CHAPTER 1. XIII. -- THE WRITING OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.'
JUNE 18, 1858, TO NOVEMBER, 1859.
[The letters given in the present chapter tell their story with
sufficient clearness, and need but a few words of explanation. Mr.
Wallace's Essay, referred to in the first letter, bore the sub-title,
'On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original
Type,' was published in the Linnean Society's Journal (1858, volume
iii. page 53) as part of the joint paper of "Messrs. C. Darwin and A.
Wallace," of which the full title was 'On the Tendency of Species to
form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by
Natural Means of Selection.'
My father's contribution to the paper consisted of (1) Extracts from
the sketch of 1844; (2) part of a letter addressed to Dr Asa Gray,
dated September 5, 1857, and which is given above. The paper was
"communicated" to the Society by Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph
Hooker, in whose prefatory letter, a clear account of the circumstances
of the case is given.
Referring to Mr. Wallace's Essay, they wrote:
"So highly did Mr. Darwin appreciate the value of the views therein set
forth, that he proposed, in a letter to Sir Charles Lyell, to obtain
Mr. Wallace's consent to allow the Essay to be published as soon as
possible. Of this step we highly approved, provided Mr. Darwin did not
withhold from the public, as he was strongly inclined to do (in favour
of Mr. Wallace), the memoir which he had himself written on the same
subject, and which, as before stated, one of us had perused in 1844, and
the contents of which we had both of us been privy to for many years. On
representing this to Mr. Darwin, he gave us permission to make what
use we thought proper of his memoir, etc.; and in adopting our present
course, of presenting it to the Linnean Society, we have explained to
him that we are not solely considering the relative claims to priority
of himself and his friend, but the interests of science generally."]
LETTERS.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Down, 18th [June 1858].
My dear Lyell,
Some year or so ago you recommended me to read a paper by Wallace in the
'Annals' ('Annals and Magazine of Natural History', 1855.), which had
interested you, and, as I was writing to him, I knew this would please
him much, so I told him. He has to-day sent me the enclosed, and asked
me to forward it to you. It seems to me well worth reading. Your words
have come true with a vengeance--that I should be forestalled. You said
this, when I explained to you here very briefly my views of 'Natural
Selection' depending on the struggle for existence. I never saw a more
striking coincidence; if Wallace had my MS. sketch written out in 1842,
he could not have made a better short abstract! Even his terms now stand
as heads of my chapters. Please return me the MS., which he does not say
he wishes me to publish, but I shall of course, at once write and offer
to send to any journal. So all my originality, whatever it may amount
to, will be smashed, though my book, if it will ever have any value,
will not be deteriorated; as all the labour consists in the application
of the theory.
I hope you will approve of Wallace's sketch, that I may tell him what
you say.
My dear Lyell, yours most truly, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Down, Friday [June 25, 1858].
My dear Lyell,
I am very sorry to trouble you, busy as you are, in so merely a personal
an affair; but if you will give me your deliberate opinion, you will do
me as great a service as ever man did, for I have entire confidence in
your judgment and honour...
There is nothing in Wallace's sketch which is not written out much
fuller in my sketch, copied out in 1844, and read by Hooker some dozen
years ago. About a year ago I sent a short sketch, of which I have a
copy, of my views (owing to correspondence on several points) to Asa
Gray, so that I could most truly say and prove that I take nothing
from Wallace. I should be extremely glad now to publish a sketch of my
general views in about a dozen pages or so; but I cannot persuade myself
that I can do so honourably. Wallace says nothing about publication, and
I enclose his letter. But as I had not intended to publish any sketch,
can I do so honourably, because Wallace has sent me an outline of his
doctrine? I would far rather burn my whole book, than that he or any
other man should think that I had behaved in a paltry spirit. Do you
not think his having sent me this sketch ties my hands?... If I could
honourably publish, I would state that I was induced now to publish a
sketch (and I should be very glad to be permitted to say, to follow
your advice long ago given) from Wallace having sent me an outline of
my general conclusions. We differ only, [in] that I was led to my views
from what artificial selection has done for domestic animals. I would
send Wallace a copy of my letter to Asa Gray, to show him that I had not
stolen his doctrine. But I cannot tell whether to publish now would
not be base and paltry. This was my first impression, and I should have
certainly acted on it had it not been for your letter.
This is a trumpery affair to trouble you with, but you cannot tell how
much obliged I should be for your advice.
By the way, would you object to send this and your answer to Hooker to
be forwarded to me, for then I shall have the opinion of my two best and
kindest friends. This letter is miserably written, and I write it now,
that I may for a time banish the whole subject; and I am worn out with
musing...
My good dear friend forgive me. This is a trumpery letter, influenced by
trumpery feelings.
Yours most truly, C. DARWIN.
I will never trouble you or Hooker on the subject again.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Down, 26th [June, 1858].
My dear Lyell,
Forgive me for adding a P.S. to make the case as strong as possible
against myself.
Wallace might say, "You did not intend publishing an abstract of your
views till you received my communication. Is it fair to take advantage
of my having freely, though unasked, communicated to you my ideas, and
thus prevent me forestalling you?" The advantage which I should take
being that I am induced to publish from privately knowing that Wallace
is in the field. It seems hard on me that I should be thus compelled to
lose my priority of many years' standing, but I cannot feel at all
sure that this alters the justice of the case. First impressions are
generally right, and I at first thought it would be dishonourable in me
now to publish.
Yours most truly, C. DARWIN.
P.S.--I have always thought you would make a first-rate Lord Chancellor;
and I now appeal to you as a Lord Chancellor.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, Tuesday [June 29, 1858].
...I have received your letters. I cannot think now (So soon after the
death, from scarlet fever, of his infant child.) on the subject, but
soon will. But I can see that you have acted with more kindness, and so
has Lyell, even than I could have expected from you both, most kind as
you are.
I can easily get my letter to Asa Gray copied, but it is too short.
...God bless you. You shall hear soon, as soon as I can think.
Yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Tuesday night [June 29, 1858].
My dear Hooker,
I have just read your letter, and see you want the papers at once. I
am quite prostrated, and can do nothing, but I send Wallace, and the
abstract ("Abstract" is here used in the sense of "extract;" in this
sense also it occurs in the 'Linnean Journal,' where the sources of my
father's paper are described.) of my letter to Asa Gray, which gives
most imperfectly only the means of change, and does not touch on reasons
for believing that species do change. I dare say all is too late. I
hardly care about it. But you are too generous to sacrifice so much time
and kindness. It is most generous, most kind. I send my sketch of 1844
solely that you may see by your own handwriting that you did read it.
I really cannot bear to look at it. Do not waste much time. It is
miserable in me to care at all about priority.
The table of contents will show what it is.
I would make a similar, but shorter and more accurate sketch for the
'Linnean Journal.'
I will do anything. God bless you, my dear kind friend.
I can write no more. I send this by my servant to Kew.
Yours, C. DARWIN.
[The following letter is that already referred to as forming part of the
joint paper published in the Linnean Society's 'Journal,' 1858]:--
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY. Down, September 5th [1857]. (The date is
given as October in the 'Linnean Journal.' The extracts were printed
from a duplicate undated copy in my father's possession, on which he had
written, "This was sent to Asa Gray 8 or 9 months ago, I think October
1857.")
My dear Gray,
I forget the exact words which I used in my former letter, but I dare
say I said that I thought you would utterly despise me when I told you
what views I had arrived at, which I did because I thought I was bound
as an honest man to do so. I should have been a strange mortal, seeing
how much I owe to your quite extraordinary kindness, if in saying this
I had meant to attribute the least bad feeling to you. Permit me to tell
you that, before I had ever corresponded with you, Hooker had shown me
several of your letters (not of a private nature), and these gave me the
warmest feeling of respect to you; and I should indeed be ungrateful
if your letters to me, and all I have heard of you, had not strongly
enhanced this feeling. But I did not feel in the least sure that when
you knew whither I was tending, that you might not think me so wild and
foolish in my views (God knows, arrived at slowly enough, and I hope
conscientiously), that you would think me worth no more notice or
assistance. To give one example: the last time I saw my dear old friend
Falconer, he attacked me most vigorously, but quite kindly, and told me,
"You will do more harm than any ten Naturalists will do good. I can see
that you have already CORRUPTED and half-spoiled Hooker!!" Now when I
see such strong feeling in my oldest friends, you need not wonder that I
always expect my views to be received with contempt. But enough and too
much of this.
I thank you most truly for the kind spirit of your last letter. I agree
to every word in it, and think I go as far as almost any one in seeing
the grave difficulties against my doctrine. With respect to the extent
to which I go, all the arguments in favour of my notions fall RAPIDLY
away, the greater the scope of forms considered. But in animals,
embryology leads me to an enormous and frightful range. The facts which
kept me longest scientifically orthodox are those of adaptation--the
pollen-masses in asclepias--the mistletoe, with its pollen carried by
insects, and seed by birds--the woodpecker, with its feet and tail, beak
and tongue, to climb the tree and secure insects. To talk of climate or
Lamarckian habit producing such adaptations to other organic beings
is futile. This difficulty I believe I have surmounted. As you seem
interested in the subject, and as it is an IMMENSE advantage to me
to write to you and to hear, ever so briefly, what you think, I will
enclose (copied, so as to save you trouble in reading) the briefest
abstract of my notions on the means by which Nature makes her species.
Why I think that species have really changed, depends on general facts
in the affinities, embryology, rudimentary organs, geological history,
and geographical distribution of organic beings. In regard to my
Abstract, you must take immensely on trust, each paragraph occupying one
or two chapters in my book. You will, perhaps, think it paltry in me,
when I ask you not to mention my doctrine; the reason is, if any one,
like the author of the 'Vestiges,' were to hear of them, he might
easily work them in, and then I should have to quote from a work perhaps
despised by naturalists, and this would greatly injure any chance of
my views being received by those alone whose opinions I value. [Here
follows a discussion on "large genera varying," which has no direct
connection with the remainder of the letter.]
I. It is wonderful what the principle of Selection by Man, that is the
picking out of individuals with any desired quality, and breeding from
them, and again picking out, can do. Even breeders have been astonished
at their own results. They can act on differences inappreciable to an
uneducated eye. Selection has been METHODICALLY followed in Europe for
only the last half century. But it has occasionally, and even in some
degree methodically, been followed in the most ancient times. There must
have been also a kind of unconscious selection from the most ancient
times, namely, in the preservation of the individual animals (without
any thought of their offspring) most useful to each race of man in
his particular circumstances. The "roguing," as nursery-men call the
destroying of varieties, which depart from their type, is a kind of
selection. I am convinced that intentional and occasional selection has
been the main agent in making our domestic races. But, however this may
be, its great power of modification has been indisputedly shown in late
times. Selection acts only by the accumulation of very slight or greater
variations, caused by external conditions, or by the mere fact that in
generation the child is not absolutely similar to its parent. Man,
by this power of accumulating variations, adapts living beings to his
wants--he MAY BE SAID to make the wool of one sheep good for carpets,
and another for cloth, etc.
