Ɛpsilon

To Margaret Hadley   4 April 1882

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

April 4th 1882

Madam

I have the pleasure to send my signature on next page.— I think that an indifferent person wd. best select a passage: nor am I well enough at present to copy out one for you.—1 About any sentence from my “Naturalists Voyage” or the “Origin of Species” would do.— The concluding sentence in the last-named book has struck some persons & there are sentences about Slavery in the former which would perhaps serve.—2 These books you wd. find in most public libraries.—

I remain, Madam | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Copy

1
The copyist noted that this was a letter from CD to Miss Margaret Hadley, who has not been further identified. Her letter has not been found, but she had evidently asked CD to select and write out a section from one of his books, as well as for his signature and date of birth (see letter to Margaret Hadley, 6 April [1882]). It is unclear why she wanted this information.
2
The last sentence of Origin 6th ed. reads, ‘There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.’ The references to slavery are in Journal of researches 2d ed., pp. 20–1, 24–5, and 499–500. This edition was sold as part of John Murray’s Home and Colonial Library with the title ‘Naturalist’s Voyage’ on the spine; by 1879, ‘A naturalist’s voyage’ appeared on the title page of the work (Freeman 1977).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13758,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13758