To A. B. Buckley 11 February [1876]1
Down Beckenham
Feb. 11th.
My dear Miss Buckley
You must let me have the pleasure of saying that I have just finished reading with very great interest your new book.2 The idea seems to me a capital one and as far as I can judge very well carried out. There is much fascination in taking a bird’s eye view of all the grand leading steps in the progress of science. At first I regretted that you had not kept each science more separate; but I daresay you found it impossible.— I have hardly any criticisms, except that I think you ought to have introduced Murchison as a great classifier of formations, second only to W. Smith. You have done full justice, and not more than justice, to our dear old Master, Lyell.—3 Perhaps a little more ought to have been said about Botany, and if you should ever add this, you would find Sachs’ History, lately published, very good for your purpose.4
You have crowned Wallace and myself with much honour and glory.5 I heartily congratulate you on having produced so novel and interesting a work, and remain, | My dear Miss Buckley | Your’s very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Buckley, Arabella Burton. 1876. A short history of natural science and of the progress of discovery from the time of the Greeks to the present day: for the use of schools and young persons. London: John Murray.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
Comments on her new book [A short history of natural science (1876)].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10387
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Arabella Burton Buckley
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 143: 179
- Physical description
- C 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10387,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10387.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24