Ɛpsilon

To J. A. Crawley   12 February 1879

Down | Beckenham, Kent

Feb. 12/79

Dear Sir.

I am sorry to say that I can give you no information.1

I have forgotten the very little Greek which I once knew. Nor have I ever read, to my shame be it spoken, the works of Aristotle. From extracts, which I have seen, I have an unbounded respect for him, as one of the greatest, if not the greatest observer, that ever lived.—2

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

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1
No letters from Crawley have been found.
2
CD cited the observations of Aristotle in Origin 4th ed., p. xiii, Variation 1: 24, 75 and 277, and 2: 51, and Cross and self fertilisation, pp. 415–16. CD’s Reading notebook (1838–51) contains the entry ‘read Aristotle to see whether any of my views are ancient’ (see Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV, 119: 2v).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11875,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11875