My Dear Sir

The season for literary publication is so far passed & people are so destracted by gaieties travelling & War Bulletins² that I am keeping back all my new books until the beginning of November

I intended to do this with regard to the new Edition of your work on Species & unless you have some very special reason for bringing it out now, I w^d beg your consent to the delay wch so far from an injury will prove advantageous to the book.³ If you agree to this I will take care that your List of presentation copies shall be sent out before the end of October⁴—my selected time for publication being the season when days grow short & nights cold.

If you desire a copy for yourself meanwhile you shall have it with the greatest pleasure

I believe I told you I have made the Edition 1250⁵

My Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | John Murray

PS. The insanity of English booksellers in not cutting the edges of books arises from the propensity of Englishmen & women to read books without buying them—stantes pede in suo in the booksellers shops—⁶ They have various other devices by wch they try to effect the same illaudable object—eg by borrowing   I have one friend who has borrowed the Quarterly Review from me regularly for 40 years—

Chas Darwin Esq