My dear old Friend.—

I was glad to see your hand-writing.—¹ The Copley being open to all sciences & all the world is reckoned a great honour,² but excepting from several kind letters, such things make little difference to me. It shows, however, that Natural Selection is making some progress in this country & that pleases me. The subject, however, is safe in foreign lands

I am glad you are all well; but I never heard anything so awful as your sixteenth child!³ We are all fairly well, except my youngest Boy who is too invalidish for school,⁴ which is a great pity for he is about the cleverest of the lot.— As for myself, I fear I have reached my sticking point— I am very weak & continually knocked up, but able most days, to do from 2 to 3 hours work, & all my Doctors tell me this is good for me; & whether or no, it is the only thing which makes life endurable to me.—⁵ I am slowly crawling on in my vol. on “Variation under Domestication”⁶ occasionally recreating myself with a little Botanical work.—

Whenever you come to London, do be sure, if you can spare time, come here for a bit, for though I can see but little of anyone, I sh^d. very much enjoy shaking hands with you, my old & true friend. | Yours affec^ly | C. Darwin