To Emil Rade   16 February 1877

Feb 16th 1877

Sir,

Your magnificent album has just arrived, and I cannot find words to express my feeling of deep gratification at this extraordinary honour.1 I hope that you will inform the one hundred & fifty-four men of science including some of the most highly honoured names in the world, how grateful I am for their kindness & generous sympathy in having sent me their photographs on my birthday. This ever memorable testimonial will stimulate me to renewed exertion as long as I am capable of any work, & on my death it will be a most precious bequest to my children. The honour which you have conferred on me is quite beyond my deserts, for I know well that nearly all my work is based on materials collected by many distinguished observers. Allow me further to thank you warmly for the enclosed letters & the poetry, all so highly grat to me.2

I have expressed my feelings quite inadequately & shall ever remain, | Sir | Your obliged & grateful servant | C. R. Darwin

DraftS(A)

CD note:

Big Album 139
13
2
154

2
Rade sent additional photographs and poems (letter from Emil Rade, [before 16] February 1877 and n. 5). For a transcription and translation of the poems, see Appendix VI.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 one … fifty-four] interl in CD’s hand
1.5 my] above del ‘their’; in CD’s hand
1.10 warmly] in CD’s hand, pencil, above underl pencil ‘very sincerely’
1.11 highly grat] pencil above del pencil ‘honourable’
2.1 & shall ever remain,] in CD’s hand
Top of letter: ‘German Album’ in CD’s hand

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10849,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10849