To William Whewell   16 April [1839]

My dear Whewell

I have been very much flattered by your “marriage gift” and kind note.¹ I assure you very few have given me more pleasure.— M^rs. Darwin desires me to give you her best thanks for it.— I hope, sometime when you are in town & happen to be disengaged, we may see you in this house.— I have hardly done more than dip into Herman & D. but I intend beginning it immediately.

A short time since I finished, having only skimmed parts before, another & quite different production of yours,—the Hist of Inductive Sciences,² —& I will run the risk of appearing exceedingly presumptuous by telling you how much I enjoyed it—to see so clearly the steps by which all the great scientific discoveries have been come to is a capital lesson to every one, even to the humblest follower of science & I hope I have profited by it— When I closed your third volume I wished much to say my thanks to you, and now, however presumptuous it may have been, I have satisfied myself by saying them.

Believe me | Most truly Yours | Chas. Darwin 12 Upper Gower St

April 16^th.—

Pray excuse me troubling you with this letter all the way to Cambridge, per post, but I had no other way of sending it.—