheilung von dem Buche gemacht worden.8 In Ihren späteren Briefen kommt Mr. Butler nur noch zweimal vor, und ich will diese beiden Stellen ebenfalls citiren, damit Sie die ganze “Verschwörung” übersehen können.

9 June 1879 …… I hope, that you will not expend much powder & shot on Mr. Butler, for he really is not worthy of it.” (Ich hatte meine Absicht angedeutet, seine Ansichten ad absurdum zu führen.)9

Dann erwähnen Sie seiner erst wieder nach dem Erscheinen des Athenäum-Artikels:

4 Feb. 1880 …… He seems to insinuate that I suggested to you or persuaded you to add passages attacking his book, or that I myself interpolated such passages. As far as I can remember the sole suggestion, which I made to you was to take no notice of Mr. Butler’s book ……”10

So traurig die ganze Machination ist, so glaube ich doch, dass es am besten ist, dass die Sache jetzt klar gelegt wurde. Auch ohne den Kosmos-Artikel und seinen Wiederabdruck würde Mr. Butler seine grossen “Enthüllungen” gemacht haben, aber seine Lorbeeren wird Niemand beneiden.11 Bei uns in Deutschland ist die Entrüstung gross; und man wundert sich, dass die englischen Zeitungen und Journale so raffinirten Verläumdungen Raum und Aufnahme gewähren, ohne ihrerseits zu bemerken, dass die ganze Anklage eine Kinderei ist. Jede deutsche Redaction würde zu Butlers Antwort auf Pos. 4 meines Briefes bemerkt haben, warum denn Mr. Butler nichts auf die darin nachgewiesene Dummheit seines Angriffes antworte? Statt dessen klammert er sich an die nicht ganz glückliche Übersetzung des von mir gebrauchten Ausdrucks Versehen (oversight)   Mr. Balfour—dem ich für seine freundliche Unterstützung sehr verpflichtet bin—hat sich offenbar gescheut, blunder zu übersetzen, aber das Wort wäre vielleicht besser gewesen.12 Freilich ist das ganz unerheblich, Leute von dem Schlage des Mr. Butler werden immer das letzte Wort behalten, und daher ist es jedenfalls das Beste, ihnen das Feld zu überlassen.

Bei Vollendung dieser Zeile erhalte ich einen Brief von Herrn Prof. Balfour, der mir ebenfalls freundlichst räth, nicht zu antworten. Es war dies gleich meine entschiedene Absicht, und hatte ich nur unterlassen, Ihnen dies eher mitzutheilen, weil ich heut zu schreiben, die erwünschteste Veranlassung hatte.

Ich zeichne, hochverehrter Herr, mit den herzlichsten Wünschen für Ihr Wohlbefinden | In dankbarer Verehrung | Ihr | ergebenster | Ernst Krause

P.S. Voraussetzend, dass Ihr Herr Sohn Francis am Sonnabend bei Ihnen sein wird, bitte ich um die Erlaubniss, die folgende Seite zu einigen Zeilen an denselben benützen zu dürfen.13

Footnotes

1
For a translation of this letter, see Appendix I.
2
CD’s birthday was on 12 February.
3
CD had asked Krause not to respond to Samuel Butler’s latest claim in Nature, 5 February 1881, pp. 312–13, that unacknowledged use had been made of his work and that he had been disparaged by Krause and CD in Erasmus Darwin (letter to Ernst Krause, 7 February 1881).
4
Krause’s refutation of Butler’s earlier claims was published in Nature, 27 January 1881, p. 288.
5
George John Romanes’s review of Butler’s book Unconscious memory (Butler 1880) appeared in Nature, 27 January 1881, pp. 285–7, the same issue of Nature as Krause’s letter in defence of CD (see n. 2, above). A review of Unconscious memory titled ‘Mr. Butler’s “Op. 5.”’ had also appeared in St. James’s Gazette, 2 December 1880, p. 13; in it, Butler was criticised for his ‘savage attack’ on CD and for being out of his depth with regard to science.
6
Romanes had poked fun at Butler for having devoted a chapter of Unconscious memory to ‘How I wrote “Life and habit”’ (Nature, 27 January 1881, p. 287). Butler’s work Life and habit had been published in 1878 (Butler 1878).
8
William Sweetland Dallas had informed CD that Butler had published a book titled Evolution, old and new (Butler 1879; Correspondence vol. 27, letter from W. S. Dallas, 9 May 1879). CD was visiting Sara and William Erasmus Darwin in Southampton at the time (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
10
Correspondence vol. 28, letter to Ernst Krause, 4 February 1880. For Samuel Butler’s letter in the Athenæum, 31 January 1880, p. 155, see Correspondence vol. 28, letter to H. E. Litchfield, 1 February [1880], enclosure 1.
11
Butler’s complaint was that the revised version of Krause’s essay on Erasmus Darwin (published together with CD’s biographical account of his grandfather in Erasmus Darwin) made unacknowledged use of Butler’s work. Krause’s original essay in German had been published in the journal Kosmos (Krause 1879).
12
Krause’s letter to Nature, 27 January 1881, p. 288, defending CD against Butler’s claim that Erasmus Darwin was designed as an attack on Butler’s work, had been translated into English by Francis Maitland Balfour (letter to Ernst Krause, 10 January 1881). The offending sentence read: ‘Finally, as concerns the main accusation that no mention is made in the preface of the fact that my essay had been revised previously to publication, it is clear, as even a child could not fail to see, that this is not due to design, but is simply the result of an oversight’ (Nature, 27 January 1881, p. 288).
13
Krause’s note to Francis Darwin was written on the back of the last page of the letter to CD (verso of DAR 92: B64). Krause wished to publish a German translation of a lecture by Francis on climbing plants (see letter from Francis Darwin to Ernst Krause, [after 10 February 1881] and n. 5).

