96 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, vi 



Emma Darwin to her aunt Madame Sismondi. 



DOWN, Wednesday [Aug. 27th, 1845]. 



Eras came to us on Monday. He is surprisingly well. 

 The children fasten on him all day, which he bears with 

 wonderful patience, and draws demons and imps for them 

 with as great perseverance as he does for his own particular 

 friends Erny and Tiny. . . . Charles has just finished his 

 Journal, which has overtired him a good deal, and he is but 

 poorly, now he has not the excitement of being forced to go 

 on with his work. He has taken a great deal of pains with 

 it and improved it a good deal, leaving out some of the dis- 

 cussions and putting in a few things which are interesting. 

 As you are so much interested in Blanco White ['s Life] I must 

 copy what Mr Lyell says about it. ' I would advise every 

 scientific man who is preparing a new edition in any rapidly 

 progressive branch of science, in which he has launched 

 many new speculations and theories, to read over the life 

 of St Blanco the Martyr, which I have just finished, and to 

 be grateful that in the department which he has to teach he 

 is not pledged to retain for ever the same views, or that the 

 slightest departure from them need not entail on him the 

 penalty of the loss of nearly all worldly advantages, domestic 

 ties, and friendships. How ashamed ought every lover of 

 truth to feel if mere self-love or pride makes him adhere 

 obstinately to his views, after seeing the sacrifices which 

 such a man was ready to make for what he believed to be 

 truth. This is the moral I draw from the book." 



Charles Darwin to his sister Susan Darwin. 



MY DEAR SUSAN, Wednesday, 3 Sept. 1845. 



It is long since I have written to you, and now I 

 am going to write such a letter, as I verily believe no other 

 family in Britain would care to receive, viz. all about house- 

 hold and money affairs; but you have often said that you 

 like such particulars. 



Erasmus is here yet ; he must have found it wof ully dull, 



