To Ernst Haeckel 7 November 1868
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Nov 7. 1868.
My dear Häckel
I received yesterday mg your Schopfung Geschichte & I am very much obliged for it.1 I plainly see that I shall have to read the whole, but that as you know, will take me a long time. I have looked at one or two parts, & I see that, as usual, you have piled honours high on my head.
What an indomitable worker you are! & tell your wife2 from me with my kind compliments, if she will accept them, that she ought to scold you every day of your life, & not let you work so hard, for you will surely hurt yourself.
It is almost laughable the amount of work you get thro’ compared with what I can. I began an essay on the descent of Man & on Sexual selection (which latter subject I shall treat very fully) immediately when I finished my last book, & it will not be finished for another year, altho’ it will not be half as long as yours.3 I read with extreme interest your essay on Man in the popular Journal the name of which I forget, & it is quite curious how we take exactly the same view on many points, & if your essay were translated into English it wd make the publication of mine almost superfluous—4
Accept my cordial good wishes, do not work too hard, & believe me | yours most sincerely | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Thanks for [Natürliche] Schöpfungsgeschichte [1868]. "What an indomitable worker you are."
Agrees with EH’s Entstehung des Menschengeschlechts [1868].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6450
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Ernst-Haeckel-Haus (Bestand A-Abt. 1: 1–52/19)
- Physical description
- LS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6450,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6450.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16