Bibliography

Butler, Samuel. 1878. Life and habit. London: Trübner & Co.

Butler, Samuel. 1879. Evolution, old and new: or, the theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, as compared with that of Mr. Charles Darwin. London: Hardwicke and Bogue.

Butler, Samuel. 1880. Unconscious memory: a comparison between the theory of Dr. Ewald Hering, … and the ‘Philosophy of the unconscious’ of Dr. Edward von Hartmann. London: David Bogue.

Erasmus Darwin. By Ernst Krause. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas, with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1879.

Krause, Ernst. 1879a. Erasmus Darwin, der Großvater und Vorkämpfer Charles Darwin’s: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Descendenz-Theorie. Kosmos 4 (1878–9): 397–424.

Translation

From Ernst Krause1   10 February 1881

Berlin N.O. Friedenstrasse

10.2.81.

Most esteemed Sir!

First and foremost I send you my most cordial and heartfelt birthday wishes for your health and your creativity;2 to which is joined a wish, now especially vivid in my mind, that you will never again have to suffer such malicious and unscrupulous attacks as the present ones. Their impudence is exceeded only by their cunning.

Personally, I also think responding once again to Butler’s reply is wholly superfluous.3 He would be most pleased by this, for then he would have yet another opportunity to repeat his impertinent invective. He says now that he absolutely did not make all the claims and allegations I refuted,4 and it is true that he did not state all of this in as many words but has hidden his attacks between the lines, so as to audaciously disclaim them later on. I see however that the critic in the St. James-Gazette and Mr Romanes gathered the same as I from his expressions; thus everything he now denies was contained in them, which is why he is now also trying to continue his attack from a different angle.5 I read Mr. Romanes’ article with great pleasure; perhaps it is just the thing to simply ridicule such a man, and for this purpose citations like “How I wrote Life and Habit” etc. are excellently suited.6 I thank you very much for kindly sending me both issues, but I, too, find it wholly superfluous to offer him another opportunity for renewed outpourings.

I purposely did not mention the date of the letter in which you told me about your intention to have my article translated, as this would be favourable for Butler’s foolish allegation; the letter is dated 9 March. The first mention of Butler’s book in your letters, which I have of course carefully kept as valuable mementos, is on 13 May, in a letter dated from Basset (Southampton). “I see announced a book about Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck by Samuel Butler and I will write to the booksellers and tell them to send you a copÿ.”7 Probably you were first notified about the book by Mr. Dallas during your holiday trip then.8 In your subsequent letters Mr Butler is mentioned only twice more, and I will cite the two passages as well, so you can get an overview of the entire “conspiracy”.

9 June 1879 …… I hope, that you will not expend much powder & shot on Mr. Butler, for he really is not worthy of it.” (I had indicated my intention to reduce his views ad absurdum.)9

After that you mention him again only after the article in Athenaeum came out:

4 Feb. 1880 …… He seems to insinuate that I suggested to you or persuaded you to add passages attacking his book, or that I myself interpolated such passages. As far as I can remember the sole suggestion, which I made to you was to take no notice of Mr. Butler’s book ……”10

As lamentable as the entire intrigue is, I still believe that it is best that the matter has been put in clear terms. Even without the Kosmos-article and its reprint, Butler would have made his grand “disclosures”, but nobody will envy him this glory.11 Here in Germany the indignation is great, and people are surprised that English newspapers and magazines allow space for and welcome such cunning defamations without for their part noting that the whole accusation is nonsense. Every German editor would have commented on Butler's response to item 4 in my letter, asking why Mr Butler made no answer to the proven stupidity of his attack? Instead of this he clings to the not perfectly felicitious translation of the expression I used, Versehen (oversight); Mr Balfour—to whom I am greatly indebted for his kind support—evidently shrank from translating it as blunder, which perhaps would have expressed it better.12 This is completely irrelevant, though, people of Mr Butler’s ilk will always have the last word, and so in any case it is best to leave the fray.

