Ɛpsilon

To C. F. Bergstedt?   6 July [1871]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

July 6th

Dear Sir

I am greatly indebted to you for the honour which you have done me in reviewing my works, & for your kindness in having sent a copy of the several articles to me.—2 One of my sons knows some Sweedish, so I shall be able to learn something about them.3

I did not know before looking at the heads of your articles that my Origin of Species had been translated into Sweedish.—4

With my best thanks & respect I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Ch Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to a Swedish review of Descent (see n. 2, below).
2
CD probably refers to an anonymous three-part review of Descent and two other works about Darwinism in Samtiden: Veckoskrift för Politik och Litteratur, a weekly journal edited by Bergstedt. The review appeared in the 10 June, 17 June, and 23 June issues in 1871, pp. 353–61, 369–84, 385–400. There is a copy of the review in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.
3
CD probably refers to George Howard Darwin; George and Francis Darwin visited Norway in August 1866, and George learned Norwegian (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242); letter from G. H. Darwin to H. E. Darwin, [3 June or 8 July 1866], DAR 251: 2240). He became fluent in several languages (ODNB).
4
One of the works reviewed in Samtiden (see n. 2, above) was the Swedish translation of Origin, Selling trans. 1871.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 shall] after del ‘have’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7852,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7852