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Darwin Correspondence Project

From W. S. Dallas   18 August 1879

Margate

18 August 1879

My dear Mr. Darwin

I arrived here late on Saturday & found that my son had written for the small portion of Dr. Krause’s original matter which I had brought here to finish, & at the same time mentioned that from some expressions used in your letter, he inferred that you had not received the whole of my MS. translation.— I sent the MS. off on the 6th. August, in two packets registered, so that I hope there is no ground for my son’s apprehensions.—1

I also hope that the translation is satisfactory, although of course it will want a little polishing as it goes through the press, the difficulty of merely reading the MS. German being often considerable.

My son has I hope before now sent you the two or three quotations, from Monboddo & Craik which I was unable to get at before I left town, but if the work as it stands is, as he says, much too lengthy, probably these will be among the things cut out.—2

I shall be very glad to hear from you if you can find time to write a few lines.—

Yours very truly | W. S. Dallas

C. Darwin Esq

CD annotations

Top of letter: ‘Proof to Krause’ blue crayon; ‘Pamphlet’ pencil; ‘Returned’ ink

Footnotes

See letter from W. S. Dallas, 6 August 1879. Dallas was on holiday in Margate and had returned on 16 August from a trip to Belgium. His son James Dallas worked at the Geological Society of London and he had asked CD to write to James if he wanted his books returned. Dallas had reported that he was sending his translation of Ernst Krause’s part of Erasmus Darwin from Margate with a few omissions that he was going to rectify. CD’s letter to James Dallas has not been found.
For the quotations from James Burnett (Lord Monboddo) and George Lillie Craik, see the letter from W. S. Dallas, 6 August 1879 and n. 2.

Bibliography

Erasmus Darwin. By Ernst Krause. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas, with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1879.

Summary

WSD sent MS of his translation of Erasmus Darwin on 6 August. Hopes CD received all of it.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12197
From
William Sweetland Dallas
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Margate
Source of text
DAR 99: 118–19
Physical description
ALS 3pp †

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12197,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12197.xml

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