The reviews of Erasmus Darwin are mainly favourable.
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The reviews of Erasmus Darwin are mainly favourable.
Replies to EK’s queries about German translation of CD’s preface to Erasmus Darwin.
Samuel Butler’s fierce attack on CD and EK in Athenæum. CD’s sentence saying that EK had altered his Kosmos article was accidentally omitted from second proofs. Butler insinuates that EK’s attack on his book was suggested by CD or interpolated by him in EK’s text.
CD is pleased that EK will answer Butler. Thinks Butler is half insane.
CD advises EK on his proposed letter answering Butler.
Considering the favourable reviews, sale of Erasmus Darwin has been poor.
Thanks EK for kind letter.
CD’s date on epitaph is a dreadful mistake. CD often overlooks errata.
Regrets delay of photographs [for German edition of Erasmus Darwin].
Glad to receive the German edition of Erasmus Darwin. Hopes sales will be good. Favourable review has appeared in the United States, in the Nation.
Thanks EK for two articles about Erasmus Darwin.
Does not think it right that he should receive Kosmos free. Asks for a bill for subscription.
Has not heard from J. Murray if there is any profit on Erasmus Darwin, but "vehementer dubito".
Profit on Erasmus Darwin is £9 15s 5d. Sends cheque. 218 copies remain unsold.
Insists that EK take the profits from the English edition of Erasmus Darwin. EK’s essay is the valuable part of the book; CD’s is mainly gossip.
Bad news about Kosmos [ceasing publication].
Fritz Müller’s losses [in a flood]; "I have long looked on him as the best observer in the world."
EK’s astonishing account of crustacean that repairs its legs in an ancestral form seems to support Pangenesis, which has hardly any friends.
CD’s sons tell him that Samuel Butler in Unconscious memory states that some passages in Erasmus Darwin were taken from his Evolution, old and new. Their unprejudiced view is that the passages do come from Butler. CD hopes EK will give a clear explanation if he writes on the matter in Kosmos.
CD is taking no public notice of Butler’s attack on himself.
CD is pleased with EK’s account in Kosmos [8 (1880–1): 321–2] of the Buffon and Coleridge passage [cited by Samuel Butler, see 12939, 12969]. Would like a translation published in England, but Butler seeks notoriety and would make unscrupulous use of it. Will ask advice. Thinks EK’s letter to Popular Science Monthly, just received, an excellent reply to Butler.
All his advisers agree that CD ought not to take notice of Butler’s attack.
F. M. Balfour has offered to translate EK’s reply to Butler and to send it to Nature. [The letter was published in Nature 23 (1881): 288.]
Sends copy of Nature in which EK’s letter, translated by Balfour, is printed. Thanks him. Now feels easy.
G. J. Romanes’ language in his review of Butler’s book [Unconscious memory] is perhaps too strong. Butler’s vanity is a "real psychological curiosity".
Butler’s reply to EK is a renewed attack on CD. Urges EK not to answer it. His last letter contains everything necessary. Asks EK for dates of CD’s letter asking EK’s permission to publish a translation of his article [on Erasmus Darwin] and of the letter in which he told EK that Butler’s book had been advertised.
CD thanks him for his congratulations and for details of letters, which he will keep with the Butlerian documents.
FD is happy for his lecture to be republished in Kosmos.
Thanks EK for his article [on CD’s Movement in plants].
Admires EK’s wide interest in science. Would like to send him something to publish in Kosmos.
Fears his new book [Earthworms] will hardly do, but will send sheets when printed so that EK can decide whether any chapter or a part of one will serve. Victor Carus’s consent would be needed for publication in Kosmos, and CD will ask for it.
Publication of Earthworms delayed, but will send sheets to EK when he receives them [so that he can decide about publishing extracts in Kosmos].
Thanks for "Die Gegenwart".
"’Instinct’ of plants" is a most puzzling problem.
Does not see how mind can be defined "if we subtract consciousness".