Charles Darwin an Ernst Haeckel, Down, 26. Dezember 1874
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
a
Dec 26 1874
My dear Haeckel
According to our English fashion, I wish you “a merry Christmas & many of them”. As you are so young & have such wonderful energy, I am sure you will do more than any man in Europe in inculcating our great principle of evolution. I thank you very sincerely for your most kind || letter of the 20th.
I was very much disappointed with the review of your book in Nature, & grieved at its spirit. The reason that so few copies have been sold in England is, I believe,b that very few Englishmen read German with ease; & this I attribute to our wretched early education.
In my own case, I find I never improve in German, & have consequently read only a few chapters of your Anthropogenie; || but these I read with much interest, & as usual, found many new ideas. I am glad to hear that you are going to the Mediterranean to continue your Gastræa theory, which has excited so wide-spread an interest. I have not heard of Hellwald’s book, & I should be glad to see it, although I shall not be able to read the whole. Dr Dodel of Zurich tells me that he has just published a work on evolution, from a botanical point of view, || but I have not yet received it. Huxley tells me that he has been working on the structure of the head of the embryo Amphioxus, & it seems that he has made wonderful progress in understanding the morphology of the vertebrate skull. He has also been writing against genealogical classification, & seems to think all present attempts are premature.
With all good wishes believe me
my dear Haeckel
yours very sincerely
Ch. Darwin
a gestr.: RAILWAYSTATION | ORPINGTON S. E. R.; b eingef.: , I believe,