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Darwin Correspondence Project

To J. V. Carus   27 October [1872]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Oct 27th

My dear Sir

I thank you very sincerely for your criticisms.— I am always blundering. I entreat you to send me any more corrections.— Pray alter your Translation, in all the places as I will in any future edition.— About “blushing” I will say though the word blushing is used in our English Translation, but that there is no sufficient evidence of true blushing.—2 I will ask Mr. Wedgwood whether he can justify about “ugly”—: please leave out the end of note.3

It is Spenser—(no doubt my familiarity with Herbert Spencer led to my stupid blunder).—4 It is Mr. R. B. Smyth.—5

I enclose what you wanted about the words from Shaspeare at p. 79: my daughter has looked out passages in the Index or Concordance, but she has not verified all the references: they seem, however, always right.—6

Again I thank you heartily.— | In Haste | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

How I admire & envy your wonderfully accurate mind & eye!—

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. V. Carus, 24 October 1872.
See letter from J. V. Carus, 7 October 1872 and nn. 7 and 8. Henrietta Emma Litchfield often assisted CD by reading and commenting on his work before publication (see, for example, Correspondence vol. 19, letter to H. E. Darwin, 20 March 1871). Alternatively, CD may be referring to Elizabeth Darwin, who still lived at home. The enclosure has not been found.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Summary

Thanks JVC for his criticisms and corrections of Expression. Asks him to alter his translation accordingly.

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8580,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8580.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20

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