Ɛpsilon

To H. N. Moseley   26 November [1878]1

London

Nov. 26th.

Dear Moseley

Your proposal to dedicate your book to me, I look at as a great honour.2 Nothing whatever gives me so much pleasure as to think that my work has at all encouraged in others a taste for Natural History, & to believe that this is so in your case is an especial pleasure to me; for you must allow me to say that your several papers & your conversation have led me to believe that you have a grand career before you in Biology.—3

I received your letter late last night, but the proof-sheets had not yesterday arrived at Down, but book-packets often come a day after date.— We return home early tomorrow (27th) morning & I do not doubt that I shall find there the sheets—4 They shall be returned, after I have glanced over a few pages, by tomorrows post, as I fear that you will already have been inconvenienced by the delay— I feel a strong conviction that your book will prove very interesting to all naturalists, & I am very glad that it will soon be published.—

Again thanking you, I remain, | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from H. N. Moseley, 24 November 1878.
3
Moseley had sent CD several papers with observations made during the Challenger voyage; he had visited CD at Down House in November 1876 (see Correspondence vol. 24, letter to H. N. Moseley, 5 November [1876]).
4
CD stayed at the home of Richard Buckley and Henrietta Emma Litchfield at 4 Bryanston Street, London, from 19 to 27 November 1878 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 London] above del ‘Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11762,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11762