On completing this line I received a letter from Prof. Balfour, who likewise kindly advises me not to reply. This was my own immediate and firm intention, and I only refrained from mentioning it sooner because today I had the most welcome occasion to write.

I remain, dear Sir, with the most cordial wishes for your well-being | In grateful admiration | Yours | most devoted | Ernst Krause

P.S. Assuming that your son Francis will be with you again on Saturday, I beg your permission to use the following page to address a few lines to him.13

Footnotes

1
For a transcription of this letter in its original German, see Transcript.
2
CD’s birthday was on 12 February.
3
CD had asked Krause not to respond to Samuel Butler’s latest claim in Nature, 5 February 1881, pp. 312–13, that unacknowledged use had been made of his work and that he had been disparaged by Krause and CD in Erasmus Darwin (letter to Ernst Krause, 7 February 1881).
4
Krause’s refutation of Butler’s earlier claims was published in Nature, 27 January 1881, p. 288.
5
George John Romanes’s review of Butler’s book Unconscious memory (Butler 1880) appeared in Nature, 27 January 1881, pp. 285–7, the same issue of Nature as Krause’s letter in defence of CD (see n. 2, above). A review of Unconscious memory titled ‘Mr. Butler’s “Op. 5.”’ had also appeared in St. James’s Gazette, 2 December 1880, p. 13; in it, Butler was criticised for his ‘savage attack’ on CD and for being out of his depth with regard to science.
6
Romanes had poked fun at Butler for having devoted a chapter of Unconscious memory to ‘How I wrote “Life and habit”’ (Nature, 27 January 1881, p. 287). Butler’s work Life and habit had been published in 1878 (Butler 1878).
8
William Sweetland Dallas had informed CD that Butler had published a book titled Evolution, old and new (Butler 1879; Correspondence vol. 27, letter from W. S. Dallas, 9 May 1879). CD was visiting Sara and William Erasmus Darwin in Southampton at the time (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
10
Correspondence vol. 28, letter to Ernst Krause, 4 February 1880. For Samuel Butler’s letter in the Athenæum, 31 January 1880, p. 155, see Correspondence vol. 28, letter to H. E. Litchfield, 1 February [1880], enclosure 1.
11
Butler’s complaint was that the revised version of Krause’s essay on Erasmus Darwin (published together with CD’s biographical account of his grandfather in Erasmus Darwin) made unacknowledged use of Butler’s work. Krause’s original essay in German had been published in the journal Kosmos (Krause 1879).
12
Krause’s letter to Nature, 27 January 1881, p. 288, defending CD against Butler’s claim that Erasmus Darwin was designed as an attack on Butler’s work, had been translated into English by Francis Maitland Balfour (letter to Ernst Krause, 10 January 1881). The offending sentence read: ‘Finally, as concerns the main accusation that no mention is made in the preface of the fact that my essay had been revised previously to publication, it is clear, as even a child could not fail to see, that this is not due to design, but is simply the result of an oversight’ (Nature, 27 January 1881, p. 288).
13
Krause’s note to Francis Darwin was written on the back of the last page of the letter to CD (verso of DAR 92: B64). Krause wished to publish a German translation of a lecture by Francis on climbing plants (see letter from Francis Darwin to Ernst Krause, [after 10 February 1881] and n. 5).

Bibliography

Butler, Samuel. 1878. Life and habit. London: Trübner & Co.

Butler, Samuel. 1879. Evolution, old and new: or, the theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, as compared with that of Mr. Charles Darwin. London: Hardwicke and Bogue.

Butler, Samuel. 1880. Unconscious memory: a comparison between the theory of Dr. Ewald Hering, … and the ‘Philosophy of the unconscious’ of Dr. Edward von Hartmann. London: David Bogue.

Erasmus Darwin. By Ernst Krause. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas, with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1879.

Krause, Ernst. 1879a. Erasmus Darwin, der Großvater und Vorkämpfer Charles Darwin’s: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Descendenz-Theorie. Kosmos 4 (1878–9): 397–424.

Summary

Birthday greetings.

Thinks it best not to reply further to Butler. Has read G. J. Romanes’ article with great pleasure. Romanes is right to ridicule Butler. Quotes passages about Butler from CD letters. Has received letter from F. M. Balfour urging him not to reply to Butler.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13048
From
Ernst Ludwig (Ernst) Krause
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Berlin
Source of text
DAR 92: B63–4
Physical description
ALS 3pp (German)

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13048,” accessed on 3 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13048.xml

letter

Darwin Correspondence Project
darwin@lib.cam.ac.uk

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