pure love of truth.

My dear Lyell, ever yours,
C. DARWIN.


[With regard to a French translation, he wrote to Mr. Murray in November
1859: "I am EXTREMELY anxious, for the subject's sake (and God knows not
for mere fame), to have my book translated; and indirectly its being known
abroad will do good to the English sale. If it depended on me, I should
agree without payment, and instantly send a copy, and only beg that she
[Mme. Belloc] would get some scientific man to look over the
translation...You might say that, though I am a very poor French scholar, I
could detect any scientific mistake, and would read over the French
proofs."

The proposed translation was not made, and a second plan fell through in
the following year. He wrote to M. de Quatrefages: "The gentleman who
wished to translate my 'Origin of Species' has failed in getting a
publisher. Balliere, Masson, and Hachette all rejected it with contempt.
It was foolish and presumptuous in me, hoping to appear in a French dress;
but the idea would not have entered my head had it not been suggested to
me. It is a great loss. I must console myself with the German edition
which Prof. Bronn is bringing out." (See letters to Bronn, page 70.)

A sentence in another letter to M. de Quatrefages shows how anxious he was
to convert one of the greatest of contemporary Zoologists: "How I should
like to know whether Milne Edwards had read the copy which I sent him, and
whether he thinks I have made a pretty good case on our side of the
question. There is no naturalist in the world for whose opinion I have so