[The following extracts referring to the late Francis Maitland Balfour (Professor of Animal Morphology at Cambridge. He was born in 1851, and was killed, with his guide, on the Aiguille Blanche, near Courmayeur, in July, 1882.), show my father's estimate of his work and intellectual qualities, but they give merely an indication of his strong appreciation of Balfour's most lovable personal character:--From a letter to Fritz Muller, January 5, 1882:--"Your appreciation of Balfour's book ['Comparative Embryology'] has pleased me excessively, for though I could not properly judge of it, yet it seemed to me one of the most remarkable books which have been published for some considerable time. He is quite a young man, and if he keeps his health, will do splendid work...He has a fair fortune of his own, so that he can give up his whole time to Biology. He is very modest, and very pleasant, and often visits here and we like him very much."From a letter to Dr. Dohrn, February 13, 1882:--"I have got one very bad piece of news to tell you, that F. Balfour is very ill at Cambridge with typhoid fever...I hope that he is not in a very dangerous state; but the fever is severe. Good Heavens, what a loss he would be to Science, and to his many loving friends!"]
CHARLES DARWIN TO T.H. HUXLEY.
Down, January 12, 1882.
My dear Huxley, Very many thanks for 'Science and Culture,' and I am sure that I shall read most of the essays with much interest. With respect to Automatism ("On the hypothesis that animals are automata and its history," an Address given at the Belfast meeting of the British Association, 1874, and published in the 'Fortnightly Review,' 1874, and in 'Science and Culture.'), I wish that you could review yourself in the old, and of course forgotten, trenchant style, and then you would here answer yourself with equal incisiveness; and thus, by Jove, you might go on ad infinitum, to the joy and instruction of the world.
Ever yours very sincerely, CHARLES DARWIN.
[The following letter refers to Dr. Ogle's translation of Aristotle, 'On the Parts of Animals' (1882):]
CHARLES DARWIN TO W. OGLE.
Down, February 22, 1882.
My dear Dr. Ogle, You must let me thank you for the pleasure which the introduction to the Aristotle book has given me. I have rarely read anything which has interested me more, though I have not read as yet more than a quarter of the book proper.
From quotations which I had seen, I had a high notion of Aristotle's merits, but I had not the most remote notion what a wonderful man he was.
Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle. How very curious, also, his ignorance on some points, as on muscles as the means of movement. I am glad that you have explained in so probable a manner some of the grossest mistakes attributed to him. I never realized, before reading your book, to what an enormous summation of labour we owe even our common knowledge. Iwish old Aristotle could know what a grand Defender of the Faith he had found in you. Believe me, my dear Dr. Ogle, Yours very sincerely, CH. DARWIN.
[In February, he received a letter and a specimen from a Mr. W.D. Crick, which illustrated a curious mode of dispersal of bivalve shells, namely, by closure of their valves so as to hold on to the leg of a water-beetle.
This class of fact had a special charm for him, and he wrote to 'Nature,' describing the case. ('Nature,' April 6, 1882.)In April he received a letter from Dr. W. Van Dyck, Lecturer in Zoology at the Protestant College of Beyrout. The letter showed that the street dogs of Beyrout had been rapidly mongrelised by introduced European dogs, and the facts have an interesting bearing on my father's theory of Sexual Selection.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO W.T. VAN DYCK.
Down, April 3, 1882.
Dear Sir, After much deliberation, I have thought it best to send your very interesting paper to the Zoological Society, in hopes that it will be published in their Journal. This journal goes to every scientific institution in the world, and the contents are abstracted in all year-books on Zoology. Therefore I have preferred it to 'Nature,' though the latter has a wider circulation, but is ephemeral.
I have prefaced your essay by a few general remarks, to which I hope that you will not object.
Of course I do not know that the Zoological Society, which is much addicted to mere systematic work, will publish your essay. If it does, I will send you copies of your essay, but these will not be ready for some months. If not published by the Zoological Society, I will endeavour to get 'Nature' to publish it. I am very anxious that it should be published and preserved.
Dear Sir, Yours faithfully, CH. DARWIN.
[The paper was read at a meeting of the Zoological Society on April 18th--the day before my father's death.
The preliminary remarks with which Dr. Van Dyck's paper is prefaced are thus the latest of my father's writings.]
...
We must now return to an early period of his life, and give a connected account of his botanical work, which has hitherto been omitted.