Ɛpsilon

To Grant Allen   17 February 1881

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

Feb. 17th 1881

My dear Sir

I have this minute read the last word of “the Evolutionist at Large”; & I hope that you will not think me troublesome if I tell you how much the whole has pleased me.—1 Who can tell how many young persons your chapters may bring up to be good working Evolutionists! I quite envy you your power of writing,— your words flow so easily, clearly & pleasantly.— Some of your statements seemed to me rather too bold; but I do not know that this much signifies in a work of the kind & may perhaps be an advantage. Several of your views are quite new to me & seem extremely probable.— But I had not intended to scribble so much.—

One chief object in my writing has been to ask you, busy as you are to send me whenever you can spare time a very few lines, saying how your health is; for I was grieved to hear last winter a very poor account of your health.—2

My dear Sir | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

P.S. I have forgotten your address & have to send this to Publisher3

1
Allen’s book The evolutionist at large was made up of twenty-two essays previously published in the St James’s Gazette and aimed at ‘unscientific readers’ (Allen 1881, p. vii).
2
Allen had been so ill in 1879 that CD had contributed to a subscription to send him and his family to the French Riviera for the winter of 1879–80 (see Correspondence vol. 27, letter to G. J. Romanes, 23 July 1879 and n. 1).
3
Allen’s publishers were Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly, London.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
2.2 whenever … time] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13055,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13055