Ɛpsilon

To Ernst Haeckel   15 January [1876]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Jan 15th

My dear Häckel

I have been astonished by just receiving your beautiful book on corals.2 I thought you were going to publish a mere pamphlet on some new species. The drawings are the most wonderful things I ever saw in my whole life. Those of the corals excel photographs in clearness, & it like having the specimens themselves well cleaned on the table. What an artist you are! I thank you heartily for this valuable present. In the course of a few days I will begin & read the text.

You are a most wonderful man for work.

Yours most sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Ernst Haeckel, 13 January 1876.
2
CD’s copy of Haeckel’s Arabische Korallen (Arabian corals; Haeckel 1876b) is in the Darwin Library–Down. See letter from Ernst Haeckel, 13 January 1876.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10358,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10358