My dear General Sabine

You must permit me to thank you for your splendid eulogium on what I have done in natural history,—even if it be as improper to thank you as to thank a Judge for his judgment. As I read your address in the Reader I declare that I felt quite amazed at what I had done.² You have made me hold my head very loftily with infinite pride. I sh^d. of course have liked you to have said a little more on the “Origin”, but you could write only according to your own judgment or to that of those in whom you trust. You will think me very presumptuous, when I say that I now feel no shadow of doubt on the future progress of Natural Selection, for I have lately received from Germany such a string of excellent names of men, who have already declared or who will immediately declare, their full adhesion to the principle, that I look at it as impossible that so many men, good & true, should all be deceived.—³ Forgive this outburst of vanity & remember that you have made me a very proud gentleman.

Pray believe me | Yours very sincerely obliged | Charles Darwin