Ɛpsilon

To H. G. Bronn   21 March [1860]1

Down. | Bromley Kent

March 21st.

Dear & Honoured Sir.

I thank you for your kind letter. I daresay your kind present may have arrived & may be at my brother’s house— I will send & enquire if I do not go to London in a few days—   I feel that I am trespassing on your kindness, but shall be truly obliged for your “Morphological Studies”2 I will read the passage which you point out; but I am a very poor German Scholar, & to my grief—I do not improve, having a very bad head for languages. I possess your Geschichte der Natur & very useful it will be for my larger work.—3 I have often been astonished at the amount of knowledge which it displays    I am very much pleased & surprised at the extraordinary quickness with which the translation has been made!4 It is very good news that p. 126 has not been printed off. I send the desired explanations which I hope will be clear—5

Your remarks shew me how clearly you understand my book, I shall ever lie under deep obligation to you, & remain Dear Sir. Yours sincerely—obliged— | C. Darwin.

Copy

1
Dated by the reference to the German translation of Origin.
2
Bronn 1858a. A copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL.
3
Bronn 1841–9. CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL. CD cited the work repeatedly in Variation.
4
The first part of Bronn trans. 1860 was published on 4 April 1860 (Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel 24 (1860): 683).
5
CD refers to a long amendment intended for Origin, p. 126, responding to early criticisms of natural selection, that he wished to insert in the German translation being prepared by Bronn. CD had just sent the same amendment to Asa Gray to be inserted into a revised American edition (see letter to Asa Gray, 8 March [1860]). The section appeared in Bronn trans. 1860, pp. 131–7.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2732,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2732