From W. S. Dallas 7 November 1868
York
7 Nov. 1868.
My dear Sir,
The eventuality which I mentioned in my last letter to you has occurred,—Mr. Jenkins has obtained his appointment at the Agricultural Society, & I must therefore make a push for his vacant post.—1
I shall be very much obliged if you will furnish me with a Testimonial as to my fitness for the office, & also by your using any influence that you may be able to exert in my favour with the Members of the Council,—of course I mean without taking any great trouble in the matter, for I know both the state of your health & your multifarious occupations too well to ask you to do anything that might prove troublesome— Still the weight which your name carries with it will cause even a very slight expression of opinion on your part to have much effect, & I hope that you will kind enough to throw that weight into my scale if you should have an opportunity of doing so.—
I am about three parts through Fritz Müller, whose book, although easy to read is in many places unconscionably hard to translate.—2 I have never yet got through more than five pages of him in an evening, contrary to my usual experience in translating, which is that the amount got through at a sitting, rapidly increases after the first few pages—
I hope to finish him next week, although I am going to lecture on Darwinism with especial reference to your last book on Wednesday evening which will rather bother me.—
The election excitement is rather a nuisance too, although I keep out of it as much as I can.—3
Hoping to hear that you are well, | I remain | My dear Sir | Your’s always truly | W. S. Dallas
C. Darwin Esq F.R.S. | &c &c &c
Footnotes
Summary
The position at Geological Society is now vacant, and he is working for it in earnest. Asks CD for a testimonial.
Continues his work on Für Darwin.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6451
- From
- William Sweetland Dallas
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- York
- Source of text
- DAR 162: 25
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6451,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6451.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16