II. Now, suppose there was a being, who did not judge by mere external
appearance, but could study the whole internal organisation--who never
was capricious--who should go on selecting for one end during millions
of generations, who will say what he might not effect! In nature we have
some SLIGHT variations, occasionally in all parts: and I think it can be
shown that a change in the conditions of existence is the main cause
of the child not exactly resembling its parents; and in nature, geology
shows us what changes have taken place, and are taking place. We have
almost unlimited time: no one but a practical geologist can fully
appreciate this: think of the Glacial period, during the whole of which
the same species of shells at least have existed; there must have been
during this period, millions on millions of generations.
III. I think it can be shown that there is such an unerring power
at work, or NATURAL SELECTION (the title of my book), which selects
exclusively for the good of each organic being. The elder De Candolle,
W. Herbert, and Lyell, have written strongly on the struggle for life;
but even they have not written strongly enough. Reflect that every being
(even the elephant) breeds at such a rate that, in a few years, or at
most a few centuries or thousands of years, the surface of the earth
would not hold the progeny of any one species. I have found it hard
constantly to bear in mind that the increase of every single species is
checked during some part of its life, or during some shortly recurrent
generation. Only a few of those annually born can live to propagate
their kind. What a trifling difference must often determine which shall
survive and which perish.
IV. Now take the case of a country undergoing some change; this will
tend to cause some of its inhabitants to vary slightly; not but what I
believe most beings vary at all times enough for selection to act on.
Some of its inhabitants will be exterminated, and the remainder will be
exposed to the mutual action of a different set of inhabitants, which
I believe to be more important to the life of each being than mere
climate. Considering the infinitely various ways beings have to obtain
food by struggling with other beings, to escape danger at various times
of life, to have their eggs or seeds disseminated, etc., etc., I cannot
doubt that during millions of generations individuals of a species
will be born with some slight variation profitable to some part of its
economy; such will have a better chance of surviving, propagating this
variation, which again will be slowly increased by the accumulative
action of natural selection; and the variety thus formed will either
coexist with, or more commonly will exterminate its parent form. An
organic being like the woodpecker, or the mistletoe, may thus come to
be adapted to a score of contingencies; natural selection, accumulating
those slight variations in all parts of its structure which are in any
way useful to it, during any part of its life.
V. Multiform difficulties will occur to every one on this theory. Most
can, I think, be satisfactorily answered.--"Natura non facit saltum"
answer some of the most obvious. The slowness of the change, and only a
very few undergoing change at any one time answers others. The extreme
imperfections of our geological records answers others.
VI. One other principle, which may be called the principle of
divergence, plays, I believe, an important part in the origin of
species. The same spot will support more life if occupied by very
diverse forms: we see this in the many generic forms in a square yard of
turf (I have counted twenty species belonging to eighteen genera), or in
the plants and insects, on any little uniform islet, belonging to almost
as many genera and families as to species. We can understand this with
the higher animals, whose habits we best understand. We know that it
has been experimentally shown that a plot of land will yield a greater
weight, if cropped with several species of grasses, than with two or
three species. Now every single organic being, by propagating rapidly,
may be said to be striving its utmost to increase in numbers. So it will
be with the offspring of any species after it has broken into varieties,
or sub-species, or true species. And it follows, I think, from the
foregoing facts, that the varying offspring of each species will try
(only a few will succeed) to seize on as many and as diverse places
in the economy of nature as possible. Each new variety or species when
formed will generally take the place of, and so exterminate its
less well-fitted parent. This, I believe, to be the origin of the
classification or arrangement of all organic beings at all times. These
always SEEM to branch and sub-branch like a tree from a common trunk;
the flourishing twigs destroying the less vigorous--the dead and lost
branches rudely representing extinct genera and families.
This sketch is MOST imperfect; but in so short a space I cannot make
it better. Your imagination must fill up many wide blanks. Without some
reflection, it will appear all rubbish; perhaps it will appear so after
reflection.
C.D.
P.S.--This little abstract touches only the accumulative power of
natural selection, which I look at as by far the most important element
in the production of new forms. The laws governing the incipient or
primordial variation (unimportant except as the groundwork for selection
to act on, in which respect it is all important), I shall discuss under
several heads, but I can come, as you may well believe, only to very
partial and imperfect conclusions.
[The joint paper of Mr. Wallace and my father was read at the Linnean
Society on the evening of July 1st. Sir Charles Lyell and Sir J.D.
Hooker were present, and both, I believe, made a few remarks, chiefly
with a view of impressing on those present the necessity of giving the
most careful consideration to what they had heard. There was, however,
no semblance of a discussion. Sir Joseph Hooker writes to me: "The
interest excited was intense, but the subject was too novel and too
ominous for the old school to enter the lists, before armouring. After
the meeting it was talked over with bated breath: Lyell's approval, and
perhaps in a small way mine, as his lieutenant in the affair, rather
overawed the Fellows, who would otherwise have flown out against the
doctrine. We had, too, the vantage ground of being familiar with the
authors and their theme."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, July 5th [1858].
My dear Hooker,
We are become more happy and less panic-struck, now that we have sent
out of the house every child, and shall remove H.,as soon as she can
move. The first nurse became ill with ulcerated throat and quinsey,
and the second is now ill with the scarlet fever, but, thank God, is
recovering. You may imagine how frightened we have been. It has been a
most miserable fortnight. Thank you much for your note, telling me that
all had gone on prosperously at the Linnean Society. You must let me
once again tell you how deeply I feel your generous kindness and Lyell's
on this occasion. But in truth it shames me that you should have lost
time on a mere point of priority. I shall be curious to see the proofs.
I do not in the least understand whether my letter to A. Gray is to be
printed; I suppose not, only your note; but I am quite indifferent, and
place myself absolutely in your and Lyell's hands.
I can easily prepare an abstract of my whole work, but I can hardly see
how it can be made scientific for a Journal, without giving facts, which
would be impossible. Indeed, a mere abstract cannot be very short. Could
you give me any idea how many pages of the Journal could probably be
spared me?
Directly after my return home, I would begin and cut my cloth to my
measure. If the Referees were to reject it as not strictly scientific, I
could, perhaps publish it as a pamphlet.
With respect to my big interleaved abstract (The Sketch of 1844.), would
you send it any time before you leave England, to the enclosed address?
If you do not go till August 7th-10th, I should prefer it left with
you. I hope you have jotted criticisms on my MS. on big Genera, etc.,
sufficient to make you remember your remarks, as I should be infinitely
sorry to lose them. And I see no chance of our meeting if you go soon
abroad. We thank you heartily for your invitation to join you: I can
fancy nothing which I should enjoy more; but our children are too
delicate for us to leave; I should be mere living lumber.
Lastly, you said you would write to Wallace; I certainly should much
like this, as it would quite exonerate me: if you would send me your
note, sealed up, I would forward it with my own, as I know the address,
etc.
Will you answer me sometime about your notions of the length of my
abstract.
If you see Lyell, will you tell him how truly grateful I feel for his
kind interest in this affair of mine. You must know that I look at it,
as very important, for the reception of the view of species not being
immutable, the fact of the greatest Geologist and Botanist in England
taking ANY SORT OF INTEREST in the subject: I am sure it will do much to
break down prejudices.
Yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Miss Wedgwood's, Hartfield, Tunbridge
Wells, [July 13th, 1858].
My dear Hooker,
Your letter to Wallace seems to me perfect, quite clear and most
courteous. I do not think it could possibly be improved, and I have
to day forwarded it with a letter of my own. I always thought it very
possible that I might be forestalled, but I fancied that I had a grand
enough soul not to care; but I found myself mistaken and punished; I
had, however, quite resigned myself, and had written half a letter to
Wallace to give up all priority to him, and should certainly not
have changed had it not been for Lyell's and your quite extraordinary
kindness. I assure you I feel it, and shall not forget it. I am MORE
than satisfied at what took place at the Linnean Society. I had thought
that your letter and mine to Asa Gray were to be only an appendix to
Wallace's paper.
We go from here in a few days to the sea-side, probably to the Isle of
Wight, and on my return (after a battle with pigeon skeletons) I will
set to work at the abstract, though how on earth I shall make anything
of an abstract in thirty pages of the Journal, I know not, but will try
my best. I shall order Bentham; is it not a pity that you should waste
time in tabulating varieties? for I can get the Down schoolmaster to do
it on my return, and can tell you all the results.
I must try and see you before your journey; but do not think I am
fishing to ask you to come to Down, for you will have no time for that.
You cannot imagine how pleased I am that the notion of Natural Selection
has acted as a purgative on your bowels of immutability. Whenever
naturalists can look at species changing as certain, what a magnificent
field will be open,--on all the laws of variation,--on the genealogy of
all living beings,--on their lines of migration, etc., etc. Pray thank
Mrs. Hooker for her very kind little note, and pray, say how truly
obliged I am, and in truth ashamed to think that she should have had
the trouble of copying my ugly MS. It was extraordinarily kind in her.
Farewell, my dear kind friend.
Yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
P.S.--I have had some fun here in watching a slave-making ant; for I
could not help rather doubting the wonderful stories, but I have now
seen a defeated marauding party, and I have seen a migration from one
nest to another of the slave-makers, carrying their slaves (who are
HOUSE, and not field niggers) in their mouths!
I am inclined to think that it is a true generalisation that, when honey
is secreted at one point of the circle of the corolla, if the pistil
bends, it always bends into the line of the gangway to the honey. The
Larkspur is a good instance, in contrast to Columbine,--if you think of
it, just attend to this little point.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. King's Head Hotel, Sandown, Isle of Wight,
July 18th [1858].
...We are established here for ten days, and then go on to Shanklin,
which seems more amusing to one, like myself, who cannot walk. We hope
much that the sea may do H. and L. good. And if it does, our expedition
will answer, but not otherwise.
I have never half thanked you for all the extraordinary trouble and
kindness you showed me about Wallace's affair. Hooker told me what was
done at the Linnean Society, and I am far more than satisfied, and I do
not think that Wallace can think my conduct unfair in allowing you and
Hooker to do whatever you thought fair. I certainly was a little annoyed
to lose all priority, but had resigned myself to my fate. I am going to
prepare a longer abstract; but it is really impossible to do justice
to the subject, except by giving the facts on which each conclusion is
grounded, and that will, of course, be absolutely impossible. Your name
and Hooker's name appearing as in any way the least interested in my
work will, I am certain, have the most important bearing in leading
people to consider the subject without prejudice. I look at this as so
very important, that I am almost glad of Wallace's paper for having led
to this.
My dear Lyell, yours most gratefully, CH. DARWIN.
[The following letter refers to the proof-sheets of the Linnean paper.
The 'introduction' means the prefatory letter signed by Sir C. Lyell and
Sir J.D. Hooker.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. King's Head Hotel, Sandown, Isle of
Wight, July 21st [1858].
My dear Hooker,
I received only yesterday the proof-sheets, which I now return. I think
your introduction cannot be improved.
I am disgusted with my bad writing. I could not improve it, without
rewriting all, which would not be fair or worth while, as I have begun
on a better abstract for the Linnean Society. My excuse is that it NEVER
was intended for publication. I have made only a few corrections in the
style; but I cannot make it decent, but I hope moderately intelligible.
I suppose some one will correct the revise. (Shall I?)
Could I have a clean proof to send to Wallace?
