More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume I [211]
endeavour to pass as severe a judgment as possible on the state of the tubers and plants.
LETTER 285. TO E. VON MOJSISOVICS. Down, June 1st, 1878.
I have at last found time to read [the] first chapter of your "Dolomit Riffe" (285/1. "Dolomitriffe Sudtirols und Venetiens." Wien, 1878.), and have been exceedingly interested by it. What a wonderful change in the future of geological chronology you indicate, by assuming the descent- theory to be established, and then taking the graduated changes of the same group of organisms as the true standard! I never hoped to live to see such a step even proposed by any one. (285/2. Published in "Life and Letters," III., pages 234, 235.)
Nevertheless, I saw dimly that each bed in a formation could contain only the organisms proper to a certain depth, and to other there existing conditions, and that all the intermediate forms between one marine species and another could rarely be preserved in the same place and bed. Oppel, Neumayr, and yourself will confer a lasting and admirable service on the noble science of Geology, if you can spread your views so as to be generally known and accepted.
With respect to the continental and oceanic periods common to the whole northern hemisphere, to which you refer, I have sometimes speculated that the present distribution of the land and sea over the world may have formerly been very different to what it now is; and that new genera and families may have been developed on the shores of isolated tracts in the south, and afterwards spread to the north.
LETTER 286. TO J.W. JUDD. Down, June 27th, 1878.
I am heartily glad to hear of your intended marriage. A good wife is the supreme blessing in this life, and I hope and believe from what you say that you will be as happy as I have been in this respect. May your future geological work be as valuable as that which you have already done; and more than this need not be wished for any man. The practical teaching of Geology seems an excellent idea.
Many thanks for Neumayr, (286/1. Probably a paper on "Die Congerien und Paludinenschichten Slavoniens und deren Fauna. Ein Beitrag zur Descendenz- Theorie," "Wien. Geol. Abhandl." VII. (Heft 3), 1874-82.), but I have already received and read a copy of the same, or at least of a very similar essay, and admirably good it seemed to me.
This essay, and one by Mojsisovics (286/2. See note to Letter 285.), which I have lately read, show what Palaeontology in the future will do for the classification and sequence of formations. It delighted me to see so inverted an order of proceeding--viz., the assuming the descent of species as certain, and then taking the changes of closely allied forms as the standard of geological time. My health is better than it was a few years ago, but I never pass a day without much discomfort and the sense of extreme fatigue.
(286/3. We owe to Professor Judd the following interesting recollections of Mr. Darwin, written about 1883:--
"On this last occasion, when I congratulated him on his seeming better condition of health, he told me of the cause for anxiety which he had in the state of his heart. Indeed, I cannot help feeling that he had a kind of presentiment that his end was approaching. When I left him, he insisted on conducting me to the door, and there was that in his tone and manner which seemed to convey to me the sad intelligence that it was not merely a temporary farewell, though he himself was perfectly cheerful and happy.
"It is impossible for me adequately to express the impression made upon my mind by my various conversations with Mr. Darwin. His extreme modesty led him to form the lowest estimate of his own labours, and a correspondingly extravagant idea of the value of the work done by others. His deference to the arguments and suggestions of men greatly his juniors, and his unaffected sympathy in their pursuits, was most marked and characteristic; indeed, he, the great master of science, used to speak, and I am sure felt, as though he were appealing to superior authority for
LETTER 285. TO E. VON MOJSISOVICS. Down, June 1st, 1878.
I have at last found time to read [the] first chapter of your "Dolomit Riffe" (285/1. "Dolomitriffe Sudtirols und Venetiens." Wien, 1878.), and have been exceedingly interested by it. What a wonderful change in the future of geological chronology you indicate, by assuming the descent- theory to be established, and then taking the graduated changes of the same group of organisms as the true standard! I never hoped to live to see such a step even proposed by any one. (285/2. Published in "Life and Letters," III., pages 234, 235.)
Nevertheless, I saw dimly that each bed in a formation could contain only the organisms proper to a certain depth, and to other there existing conditions, and that all the intermediate forms between one marine species and another could rarely be preserved in the same place and bed. Oppel, Neumayr, and yourself will confer a lasting and admirable service on the noble science of Geology, if you can spread your views so as to be generally known and accepted.
With respect to the continental and oceanic periods common to the whole northern hemisphere, to which you refer, I have sometimes speculated that the present distribution of the land and sea over the world may have formerly been very different to what it now is; and that new genera and families may have been developed on the shores of isolated tracts in the south, and afterwards spread to the north.
LETTER 286. TO J.W. JUDD. Down, June 27th, 1878.
I am heartily glad to hear of your intended marriage. A good wife is the supreme blessing in this life, and I hope and believe from what you say that you will be as happy as I have been in this respect. May your future geological work be as valuable as that which you have already done; and more than this need not be wished for any man. The practical teaching of Geology seems an excellent idea.
Many thanks for Neumayr, (286/1. Probably a paper on "Die Congerien und Paludinenschichten Slavoniens und deren Fauna. Ein Beitrag zur Descendenz- Theorie," "Wien. Geol. Abhandl." VII. (Heft 3), 1874-82.), but I have already received and read a copy of the same, or at least of a very similar essay, and admirably good it seemed to me.
This essay, and one by Mojsisovics (286/2. See note to Letter 285.), which I have lately read, show what Palaeontology in the future will do for the classification and sequence of formations. It delighted me to see so inverted an order of proceeding--viz., the assuming the descent of species as certain, and then taking the changes of closely allied forms as the standard of geological time. My health is better than it was a few years ago, but I never pass a day without much discomfort and the sense of extreme fatigue.
(286/3. We owe to Professor Judd the following interesting recollections of Mr. Darwin, written about 1883:--
"On this last occasion, when I congratulated him on his seeming better condition of health, he told me of the cause for anxiety which he had in the state of his heart. Indeed, I cannot help feeling that he had a kind of presentiment that his end was approaching. When I left him, he insisted on conducting me to the door, and there was that in his tone and manner which seemed to convey to me the sad intelligence that it was not merely a temporary farewell, though he himself was perfectly cheerful and happy.
"It is impossible for me adequately to express the impression made upon my mind by my various conversations with Mr. Darwin. His extreme modesty led him to form the lowest estimate of his own labours, and a correspondingly extravagant idea of the value of the work done by others. His deference to the arguments and suggestions of men greatly his juniors, and his unaffected sympathy in their pursuits, was most marked and characteristic; indeed, he, the great master of science, used to speak, and I am sure felt, as though he were appealing to superior authority for