My dear Sir

I mentioned no exact price to M^ess. Appleton, but copied out M^r. Murray’s words which I c^d. give if at home, & which certainly were to the effect “at a little above cost price.” & I told M^ess Appleton I thought it quite affair that we sh^d. make a little profit by the transaction. An American naturalist expects a large sale there.—²

I am very glad of the 14^s, for though I much like making money, I care very much more about the wide distribution of my books.³

I am uneasy about the present work, & cannot abide the thought of causing you loss, but it is a comfort to me to think that you have profited by my former books.— If in a month or two, you have any fairly good news of sale, pray let me hear. I sometimes think a man is a fool who writes books, but this is a bad doctrine for the book trade.

We return home on the 6^th. & then I will finish “Climbing Plants” & Variation of Animals & Plants under Domestication, & this latter job is a heavy grind.—⁴

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin