My dear Darwin

I am heartily glad to hear of your accession of fortune; but I wish you would ‘take the goods the Gods provide you’ like a reasonable man; instead of immediately casting about to despoil yourself in favour of a friend, like a generous man, as I see you have been doing—¹ I am very glad you have told me all about the matter so that I may speak freely in return   I quite enter into your feelings & should act in the same way under like circumstances at least I hope I should, for the grasping avarice with which I have been credited lately leaves room for doubt— At the same time if you will put yourself in my place, you will feel that the notion that I or my belongings should in any way profit at the expense of you or yours—must be altogether repellent to me; and that I can but wish that M^r Rich should stand to his guns & in spite of your rendered persuasions leave the provisions of his will untouched—²

If there are any ‘residuary’ crumbs left, as you hint, I shall not quarrel with them if they come my way; otherwise it is my earnest wish that the status quo should remain unchanged— And the kindest thing you can do for me is to use your influence with M^r Rich in this sense—

Polly—that sagacious urhund³—would howl at me if I came among you laden with the spoils of the clan Darwin—and we should feel worse fortune hunters than ever on our next visit to Heene—⁴

You will find the York address in ‘Nature’.⁵ It seemed to go down very well—which I was glad of as I mean to retire from this line of business.

These addresses take so much out of one—

The wife sends her love & says she is going to write to M^rs. Darwin. She has been up Helvellyn & if the Athletic sports were not over I should expect her to enter for them!⁶

Ever | Yours very truly | T. H. Huxley