My dear Romanes

I must write to say how very much I admire your letter in the last “Nature”. I subscribe to every word that you say, & it could not be expressed more clearly or vigorously.— After the Dukes last letter & flourish about me, I thought it paltry not to say that I agreed with what you had said.¹ But after writing 2 folio pages, I found I could not say what I wished to say without taking up too much space, & what I had written did not please me at all, so I tore it up, & now by all the Gods I rejoice that I did so, for you have put the case incomparably better that I had done or could do.—

Moreover I hate controversy, & it wastes much time, at least with a man who like myself can work for only a short time in a day.— How in the world you get through all your work astonishes me!—

Now do not make me feel guilty by answering this letter & losing some of your time.—

You ought not to swear at Roux’s book which has led you into this controversy, for I am sure that your last letter was well worth writing—not that it will produce any effect on the Duke.²

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin