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543 DARWIN (CHARLES) CONCERNING HIS FORTHCOMING BOOK "THE DESCENT OF MAN"

FINE A. L. s., 4 pp., 8vo, Down, Beckenham, 15 November [1870], to William Darwin Fox (whom he describes as "one of my earliest masters in Nat. History")

... I am a good deal used up with the excessive labour to me of correcting proofs of my present book, in 2 vols; & now it will not be finished till end of year. I owe many facts to you in the larger part viz. on sexual differences of Birds. I shall be delighted to send you a copy, whenever it is published, though I have sometimes had misgivings that I ought not to do so, as I fear you will disapprove of my main conclusion on the origin of man; but I can most truly say that I have written nothing without deliberate consideration & acquiring all the knowledge which I possibly could. . .

I wish I had got a little more strength. I feel that each job as finished must be my last. . .

*** Darwin's second cousin William Darwin Fox (1805-80) is often mentioned in his notebooks. The Descent of Man was published on 24 February 1871.