I have not yet fully considered your remarks on big genera (but your
general concurrence is of the HIGHEST POSSIBLE interest to me); nor
shall I be able till I re-read my MS.; but you may rely on it that
you never make a remark to me which is lost from INATTENTION. I am
particularly glad you do not object to my stating your objections in
a modified form, for they always struck me as very important, and as
having much inherent value, whether or no they were fatal to my notions.
I will consider and reconsider all your remarks...
I have ordered Bentham, for, as -- says, it will be very curious to see
a Flora written by a man who knows nothing of British plants!!
I am very glad at what you say about my Abstract, but you may rely on
it that I will condense to the utmost. I would aid in money if it is
too long. (That is to say, he would help to pay for the printing, if
it should prove too long for the Linnean Society.) In how many ways you
have aided me!
Yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
[The 'Abstract' mentioned in the last sentence of the preceding letter
was in fact the 'Origin of Species,' on which he now set to work. In his
'Autobiography' he speaks of beginning to write in September, but in
his Diary he wrote, "July 20 to August 12, at Sandown, began Abstract of
Species book." "September 16, Recommenced Abstract." The book was
begun with the idea that it would be published as a paper, or series of
papers, by the Linnean Society, and it was only in the late autumn that
it became clear that it must take the form of an independent volume.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Norfolk House, Shanklin, Isle of Wight,
Friday [July] 30th [1858].
My dear Hooker,
Will you give the enclosed scrap to Sir William to thank him for his
kindness; and this gives me an excuse to amuse myself by writing to you
a note, which requires no answer.
This is a very charming place, and we have got a very comfortable house.
But, alas, I cannot say that the sea has done H. or L. much good. Nor
has my stomach recovered from all our troubles. I am very glad we left
home, for six children have now died of scarlet fever in Down. We return
on the 14th of August.
I have got Bentham ('British Flora.'), and am charmed with it, and
William (who has just started for a tour abroad) has been making out all
sorts of new (to me) plants capitally. The little scraps of information
are so capital...The English names in the analytical keys drive us mad:
give them by all means, but why on earth [not] make them subordinate to
the Latin; it puts me in a passion. W. charged into the Compositae and
Umbelliferae like a hero, and demolished ever so many in grand style.
I pass my time by doing daily a couple of hours of my Abstract, and I
find it amusing and improving work. I am now most heartily obliged to
you and Lyell for having set me on this; for I shall, when it is done,
be able to finish my work with greater ease and leisure. I confess I
hated the thought of the job; and now I find it very unsatisfactory in
not being able to give my reasons for each conclusion.
I will be longer than I expected; it will take thirty-five of my MS.
folio pages to give an abstract on variation under domestication alone;
but I will try to put in nothing which does not seem to me of some
interest, and which was once new to me. It seems a queer plan to give an
abstract of an unpublished work; nevertheless, I repeat, I am extremely
glad I have begun in earnest on it.
I hope you and Mrs. Hooker will have a very very pleasant tour.
Farewell, my dear Hooker.
Yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Norfolk House, Shanklin, Isle of Wight,
Thursday [August 5, 1858].
My dear Hooker,
I should think the note apologetical about the style of the abstract was
best as a note...But I write now to ask you to send me by return of post
the MS. on big genera, that I may make an abstract of a couple of pages
in length. I presume that you have quite done with it, otherwise I would
not for anything have it back. If you tie it with string, and mark it
MS. for printing, it will not cost, I should think, more than 4 pence.
I shall wish much to say that you have read this MS. and concur; but you
shall, before I read it to the Society, hear the sentence.
What you tell me after speaking with Busk about the length of the
Abstract is an IMMENSE relief to me; it will make the labour far less,
not having to shorten so much every single subject; but I will try not
to be too diffusive. I fear it will spoil all interest in my book (The
larger book begun in 1856.), whenever published. The Abstract will
do very well to divide into several parts: thus I have just finished
"Variation under Domestication," in forty-four MS. pages, and that would
do for one evening; but I should be extremely sorry if all could not be
published together.
What else you say about my Abstract pleases me highly, but frightens me,
for I fear I shall never be able to make it good enough. But how I do
run on about my own affairs to you!
I was astonished to see Sir W. Hooker's card here two or three days
ago: I was unfortunately out walking. Henslow, also, has written to me,
proposing to come to Down on the 9th, but alas, I do not return till the
13th, and my wife not till a week later; so that I am also most sorry to
think I shall not see you, for I should not like to leave home so soon.
I had thought of going to London and running down for an hour or two to
Kew...
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Norfolk House, Shanklin, Isle of Wight,
[August] [1858].
My dear Hooker,
I write merely to say that the MS. came safely two or three days ago.
I am much obliged for the correction of style: I find it unutterably
difficult to write clearly. When we meet I must talk over a few points
on the subject.
You speak of going to the sea-side somewhere; we think this the nicest
seaside place which we have ever seen, and we like Shanklin better than
other spots on the south coast of the island, though many are charming
and prettier, so that I would suggest your thinking of this place. We
are on the actual coast; but tastes differ so much about places.
If you go to Broadstairs, when there is a strong wind from the coast of
France and in fine, dry, warm weather, look out, and you will PROBABLY
(!) see thistle-seeds blown across the Channel. The other day I saw one
blown right inland, and then in a few minutes a second one and then a
third; and I said to myself, God bless me, how many thistles there must
be in France; and I wrote a letter in imagination to you. But I then
looked at the LOW clouds, and noticed that they were not coming inland,
so I feared a screw was loose. I then walked beyond a headland, and
found the wind parallel to the coast, and on this very headland a noble
bed of thistles, which by every wide eddy were blown far out to sea, and
then came right in at right angles to the shore! One day such a number
of insects were washed up by the tide, and I brought to life thirteen
species of Coleoptera; not that I suppose these came from France. But do
you watch for thistle-seed as you saunter along the coast...
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY. August 11th [1858].
My dear Gray,
Your note of July 27th has just reached me in the Isle of Wight. It is a
real and great pleasure to me to write to you about my notions; and
even if it were not so, I should be a most ungrateful dog, after all
the invaluable assistance you have rendered me, if I did not do anything
which you asked.
I have discussed in my long MS. the later changes of climate and the
effect on migration, and I will here give you an ABSTRACT of an ABSTRACT
(which latter I am preparing of my whole work for the Linnean Society).
I cannot give you facts, and I must write dogmatically, though I do not
feel so on any point. I may just mention, in order that you may believe
that I have SOME foundation for my views, that Hooker has read my MS.,
and though he at first demurred to my main point, he has since told me
that further reflection and new facts have made him a convert.
In the older, or perhaps newer, Pliocene age (a little BEFORE the
Glacial epoch) the temperature was higher; of this there can be little
doubt; the land, on a LARGE SCALE, held much its present disposition:
the species were mainly, judging from shells, what they are now. At this
period when all animals and plants ranged 10 or 15 degrees nearer the
poles, I believe the northern part of Siberia and of North America being
almost CONTINUOUS, were peopled (it is quite possible, considering
the shallow water, that Behring Straits were united, perhaps a little
southward) by a nearly uniform fauna and flora, just as the Arctic
regions now are. The climate then became gradually colder till it became
what it now is; and then the temperate parts of Europe and America would
be separated, as far as migration is concerned, just as they now are.
Then came on the Glacial period, driving far south all living things;
middle or even southern Europe being peopled with Arctic productions;
as the warmth returned, the Arctic productions slowly crawled up the
mountains as they became denuded of snow; and we now see on their
summits the remnants of a once continuous flora and fauna. This is E.
Forbes' theory, which, however, I may add, I had written out four years
before he published.
Some facts have made me vaguely SUSPECT that between the glacial and
the present temperature there was a period of SLIGHTLY greater warmth.
According to my modification-doctrines, I look at many of the species of
North America which CLOSELY represent those of Europe, as having become
modified since the Pliocene period, when in the northern part of the
world there was nearly free communication between the old and new
worlds. But now comes a more important consideration; there is a
considerable body of geological evidence that during the Glacial epoch
the whole world was colder; I inferred that, many years ago, from
erratic boulder phenomena carefully observed by me on both the east and
west coast of South America. Now I am so bold as to believe that at the
height of the Glacial epoch, AND WHEN ALL TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS MUST
HAVE BEEN CONSIDERABLY DISTRESSED, that several temperate forms slowly
travelled into the heart of the Tropics, and even reached the southern
hemisphere; and some few southern forms penetrated in a reverse
direction northward. (Heights of Borneo with Australian forms, Abyssinia
with Cape forms.) Wherever there was nearly continuous HIGH land, this
migration would have been immensely facilitated; hence the European
character of the plants of Tierra del Fuego and summits of Cordilleras;
hence ditto on Himalaya. As the temperature rose, all the temperate
intruders would crawl up the mountains. Hence the European forms on
Nilgherries, Ceylon, summit of Java, Organ Mountains of Brazil. But
these intruders being surrounded with new forms would be very liable to
be improved or modified by natural selection, to adapt them to the new
forms with which they had to compete; hence most of the forms on the
mountains of the Tropics are not identical, but REPRESENTATIVE forms of
North temperate plants.
There are similar classes of facts in marine productions. All this will
appear very rash to you, and rash it may be; but I am sure not so rash
as it will at first appear to you: Hooker could not stomach it at all at
first, but has become largely a convert. From mammalia and shallow sea,
I believe Japan to have been joined to main land of China within no
remote period; and then the migration north and south before, during,
and after the Glacial epoch would act on Japan, as on the corresponding
latitude of China and the United States.
I should beyond anything like to know whether you have any Alpine
collections from Japan, and what is their character. This letter is
miserably expressed, but perhaps it will suffice to show what I believe
have been the later main migrations and changes of temperature...
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. [Down] October 6th, 1858.
...If you have or can make leisure, I should very much like to hear news
of Mrs. Hooker, yourself, and the children. Where did you go, and what
did you do and are doing? There is a comprehensive text.
You cannot tell how I enjoyed your little visit here, it did me much
good. If Harvey is still with you, pray remember me very kindly to him.
...I am working most steadily at my Abstract, but it grows to an
inordinate length; yet fully to make my view clear (and never giving
briefly more than a fact or two, and slurring over difficulties), I
cannot make it shorter. It will yet take me three or four months; so
slow do I work, though never idle. You cannot imagine what a service you
have done me in making me make this Abstract; for though I thought I had
got all clear, it has clarified my brains very much, by making me weigh
the relative importance of the several elements.
I have been reading with much interest your (as I believe it to be)
capital memoir of R. Brown in the "Gardeners' Chronicle"...
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, October 12th, [1858].
...I have sent eight copies (Of the joint paper by C. Darwin and A.R.
Wallace.) by post to Wallace, and will keep the others for him, for I
could not think of any one to send any to.
I pray you not to pronounce too strongly against Natural Selection, till
you have read my abstract, for though I dare say you will strike out
MANY difficulties, which have never occurred to me; yet you cannot have
thought so fully on the subject as I have.
I expect my Abstract will run into a small volume, which will have to be
published separately...
What a splendid lot of work you have in hand.
Ever yours, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, October 13th [1858].
...I have been a little vexed at myself at having asked you not "to
pronounce too strongly against Natural Selection." I am sorry to have
bothered you, though I have been much interested by your note in answer.
