To Maxwell Tylden Masters   26 February [1862]1

Down Bromley

Feb. 26th.

My dear Sir

I am much obliged to you for sending me your article, which I have just read with much interest.2 The History and a good deal besides was quite new to me. It seems to me capitally done, and so clearly written. You really ought to write your larger work. You speak too generously of my Book; but I must confess that you have pleased me not a little; for no one, as far as I know, has ever remarked on what I say on classification,—a part, which when I wrote it, pleased me.3

With many thanks to you for sending me your article, pray believe me | My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | C. Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to Masters 1862 (see n. 2, below).
2
Masters 1862.
3
Masters considered Origin a ‘wonderful book’ and argued that CD had ‘done a good service’, regardless of whether his conclusions were true. Masters particularly recommended chapter 13, entitled ‘Mutual affinities of organic beings: morphology: embryology: rudimentary organs’, as ‘a clear exposition … of the rules and methods employed by systematists’ (Masters 1862, p. 216).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3459,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3459