To J. V. Carus   17 February [1867]

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

Feb 17th

My dear Sir

I have read your Preface with care.1 It seems to me that you have treated Bronn with complete respect & great delicacy, & that you have alluded to your own labour with much modesty. I do not think that any of Bronn’s friends can complain of what you say & what you have done. For my own sake I grieve that you have not added notes, as I am sure that I should have profited much by them; but as you have omitted Bronn’s objections, I believe that you have acted with excellent judgment & fairness in leaving the text without comment to the independent verdict of the reader.2 I heartily congratulate you that the main part of your labour is over: it would have been to most men a very troublesome task, but you seem to have indomitable powers of work, judging from those two wonderful & most useful volumes on zoological literature, edited by you, & which I never open without surprise at their accuracy & gratitude for their usefulness.—3 I cannot sufficiently tell you how much I rejoice that you were persuaded to superintend the translation of the present edition of my book, for I have now the great satisfaction of knowing that the German public can judge fairly of its merits & demerits.—4

I have written to Dr. Carpenter for a specimen of the Eozoon & I hear from Mrs. Carpenter that he is out of London, but she thinks he will be able & will have great pleasure in sending you a specimen.5

When I receive it, I will send it by post if not too heavy; but if too heavy by the Booksellers Messrs. Williams & Norgate.

with my cordial & sincere thanks, believe me | My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Endorsement: ‘1867’

1
CD refers to the preface to Carus’s German translation of the fourth edition of Origin (Bronn and Carus trans. 1867). Carus enclosed an English translation with his letter of 11 February 1867.
2
In the preface to Bronn and Carus trans. 1867, Carus referred to the two earlier editions of the translation of Origin by Heinrich Georg Bronn (Bronn trans. 1860, 1863).
3
CD refers to the Bibliotheca zoologica (Carus and Engelmann 1861). The volumes are in the Darwin Library–CUL; the second volume is lightly annotated (see Marginalia 1: 160).
4
Christian Friedrich Schweizerbart, head of the Stuttgart publishing firm E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, had asked Carus to translate the fourth edition of Origin (see Correspondence vol. 14, letter from E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 26 October 1866). On complaints regarding the first two editions of the translation of Origin, and on CD’s satisfaction with Carus as translator, see Correspondence vol. 14, letter from E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 10 May 1866 and n. 10, and letter to J. V. Carus, 10 November 1866.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5403,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5403