Ɛpsilon

To B. J. Sulivan   1 December 1881

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

Dec 1st. 1881

My dear Sulivan

I am ashamed to say that I have utterly forgotten what my subscription is, & send 2£.2s.0 on the chance of its being right.—1 If not enough please send me a P. card & the remainder shall be at once transmitted.—

Judging from the Missionary Journal, the Mission in Tierra del Fuego seems going on quite wonderfully well.—2 I am sorry that you cannot give a better account of your household.—3 I am fairly well, but feel very old. I wish that I could follow your advice & be idle, but I find myself miserable, without having some daily work.—

We are reading Lyells life, or speaking more strictly his Letters.4 Many of them interest me much; but the book wd. have been much improved in my opinion by being shortened. I doubt whether the general public will stand so many letters. Your memory is far more vivid than mine, for I have forgotten everything about my paper at the Geolog. Soc.—5

My dear Sulivan | Yours ever sincerely | Charles Darwin

1
See letter from B. J. Sulivan, 29 November 1881 and n. 1. CD initially proposed to subscribe £1 annually, but from 1879 had sent £2 (see Correspondence vol. 26, letter to B. J. Sulivan, 22 April 1878; Correspondence vol. 27, letter to B. J. Sulivan, 15 October 1879; and Correspondence vol. 28, letter from B. J. Sulivan, 16 November 1880).
2
A description of the mission at Tierra del Fuego appeared in the South American Missionary Magazine, 1 November 1881, pp. 249–55, and a report on the successful fund-raising for the mission was published in ibid., 1 December 1881, pp. 285–6.
4
Charles Lyell’s sister-in-law Katharine Murray Lyell had published a selection of Lyell’s letters, and had sent CD a copy (K. M. Lyell ed. 1881; letter to K. M. Lyell, 20 November 1881).
5
See letter from B. J. Sulivan, 29 November 1881 and n. 4. In a note on this letter, Sulivan recalled the events at the Geological Society of London when he attended with CD in 1837: ‘I was with him after Beagle returned when he read his paper on Coral Islands which was accepted at once as settling that much disputed question: Lyell who was in the chair rose and strongly supported and praised it, and gave up all views he had held on the subject before | B.J.S.’

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13525,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13525