My dear Sir,

I enclose a page from the Athenæum with a fierce attack by M^r Butler on both of us, especially on me.¹ No doubt I committed a great error in not having stated that you had largely altered the article in Kosmos; but I now find that there was a sentence to this effect in the first proof-sheet, which was afterwards accidentally omitted.²

I have consulted three men well capable of judging and they unanimously think M^r Butler’s letter so ungentlemanlike as not to deserve an answer from me.³ He seems to insinuate that I suggested to you or persuaded you to add passages attacking his book, or that I myself interpolated such passages. As far as I can remember the sole suggestion which I made to you was to take no notice of M^r Butler’s book.⁴ You will be able to judge better than I can whether it is incumbent on you to answer M^r Butler’s letter.

I am very sorry that you should be in any way troubled in this affair.

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin

P.S. | The obscure expression ‘writing at’ in the last sentence in the Athenæum which I failed to understand at first seems to mean attacking