Ɛpsilon

To K. M. Lyell   16 February 1882

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

Feb. 16th. 1882

My dear Mrs. Lyell

In the last number of Kosmos there is a short, but worthy article on your Life of Lyell.1 The Journal is devoted to Evolution, so it is chiefly to this subject to which the review is directed, but the unknown Reviewer evidently appreciates fully Lyell’s lofty position, & the interest of your book.— He hopes that a German Translation may appear.— If you cannot easily see a copy & if you care to read the short review, I can lend you the number.—2

I was quite sorry when we came to the end of your book, & shd have liked a good deal more. Here is candour!!! Nevertheless I still think that a good many letters might have been omitted with advantage. All followers & admirers of Lyell ought & will feel grateful to you for having published this life of him.—

Pray believe me | Dear Mrs Lyell | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
See Kosmos, February 1882, pp. 393–6. Life, letters and journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart. was published in 1881 (K. M. Lyell ed. 1881; see Correspondence vol. 29, letter to K. M. Lyell, 20 November 1881).
2
CD had a subscription to Kosmos; his unbound copies of the journal are in the Darwin Library–CUL.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
1.3 the review] ‘the’ interl below del ‘the unknow’
1.3 unknown] interl
1.5 you care] ‘you’ added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13689F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13689F