Yours very truly, H. FALCONER.
CHARLES DARWIN TO HUGH FALCONER. Down [June 24, 1861].
My dear Falconer,
I have just received your note, and by good luck a day earlier than properly, and I lose not a moment in answering you, and thanking you heartily for your offer of the valuable specimen; but I have no aquarium and shall soon start for Torquay, so that it would be a thousand pities that I should have it. Yet I should certainly much like to see it, but I fear it is impossible. Would not the Zoological Society be the best place? and then the interest which many would take in this extraordinary animal would repay you for your trouble.
Kind as you have been in taking this trouble and offering me this specimen, to tell the truth I value your note more than the specimen. I shall keep your note amongst a very few precious letters. Your kindness has quite touched me.
Yours affectionately and gratefully, CH. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. 2 Hesketh Crescent, Torquay, July 13 [1861].
... I hope Harvey is better; I got his review (The 'Dublin Hospital Gazette,' May 15, 1861. The passage referred to is at page 150.) of me a day or two ago, from which I infer he must be convalescent; it's very good and fair; but it is funny to see a man argue on the succession of animals from Noah's Deluge; as God did not then wholly destroy man, probably he did not wholly destroy the races of other animals at each geological period! I never expected to have a helping hand from the Old Testament...
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. 2, Hesketh Crescent, Torquay, July 20 [1861].
My dear Lyell,