To John Murray   10 January [1867]

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

Jan. 10th

My dear Sir

Your note has been a great relief to me; & I am very glad that you agree about type.— I will insert Wood-cuts.1

I am rather alarmed about the verdict of your friend, as he is not a man of science.— I think if you had sent the Origin to an unscientific man, he wd. have utterly condemned it. I am,, however, very glad that you have consulted anyone, on whom you can rely.—2

I must add that my Journal of Researches was seen in M.S by an eminent semi-scientific man, & was pronounced unfit for publication.3 Let me hear at once as soon as I may send to your house (ie Albemarle St) for the M.S.; as I much wish to begin printing, & I will return to Mess Clowes the few first chapters in a day or two.—4

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Look at Athenæum at my letter about “Cut Books” & “Eminent publisher”.—5

Endorsement: ‘1867. Jany 10’

1
CD refers to the type sizes and woodcuts for Variation (see letter from John Murray, 9 January [1867]).
2
Murray had not identified the reader of Variation, John Milton, to CD (see letter from John Murray, 9 January [1867] and n. 4). CD also refers to Origin.
3
No reader of the manuscript of CD’s Journal and remarks, the third volume of the record of the Beagle voyage (Narrative), has been identified; it was published in 1839. Robert FitzRoy read the proof-sheets (see Browne 1995, p. 414). For CD’s writing of Journal and remarks, and for its separate publication as Journal of researches, see Correspondence vol. 2.
4
CD refers to Murray’s publishing house, at 50A Albemarle Street, London, and to the printer William Clowes & Sons (see letter to John Murray, 8 January [1867] and n. 5).
5
In his letter to the Athenæum of 1 January 1867, CD urged that books be published with pages already cut. The ‘eminent publisher’ mentioned in his letter, who had told him that booksellers would object to receiving books cut, was John Murray (see Correspondence vol. 14, letter from John Murray, 18 July [1866]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5356,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5356