To Ernst Krause   7 October 1880

My dear Sir

I rejoice at the new Edit. of your book, & am much obliged to you for having sent it to me.—¹ I will certainly read some or the whole, if I have time, but I cannot improve in my German & read at a snail’s pace.— I am particularly obliged to you for having told me about Hermann’s Müller’s affair with the Government; I had heard a vague account, & wished to know the truth.²

I request that you will give to the Editor of Kosmos my especial thanks for his kindness. The numbers always interest me, though I am able to read only a part: I see that there is a curious article in the one just received by the Prince of observers, Fritz Müller.—³

Pray permit me to add one word about the life of D^r. E. Darwin: in your previous letter you write as if you had no claim to the miserably small profits from the English Edition; but I must differ from you, for I sh^d. never have dreamed of writing what I did, had it not been for your Essay.⁴ This Essay is the really valuable part of the little book, requiring much labour & thought in its composition; whereas my part is chiefly what we in England call gossip.⁵ I shall publish in a month or two a book on the “Movements of Plants”: I will send you a copy, but I fear it is much too special, for anyone but a physiological botanist to care about.⁶ I have long thought that old men, like myself, ought to write only on confined & easy subjects.

Believe me, Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin