1864 — 1S69J COPLEY MEDAL 247 



do not put quite clearly), he never did a baser act. . . . You Letter 175 

 are so good a Christian that you will hardly understand how 

 I chuckle over this bit of baseness. I hope you keep well and 

 hearty ; I honour your wisdom at giving up at present Society 

 for Science. But, on the other hand, I feel it in myself possible 

 to get to care too much for Natural Science and too little 

 for other things. I am getting better, I almost dare to hope 

 permanently ; for my sickness is decidedly less — for twenty- 

 seven days consecutively I was sick many times daily, and 

 lately I was five days free. I long to do a little work again. 

 The magnificent (by far the most magnificent, and too magni- 

 ficent) compliment which you paid me at the end of your 

 " Origin of Species " 1 I have met with reprinted from you 

 two or three times lately. 



To Erasmus Darwin. Letter 



175A 



Down, June 30th, 1S64. 



The preceding letter contains a reference to the prolonged period of 

 ill-health from which Darwin suffered in 1S63 and 1864, and in this 

 connection the present letter is of interest. 



The Copley Medal was given to him in 1864. 



I had not heard a word about the Copley Medal. Please 

 give Falconer my cordial thanks for his interest about me. I 

 enclose the list of everything published by me except a few 

 unimportant papers. Ask Falconer not to mention that I 

 sent the list, as some one might say I had been canvassing, 

 which is an odious imputation. The origin of the Voyage in 

 the Beagle was that Fitz-Roy generously offered to give up 

 half his cabin to any one who would volunteer to go as 

 naturalist. Beaufort wrote to Cambridge, and I volunteered. 

 Fitz-Roy never persuaded me to give up the voyage on account 

 of sickness, nor did I ever think of doing so, though I suffered 

 considerably ; but I do not believe it was the cause of my 

 subsequent ill-health, which has lost me so many years, and 

 therefore I should not think the sea-sickness was worth notice. 



1 A title applied to the Lectures to Working Men, that "green little 

 book" referred to in letter 156. Speaking of Mr. Darwin's work he says 

 (p 1 56) : " I believe that if you strip it of its theoretical part, it still remains 

 one of the greatest encyclopaedias of biological doctrine that any one man 

 ever brought forth ; and I believe that, if you take it as the embodiment 

 of an hypothesis, it is destined to be the guide of biological and psycho- 

 logical speculation for the next three or four generations." 



