From C. G. Semper 16 July 1881
Würzburg
16th. July 1881.
My dear Mr. Darwin
You will I trust with your well known kindness pardon me for not answering earlier; but I had so much to do with lectures and all sorts of University-business, with House building and the death of my father and uncle, that I felt utterly unable to write private letters before now.1 Having got more leisure I hasten to ask your pardon for my impoliteness and to thank you for the extreme kindness of your judgment on my book. It is the more gratifying for me to hear from you that you do not consider me an antagonist, as Prof. Ray Lankester and other Reviewers of my book treated me not only as such but almost as an idiot.2
At first I felt inclined to ask your permission of publishing your letter in answer to Ray Lankester’s article in the “Nature” and to treat his personalities as they deserve. But after mature consideration I determined not to answer him, being confident that all judicious people in England will know Mr. Lankester as well as I do and disregard his injurious article like myself. The letter you had the kindness of writing quite spontaneously to me, gives me the courage for keeping silence in this case and in any other of the same character.
These last two years I have not been able of doing much scientific work. I have been building a house, which took much time; but the most of my time was spent in University-work and especially with my pupils, the number of which is rather too large for my physical and mental strength.3 I am rather tired out and yet I do not see the possibility before me of getting rid of that tedious teaching work, which demands most of the time of a German Professor. But it can’t be otherwise and therefore “paciencia” as the Spaniards say.4
Hoping that you are quite well and giving my compliments to Mrs. Darwin and to your son,5 | I remain yours devotedly | C. Semper
Footnotes
Bibliography
Semper, Karl. 1880. Die natürlichen Existenzbedingungen der Thiere. 2 vols. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus.
Semper, Karl. 1881. The natural conditions of existence as they affect animal life. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co.
Summary
Thanks CD for his kind judgment on his book [The natural conditions of existence (1881)].
E. Ray Lankester has written an unfriendly review of it [Nature 23 (1880–1): 405–9].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13246
- From
- Carl Gottfried Semper
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Würzburg
- Source of text
- DAR 177: 141
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13246,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13246.xml