My dear Sir

I am very much obliged for your kind present of your lecture.¹ We have read it aloud with the greatest interest and I agree to every word. I admire your candour and wonderful freedom from prejudice; for I feel an inward conviction that if I had been a great classical scholar I should never have been able to have judged fairly on the subject.² As it is, I am one of the root and branch men,³ and would leave classics to be learnt by those alone who have sufficient zeal and the high taste requisite for their appreciation. You have indeed done a great public service in speaking out so boldly. Scientific men might rail for ever, and it would only be said that they railed at what they did not understand. I was at school at Shrewsbury under a great scholar, D^r. Butler;⁴ I learnt absolutely nothing, except by amusing myself by reading and experimenting in chemistry.⁵ D^r. Butler somehow found this out and publicly sneered at me before the whole school, for such gross waste of time; I remember he called me a Pococurante, which, not understanding, I thought was a dreadful name. I wish you had shown in your lecture how Science could practically be taught in a great school; I have often heard it objected that this could not be done, and I never knew what to say in answer.

I heartily hope that you may live to see your zeal and labour produce good fruit; and with my best thanks, I remain, my dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin