202 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAl-. Vill 



notice of " La Place de THomme dans la Nature," a 

 re-issue of a translation of more than twenty years 

 before, together with three ethnological essays, newly 

 translated by M. H. de Varigny, to whom the 

 following letters are addressed. 



To H. DE Varigny 



May 17, 1891. 



I am writing to my publishers to send you Lay 

 Sermons, Critiques, Science and Culture, and American 

 Addresses, pray accept them in expression of my thanks 

 for the pains you are taking about the translation. Man's 

 Place in Nature has been out of print for years, so I 

 cannot supply it. 



I am quite conscious that the condensed and idiomatic 

 English into which I always try to put my thouglits 

 must present many difficulties to a translator. But a 

 friend of mine who is a much better French scholar than 

 I am, and who looked over two or three of the essays, 

 told me he thought you had been remarkably successful. 



The fact is that I have a great love and respect for 

 my native tongue, and take great pains to use it properly. 

 Sometimes I write essays half-a-dozen times before I can 

 get them into the proper shape ; and I believe I become 

 more fastidious as I grow older. 



November 25, 1891. 



I am very glad you have found your task pleasant, 

 for I am afraid it must have cost you a good deal of 

 trouble to put my ideas into the excellent French dress 

 with which you have provided them. It fits so well that 

 I feel almost as if I might be a candidate for a seat among 

 the immortal forty ! 



As to the new volume, you shall have the refusal of it 



