Ɛpsilon

From E. A. Darwin   20 May [1880]1

May 20

Dear Charles—

Thanks for the two pamphlets. That by Zöckler is I think entirely worthless   Just got up for a lecture out of you & Krause.2 Being Prof of Theology he winds up by saying that he does not enter into the question whether your theories are true—or only castles in the air & a Fata Morgana.3 Poor Price must have a bad time coming & I will do what you suggest.4

Yours affec | EAD

1
The year is established by the publication date of Otto Zöckler’s pamphlet (see n. 2, below).
2
Otto Zöckler had published a pamphlet on Erasmus Darwin as a forerunner of Darwinism (Zöckler 1880); he evidently drew on Erasmus Darwin, which contained a translation of Ernst Krause’s essay on Erasmus Darwin, and CD’s biography of his grandfather. The second pamphlet was possibly the review of Erasmus Darwin that was published in Revue scientifique de la France et de l'étranger on 15 May 1880 (Ferrari 1880).
3
‘Fata Morgana’: a mirage, due to a thermal inversion, that makes distant objects, such as ships, appear to be floating in the sky.
4
Possibly John Price, who was friends with both CD and Erasmus Alvey Darwin. A year later, in September 1881, CD wrote that he hoped that Price was suffering ‘less than formerly’ (Correspondence vol. 29, letter to John Price, 3 September [1881]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12611,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12611