To Ernst Haeckel   3 March [1864]1

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

Mar 3.

My dear Sir

I received a week since your most kind present of your work on Radiolariæ. It is one of the most magnificent works which I have ever seen, & I am proud to possess a copy from the author.2

It is very interesting & instructive to study your admirably executed drawings; for I had no idea that animals of such low organization could develope such extremely beautiful structures.—3

I hope you are able to work hard on science & thus banish, as far as may be possible, painful remembrances.4

With cordial thanks for your magnificent present, & with sincere respect | Believe me my dear Sir | yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

LS

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Ernst Haeckel, 2 January 1864.
2
Haeckel had earlier offered to send CD a copy of his monograph Die Radiolarien (Haeckel 1862), in which he first publicly endorsed CD’s theory (see Correspondence vol. 11, letter to Ernst Haeckel, 30 December [1863] – 3 January [1864], and this volume, letter from Ernst Haeckel, 2 January 1864 and n. 3). CD’s copy of Haeckel 1862 is in the Darwin Library–Down (see Marginalia 1: 360).
4
Haeckel’s wife, Anna Sethe, died on 16 February 1864 (see Uschmann 1984, p. 83, and letter from Ernst Haeckel, 10 August 1864). It is not known how CD learned of her death.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4419,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4419