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From Hermann Kindt   23 October 1865

Bampton | Penrith

23. October 1865.

Dear Sir,

Many warm thanks for your so kindly complying with my request as well as for the corrections of, and additions to, my biographical sketch, which latter I will correct accordingly.1

I shall have great pleasure in sending you the number of our journal containing your autograph as soon as the latter will have been reproduced.2

With renewed thanks for your courteous attention believe me, with greatest esteem and admiration, | your’s faithfully, | Hermann Kindt

Charles Darwin Esq. M.A., F.R.S, etc

Footnotes

1
In his letter of 17 October 1865, Kindt had asked CD to send an autograph and to correct an enclosed biographical sketch.
2
The autograph by CD appeared in the Autographic Mirror (L’Autograph Cosmopolite) 3 (1865), no. 262. CD’s copy of the journal has not been found. For the autograph CD reproduced a paragraph from the last chapter of Origin 3d ed., p. 514: I have now recapitulated the chief facts and considerations, which have thoroughly convinced me that species have been modified, during a long course of descent, by the preservation or the natural selection of many successive slight favourable variations. I cannot believe that a false theory would explain, as it seems to me that the theory of natural selection does explain, the several large classes of facts above specified. It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain what is the essence of attraction of gravity? No one now objects to following out the results consequent on this unknown element of attraction; notwithstanding that Leibnitz formerly accused Newton of introducing “occult qualities & miracles into philosophy.”— Charles Darwin p 514 3d Edit of “Origin” The biographical sketch is in Autographic Mirror (L’Autograph Cosmopolite) 3 (1865): 82–3.

Bibliography

Origin 3d ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 3d edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1861.

Summary

Thanks for autograph [Autographic Mirror 3 (1865) no. 262] and corrections of HK’s biographical sketch of CD [Autographic Mirror 3 (1865): 82–3].

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-4923
From
Hermann Adolph Christian August (Hermann) Kindt
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Penrith
Source of text
DAR 169: 16
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4923,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4923.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13

letter

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