From F. M. Balfour   11 December 1876

Trinity College | Cambridge

Dec. 11. 76

My dear Mr. Darwin

You were kind enough some time ago, to offer to propose me for election to the Royal Society;1 At the time you made this offer I thought that Foster would naturally do this for me; but he has been put upon the council of the R. Society & cannot therefore propose me; & he has suggested to me that I should write to you in case you still wished to bring me forward.2

I hope that you will in no way think yourself bound to propose me unless you really think that I am of sufficient standing & have done sufficient work to merit so great a distinction as being proposed by yourself; & that you will pardon my apparent egoism in writing to you in this way.

I am | Yours very truly | F. M. Balfour

1
No other reference to an offer by CD to propose Balfour for membership of the Royal Society of London has been found.
2
Balfour had been a student of Michael Foster at Cambridge, and they had co-written The elements of embryology (Foster and Balfour 1874). Foster was a member of the Council of the Royal Society in 1876 (ODNB) .

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10711,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10711