I had thought of keeping a monkey and teaching its young ideas how to shoot, and wrote to Frank Buckland for his advice as to the best kind to get, but he has never answered my letter. The case about the lens is a capital one.
I have such a host of letters to answer, which have accumulated during my absence, that I must make this a short one. Your 'congratulations' are of more value to me than any of the others, and I thank you for them much.
Ever your devoted disciple,
Geo. J. Romanes.
P.S.—Science is not a world where a man need trouble himself about getting more credit than is due.
From C. Darwin.
Down: Sept. 2, 1878.
My dear Romanes,—Many thanks for your letter. I am delighted to hear that you mean to work the comparative psychology well. I thought your letter to the 'Times' very good indeed. Bartlett, at the Zoological Gardens, I feel sure, would advise you infinitely better about hardiness, intellect, price, &c., of monkeys than F. Buckland, but with him it must be vivâ voce.
Frank says you ought to keep an idiot, a deaf mute, a monkey, and a baby in your house!
Ever yours sincerely,