My dear Sir,

I entirely agree with all you propose.¹ I should not think of striking out anything that you might write, but would alter my own notice in accordance with what you may write. My materials are increasing a good deal, and I hope that I shall be able to give some sort of picture of what the man was. I am quite indifferent as to who publishes the German edition & it is entirely your affair. Pray understand that you will have to decide whether my preface or preliminary notice is worth translating.²

I am sure that you need not hunt for any correspondence between my grandfather & D^r Johnson, for I have always heard that they met only once & then hated each other.³ In the only catalogue of English books which I possess there is no entry of ‘Blackmore on Beauty’. Henry Brooke published in 1789 a poem entitled ‘Universal Beauty’ I could borrow this book (but could not send it to you) & if you desire could search whether there is anything about D^r Eras Darwin in it. My son has just told me that he saw, (he thinks in the Biographie Universelle) that Eras Darwin was supposed by some to have taken Brooke for a model.⁴

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin