My dear Sir

My Book will not be published for a very considerable time, but the Publishers wished & insisted on inserting a notice.—²

I shall in all probability be delighted if you will translate my new Book, when ready. But I am as yet quite ignorant on the subject, yet it strikes me that I ought to receive some payment from the Publisher in Paris for the right of Translation; & I intend to make enquiries whether this is ever done; but subject to this doubt, I repeat that I shall be very happy if you will undertake the Translation.—³

Can you procure for me information on one point: if I give the right of Translation for the first edition, & then make considerable corrections & additions to future editions, am I precluded from giving the right of Translation to some fresh publisher of such new & corrected edition? I ask, because I think I have been badly treated by M. Masson & Mad^elle C. Royer (for whom I took great trouble); they have just brought out a 3^d. French Edit. of my Origin without informing me; consequently the numerous corrections & additions in the 4^th & 5^th English editions are all lost.⁴ Under these circumstances I sh^d. much wish for a new Edition of the Origin in France, not including Mad^elle Royer’s Preface (with a second one made as injurious to me as she could) & which first Preface I have been assured has injured the circulation in France.—⁵ I believe in half a years time or in a whole year it w^d answer to any publisher to bring out a corrected French edition, if it is legal in France, or in Belgium.— Pray turn this in your mind; & I w^d gladly give you such right of Translation, & inform M. Masson of my motives.—⁶

My dear Sir— | Yours sincerely | Ch Darwin