Ɛpsilon

To Francis Galton   25 January [1868?]1

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

Jan. 25th

My dear Galton

Your few words of congratulation have given me sincere pleasure & I thank you cordially.—2 I shd. have been still better pleased, if you had told me how you were. I have enquired whenever I have had a chance of hearing, but did not hear some two months ago a very good account.3

I trust & hope by your note that you are well again, but I know that over mental work takes long in recovery.—

With hearty thanks & good wishes | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

1
The year is conjectured by the references to Galton’s poor health and on the assumption that the letter alludes to George Howard Darwin’s success in the mathematical tripos at Cambridge (see letter to G. H. Darwin, 24 January [1868] and n. 2).
2
The letter from Galton has not been found.
3
Galton suffered a breakdown in health in 1866 and did not recover fully until the beginning of 1869 (Gillham 2001, pp. 150–1).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5800,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5800