288 JET AT. 28. 



C. Darwin to J. S. Henslow. 



[4th November, 1837.] 



MY DEAR HENSLOW, 



. . . Pray tell Leonard * that my Government work is 

 going on smoothly, and I hope will be prosperous. He 

 will see in the Prospectus his name attached to the fish ; 

 I set my shoulders to the work with a good heart. I am 

 very much better than I was during the last month before 

 my Shrewsbury visit. I fear the Geology will take me a 

 great deal of time ; I was looking over one set of notes, and 

 the quantity I found I had to read, for that one place was 

 frightful. If I live till I am eighty years old I shall not cease 

 to marvel at finding myself an author ; in the summer before 

 I started, if any one had told me that I should have been an 

 angel by this time, I should have thought it an equal im- 

 possibility. This marvellous transformation is all owing 

 to you. 



I am sorry to find that a good many errata are left in the 

 part of my volume, which is printed. During my absence 

 Mr. Colburn employed some goose to revise, and he has 

 multiplied, instead of diminishing my oversights : but for all 

 that, the smooth paper and clear type has a charming appear- 

 ance, and I sat the other evening gazing in silent admiration 

 at the first page of my own volume, when I received it from 

 the printers ! 



Good bye, my dear Henslow, 



C. DARWIN. 



1838. 



[From the beginning of this year to nearly the end of June 

 he was busily employed on the zoological and geological 

 results of his voyage. This spell of work was interrupted 



* Rev. L. Jenyns. 