I wrote the sentence without reflection. But the truth is, that I have
so accustomed myself, partly from being quizzed by my non-naturalist
relations, to expect opposition and even contempt, that I forgot for
the moment that you are the one living soul from whom I have constantly
received sympathy. Believe [me] that I never forget for even a minute
how much assistance I have received from you. You are quite correct that
I never even suspected that my speculations were a "jam-pot" to you;
indeed, I thought, until quite lately, that my MS. had produced no
effect on you, and this has often staggered me. Nor did I know that you
had spoken in general terms about my work to our friends, excepting to
dear old Falconer, who some few years ago once told me that I should do
more mischief than any ten other naturalists would do good, [and] that I
had half spoiled you already! All this is stupid egotistical stuff,
and I write it only because you may think me ungrateful for not having
valued and understood your sympathy; which God knows is not the case. It
is an accursed evil to a man to become so absorbed in any subject as I
am in mine.
I was in London yesterday for a few hours with Falconer, and he gave
me a magnificent lecture on the age of man. We are not upstarts; we can
boast of a pedigree going far back in time coeval with extinct species.
He has a grand fact of some large molar tooth in the Trias.
I am quite knocked up, and am going next Monday to revive under
Water-cure at Moor Park.
My dear Hooker, yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. November 1858.
...I had vowed not to mention my everlasting Abstract to you again, for
I am sure I have bothered you far more than enough about it; but, as you
allude to its previous publication, I may say that I have the chapters
on Instinct and Hybridism to abstract, which may take a fortnight each;
and my materials for Palaeontology, Geographical Distribution, and
Affinities, being less worked up, I dare say each of these will take me
three weeks, so that I shall not have done at soonest till April, and
then my Abstract will in bulk make a small volume. I never give more
than one or two instances, and I pass over briefly all difficulties, and
yet I cannot make my Abstract shorter, to be satisfactory, than I am now
doing, and yet it will expand to a small volume...
[About this time my father revived his old knowledge of beetles in
helping his boys in their collecting. He sent a short notice to the
'Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer,' June 25th, 1859, recording the
capture of Licinus silphoides, Clytus mysticus, Panagaeus 4-pustulatus.
The notice begins with the words, "We three very young collectors having
lately taken in the parish of Down," etc., and is signed by three of his
boys, but was clearly not written by them. I have a vivid recollection
of the pleasure of turning out my bottle of dead beetles for my father
to name, and the excitement, in which he fully shared, when any of them
proved to be uncommon ones. The following letters to Mr. Fox (November
13, 1858), and to Sir John Lubbock, illustrate this point:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO W.D. FOX. Down, November 13th [1858].
...W., my son, is now at Christ's College, in the rooms above yours.
My old Gyp, Impey, was astounded to hear that he was my son, and very
simply asked, "Why, has he been long married?" What pleasant hours those
were when I used to come and drink coffee with you daily! I am reminded
of old days by my third boy having just begun collecting beetles, and
he caught the other day Brachinus crepitans, of immortal Whittlesea
Mere memory. My blood boiled with old ardour when he caught a Licinus--a
prize unknown to me...
CHARLES DARWIN TO JOHN LUBBOCK. Thursday [before 1857].
Dear Lubbock,
I do not know whether you care about beetles, but for the chance I
send this in a bottle, which I never remember having seen; though it
is excessively rash to speak from a twenty-five-year old remembrance.
Whenever we meet you can tell me whether you know it...
I feel like an old war-horse at the sound of the trumpet, when I read
about the capturing of rare beetles--is not this a magnanimous simile
for a decayed entomologist?--It really almost makes me long to begin
collecting again. Adios.
"Floreat Entomologia"!--to which toast at Cambridge I have drunk many a
glass of wine. So again, "Floreat Entomologia." N.B. I have NOT now been
drinking any glasses full of wine.
Yours, C.D.
CHARLES DARWIN TO HERBERT SPENCER. Down, November 25th [1858].
Dear Sir,
I beg permission to thank you sincerely for your very kind present
of your Essays. ('Essays, Scientific, Political, and Speculative,' by
Herbert Spencer, 1858-74.) I have already read several of them with
much interest. Your remarks on the general argument of the so-called
development theory seems to me admirable. I am at present preparing an
Abstract of a larger work on the changes of species; but I treat the
subject simply as a naturalist, and not from a general point of view,
otherwise, in my opinion, your argument could not have been improved on,
and might have been quoted by me with great advantage. Your article
on Music has also interested me much, for I had often thought on the
subject, and had come to nearly the same conclusion with you, though
unable to support the notion in any detail. Furthermore, by a curious
coincidence, expression has been for years a persistent subject with
me for LOOSE speculation, and I must entirely agree with you that
all expression has some biological meaning. I hope to profit by your
criticism on style, and with very best thanks, I beg leave to remain,
dear Sir,
Yours truly obliged, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, December 24th [1858].
My dear Hooker,
Your news about your unsolicited salary and house is jolly, and
creditable to the Government. My room (28 x 19), with divided room
above, with ALL FIXTURES (and painted), not furniture, and plastered
outside, cost about 500 pounds. I am heartily glad of this news.
Your facts about distribution are, indeed, very striking. I remember
well that none of your many wonderful facts in your several works,
perplexed me, for years, more than the migration having been mainly from
north to south, and not in the reverse direction. I have now at last
satisfied MYSELF (but that is very different from satisfying others) on
this head; but it would take a little volume to fully explain myself.
I did not for long see the bearing of a conclusion, at which I had
arrived, with respect to this subject. It is, that species inhabiting a
very large area, and therefore existing in large numbers, and which have
been subjected to the severest competition with many other forms, will
have arrived, through natural selection, at a higher stage of perfection
than the inhabitants of a small area. Thus I explain the fact of so many
anomalies, or what may be called "living fossils," inhabiting now only
fresh water, having been beaten out, and exterminated in the sea, by
more improved forms; thus all existing Ganoid fishes are fresh water,
as [are] Lepidosiren and Ornithorhynchus, etc. The plants of Europe and
Asia, as being the largest territory, I look at as the most "improved,"
and therefore as being able to withstand the less-perfected Australian
plants; [whilst] these could not resist the Indian. See how all the
productions of New Zealand yield to those of Europe. I dare say you will
think all this utter bosh, but I believe it to be solid truth.
You will, I think, admit that Australian plants, flourishing so in
India, is no argument that they could hold their own against the ten
thousand natural contingencies of other plants, insects, animals, etc.,
etc. With respect to South West Australia and the Cape, I am shut up,
and can only d--n the whole case.
...You say you should like to see my MS., but you did read and approve
of my long Glacial chapter, and I have not yet written my Abstract on
the whole of the Geographical Distribution, nor shall I begin it for two
or three weeks. But either Abstract or the old MS. I should be DELIGHTED
to send you, especially the Abstract chapter...
I have now written 330 folio pages of my abstract, and it will require
150-200 [more]; so that it will make a printed volume of 400 pages,
and must be printed separately, which I think will be better in many
respects. The subject really seems to me too large for discussion at any
Society, and I believe religion would be brought in by men whom I know.
I am thinking of a 12mo volume, like Lyell's fourth or fifth edition of
the 'Principles.'...
I have written you a scandalously long note. So now good-bye, my dear
Hooker,
Ever yours, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, January 20th, 1859.
My dear Hooker,
I should very much like to borrow Heer at some future time, for I want
to read nothing perplexing at present till my Abstract is done.
Your last very instructive letter shall make me very cautious on the
hyper-speculative points we have been discussing.
When you say you cannot master the train of thoughts, I know well enough
that they are too doubtful and obscure to be mastered. I have often
experienced what you call the humiliating feeling of getting more and
more involved in doubt the more one thinks of the facts and reasoning
on doubtful points. But I always comfort myself with thinking of the
future, and in the full belief that the problems which we are just
entering on, will some day be solved; and if we just break the ground we
shall have done some service, even if we reap no harvest.
I quite agree that we only differ in DEGREE about the means of
dispersal, and that I think a satisfactory amount of accordance. You put
in a very striking manner the mutation of our continents, and I quite
agree; I doubt only about our oceans.
I also agree (I am in a very agreeing frame of mind) with your
argumentum ad hominem, about the highness of the Australian Flora
from the number of species and genera; but here comes in a superlative
bothering element of doubt, viz., the effect of isolation.
The only point in which I PRESUMPTUOUSLY rather demur is about the
status of the naturalised plants in Australia. I think Muller speaks of
their having spread largely beyond cultivated ground; and I can hardly
believe that our European plants would occupy stations so barren that
the native plants could not live there. I should require much evidence
to make me believe this. I have written this note merely to thank you,
as you will see it requires no answer.
I have heard to my amazement this morning from Phillips that the
Geological Council have given me the Wollaston Medal!!!
Ever yours, CHARLES DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, January 23d, 1859.
...I enclose letters to you and me from Wallace. I admire extremely the
spirit in which they are written. I never felt very sure what he would
say. He must be an amiable man. Please return that to me, and Lyell
ought to be told how well satisfied he is. These letters have vividly
brought before me how much I owe to your and Lyell's most kind and
generous conduct in all this affair.
...How glad I shall be when the Abstract is finished, and I can rest!...
CHARLES DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE. Down, January 25th [1859].
My dear Sir,
I was extremely much pleased at receiving three days ago your letter to
me and that to Dr. Hooker. Permit me to say how heartily I admire
the spirit in which they are written. Though I had absolutely nothing
whatever to do in leading Lyell and Hooker to what they thought a fair
course of action, yet I naturally could not but feel anxious to hear
what your impression would be. I owe indirectly much to you and them;
for I almost think that Lyell would have proved right, and I should
never have completed my larger work, for I have found my Abstract hard
enough with my poor health, but now, thank God, I am in my last chapter
but one. My Abstract will make a small volume of 400 or 500 pages.
Whenever published, I will, of course, send you a copy, and then you
will see what I mean about the part which I believe selection has played
with domestic productions. It is a very different part, as you suppose,
from that played by "Natural Selection." I sent off, by the same address
as this note, a copy of the 'Journal of the Linnean Society,' and
subsequently I have sent some half-dozen copies of the paper. I have
many other copies at your disposal...
I am glad to hear that you have been attending to birds' nests. I have
done so, though almost exclusively under one point of view, viz., to
show that instincts vary, so that selection could work on and improve
them. Few other instincts, so to speak, can be preserved in a Museum.
Many thanks for your offer to look after horses' stripes; If there
are any donkeys, pray add them. I am delighted to hear that you have
collected bees' combs...This is an especial hobby of mine, and I think
I can throw a light on the subject. If you can collect duplicates, at no
very great expense, I should be glad of some specimens for myself with
some bees of each kind. Young, growing, and irregular combs, and
those which have not had pupae, are most valuable for measurements and
examination. Their edges should be well protected against abrasion.
Every one whom I have seen has thought your paper very well written and
interesting. It puts my extracts (written in 1839, now just twenty years
ago!), which I must say in apology were never for an instant intended
for publication, into the shade.
You ask about Lyell's frame of mind. I think he is somewhat staggered,
but does not give in, and speaks with horror, often to me, of what a
thing it would be, and what a job it would be for the next edition of
'The Principles,' if he were "PERverted." But he is most candid and
honest, and I think will end by being PERverted. Dr. Hooker has become
almost as heterodox as you or I, and I look at Hooker as BY FAR the most
capable judge in Europe.
