Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
Jan 20th. 1879
Dear Moseley
I have just received your book, & I declare that never in my life have I seen a Dedication which I admired so much. Of course I am not a fair judge, but I hope that I speak dispassionately, though you have touched me in my very tenderest point, by saying that my old Journal mainly gave you the wish to travel as a Naturalist. I shall begin to read your book this very evening, & am sure that I shall enjoy it much—1
Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
To Charles Darwin, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., &c., from the study of whose Journal of researches I mainly derived my desire to travel round the world, to the development of whose theory I owe the principal pleasures and interests of my life, and who has personally given me much kindly encouragement in the prosecution of my studies, this book is, by permission, gratefully dedicated.
Journal of researches was CD’s account of his experiences on the Beagle voyage. CD and Moseley had met one another in 1876 and corresponded since that year (Correspondence vol. 24). The Challenger expedition lasted from 1872 until 1876. CD’s annotated copy of Moseley 1879 is in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 607).Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11837,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on