To Otto Zacharias   [24 February 1877]1

Until the day of my death I shall look at this magnificent Album with the portraits of so many honoured German naturalists as by far the greatest honour, which ever has been or could possibly be conferred on me.

How very kind it was of your distinguished artist to execute so beautiful a title-page for the Album!2

When I was on board the Beagle, I believed in the permanence of Species, but, as far as I can remember, vague doubts occasionally flitted across my mind. On my return home in the autumn of 1836, I immediately began to prepare my journal for publication, and then saw, how many facts indicated the common descent of species, so that in July 1837 I opened a note book to record any facts which might bear on the question.3 But I did not become convinced that species were mutable until, I think, two or three years had elapsed.

incomplete4

1
The date is given in the printed source.
2
On the album of German and Austrian scientists, see the letter from Emil Rade, [before 16] February 1877. The title page was illustrated by the poet and painter Arthur Fitger (see Gries 2006, pp. 35–6). It carried the heading: ‘Dem Reformator der Naturgeschichte Charles Darwin’ (To the reformer of natural history Charles Darwin).
3
See letter from Otto Zacharias, 23 February 1877 and n. 2. CD refers to his Journal of researches and his notebooks, which were published posthumously (Notebooks). His first notebook on species was started about July 1837 (see Notebooks, pp. 167–9).
4
The text is reconstructed from three separate quotations that are reproduced here as separate paragraphs in the order in which they appear in the printed source.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10863,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10863