Most cordially do I wish you health and entire success in all your
pursuits, and, God knows, if admirable zeal and energy deserve success,
most amply do you deserve it. I look at my own career as nearly run out.
If I can publish my Abstract and perhaps my greater work on the same
subject, I shall look at my course as done.
Believe me, my dear sir, yours very sincerely, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, March 2nd [1859].
My dear Hooker,
Here is an odd, though very little, fact. I think it would be hardly
possible to name a bird which apparently could have less to do with
distribution than a Petrel. Sir W. Milner, at St. Kilda, cut open some
young nestling Petrels, and he found large, curious nuts in their crops;
I suspect picked up by parent birds from the Gulf stream. He seems to
value these nuts excessively. I have asked him (but I doubt whether
he will) to send a nut to Sir William Hooker (I gave this address for
grandeur sake) to see if any of you can name it and its native country.
Will you PLEASE MENTION this to Sir William Hooker, and if the nut does
arrive, will you oblige me by returning it to "Sir W. Milner, Bart.,
Nunappleton, Tadcaster," in a registered letter, and I will repay you
postage. Enclose slip of paper with the name and country if you can, and
let me hereafter know. Forgive me asking you to take this much trouble;
for it is a funny little fact after my own heart.
Now for another subject. I have finished my Abstract of the chapter on
Geographical Distribution, as bearing on my subject. I should like you
much to read it; but I say this, believing that you will not do so, if,
as I believe to be the case, you are extra busy. On my honour, I shall
not be mortified, and I earnestly beg you not to do it, if it will
bother you. I want it, because I here feel especially unsafe, and errors
may have crept in. Also, I should much like to know what parts you will
MOST VEHEMENTLY object to. I know we do, and must, differ widely on
several heads. Lastly, I should like particularly to know whether I
have taken anything from you, which you would like to retain for first
publication; but I think I have chiefly taken from your published
works, and, though I have several times, in this chapter and elsewhere,
acknowledged your assistance, I am aware that it is not possible for
me in the Abstract to do it sufficiently. ("I never did pick any one's
pocket, but whilst writing my present chapter I keep on feeling (even
when differing most from you) just as if I were stealing from you, so
much do I owe to your writings and conversation, so much more than mere
acknowledgments show."--Letter to Sir J.D. Hooker, 1859.) But again
let me say that you must not offer to read it if very irksome. It is
long--about ninety pages, I expect, when fully copied out.
I hope you are all well. Moor Park has done me some good.
Yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
P.S.--Heaven forgive me, here is another question: How far am I right
in supposing that with plants, the most important characters for main
divisions are Embryological? The seed itself cannot be considered as
such, I suppose, nor the albumens, etc. But I suppose the Cotyledons and
their position, and the position of the plumule and the radicle, and the
position and form of the whole embryo in the seed are embryological, and
how far are these very important? I wish to instance plants as a case
of high importance of embryological characters in classification. In the
Animal Kingdom there is, of course, no doubt of this.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, March 5th [1859].
My dear Hooker,
Many thanks about the seed...it is curious. Petrels at St. Kilda
apparently being fed by seeds raised in the West Indies. It should be
noted whether it is a nut ever imported into England. I am VERY glad
you will read my Geographical MS.; it is now copying, and it will (I
presume) take ten days or so in being finished; it shall be sent as soon
as done...
I shall be very glad to see your embryological ideas on plants; by the
sentence which I sent you, you will see that I only want one sentence;
if facts are at all, as I suppose, and I shall see this from your note,
for sending which very many thanks.
I have been so poorly, the last three days, that I sometimes doubt
whether I shall ever get my little volume done, though so nearly
completed...
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, March 15th [1859].
My dear Hooker,
I am PLEASED at what you say of my chapter. You have not attacked it
nearly so much as I feared you would. You do not seem to have detected
MANY errors. It was nearly all written from memory, and hence I was
particularly fearful; it would have been better if the whole had first
been carefully written out, and abstracted afterwards. I look at it as
morally certain that it must include much error in some of its general
views. I will just run over a few points in your note, but do not
trouble yourself to reply without you have something important to say...
...I should like to know whether the case of Endemic bats in islands
struck you; it has me especially; perhaps too strongly.
With hearty thanks, ever yours, C. DARWIN.
P.S. You cannot tell what a relief it has been to me your looking over
this chapter, as I felt very shaky on it.
I shall to-morrow finish my last chapter (except a recapitulation) on
Affinities, Homologies, Embryology, etc., and the facts seem to me to
come out VERY strong for mutability of species.
I have been much interested in working out the chapter.
I shall now, thank God, begin looking over the old first chapters for
press.
But my health is now so very poor, that even this will take me long.
CHARLES DARWIN TO W.D. FOX. Down [March] 24th [1859].
My dear Fox,
It was very good of you to write to me in the midst of all your
troubles, though you seem to have got over some of them, in the recovery
of your wife's and your own health. I had not heard lately of your
mother's health, and am sorry to hear so poor an account. But as she
does not suffer much, that is the great thing; for mere life I do not
think is much valued by the old. What a time you must have had of it,
when you had to go backwards and forwards.
We are all pretty well, and our eldest daughter is improving. I can see
daylight through my work, and am now finally correcting my chapters for
the press; and I hope in a month or six weeks to have proof-sheets. I am
weary of my work. It is a very odd thing that I have no sensation that
I overwork my brain; but facts compel me to conclude that my brain was
never formed for much thinking. We are resolved to go for two or three
months, when I have finished, to Ilkley, or some such place, to see if
I can anyhow give my health a good start, for it certainly has been
wretched of late, and has incapacitated me for everything. You do me
injustice when you think that I work for fame; I value it to a certain
extent; but, if I know myself, I work from a sort of instinct to try to
make out truth. How glad I should be if you could sometime come to Down;
especially when I get a little better, as I still hope to be. We have
set up a billiard table, and I find it does me a deal of good, and
drives the horrid species out of my head. Farewell, my dear old friend.
Yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Down, March 28th [1859].
My dear Lyell,
If I keep decently well, I hope to be able to go to press with my volume
early in May. This being so, I want much to beg a little advice from
you. From an expression in Lady Lyell's note, I fancy that you have
spoken to Murray. Is it so? And is he willing to publish my Abstract?
If you will tell me whether anything, and what has passed, I will then
write to him. Does he know at all of the subject of the book? Secondly,
can you advise me, whether I had better state what terms of publication
I should prefer, or first ask him to propose terms? And what do you
think would be fair terms for an edition? Share profits, or what?
Lastly, will you be so very kind as to look at the enclosed title and
give me your opinion and any criticisms; you must remember that, if I
have health and it appears worth doing, I have a much larger and full
book on the same subject nearly ready.
My Abstract will be about five hundred pages of the size of your first
edition of the 'Elements of Geology.'
Pray forgive me troubling you with the above queries; and you shall have
no more trouble on the subject. I hope the world goes well with you, and
that you are getting on with your various works.
I am working very hard for me, and long to finish and be free and try to
recover some health.
My dear Lyell, ever yours, C. DARWIN.
Very sincere thanks to you for standing my proxy for the Wollaston
Medal.
P.S. Would you advise me to tell Murray that my book is not more
UN-orthodox than the subject makes inevitable. That I do not discuss the
origin of man. That I do not bring in any discussion about Genesis,
etc., etc., and only give facts, and such conclusions from them as seem
to me fair.
Or had I better say NOTHING to Murray, and assume that he cannot object
to this much unorthodoxy, which in fact is not more than any Geological
Treatise which runs slap counter to Genesis.
INCLOSURE.
AN ABSTRACT OF AN ESSAY
ON THE
ORIGIN
OF
SPECIES AND VARIETIES
THROUGH NATURAL SELECTION
BY
CHARLES DARWIN, M.A.
Fellow of the Royal Geological and Linnean Societies...
LONDON:
etc., etc., etc., etc.
1859.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Down, March 30th [1859].
My dear Lyell,
You have been uncommonly kind in all you have done. You not only have
saved me much trouble and some anxiety, but have done all incomparably
better than I could have done it. I am much pleased at all you say about
Murray. I will write either to-day or to-morrow to him, and will send
shortly a large bundle of MS., but unfortunately I cannot for a week, as
the first three chapters are in the copyists' hands.
I am sorry about Murray objecting to the term Abstract, as I look at
it as the only possible apology for NOT giving references and facts in
full, but I will defer to him and you. I am also sorry about the term
"natural selection." I hope to retain it with explanation somewhat as
thus--
"Through natural selection, or the preservation of favoured Races."
Why I like the term is that it is constantly used in all works on
breeding, and I am surprised that it is not familiar to Murray; but I
have so long studied such works that I have ceased to be a competent
judge.
I again most truly and cordially thank you for your really valuable
assistance.
Yours most truly, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, April 2nd [1859].
...I wrote to him [Mr. Murray] and gave him the headings of the
chapters, and told him he could not have the MS. for ten days or so;
and this morning I received a letter, offering me handsome terms, and
agreeing to publish without seeing the MS.! So he is eager enough; I
think I should have been cautious, anyhow, but, owing to your letter,
I told him most EXPLICITLY that I accept his offer solely on condition
that, after he has seen part or all the MS., he has full power of
retracting. You will think me presumptuous, but I think my book will
be popular to a certain extent (enough to ensure [against] heavy loss)
amongst scientific and semi-scientific men; why I think so is, because
I have found in conversation so great and surprising an interest amongst
such men, and some o-scientific [non-scientific] men on this subject,
and all my chapters are not NEARLY so dry and dull as that which you
have read on geographical distribution. Anyhow, Murray ought to be the
best judge, and if he chooses to publish it, I think I may wash my hands
of all responsibility. I am sure my friends, i.e., Lyell and you, have
been EXTRAORDINARILY kind in troubling yourselves on the matter.
I shall be delighted to see you the day before Good Friday; there would
be one advantage for you in any other day--as I believe both my boys
come home on that day--and it would be almost impossible that I could
send the carriage for you. There will, I believe, be some relations in
the house--but I hope you will not care for that, as we shall easily get
as much talking as my IMBECILE STATE allows. I shall deeply enjoy seeing
you.
...I am tired, so no more.
My dear Hooker, your affectionate, C. DARWIN.
P.S.--Please to send, well TIED UP with strong string, my Geographical
MS., towards the latter half of next week--i.e., 7th or 8th--that I may
send it with more to Murray; and God help him if he tries to read it.
...I cannot help a little doubting whether Lyell would take much pains
to induce Murray to publish my book; this was not done at my request,
and it rather grates against my pride.
I know that Lyell has been INFINITELY kind about my affair, but your
dashed (i.e., underlined) "INDUCE" gives the idea that Lyell had
unfairly urged Murray.
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY. April 4th [1859].
