Ɛpsilon

From C. F. Martins1   7 June 1877

Jardin | des Plantes | de | Montpellier. Montpellier,

le 7 Juin 1877.

Cher et illustre Maitre,

Je suis hereux d’apprendre que la Traduction de vos Plantes insectivores en francais vous ait satisfait et j’ai transmis vos compliments à Mr. Barbier.2 Vous trouverez ci joint un Compte rendu de votre ouvrage qui a paru dans le Journal le Temps sous le pseudonyme de A. Vernier.3 L’auteur est Mr. Auguste Laugel Ingenieur des Mines et Secretaire du Duc d’Aumale pendant son séjour en Angleterre.4

Tous les jeunes Naturalistes français intelligens sont vos disciples mais les Professeurs officiels qui sentent bien combien vos idées sont justes se tiennent sur la reserve, ils n’osent aborde ces questions de peur d’etre accusés de materialisme, d’atheisme de communisme &c &c. Quand j’ai lu à l’Institut et à la Société botanique le Memoire que je vous ai envoyé sur les arbres et arbrisseaux qui gelent dans les grands hivers du Midi de la France, j’ai soutenu leur origine paléontologique, soutenu la continuité des creations, nié les revolutions du globe et la réalité de l’espèce; personne n’a fait d’objections mais personne ne m’a approuvé sauf Mr. Bureau qui a dit que la végétation actuelle datait de l’epoque crétacée.5 Tout cela tient à l’influence catholique et à la crise religieuse dont nous souffrons en ce moment.6 L’Angleterre a eu le bonheur dembrasser la reforme c’est le malheur de la France de ne pas l’avoir imitée.

Veuillez agréer cher Monsieur la nouvelle expression de ma profonde sympathie pour vos ecrits et votre personne | Votre devoué | Ch: Martins

1
For a translation of this letter, see Appendix I.
2
CD’s letter to Martins has not been found. Martins had written an introduction to Edmond Barbier’s translation of Insectivorous plants (Barbier trans. 1877). The French edition was published in May 1877 (see letter from C.-F. Reinwald, 9 May 1877).
3
The review of Insectivorous plants was published in Feuilleton du temps, 22 May 1877, pp. 1–2; a clipping is in DAR 139.18: 14.
4
Auguste Laugel had written a review of Origin (Laugel 1860), and an article on CD’s French critics (Laugel 1868). Henri Eugène Philippe Louis d’Orléans, duc d’Aumale, was exiled to England after the revolution of 1848; he returned to France in 1871 (EB).
5
Martins’s paper was read at the 19 March 1877 meeting of the Académie des sciences (Martins 1877), one of five academies of the Institut de France, Paris. A summary of the paper was also given at the Société botanique de France on 23 March 1877 (Bulletin de la Société botanique de France 24 (1877): 127). A longer version was published the previous year in Mémoires de l’Académie des sciences et lettres de Montpellier (Martins 1876). For a discussion of Martins’s views on evolution, see Rioux 2011, pp. 339–42. M. Bureau: Édouard Bureau.
6
On ultramontanism and the conflicts between Catholic, royalist, and republican allegiances in the early Third Republic, see Passmore 2013, pp. 21–37.

From C. F. Martins1   7 June 1877

Jardin | des Plantes | de | Montpellier. Montpellier,

7 June 1877.

Dear and illustrious Master,

I am happy to learn that the translation into French of your Insectivorous plants has pleased you and I passed on your compliments to Mr Barbier.2 You will find enclosed a review of your work that appeared in the newspaper Le Temps under the pseudonym of A. Vernier.3 The author is Mr. Auguste Laugel a mining engineer and secretary of the Duc d’Aumale during his stay in England.4

All the intelligent young French naturalists are your followers but the official professors, who know very well that your ideas are correct, reserve their judgment, they do not dare to approach these questions for fear of being accused of materialism, atheism communism &c &c. When I read at the Institute and at the botanical society the memoir I sent you on trees and shrubs that freeze in the severe winters of the Midi of France, I maintained their palaeontological origin, maintained the continuity of creations, denied the revolutions of the globe and the reality of space; no one objected but no one agreed with me except Mr. Bureau, who said that current vegetation dated back to the Cretaceous epoch.5 All this stems from the Catholic influence and the religious crisis that we are suffering from at the moment.6 England has the good fortune to embrace reform it is France’s bad luck not to have imitated it.

Please accept sir the renewed expression of my profound sympathy for your work and yourself

Yours truly | Ch: Martins

1
For a transcription of this letter in its original French, see Transcript.
2
CD’s letter to Martins has not been found. Martins had written an introduction to Edmond Barbier’s translation of Insectivorous plants (Barbier trans. 1877). The French edition was published in May 1877 (see letter from C.-F. Reinwald, 9 May 1877).
3
The review of Insectivorous plants was published in Feuilleton du temps, 22 May 1877, pp. 1–2; a clipping is in DAR 139.18: 14.
4
Auguste Laugel had written a review of Origin (Laugel 1860), and an article on CD’s French critics (Laugel 1868). Henri Eugène Philippe Louis d’Orléans, duc d’Aumale, was exiled to England after the revolution of 1848; he returned to France in 1871 (EB).
5
Martins’s paper was read at the 19 March 1877 meeting of the Académie des sciences (Martins 1877), one of five academies of the Institut de France, Paris. A summary of the paper was also given at the Société botanique de France on 23 March 1877 (Bulletin de la Société botanique de France 24 (1877): 127). A longer version was published the previous year in Mémoires de l’Académie des sciences et lettres de Montpellier (Martins 1876). For a discussion of Martins’s views on evolution, see Rioux 2011, pp. 339–42. M. Bureau: Édouard Bureau.
6
On ultramontanism and the conflicts between Catholic, royalist, and republican allegiances in the early Third Republic, see Passmore 2013, pp. 21–37.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10990,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10990