256 LONDON AND CAMBRIDGE. .ETAT. 28. [1837. 



C. Darwin to J. S. Henslow. 



October 14th, [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 be- 

 fore the Society, or rather to know what parts to skip. Again, 

 my ignorance of all languages, and not knowing how to pro- 

 nounce 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 neces- 

 sarily 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 ab- 

 stracts even of my own papers for the ' Proceedings.' If I was 

 Secretary, and had to make double abstracts of each paper, 

 studying them before reading, and attendance would at least 