...You ask to see my sheets as printed off; I assure you that it will be
the HIGHEST satisfaction to me to do so: I look at the request as a high
compliment. I shall not, you may depend, forget a request which I look
at as a favour. But (and it is a heavy "but" to me) it will be long
before I go to press; I can truly say I am NEVER idle; indeed, I work
too hard for my much weakened health; yet I can do only three hours of
work daily, and I cannot at all see when I shall have finished: I have
done eleven long chapters, but I have got some other very difficult
ones: as palaeontology, classifications, and embryology, etc., and I
have to correct and add largely to all those done. I find, alas! each
chapter takes me on an average three months, so slow I am. There is
no end to the necessary digressions. I have just finished a chapter on
Instinct, and here I found grappling with such a subject as bees'
cells, and comparing all my notes made during twenty years, took up a
despairing length of time.
But I am running on about myself in a most egotistical style. Yet I must
just say how useful I have again and again found your letters, which I
have lately been looking over and quoting! but you need not fear that I
shall quote anything you would dislike, for I try to be very cautious
on this head. I most heartily hope you may succeed in getting your
"incubus" of old work off your hands, and be in some degree a free
man...
Again let me say that I do indeed feel grateful to you...
CHARLES DARWIN TO J. MURRAY. Down, April 5th [1859].
My dear Sir,
I send by this post, the Title (with some remarks on a separate page),
and the first three chapters. If you have patience to read all Chapter
I., I honestly think you will have a fair notion of the interest of the
whole book. It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest
the public, and I am sure that the views are original. If you think
otherwise, I must repeat my request that you will freely reject my
work; and though I shall be a little disappointed, I shall be in no way
injured.
If you choose to read Chapters II. and III., you will have a dull and
rather abstruse chapter, and a plain and interesting one, in my opinion.
As soon as you have done with the MS., please to send it by CAREFUL
MESSENGER, AND PLAINLY DIRECTED, to Miss G. Tollett, 14, Queen Anne
Street, Cavendish Square.
This lady, being an excellent judge of style, is going to look out for
errors for me.
You must take your own time, but the sooner you finish, the sooner she
will, and the sooner I shall get to press, which I so earnestly wish.
I presume you will wish to see Chapter IV., the key-stone of my arch,
and Chapters X. and XI., but please to inform me on this head.
My dear Sir, yours sincerely, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, April 11th [1859].
...I write one line to say that I heard from Murray yesterday, and he
says he has read the first three chapters of one MS.(and this includes a
very dull one), and he abides by his offer. Hence he does not want more
MS., and you can send my Geographical chapter when it pleases you...
[Part of the MS. seems to have been lost on its way back to my father;
he wrote (April 14) to Sir J.D. Hooker:]
"I have the old MS., otherwise, the loss would have killed me! The worst
is now that it will cause delay in getting to press, and FAR WORST of
all, lose all advantage of your having looked over my chapter, except
the third part returned. I am very sorry Mrs. Hooker took the trouble of
copying the two pages."
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. [April or May, 1859].
...Please do not say to any one that I thought my book on Species would
be fairly popular, and have a fairly remunerative sale (which was the
height of my ambition), for if it prove a dead failure, it would make me
the more ridiculous.
I enclose a criticism, a taste of the future--
REV. S. HAUGHTON'S ADDRESS TO THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, DUBLIN. (February
9, 1859.)
"This speculation of Messrs. Darwin and Wallace would not be worthy
of notice were it not for the weight of authority of the names (i.e.
Lyell's and yours), under whose auspices it has been brought forward. If
it means what it says, it is a truism; if it means anything more, it is
contrary to fact."
Q.E.D.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, May 11th [1859].
My dear Hooker,
Thank you for telling me about obscurity of style. But on my life no
nigger with lash over him could have worked harder at clearness than
I have done. But the very difficulty to me, of itself leads to the
probability that I fail. Yet one lady who has read all my MS. has found
only two or three obscure sentences, but Mrs. Hooker having so found
it, makes me tremble. I will do my best in proofs. You are a good man to
take the trouble to write about it.
With respect to our mutual muddle ("When I go over the chapter I will
see what I can do, but I hardly know how I am obscure, and I think we
are somehow in a mutual muddle with respect to each other, from starting
from some fundamentally different notions."--Letter of May 6, 1859.),
I never for a moment thought we could not make our ideas clear to each
other by talk, or if either of us had time to write in extenso.
I imagine from some expressions (but if you ask me what, I could not
answer) that you look at variability as some necessary contingency with
organisms, and further that there is some necessary tendency in the
variability to go on diverging in character or degree. IF YOU DO, I do
not agree. "Reversion" again (a form of inheritance), I look at as in no
way directly connected with Variation, though of course inheritance is
of fundamental importance to us, for if a variation be not inherited,
it is of no significance to us. It was on such points as these I FANCIED
that we perhaps started differently.
I fear that my book will not deserve at all the pleasant things you say
about it; and Good Lord, how I do long to have done with it!
Since the above was written, I have received and have been MUCH
INTERESTED by A. Gray. I am delighted at his note about my and Wallace's
paper. He will go round, for it is futile to give up very many species,
and stop at an arbitrary line at others. It is what my grandfather
called Unitarianism, "a feather bed to catch a falling Christian."...
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, May 18th [1859].
My dear Hooker,
My health has quite failed. I am off to-morrow for a week of Hydropathy.
I am very very sorry to say that I cannot look over any proofs (Of Sir
J. Hooker's Introduction to the 'Flora of Australia.') in the week,
as my object is to drive the subject out of my head. I shall return
to-morrow week. If it be worth while, which probably it is not, you
could keep back any proofs till my return home.
In haste, ever yours, C. DARWIN.
[Ten days later he wrote to Sir J.D. Hooker:
"...I write one word to say that I shall return on Saturday, and if you
have any proof-sheets to send, I shall be glad to do my best in any
criticisms. I had... great prostration of mind and body, but entire
rest, and the douche, and 'Adam Bede,' have together done me a world of
good."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO J. MURRAY. Down, June 14th [1859].
My dear Sir,
The diagram will do very well, and I will send it shortly to Mr. West to
have a few trifling corrections made.
I get on very slowly with proofs. I remember writing to you that I
thought there would not be much correction. I honestly wrote what I
thought, but was most grievously mistaken. I find the style incredibly
bad, and most difficult to make clear and smooth. I am extremely
sorry to say, on account of expense, and loss of time for me, that
the corrections are very heavy, as heavy as possible. But from casual
glances, I still hope that later chapters are not so badly written. How
I could have written so badly is quite inconceivable, but I suppose
it was owing to my whole attention being fixed on the general line of
argument, and not on details. All I can say is, that I am very sorry.
Yours very sincerely, C. DARWIN.
P.S. I have been looking at the corrections, and considering them.
It seems to me that I shall put you to a quite unfair expense. If
you please I should like to enter into some such arrangement as the
following: when work completed, you to allow in the account a fairly
moderately heavy charge for corrections, and all excess over that to be
deducted from my profits, or paid by me individually.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Down, June 21st [1859].
I am working very hard, but get on slowly, for I find that my
corrections are terrifically heavy, and the work most difficult to me. I
have corrected 130 pages, and the volume will be about 500. I have tried
my best to make it clear and striking, but very much fear that I have
failed--so many discussions are and must be very perplexing. I have done
my best. If you had all my materials, I am sure you would have made a
splendid book. I long to finish, for I am nearly worn out.
My dear Lyell, ever yours most truly, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, 22nd [June, 1859].
My dear Hooker,
I did not answer your pleasant note, with a good deal of news to me,
of May 30th, as I have been expecting proofs from you. But now, having
nothing particular to do, I will fly a note, though I have nothing
particular to say or ask. Indeed, how can a man have anything to say,
who spends every day in correcting accursed proofs; and such proofs! I
have fairly to blacken them, and fasten slips of paper on, so miserable
have I found the style. You say that you dreamt that my book was
ENTERTAINING; that dream is pretty well over with me, and I begin to
fear that the public will find it intolerably dry and perplexing. But I
will never give up that a better man could have made a splendid book
out of the materials. I was glad to hear about Prestwich's paper. (Mr.
Prestwich wrote on the occurrence of flint instruments associated with
the remains of extinct animals in France.--(Proc. R. Soc., 1859.))
My doubt has been (and I see Wright has inserted the same in the
'Athenaeum') whether the pieces of flint are really tools; their
numbers make me doubt, and when I formerly looked at Boucher de Perthe's
drawings, I came to the conclusion that they were angular fragments
broken by ice action.
Did crossing the Acacia do any good? I am so hard worked, that I can
make no experiments. I have got only to 150 pages in first proof.
Adios, my dear Hooker, ever yours, CHARLES DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J. MURRAY. Down, July 25th [1859].
My dear Sir,
I write to say that five sheets are returned to the printers ready to
strike off, and two more sheets require only a revise; so that I presume
you will soon have to decide what number of copies to print off.
I am quite incapable of forming an opinion. I think I have got the style
FAIRLY good and clear, with infinite trouble. But whether the book will
be successful to a degree to satisfy you, I really cannot conjecture. I
heartily hope it may.
My dear Sir, yours very sincerely, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE. Down, August 9th, 1859.
My dear Mr. Wallace,
I received your letter and memoir (This seems to refer to Mr. Wallace's
paper, "On the Zoological Geography of the Malay Archipelago," 'Linn.
Soc. Journ,' 1860.) on the 7th, and will forward it to-morrow to the
Linnean Society. But you will be aware that there is no meeting till
the beginning of November. Your paper seems to me ADMIRABLE in matter,
style, and reasoning; and I thank you for allowing me to read it. Had I
read it some months ago, I should have profited by it for my forthcoming
volume. But my two chapters on this subject are in type, and, though not
yet corrected, I am so wearied out and weak in health, that I am fully
resolved not to add one word, and merely improve the style. So you will
see that my views are nearly the same with yours, and you may rely on it
that not one word shall be altered owing to my having read your
ideas. Are you aware that Mr. W. Earl (Probably Mr. W. Earle's paper,
Geographical Soc. Journal, 1845.) published several years ago the view
of distribution of animals in the Malay Archipelago, in relation to the
depth of the sea between the islands? I was much struck with this,
and have been in the habit of noting all facts in distribution in
that archipelago, and elsewhere, in this relation. I have been led
to conclude that there has been a good deal of naturalisation in the
different Malay islands, and which I have thought, to a certain extent,
would account for anomalies. Timor has been my greatest puzzle. What do
you say to the peculiar Felis there? I wish that you had visited Timor;
it has been asserted that a fossil mastodon's or elephant's tooth (I
forget which) has been found there, which would be a grand fact. I was
aware that Celebes was very peculiar; but the relation to Africa is
quite new to me, and marvellous, and almost passes belief. It is as
anomalous as the relation of PLANTS in S.W. Australia to the Cape of
Good Hope. I differ WHOLLY from you on the colonisation of oceanic
islands, but you will have EVERY ONE else on your side. I quite agree
with respect to all islands not situated far in the ocean. I quite agree
on the little occasional intermigration between lands [islands?] when
once pretty well stocked with inhabitants, but think this does not apply
to rising and ill-stocked islands. Are you aware that ANNUALLY birds are
blown to Madeira, the Azores (and to Bermuda from America). I wish I had
given a fuller abstract of my reasons for not believing in Forbes' great
continental extensions; but it is too late, for I will alter nothing--I
am worn out, and must have rest. Owen, I do not doubt, will bitterly
oppose us...Hooker is publishing a grand introduction to the Flora of
Australia, and goes the whole length. I have seen proofs of about half.
