To Ernst Krause   4 February 1880

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station| Orpington. S.E.R.

Feb 4 1880

My dear Sir,

I enclose a page from the Athenæum with a fierce attack by Mr Butler on both of us, especially on me.1 No doubt I committed a great error in not having stated that you had largely altered the article in Kosmos; but I now find that there was a sentence to this effect in the first proof-sheet, which was afterwards accidentally omitted.2

I have consulted three men well capable of judging and they unanimously think Mr Butler’s letter so ungentlemanlike as not to deserve an answer from me.3 He seems to insinuate that I suggested to you or persuaded you to add passages attacking his book, or that I myself interpolated such passages. As far as I can remember the sole suggestion which I made to you was to take no notice of Mr Butler’s book.4 You will be able to judge better than I can whether it is incumbent on you to answer Mr Butler’s letter.

I am very sorry that you should be in any way troubled in this affair.

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin

P.S. | The obscure expression ‘writing at’ in the last sentence in the Athenæum which I failed to understand at first seems to mean attacking

LS

1
For Samuel Butler’s letter to the Athenæum, see the letter to H. E. Litchfield, 1 February [1880], enclosure 1.
2
See letter to H. E. Litchfield, 1 February [1880], enclosure 2. CD had pasted in the section of the first printed proof of Erasmus Darwin that made it clear that Krause’s original essay (Krause 1879a) had been revised.
4
See Correspondence vol. 27, letter to Ernst Krause, 9 June [1879]. CD had written, ‘I hope that you will not expend much powder & shot on Mr. Butler, for he really is not worthy of it. His work is merely ephemeral.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12459,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12459