From W. S. Dallas 8 April 1868
Yorkshire Philosophical Society | York
8 April 1868.
My dear Sir
I ought to have written to you sooner in answer to your letter of the 30th. March which was sent here after me,—but I have been trying to hit upon something to suit as a Title & cannot please myself.—1 My expression “a Lift” was never intended as a serious proposition, but merely as an illustration of the mode in which the title might be arranged, so as to get the translation of the German, & yet reproduce as nearly as possible the form of the German title-page thus we should have instead of
FÜR DARWIN
A
LIFT
FOR DARWIN—
I think Sir Charles Lyell’s proposition the best of all those mentioned by you & if printed as follows
FACTS
AND ARGUMENTS
FOR DARWIN
or even with the upper lines in smaller type would exactly fulfil my proposal.—2 The English printers would no doubt object to the eccentricity of this title page, but then we want to reproduce the eccentricity of Fritz Müller’s own title.— Your second proposition “Facts for Darwin” would answer the same purpose, but would apply equally well to facts in favour of your views or to the hardest possible nuts for you to crack—
I have just translated a long paper by F. Müller in Wiegmann’s Archiv, which will interest you from two sides,—it is on Balani & he winds it up with remarks favourable to your views.—3
Hoping that you are now better, Believe me | Your’s very truly | W. S. Dallas
C. Darwin Esq
Footnotes
Bibliography
Müller, Fritz. 1867. Ueber Balanus armatus und einen Bastard dieser Art und des Balanus improvisus var. assimilis Darw. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 33: 329–56.
Summary
He never intended "A Lift for Darwin" as a serious title but as a way of arranging it. Lyell’s suggestion seems best to him: "Facts and Arguments For Darwin".
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6107
- From
- William Sweetland Dallas
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Yorks. Philos. Soc., York
- Source of text
- DAR 162: 20
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6107,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6107.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16