Ɛpsilon

From Jean Jacques Moulinié   3 May 1867

Geneva

3 May 1867.

Sir,

I just receive from Professor Vogt communication of your letter to him of 30th April last, in which you grant me in so favourable terms the right of the french translation of your actual publication on “Domesticated animals and cultivated plants”; an honourable favour for which I beg you, Sir, to receive here, the expression of my deep gratitude.1

Like my russian and german co-translators, allow me, sir, not to agree with the opinion you seem to have of your first volume, owing to the nature of its contents;2 I believe on the contrary that the numerous facts, observations and documents you must have abundantly and laboriously collected, and of which I suppose the first volume contains the exposal, besides their importance as the ground-work of the whole edifice, the basis of the theoretical views and conclusions of the second part, will by themselves and in their particulars, have a high interest for the reader, so gradually brought down from positive facts to the natural consequences they lead to.

I shall therefore be very happy to receive the first sheets of your publication as soon as you will judge convenient to send them, they will be welcome.

I remain Sir, yours very truly | and respectfully | J. J. Moulinié

15. rue du Mont Blanc | Geneva.

1
CD’s letter to Carl Vogt has not been found. Vogt was directing the French translation of Variation by Moulinié (see letter from C.-F. Reinwald, [May 1867]).
2
The German translation of Variation was by Julius Victor Carus (Carus trans. 1868); the Russian by Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky (Kovalevsky trans. 1868–9). CD had recently suggested to Kovalevsky that he would find the first volume dull (see letter to V. O. Kovalevsky, 2 May [1867] and n. 3). No extant earlier letters to the translators mention this opinion of CD’s.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5525,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5525