My dear Gray

Hooker has forwarded to me your letter to him; & I cannot express how deeply it has gratified me.² To receive the approval of a man, whom one has long most sincerely respected, & whose judgment & knowledge are universally admitted, is the highest reward an author can possibly wish for; & I thank you heartily for your most kind expressions.—

I have been absent from home for a few days, & so could not earlier answer your letter to me of the 10^th of Jan^y. —³ You have been extremely kind to take so much trouble & interest about the Edition. It has been a mistake of my publisher not thinking of sending over the sheets. I had entirely & utterly forgotten your offer of receiving the sheets as printed off.⁴ But I must not blame my publisher; for had I remembered your most kind offer, I feel pretty sure I sh^d not have taken advantage of it; for I never dreamed of my Book being so successful with general readers: I believe I sh^d. have laughed at the idea of sending the sheets to America.—

After much consideration & on the strong advice of Lyell & others, I have resolved to leave the present book as it is (excepting correcting errors or here & there inserting short sentence) & to use all my strength which is but little to bring out the first part (forming a separate volume with index &c) of the three volumes which will make my bigger work; so that I am very unwilling to take up time in making corrections for an American Edition.— I enclose list of few corrections in the 2^d Reprint, which you will have received by this time complete;⁵ & I could send 4 or 5 corrections or additions of equally small importance, or rather of equal brevity.—⁶ I, also, intend to write a short Preface with brief history of subject.—⁷ These I will set about, as they must some day be done & I will send them you in a short time,—the few corrections first, & the preface afterwards, unless I hear that you have given up all idea of separate Edition. You will then be able to judge whether it is worth having new Edition with your Review prefixed.⁸ Whatever be the nature of your Review, I assure you I should feel it a great honour to have my Book thus preceded.— In business matters it is always best to speak out plainly: as I should not, as we have managed it, get anything from an American publisher, if you do print an Edition & can get any profit, nothing should induce me to touch a penny of it.⁹ My terms with Murray are that I receive $\frac{2}{3}$ of Profits, & he $\frac{1}{3}$;—¹⁰ with respect to latter, I can of course say nothing.— But I expect when you come to consider the case, you will not think a new Edition worth thinking about; though an answer to Agassiz would be a great advantage to subject.—

Thank you much for telling me the magnificent compliment of Wyman & for sending me extract from Agassiz.¹¹ I cannot see the force of his argument; & if he wished to puff my book he could not have been more ingenious.— I am delighted to hear that H. D. Rogers, the Professor at Glasgow & so excellent a geologist goes very long way with my views.—¹²

Believe me, my dear Gray I feel all your most generous sympathy & assistance

Yours most truly | C. Darwin

I shall value much at any time your criticisms, either in your Review or by letter.