My Dear Watkins.

Your note gave me real pleasure³    Leading the retired life which I do with bad health I oftener think of old times than most men probably do; and your face now rises before me, with the pleasant old expression as vividly as if I saw you.

My book has been well abused, praised and splendidly quizzed by the Bishop of Oxford,⁴ but from what I see of its influence on really good workers in science, I feel confident that in the main I am on the right road—   With respect to your question I think the arguments are valid, showing that all animals have descended from four or five primordial forms; and that analogy & weak reasons go to show that all have descended from some single prototype.

Farewell my old friend. I look back to old Cambridge days with unallowed pleasure.

Believe me | Yours most sincerely. | Charles Darwin.