To John Lubbock   16 [December 1862]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

16th

My dear Lubbock

You are right, I am a selfish dog.— I am aghast at all you have to do.2 In a day or two I will do my best (but I confess to sighs & groans) to give your readers a brief notion of Bates’ paper; how far I shall succeed, I know not.—3

I wonder what you are going to Lecture on at Royal. Instn—4

Most truly yours | C. Darwin

1
The date is established by the relationship to the letter from John Lubbock, 15 December 1862.
3
Lubbock was one of the editors of the Natural History Review; CD’s review of Bates 1862a appeared in the April 1863 number of the journal (‘Review of Bates on mimetic butterflies’).
4
Lubbock’s lecture, ‘On the ancient lake-habitations of Switzerland’ (Lubbock 1863c), was delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on 27 February 1863.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 (but … groans)] parentheses over commas
2.1 at] over ‘.—’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3864,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3864