With every good wish.
Believe me, yours very sincerely, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, September 1st [1859].
...I am not surprised at your finding your Introduction very difficult.
But do not grudge the labour, and do not say you "have burnt your
fingers," and are "deep in the mud"; for I feel sure that the result
will be well worth the labour. Unless I am a fool, I must be a judge
to some extent of the value of such general essays, and I am fully
convinced that yours are the must valuable ever published.
I have corrected all but the last two chapters of my book, and hope to
have done revises and all in about three weeks, and then I (or we all)
shall start for some months' hydropathy; my health has been very bad,
and I am becoming as weak as a child, and incapable of doing anything
whatever, except my three hours daily work at proof-sheets. God knows
whether I shall ever be good at anything again, perhaps a long rest and
hydropathy may do something.
I have not had A. Gray's Essay, and should not feel up to criticise it,
even if I had the impertinence and courage. You will believe me that
I speak strictly the truth when I say that your Australian Essay is
EXTREMELY interesting to me, rather too much so. I enjoy reading it
over, and if you think my criticisms are worth anything to you, I beg
you to send the sheets (if you can give me time for good days); but
unless I can render you any little, however little assistance, I would
rather read the essay when published. Pray understand that I should be
TRULY vexed not to read them, if you wish it for your own sake.
I had a terribly long fit of sickness yesterday, which makes the world
rather extra gloomy to-day, and I have an insanely strong wish to finish
my accursed book, such corrections every page has required as I never
saw before. It is so weariful, killing the whole afternoon, after 12
o'clock doing nothing whatever. But I will grumble no more. So farewell,
we shall meet in the winter I trust.
Farewell, my dear Hooker, your affectionate friend, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Down, September 2nd [1859].
...I am very glad you wish to see my clean sheets: I should have offered
them, but did not know whether it would bore you; I wrote by this
morning's post to Murray to send them. Unfortunately I have not got to
the part which will interest you, I think most, and which tells most
in favour of the view, viz., Geological Succession, Geographical
Distribution, and especially Morphology, Embryology and Rudimentary
Organs. I will see that the remaining sheets, when printed off, are sent
to you. But would you like for me to send the last and perfect revises
of the sheets as I correct them? if so, send me your address in a blank
envelope. I hope that you will read all, whether dull (especially latter
part of Chapter II.) or not, for I am convinced there is not a sentence
which has not a bearing on the whole argument. You will find Chapter
IV. perplexing and unintelligible, without the aid of the enclosed queer
diagram (The diagram illustrates descent with divergence.), of which
I send an old and useless proof. I have, as Murray says, corrected so
heavily, as almost to have re-written it; but yet I fear it is poorly
written. Parts are intricate; and I do not think that even you could
make them quite clear. Do not, I beg, be in a hurry in committing
yourself (like so many naturalists) to go a certain length and no
further; for I am deeply convinced that it is absolutely necessary to
go the whole vast length, or stick to the creation of each separate
species; I argue this point briefly in the last chapter. Remember that
your verdict will probably have more influence than my book in deciding
whether such views as I hold will be admitted or rejected at present; in
the future I cannot doubt about their admittance, and our posterity will
marvel as much about the current belief as we do about fossils shells
having been thought to have been created as we now see them. But forgive
me for running on about my hobby-horse...
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, [September] 11th [1859].
My dear Hooker,
I corrected the last proof yesterday, and I have now my revises, index,
etc., which will take me near to the end of the month. So that the neck
of my work, thank God, is broken.
I write now to say that I am uneasy in my conscience about hesitating to
look over your proofs, but I was feeling miserably unwell and shattered
when I wrote. I do not suppose I could be of hardly any use, but if I
could, pray send me any proofs. I should be (and fear I was) the most
ungrateful man to hesitate to do anything for you after some fifteen or
more years' help from you.
As soon as ever I have fairly finished I shall be off to Ilkley, or some
other Hydropathic establishment. But I shall be some time yet, as my
proofs have been so utterly obscured with corrections, that I have to
correct heavily on revises.
Murray proposes to publish the first week in November. Oh, good heavens,
the relief to my head and body to banish the whole subject from my mind!
I hope to God, you do not think me a brute about your proof-sheets.
Farewell, yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Down, September 20th [1859].
My dear Lyell,
You once gave me intense pleasure, or rather delight, by the way you
were interested, in a manner I never expected, in my Coral Reef notions,
and now you have again given me similar pleasure by the manner you have
noticed my species work. (Sir Charles was President of the Geological
section at the meeting of the British Association at Aberdeen in 1859.
The following passage occurs in the address: "On this difficult and
mysterious subject a work will very shortly appear by Mr. Charles
Darwin, the result of twenty years of observations and experiments in
Zoology, Botany, and Geology, by which he had been led to the conclusion
that those powers of nature which give rise to races and permanent
varieties in animals and plants, are the same as those which in much
longer periods produce species, and in a still longer series of ages
give rise to differences of generic rank. He appears to me to have
succeeded by his investigations and reasonings in throwing a flood
of light on many classes of phenomena connected with the affinities,
geographical distribution, and geological succession of organic beings,
for which no other hypothesis has been able, or has even attempted to
account.") Nothing could be more satisfactory to me, and I thank you for
myself, and even more for the subject's sake, as I know well that
the sentence will make many fairly consider the subject, instead of
ridiculing it. Although your previously felt doubts on the immutability
of species, may have more influence in converting you (if you be
converted) than my book; yet as I regard your verdict as far more
important in my own eyes, and I believe in the eyes of the world than of
any other dozen men, I am naturally very anxious about it. Therefore
let me beg you to keep your mind open till you receive (in perhaps a
fortnight's time) my latter chapters, which are the most important of
all on the favourable side. The last chapter, which sums up and balances
in a mass all the arguments contra and pro, will, I think, be useful to
you. I cannot too strongly express my conviction of the general truth
of my doctrines, and God knows I have never shirked a difficulty. I am
foolishly anxious for your verdict, not that I shall be disappointed if
you are not converted; for I remember the long years it took me to
come round; but I shall be most deeply delighted if you do come round,
especially if I have a fair share in the conversion, I shall then
feel that my career is run, and care little whether I ever am good for
anything again in this life.
Thank you much for allowing me to put in the sentence about your grave
doubt. (As to the immutability of species, 'Origin,' Edition i., page
310.) So much and too much about myself.
I have read with extreme interest in the Aberdeen paper about the flint
tools; you have made the whole case far clearer to me; I suppose that
you did not think the evidence sufficient about the Glacial period.
With cordial thanks for your splendid notice of my book.
Believe me, my dear Lyell, your affectionate disciple, CHARLES DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO W.D. FOX. Down, September 23rd [1859].
My dear Fox,
I was very glad to get your letter a few days ago. I was wishing to hear
about you, but have been in such an absorbed, slavish, overworked
state, that I had not heart without compulsion to write to any one or
do anything beyond my daily work. Though your account of yourself is
better, I cannot think it at all satisfactory, and I wish you would soon
go to Malvern again. My father used to believe largely in an old saying
that, if a man grew thinner between fifty and sixty years of age, his
chance of long life was poor, and that on the contrary it was a very
good sign if he grew fatter; so that your stoutness, I look at as a
very good omen. My health has been as bad as it well could be all this
summer; and I have kept on my legs, only by going at short intervals to
Moor Park; but I have been better lately, and, thank Heaven, I have at
last as good as done my book, having only the index and two or three
revises to do. It will be published in the first week in November, and a
copy shall be sent you. Remember it is only an Abstract (but has cost
me above thirteen months to write!!), and facts and authorities are far
from given in full. I shall be curious to hear what you think of it, but
I am not so silly as to expect to convert you. Lyell has read about
half of the volume in clean sheets, and gives me very great kudos. He
is wavering so much about the immutability of species, that I expect
he will come round. Hooker has come round, and will publish his belief
soon. So much for my abominable volume, which has cost me so much labour
that I almost hate it. On October 3rd I start for Ilkley, but shall
take three days for the journey! It is so late that we shall not take
a house; but I go there alone for three or four weeks, then return home
for a week and go to Moor Park for three or four weeks, and then I shall
get a moderate spell of hydropathy: and I intend, if I can keep to my
resolution, of being idle this winter. But I fear ennui will be as bad
as a bad stomach...
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Down, September 25th [1859].
My dear Lyell,
I send by this post four corrected sheets. I have altered the sentence
about the Eocene fauna being beaten by recent, thanks to your remark.
But I imagined that it would have been clear that I supposed the climate
to be nearly similar; you do not doubt, I imagine, that the climate of
the eocene and recent periods in DIFFERENT parts of the world could
be matched. Not that I think climate nearly so important as most
naturalists seem to think. In my opinion no error is more mischievous
than this.
I was very glad to find that Hooker, who read over, in MS., my
Geographical chapters, quite agreed in the view of the greater
importance of organic relations. I should like you to consider page 77
and reflect on the case of any organism in the midst of its range.
I shall be curious hereafter to hear what you think of distribution
during the glacial and preceding warmer periods. I am so glad you do
not think the Chapter on the Imperfection of the Geological Record
exaggerated; I was more fearful about this chapter than about any part.
Embryology in Chapter VIII. is one of my strongest points I think. But
I must not bore you by running on. My mind is so wearisomely full of the
subject.
I do thank you for your eulogy at Aberdeen. I have been so wearied and
exhausted of late that I have for months doubted whether I have not been
throwing away time and labour for nothing. But now I care not what the
universal world says; I have always found you right, and certainly on
this occasion I am not going to doubt for the first time. Whether you go
far, or but a very short way with me and others who believe as I do, I
am contented, for my work cannot be in vain. You would laugh if you knew
how often I have read your paragraph, and it has acted like a little
dram...
Farewell, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Down, September 30th [1859].
My dear Lyell,
I sent off this morning the last sheets, but without index, which is not
in type. I look at you as my Lord High Chancellor in Natural Science,
and therefore I request you, after you have finished, just to RERUN over
the heads in the Recapitulation-part of last chapter. I shall be deeply
anxious to hear what you decide (if you are able to decide) on the
balance of the pros and contras given in my volume, and of such other
pros and contras as may occur to you. I hope that you will think that I
have given the difficulties fairly. I feel an entire conviction that if
you are now staggered to any moderate extent, that you will come more
and more round, the longer you keep the subject at all before your mind.
I remember well how many long years it was before I could look into the
faces of some of the difficulties and not feel quite abashed. I fairly
struck my colours before the case of neuter insects.
I suppose that I am a very slow thinker, for you would be surprised at
the number of years it took me to see clearly what some of the problems
were which had to be solved, such as the necessity of the principle of
divergence of character, the extinction of intermediate varieties, on
a continuous area, with graduated conditions; the double problem of
sterile first crosses and sterile hybrids, etc., etc.
Looking back, I think it was more difficult to see what the problems
were than to solve them, so far as I have succeeded in doing, and this
seems to me rather curious. Well, good or bad, my work, thank God, is
over; and hard work, I can assure you, I have had, and much work which
has never borne fruit. You can see, by the way I am scribbling, that
I have an idle and rainy afternoon. I was not able to start for Ilkley
yesterday as I was too unwell; but I hope to get there on Tuesday or
Wednesday. Do, I beg you, when you have finished my book and thought a
little over it, let me hear from you. Never mind and pitch into me, if
you think it requisite; some future day, in London possibly, you may
give me a few criticisms in detail, that is, if you have scribbled any
remarks on the margin, for the chance of a second edition.
