Ɛpsilon

To Hermann Settegast   29 September 1870

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

Sep 29. 1870

Dear Sir

I am very much obliged for your kind letter & present of your beautiful volume. Your work is not new to me, for I heard it so highly spoken of that I procured a copy of the first edition.1 It was a great gratification to me to find a man who had long studied with a philosophical spirit our domesticated animals, & who was highly competent to judge, agreeing to a large extent with my views. I regretted much that I had not known your work when I published my last volumes.2

I am surprized & pleased to hear that science is not quite forgotten under the present exciting state of affairs. Every one whom I know in England is an enthusiastic wisher for the full & complete success of Germany—3

With my best thanks & sincere respect I remain | dear Sir | yours faithfully | ⁠⟨⁠Charles Darwin⁠⟩⁠4

P.S. I will give one of my two copies of your work to some public scientific library in London

1
The reference is to Die Thierzucht (Settegast 1868). CD’s lightly annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–Down (see Marginalia 1: 754). CD had ordered a copy in 1868 (see Correspondence vol. 16, letter from Williams & Norgate, 2 June 1868). A second edition was published in 1869.
2
CD refers to Variation. He cited Settegast 1868 in Variation 2d ed., 2: 331 n. 41.
3
CD alludes to the Franco-Prussian war.
4
The signature has been excised.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7330,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7330