To James Dwight Dana   30 July [1860]

Down Bromley Kent [Hartfield]

July 30th

My dear Sir

I received several weeks ago your note telling me that you could not visit England, which I sincerely regretted, as I should most heartily have liked to have made your personal acquaintance.—1 You gave me an improved, but not very good, account of your health. I shd. at some time be grateful for a line to tell me how you are.—

We have had a miserable summer owing to a terribly long & severe illness of my eldest girl, who improves slightly but is still in a precarious condition.—

I have been able to do nothing in science of late. My kind friend Asa Gray often writes to me & tells me of the warm discussions on origin of species in the U. States.—   Whenever you are strong enough to read it, I know you will be dead against me, but I know equally well that your opposition will be liberal & philosophical. And this is a good deal more than I can say of all my opponents in this country. I have not yet seen Agassiz’s attack;2 but I hope to find it at home, when I return in few days, for I have been for several weeks away from home on my daughter’s account. Prof. Silliman sent me an extremely kind message by Asa Gray that your Journal wd. be open to a reply by me;3 I cannot decide till I see it, but on principle I have resolved to avoid answering anything, as it consumes much time, often temper, & I have said my say in the Origin.—   No one person understands my views & has defended them so well as A. Gray;—though he does not by any means go all the way with me.—   There was much discussion on subject at B. Assoc. at Oxford; & I had many defenders & my side seems (for I was not there) almost to have got the best of the battle.—   Your correspondent & my neighbour J. Lubbock goes on working at such spare time as he has.—

This is an egotistical note; but I have not seen a naturalist for months. Most sincerely & deeply do I hope that this note may find you almost recovered.

Pray believe me | Yours very truly | C. Darwin

Endorsement: ‘July | 60’

1
Dana was convalescing in Italy following a breakdown in his health (DAB). CD had sent Dana a presentation copy of Origin (see Correspondence vol.8, Appendix III and Correspondence vol. 7, letter to J. D. Dana, 11 November [1859]). For CD’s concern about Dana’s health and his wish that Dana should not read Origin until he was well enough, see ibid., letter to J. D. Dana, 30 December [1859].
2
Louis Agassiz criticised CD’s views in the third volume of his Contributions to the natural history of the United States of America (Agassiz 1857–62). The discussion, taken from advance sheets of the volume, was printed in the American Journal of Science and Arts 2d ser. 30 (1860): 142–55; it was also printed in Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3d ser. 6 (1860): 219–32. There is an annotated copy of the American Journal of Science and Arts article in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. For CD’s opinion of Agassiz’s ‘attack’, see the letter to T. H. Huxley, 8 August [1860].
3
Benjamin Silliman Jr, professor of chemistry at Yale University, was Dana’s brother-in-law. He and Dana co-edited the American Journal of Science and Arts.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2882,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2882