Ɛpsilon

To John Washington   [14 October 1839]

12 Upper Gower St

Monday Evening

Dear Washington

I return you the proof sheets with a very few & unimportant remarks on the margin.— Mr French, shows, evidently, I think, that he has full knowledge to describe all the rocks he saw correctly.— It strikes me as a very interesting & good paper.—1

I am delighted to hear you have sent for the Annales Maritim.—

I have not any volume of D’Urville,2 nor indeed any property of the Geograph. (excepting Horsburgh)3 as I returned everything before I went into the country.

If I had any modesty I should be ashamed to notice the extract you sent me from Humboldt,4 but my admiration for Humboldt has been of so long standing, that I confess few things in my life have gratified me more, than hearing of his approbation, although I should have swallowed the dose quite as readily if it had been a little less strong: even a young author cannot gorge such a mouthful of flattery—

Believe me | Ever Yours | Chas. Darwin

Endorsement: ‘1839 | Mr Darwin—1⁠⟨⁠   ⁠⟩⁠ Oct.’

1
French 1839.
2
Dumont d’Urville, ed. 1830–5, the account of a voyage to the South Atlantic, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, is frequently cited by CD in Coral reefs.
3
Horsburgh 1809–11.
4
Humboldt 1839, p. 505: ‘The volume of Mr. Charles Darwin is an admirable supplement to the voyage of the Beagle: it is one of the most remarkable works that, in the course of a long life, I have had the pleasure to see published. Mr. Darwin unites to sagacity for detailed observations enlarged views in general physics, I should rather say in natural philosophy,—views which embrace at once geology, the geographical distribution of plants, and the influence of temperature on the organic types of the primitive world.’

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 shows] 1 ‘s’ over ‘I’
4.3 than] ‘n’ over ‘t’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-537,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-537