From R. B. and H. E. Litchfield 5 January [1881]1
4 Bryanston Street | Portman Square | W
Jan 5th.
Dear Father,
We have been reading carefully with George all the Krause Papers2 He Geo inclines rather to thinking that Krause’s reply had better appear in the Pop Sc.. Rev R. still doubts whether it is any good doing anything—& is very much against sending it to the Athenaeum,3 or against anything appearing as from you or by your instigation in the Pop. Sc. Rev. or elsewhere; & we dont think that there is any “case” worth consulting with Pollock about—4 It would seem to be making it so very important—
The enclosed draft is what we three agree upon as best but we have left it to you, as you did in the last case, to put in some final words of civility. Perhaps you might add—“Doubtless Mr Dallas will be glad to insert it” or words to that effect if you think that it is the fact.5
With regard to the translation we think the thing is so very small that it wd be scarcely possible to offer to pay Dallas for it, & that it is best to say nothing about this D. is partly mixed up in the affair & could not mind the trouble of translating such a short article—6
We don’t see your point as to K’s paper not containing any indication of you. His paper does surely refer quite plainly enough to your error in the preface as an oversight merely.7
We are just setting off to dinner so this is scrabbled off in a hurry to catch a post—but the thing itself has had full consideration for an hour or more—
Your affect | R B & H E L
See Geos trans of one sentence in Krause8
[Enclosure]
IV
As far as regards the chief ground of complaint, namely that the revision of my paper, which I made, is not indicated in the Preface, a child might see that we are not here dealing with intention but only with oversight. It would obviously be absurd for an author to wish to attack a previous work by means of a pre/ante dated
I don’t know wh. is correct English article
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
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. 1881b. Unconscious memory by Samuel Butler. Kosmos 8 (1880–1): 321–2.
Summary
The Litchfields and George Darwin think care should be taken that E. Krause’s reply to S. Butler’s Unconscious memory does not appear to be instigated by CD. Suggest it be sent to Popular Science Review, not Athenæum.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12979
- From
- Richard Buckley Litchfield; Henrietta Emma Darwin/Henrietta Emma Litchfield
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Bryanston St, 4
- Source of text
- DAR 92: B88–90, B106
- Physical description
- ALS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12979,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12979.xml