Ɛpsilon

To H. E. Darwin   [March] 18701

Spring 1870

My dear Hen.

I have worked through, (& it is hard work) half of the 2d Chapter on mind, & your corrections & suggestions are excellent.2 I have adopted the greater number, & I am sure that they are very great improvements.— Some of the transpositions are most just. You have done me real good service; but by Jove how hard you must have worked & how thoroughily you have mastered my M.S. I am pleased with this Chapter now that it comes fresh to me.—

Your affectionate, admiring & obedient | Father, C. D.

All is as clear as daylight— your plan of putting corrections saves me a world of trouble, by just as much as it must have caused you.— N.B. you can write, I see, a perfectly clear hand, as in all the corrections.—

1
The month is conjectured from the reference to spring, and from the relationship between this letter, the letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870], and the letter from Emma Darwin to H. E. Darwin, [25 March 1870] (DAR 219.9: 82), in which Emma asks Henrietta to write when she receives a manuscript. This manuscript was presumably that of the chapter or chapters of Descent following those on the mental powers of humans and animals.
2
CD had asked Henrietta, who was travelling in France and Italy, to read the manuscript of Descent; see letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870], and letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February 1870].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7123,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7123