To W. R. Greg   21 March [1860?]1

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[Darwin refers to remarks made by his correspondent on the subject of On the Origin of Species.2 He writes: ‘I am very glad indeed to read remarks made of a man who possesses such varied and odd knowledge’.3 Darwin continues his letter with discussion of a manuscript on proportions of the sexes at birth that W. R. Greg has sent along for review4 but returns to commentary of On the Origins of Species. He notes his own ‘remarks on mankind are superficial, and given merely as some sort of standard for comparison with the lower animals’. He closes his letter remarking, ‘I am quite delighted that my book interests you enough to lead you to read it with such care […]’]

The date 21 March [1860?] is taken from the sale catalogue.
Origin. The letter from Greg has not been found.
Greg wrote for a number of periodicals on politics and economics, as well as on ‘speculative and theological subjects’ (CDEL).
The manuscript has not been identified. Greg had earlier approached CD to write reviews: see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to F. M. Wedgwood, 18 [August 1856 – January 1858].
The original letter is complete and is described in the sale catalogue as being six pages long.

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