To F. M. Balfour   6 July 1881

My dear Balfour

I thank you heartily for the present of your grand book, & I congratulate you on its completion. Although I read almost all of Vol. I I do not feel that I am worthy of your present, unless indeed the fullest conviction that it is a memorable work, makes me worthy of receiving it.—¹

But now I am puzzled what to do; I have received Vol. 2^o from my booksellers, who sent me Vol. I, & it seems to me a downright sin that there should be two copies in my house, whilst there are so many men (or Libraries) who would be delighted by receiving a copy from you & who would profit by it. Therefore shall I not send the clean copy back to you, or despatch it myself with a slip in your hand-writing “From the Author” to any quarter which you may direct? Once again accept my thanks, for I am proud to receive a book from you who I well know will some day be the chief of the English Biologists

Believe me yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

P.S. An idea has just occurred to me & I am going to be so impudent as to suggest it,—viz to send my spare copy to Fritz Müller of Blumenau St Catharina, Brazil. He is poor & has lately lost almost all his books by a dreadful flood, & he is as you know an embryologist. He seems to me a splendid observer & I sh^d be delighted to be the means of his receiving from you a valuable book.²