To Hermann Kindt1   17 September 1864

I am most obliged for your kind & flattering letter.—2 I have copied the last sentence of the “Origin”, which I hope will do.–

In haste | yours faithfully | C. Darwin

[Enclosure]

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

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; & that whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful & most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.—3

Charles Darwin

Sept. 17th. 1864.—

1
A brief description of this letter was published in Correspondence vol. 12; since then the full text has become available.
3
See Origin 2d ed., p. 490.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13874,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13874