Summary

Thanks LS for his advice and his kind note. When CD thinks how he has been treated he will say to himself "so good a judge as Leslie Stephen thinks nothing of the accusation".

Summary

Advise against making any reply to Samuel Butler’s charges.

Summary

Asks THH to advise him about a response to Samuel Butler’s attack accusing CD of dishonesty. Quotes the advice of others but will do what THH advises.

Summary

CD desires her to say that the cream of THF’s letter of congratulations about William [Darwin]’s marriage [to Sara Sedgwick] lay in the P.S. about "the beloved worms, and not in any such trifles as marrying, &c".

Summary

CD advises EK on his proposed letter answering Butler.

Considering the favourable reviews, sale of Erasmus Darwin has been poor.

Summary

Thanks RBL for advice [concerning dispute with Samuel Butler]. Notes reaction of family.

Summary

All his advisers agree that CD ought not to take notice of Butler’s attack.

F. M. Balfour has offered to translate EK’s reply to Butler and to send it to Nature. [The letter was published in Nature 23 (1881): 288.]

Summary

CD is "more than pleased" by what R. B. Litchfield said of him. Congratulates HEL on having "so noble a husband".

All were "profoundly" interested by HEL’s account [of their welcome at the Working Men’s College].

Summary

Thinks CD has no need to reply to Samuel Butler’s hostile article [in the Athenæum]. Offers to reply himself.

Summary

Returns [Butler’s] attack, which he forgot to send yesterday.

Summary

Thinks Huxley’s judgment on answering S. Butler’s charges would be trustworthy, though THH is horribly pugnacious and would naturally be for fighting.

Summary

Has read Butler’s letter and CD’s draft reply and Litchfield’s letter. Has no hesitation in saying CD should take no notice. Litchfield’s advice is judicious.

Summary

The Darwin family cannot agree on what CD should do about Butler’s charges [in Unconscious memory]. CD has commissioned HEL to ask LS’s advice. She sends an account of the affair with background materials.

Summary

Agrees not to reply to Butler.

Summary

Samuel Butler’s fierce attack on CD and EK in Athenæum. CD’s sentence saying that EK had altered his Kosmos article was accidentally omitted from second proofs. Butler insinuates that EK’s attack on his book was suggested by CD or interpolated by him in EK’s text.

Summary

Has shown S. Butler’s Athenæum letter to Frederick Pollock, who confirms RBL’s advice that it needs no answer. Sends an imaginary response by Butler.

Summary

Writes about proof-correcting by WED [of Origin, 6th ed.].

Summary

James Caird does not think Torbitt’s success justifies application to Government. Torbitt has four acres planted with seedlings. Has sent back CD’s £100. Shall CD insist that he keep it?

Summary

Explains more fully why CD cannot sign Miss Cobbe’ anti-vivisection petition.

Summary

SB has decided to lay the matter [the subject of 12393 and 12396] before the public and has written to the Athenæum stating the facts. [Athenæum 31 Jan 1880.]