Murray has printed 1250 copies, which seems to me rather too large an
edition, but I hope he will not lose.
I make as much fuss about my book as if it were my first. Forgive me,
and believe me, my dear Lyell,
Yours most sincerely, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Ilkley, Yorkshire, October 15th [1859].
My dear Hooker,
Be a good man and screw out time enough to write me a note and tell me a
little about yourself, your doings, and belongings.
Is your Introduction fairly finished? I know you will abuse it, and I
know well how much I shall like it. I have been here nearly a fortnight,
and it has done me very much good, though I sprained my ankle last
Sunday, which has quite stopped walking. All my family come here on
Monday to stop three or four weeks, and then I shall go back to the
great establishment, and stay a fortnight; so that if I can keep my
spirits, I shall stay eight weeks here, and thus give hydropathy a
fair chance. Before starting here I was in an awful state of stomach,
strength, temper, and spirits. My book has been completely finished some
little time; as soon as copies are ready, of course one will be sent
you. I hope you will mark your copy with scores, so that I may profit
by any criticisms. I should like to hear your general impression. From
Lyell's letters, he thinks favourably of it, but seems staggered by
the lengths to which I go. But if you go any considerable length in the
admission of modification, I can see no possible means of drawing the
line, and saying here you must stop. Lyell is going to reread my book,
and I yet entertain hopes that he will be converted, or perverted, as he
calls it. Lyell has been EXTREMELY kind in writing me three volume-like
letters; but he says nothing about dispersal during the glacial period.
I should like to know what he thinks on this head. I have one question
to ask: Would it be any good to send a copy of my book to Decaisne?
and do you know any philosophical botanists on the Continent, who read
English and care for such subjects? if so, give their addresses. How
about Andersson in Sweden? You cannot think how refreshing it is to
idle away the whole day, and hardly ever think in the least about my
confounded book which half-killed me. I much wish I could hear of your
taking a real rest. I know how very strong you are, mentally, but I
never will believe you can go on working as you have worked of late with
impunity. You will some day stretch the string too tight. Farewell, my
good, and kind, and dear friend,
Yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO T.H. HUXLEY. Ilkley, Otley, Yorkshire, October 15th
[1859].
My dear Huxley,
I am here hydropathising and coming to life again, after having finished
my accursed book, which would have been easy work to any one else, but
half-killed me. I have thought you would give me one bit of information,
and I know not to whom else to apply; viz., the addresses of Barrande,
Von Siebold, Keyserling (I dare say Sir Roderick would know the latter).
Can you tell me of any good and SPECULATIVE foreigners to whom it would
be worth while to send copies of my book, on the 'Origin of Species'?
I doubt whether it is worth sending to Siebold. I should like to send a
few copies about, but how many I can afford I know not yet till I hear
what price Murray affixes.
I need not say that I will send, of course, one to you, in the first
week of November. I hope to send copies abroad immediately. I shall be
INTENSELY curious to hear what effect the book produces on you. I know
that there will be much in it which you will object to, and I do not
doubt many errors. I am very far from expecting to convert you to many
of my heresies; but if, on the whole, you and two or three others think
I am on the right road, I shall not care what the mob of naturalists
think. The penultimate chapter (Chapter XIII. is on Classification,
Morphology, Embryology, and Rudimentary Organs.), though I believe it
includes the truth, will, I much fear, make you savage. Do not act and
say, like Macleay versus Fleming, "I write with aqua fortis to bite into
brass."
Ever yours, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Ilkley, Yorkshire, October 20th [1859].
My dear Lyell,
I have been reading over all your letters consecutively, and I do not
feel that I have thanked you half enough for the extreme pleasure which
they have given me, and for their utility. I see in them evidence of
fluctuation in the degree of credence you give to the theory; nor am
I at all surprised at this, for many and many fluctuations I have
undergone.
There is one point in your letter which I did not notice, about the
animals (and many plants) naturalised in Australia, which you think
could not endure without man's aid. I cannot see how man does aid the
feral cattle. But, letting that pass, you seem to think, that because
they suffer prodigious destruction during droughts, that they would all
be destroyed. In the "gran secos" of La Plata, the indigenous animals,
such as the American deer, die by thousands, and suffer apparently as
much as the cattle. In parts of India, after a drought, it takes ten
or more years before the indigenous mammals get up to their full number
again. Your argument would, I think, apply to the aborigines as well as
to the feral.
An animal or plant which becomes feral in one small territory might be
destroyed by climate, but I can hardly believe so, when once feral over
several large territories. Again, I feel inclined to swear at climate:
do not think me impudent for attacking you about climate. You say you
doubt whether man could have existed under the Eocene climate, but man
can now withstand the climate of Esquimaux-land and West Equatorial
Africa; and surely you do not think the Eocene climate differed from the
present throughout all Europe, as much as the Arctic regions differ from
Equatorial Africa?
With respect to organisms being created on the American type in America,
it might, I think, be said that they were so created to prevent them
being too well created, so as to beat the aborigines; but this seems to
me, somehow, a monstrous doctrine.
I have reflected a good deal on what you say on the necessity of
continued intervention of creative power. I cannot see this necessity;
and its admission, I think, would make the theory of Natural Selection
valueless. Grant a simple Archetypal creature, like the Mud-fish or
Lepidosiren, with the five senses and some vestige of mind, and I
believe natural selection will account for the production of every
vertebrate animal.
Farewell; forgive me for indulging in this prose, and believe me, with
cordial thanks,
Your ever attached disciple, C. DARWIN.
P.S.--When, and if, you reread, I supplicate you to write on the margin
the word "expand," when too condensed, or "not clear." or "?." Such
marks would cost you little trouble, and I could copy them and reflect
on them, and their value would be infinite to me.
My larger book will have to be wholly re-written, and not merely the
present volume expanded; so that I want to waste as little time over
this volume as possible, if another edition be called for; but I fear
the subject will be too perplexing, as I have treated it, for general
public.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Ilkley, Yorkshire, Sunday [October 23rd,
1859].
My dear Hooker,
I congratulate you on your 'Introduction' ("Australian Flora".) being in
fact finished. I am sure from what I read of it (and deeply I shall be
interested in reading it straight through), that it must have cost you
a prodigious amount of labour and thought. I shall like very much to
see the sheet, which you wish me to look at. Now I am so completely a
gentleman, that I have sometimes a little difficulty to pass the day;
but it is astonishing how idle a three weeks I have passed. If it is any
comfort to you, pray delude yourself by saying that you intend "sticking
to humdrum science." But I believe it just as much as if a plant were
to say that, "I have been growing all my life, and, by Jove, I will stop
growing." You cannot help yourself; you are not clever enough for that.
You could not even remain idle, as I have done, for three weeks! What
you say about Lyell pleases me exceedingly; I had not at all inferred
from his letters that he had come so much round. I remember thinking,
above a year ago, that if ever I lived to see Lyell, yourself,
and Huxley come round, partly by my book, and partly by their own
reflections, I should feel that the subject is safe, and all the world
might rail, but that ultimately the theory of Natural Selection (though,
no doubt, imperfect in its present condition, and embracing many errors)
would prevail. Nothing will ever convince me that three such men, with
so much diversified knowledge, and so well accustomed to search for
truth, could err greatly. I have spoken of you here as a convert made
by me; but I know well how much larger the share has been of your own
self-thought. I am intensely curious to hear Huxley's opinion of my
book. I fear my long discussion on Classification will disgust him; for
it is much opposed to what he once said to me.
But, how I am running on. You see how idle I am; but I have so enjoyed
your letter that you must forgive me. With respect to migration during
the glacial period: I think Lyell quite comprehends, for he has given me
a supporting fact. But, perhaps, he unconsciously hates (do not say so
to him) the view as slightly staggering him on his favourite theory of
all changes of climate being due to changes in the relative position of
land and water.
I will send copies of my book to all the men specified by you;... you
would be so kind as to add title, as Doctor, or Professor, or Monsieur,
or Von, and initials (when wanted), and addresses to the names on the
enclosed list, and let me have it pretty SOON, as towards the close
of this week Murray says the copies to go abroad will be ready. I am
anxious to get my view generally known, and not, I hope and think, for
mere personal conceit...
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL. Ilkley, Yorkshire, October 25th [1859].
...Our difference on "principle of improvement" and "power of
adaptation" is too profound for discussion by letter. If I am wrong, I
am quite blind to my error. If I am right, our difference will be got
over only by your re-reading carefully and reflecting on my first four
chapters. I supplicate you to read these again carefully. The so-called
improvement of our Shorthorn cattle, pigeons, etc., does not presuppose
or require any aboriginal "power of adaptation," or "principle of
improvement;" it requires only diversified variability, and man to
select or take advantage of those modifications which are useful to him;
so under nature any slight modification which CHANCES to arise, and is
useful to any creature, is selected or preserved in the struggle for
life; any modification which is injurious is destroyed or rejected;
any which is neither useful nor injurious will be left a fluctuating
element. When you contrast natural selection and "improvement," you seem
always to overlook (for I do not see how you can deny) that every step
in the natural selection of each species implies improvement in that
species in relation to its conditions of life. No modification can be
selected without it be an improvement or advantage. Improvement implies,
I suppose, each form obtaining many parts or organs, all excellently
adapted for their functions. As each species is improved, and as the
number of forms will have increased, if we look to the whole course of
time, the organic condition of life for other forms will become more
complex, and there will be a necessity for other forms to become
improved, or they will be exterminated; and I can see no limit to this
process of improvement, without the intervention of any other and direct
principle of improvement. All this seems to me quite compatible with
certain forms fitted for simple conditions, remaining unaltered, or
being degraded.
If I have a second edition, I will reiterate "Natural Selection," and,
as a general consequence, "Natural Improvement."
As you go, as far as you do, I begin strongly to think, judging from
myself, that you will go much further. How slowly the older geologists
admitted your grand views on existing geological causes of change!
If at any time you think I can answer any question, it is a real
pleasure to me to write.
Yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J. MURRAY. Ilkley, Yorkshire [1859].
My dear Sir,
I have received your kind note and the copy; I am infinitely pleased and
proud at the appearance of my child.
I quite agree to all you propose about price. But you are really too
generous about the, to me, scandalously heavy corrections. Are you not
acting unfairly towards yourself? Would it not be better at least to
share the 72 pounds 8 shillings? I shall be fully satisfied, for I had
no business to send, though quite unintentionally and unexpectedly, such
badly composed MS. to the printers.
Thank you for your kind offer to distribute the copies to my friends and
assistors as soon as possible. Do not trouble yourself much about the
foreigners, as Messrs. Williams and Norgate have most kindly offered
to do their best, and they are accustomed to send to all parts of the
world.
I will pay for my copies whenever you like. I am so glad that you were
so good as to undertake the publication of my book.
My dear Sir, yours very sincerely, CHARLES DARWIN.
P.S.--Please do not forget to let me hear about two days before the
copies are distributed.
I do not know when I shall leave this place, certainly not for several
weeks. Whenever I am in London I will call on you.