To Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire   12 January [1860]1

Down Bromley Kent

Jan. 12th

Sir

I thank you sincerely for the honour of your kind letter.2 I am extremely much pleased that my work meets with your approval. You will have perceived that it is only an abstract & treats no part of the subject fully; though I have ample materials nearly ready.3 I did not know that you went so far in giving up the permanence of species; & I am particularly obliged to you for sending me your “rèsumè”.4

I have in my Library your great & invaluable work on Anomalies, the life of your celebrated Father, your Considerations in the Suites a Buffon & the 1st vol. of your Hist. Nat. Gen. & I shall be proud to place your resume along side of them.5

It would be an immense advantage to my work, if it were translated into French; for then everyone could read it. I fear Madame Belloc will not undertake it; but I will write again to her & repeat your most kind & generous offer of looking at the difficult passages.6 Judging from the very large sale in England, I should hope that it would pay a publisher. My publisher has now printed nearly 5000 copies.7

With my most sincere thanks for the honour which you have conferred on me by writing, I beg leave to remain, with much respect, | Yours truly obliged | Charles Darwin

1
The year is established by the allusion to Origin, which was published in November 1859.
2
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s letter has not been found.
3
On the publication of Origin as an abstract of CD’s views, see Correspondence vol. 7.
4
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1851 was published in the Revue et magasin de zoologie pure et appliquée. The article contains a section entitled ‘Résumé des leçons sur la question de l’espèce’, in which Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire stated his belief that species were neither absolutely fixed nor endlessly variable, but varied only when their conditions of life changed (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1851, pp. 15–20). There is a lightly annotated copy of the work in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. CD cited the article in the ‘historical preface’ added to the revised US edition of Origin (Origin US ed.; see Correspondence vol. 8, Appendix IV), to the German translation (Bronn trans. 1860), and to Origin 3d ed. (1861). See also Correspondence vol. 8, letter to Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 28 January [1860].
5
CD’s copies of these books are in the Darwin Library–CUL: Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1832–7 (Histoire générale et particulière des anomalies de l’organisation chez l’homme et les animaux; heavily annotated); Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1847 (Vie, travaux et doctrine scientifique d’E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire; annotated); Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1841 (Essais de zoologie générale, part of the series Nouvelles suites à Buffon; annotated); Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1854–62 (Histoire naturelle générale des règnes organiques; vol. 1 lightly annotated, vols. 2 and 3 annotated). Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s father was Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, was a French naturalist.
6
Louise Swanton Belloc had offered to translate Origin, but had later decided it was too difficult (see Correspondence vol. 8, letter to Charles Lyell, 14 January [1860] and n. 14). In the end, Origin was translated into French by Clémence Auguste Royer (see Correspondence vol. 10).
7
John Murray printed 1250 copies of the first edition of Origin, and a second edition of 3000 copies in December 1859 (Origin 2d ed.; see Freeman 1977).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.3 Nat.] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2649F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2649F