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Darwin Correspondence Project

To P. L. Sclater   12 [March 1861]

Down Bromley Kent

12th.

My dear Mr Sclater

One line to thank you for the Rabbit received safely.1

I am very glad you like Asa Gray: I fully thought that I had sent you a copy, but have just looked at my list & find that by some accident your name omitted.2

You will receive in short time a copy of my new Edit. (corrected) of the Origin, which Murray tells me he will soon distribute.—3 I am most uncommonly pleased, I can assure you, to hear that you are become “heretical” on species.— I perceived with no surprise that you were at first dead against me: in fact I cannot say that I respect anyone who has knowledge & can change his opinion suddenly on such a point.— If any fair & good opportunity occurs in any publication, I hope that you will say a word on our side: for I observe that those opposed write vehemently, & those on our side are silent; consequently the public have no means of knowing how many are on our side. But day before yesterday I had letter from a Professor, who dares not speak out.— Your note has pleased me very much: though I did not intend to have written all this.

Ever yours | C. Darwin

Footnotes

A. Gray 1861a. For CD’s lists of those to whom he intended to send a presentation copy, see the letter to Asa Gray, 23 [January 1861] and Correspondence vol. 9, Appendix III.
The third edition of Origin was published in April 1861 (see ‘Journal’; Appendix II). For CD’s list of presentation copies, see Correspondence vol. 9, Appendix VII.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.

Summary

Promises to send copy of Origin [3d ed.].

Is pleased that PLS has "become ""heretical"" on species".

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-3086
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Philip Lutley Sclater
Sent from
Down
Source of text
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.240)
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3086,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3086.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9

letter