From W. R. S. Ralston 26 April 1875
8 Alfred Place | Bedford Square | WC
April 26. 1875
My dear Sir
Imprimis: Pray believe that I am uttering no idle form of complimentary speech, if I say that to do you any such slight service as you now give me the chance of doing, is to me an honour and a pleasure.1 It is part of my reward for busying myself with Russian matters, that I am every now and then able to make myself useful to such persons as yourself—
The letter you have forwarded to me is to the effect that—2
“The Society of Naturalists in the Imperial University of Kazan, being well aware of your great scientific merits, and conscious of the immense service which your labours have rendered to the development of Nature-Knowledge, at a sitting on the 22 of May, 1871, chose you as its Honorary Member— While informing you of this, the Society has the honour to forward to you a diploma
As Honorary Members
President—(illegible)
Secretary N. Malieff(?)”3
Why they should inform you by a letter dated March 18754 of what took place in May 1871, no mind but a Slavonian’s can conceive. I was made a member of a Moscow Historical Society some years ago, but no diploma has ever reached me. All business is done in Russia at a snail’s pace—
The Russian title of the Society is
{ | “Obshchestvo | } | |||||
Society | |||||||
{ | Estestvoispuitatelei | } | { | pri | } | ||
of Nature-investigators | in | ||||||
{ | Imperatorskom | } | { | Kazanskom | } | ||
the Imperial | Kazan | ||||||
{ | Universitetye | } | |||||
University |
You can address the President in any language you feel inclined to use.
I shall be starting soon for first Germany and then Russia, with the idea of passing the winter in the latter country, and thence returning to establish myself here as a professional journalist—
As Russian matters will then be more than ever my specialty, I shall be most happy to act as your dragoman5 in case you need the services of such a functionary at any time in Russian matters. And as my fee I will ask leave to come down some day and see the house in which you live, that I may be able to answer properly when catechized about you and yours by your numerous admirers in Russia— For the scientific Russians pay you a sort of cultus. If they got hold of you in person, I am afraid they would elect you an “Ataman”6 on the spot—a great honour, but involving an initiatory rite terribly similar to that of tossing in a blanket;7 only there is no blanket, merely the hands of admiring electors—
Believe me | Yours very truly | W R S Ralston
Charles Darwin Esq, FRS. | &c &c &c
It is just possible that you may be able to find time to glance at the accompanying paper—8
Please do not trouble yourself about acknowledging its receipt or that of this letter—
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Chambers: The Chambers dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers. 1998.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
Translates letter [of 30 Mar 1875, missing] to CD from the Society of Naturalists in the Imperial University of Kazan, awarding an honorary membership.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9952
- From
- William Ralston Shedden-Ralston
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Bedford Square
- Source of text
- DAR 176: 4
- Physical description
- ALS 7pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9952,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9952.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23