1867.] GERMAN 'ORIGIN/ 249 



C. Darwin to J. Victor Carus. 



Down, February 17 [1867]. 



MY DEAR SIR, I have read your preface with care. It 

 seems to me that you have treated Bronn with complete 

 respect and great delicacy, and that you have alluded to your 

 own labour with much modesty. I do not think that any of 

 Bronn's friends can complain of what you say and what you 

 have done. For my own sake, I grieve that you have not 

 added notes, as I am sure that I should have profited much 

 by them ; but as you have omitted Bronn's objections, I 

 believe that you have acted with excellent judgment and 

 fairness in leaving the text without comment to the inde- 

 pendent verdict of the reader. I heartily congratulate you 

 that the main part of your labour is over ; it would have been 

 to most men a very troublesome task, but you seem to have 

 indomitable powers of work, judging from those two wonder- 

 ful and most useful volumes on zoological literature * edited 

 by you, and which I never open without surprise at their ac- 

 curacy, and gratitude for their usefulness. I cannot suffi- 

 ciently tell you how much I rejoice that you were persuaded 

 to superintend the translation of the present edition of my 

 book, for I have now the great satisfaction of knowing that 

 the German public can judge fairly of its merits and de- 

 merits 



With my cordial and sincere thanks, believe me, 

 My dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 



CH. DARWIN. 



[The earliest letter which I have seen from my father to 

 Professor Haeckel, was written in 1865, and from that time 

 forward they corresponded (though not, I think, with any regu- 

 larity) up to the end of my father's life. His friendship with 

 Haeckel was not merely growth of correspondence, as was 



* ' Bibliotheca Zoologica,' 1861. 

 53 



