My dear George

Thanks for your very nice letter.² I fully agree to what you say about occupying yourself with small articles when you can do nothing else. It is in every way an advantage. I am far from surprised that you cannot work much at mathematicks—my wonder is that you can any day in your present state.— What an evil it is about the cold Lecture room. Oh my eye there is such a paper by Maxwell Clerk in yesterday’s Nature!³ It has been horribly cold; yesterday I could not anyhow keep warm.

It is a fearfully difficult moral problem about the speaking out on religion, & I have never been able to make up my mind.— I asked Dicey & Litchfield, when they were talking about J. S. Mill’s reticence, but got no answer from them.—⁴ As I am sure Hen.⁵ would like to read your nice letter, I will send it her by this post.— We were delighted to get a good account of Horace⁶ from himself this morning,—give the dear old fellow my love.—

Yours affect^y | Ch Darwin

We have had an Irishman a grand Breeder of Short-Horns here to Luncheon—he declares that my Books have been of great use to him in breeding!⁷