Dear Mr Darwin,

Pray accept my very sincere thanks for the friendly testimony you have been kind enough to bear to my fitness for the Keepership of Geology. It will, I feel sure, have great weight with the three principal Trustees, with whom the appointment rests.¹

Let me congratulate you on “the coming of age of the Origin of Species” on which Prof. Huxley so ably lectured on Friday night at the Royal Institution.² The crowded and overflowing theatre well expressed the earnest interest which all take in this great & fundamental principle which you were occupied in enunciating when I commenced my labours in the Museum (in 1858)—& which I have had the pleasure to see developed into a vast & universal law, applicable to every line of research on which the naturalist may enter. I have reason to be greatly rejoiced that I shall have the opportunity, when our collections are removed to the New Building, to set forth, by the aid of actual fossil remains, all that can be shown of the evolution of living forms, both Vertebrate & Invertebrate, as evidenced by the Geological Record; & I hope to do it thoroughly & well. It will be a labor of love.³

I can only earnestly express the desire that you may be able—as I am sure you will be willing—to look upon us in our New Residence, & to express your kindly approval of our labors. This will indeed be the Crown of rejoicing to my life.

With every earnest wish for your continued health & renown and with kindest regards, Believe me, | Yours very sincerely, | Henry Woodward.

Charles Darwin, Esq. F.R.S. | &c., &c., &c.