To Raphael Meldola 26 November [1878]
4. Bryanston St.
Nov. 26th
My dear Sir
I am very sorry to say that I cannot agree to your suggestion.— An author is never a fit judge of his own work, & I should dislike extremely pointing out when & how Weismann’s conclusions & work, agreed with my own.—1 I feel sure that I ought not to do this, & it would be to me an intolerable task. Nor does it seem to me the proper office of the Preface, which is to show what the book contains & that the contents appear to me valuable. But I can see no objection for you, if you think fit, to write an introduction with remarks or criticisms of any kind. Of course I wd. be glad to advise you on any point as far as lay in my power, but as a whole I could have nothing to do with it, on the grounds above specified that an author cannot & ought not to attempt to judge his own works or compare them with others. I am sorry to refuse to do anything which you wish.—
We return home early tomorrow morning— Your green silk seems to me a splendid colour, whatever the æsthetics may say—2
My dear Sir | yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Weismann, August. 1882. Studies in the theory of descent. Translated by Raphael Meldola. 2 vols. London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.
Summary
Regrets he cannot compare his work with Weismann’s in his preface as he feels “an author is never a fit judge of his own work”. [Appended note explains that RM wished CD’s work to be fully acknowledged, which was frequently not the case in continental writings.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11759
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Raphael Meldola
- Sent from
- London, Bryanston St, 4
- Postmark
- NO 27 78
- Source of text
- Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological Collections 1350: Hope/Westwood Archive, Darwin folder)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp, RM note
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11759,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11759.xml