I837-] SECRETARYSHIP. 285, 



C. Darwin to J. S. Henslow. 



October I4th [1837]. 



MY DEAR HENSLOW, 



... I am much obliged to you for your message 

 about the Secretaryship. I am exceedingly anxious for you 

 to hear my side of the question, and will you be so kind as. 

 afterwards to give me your fair judgment. The subject has 

 haunted me all summer. I am unwilling to undertake the 

 office for the following reasons : First, my entire ignorance 

 of English Geology, a knowledge of which would be almost 

 necessary in order to shorten many of the papers before 

 reading them before the Society, or rather to know what 

 parts to skip. Again, my ignorance of all languages, and 

 not knowing how to pronounce even a single word of French 

 a language so perpetually quoted. It would be disgraceful to 

 the Society to have a Secretary who could not read French. 

 Secondly, the loss of time ; pray consider that I should have 

 to look after the artists, superintend and furnish materials for 

 the Government work, which will come out in parts, and 

 which must appear regularly. All my Geological notes are 

 in a very rough state ; none of my fossil shells worked up ; 

 and I have much to read. I have had hopes, by giving up 

 society and not wasting an hour, that I should finish my 

 Geology in a year and a half, by which time the description 

 of the higher animals by others would be completed, and 

 my whole time would then necessarily be required to complete 

 myself the description of the invertebrate ones. If this plan 

 fails, as the Government work must go on, the Geology 

 would necessarily be deferred till probably at least three 

 years from this time. In the present state of the science, 

 a great part of the utility of the little I have done would 

 be lost, and all freshness and pleasure quite taken from 

 me. 



I know from experience the time required to make abstracts 



