The Life and Letters-2 [137]
immediately after the completion of my present book. In this case I should add a chapter on the cause or meaning of expression...
[The remaining letters of this year deal chiefly with the books, reviews, etc., which interested him.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO H. THIEL. Down, February 25, 1869.
Dear Sir,
On my return home after a short absence, I found your very courteous note, and the pamphlet ('Ueber einige Formen der Landwirthschaftlichen Genossenschaften.' by Dr. H. Thiel, then of the Agricultural Station at Poppelsdorf.), and I hasten to thank you for both, and for the very honourable mention which you make of my name. You will readily believe how much interested I am in observing that you apply to moral and social questions analogous views to those which I have used in regard to the modification of species. It did not occur to me formerly that my views could be extended to such widely different, and most important, subjects. With much respect, I beg leave to remain, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully and obliged, CHARLES DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO T.H. HUXLEY. Down, March 19 [1869].
My dear Huxley,
Thanks for your 'Address.' (In his 'Anniversary Address' to the Geological Society, 1869, Mr. Huxley criticised Sir William Thomson's paper ('Trans. Geol. Soc., Glasgow,' volume iii.) "On Geological Time.") People complain of the unequal distribution of wealth, but it is a much greater shame and injustice that any one man should have the power to write so many brilliant essays as you have lately done. There is no one who writes like you...If I were in your shoes, I should tremble for my life. I agree with all you say, except that I must think that you draw too great a distinction between the evolutionists and the uniformitarians.
I find that the few sentences which I have sent to press in the 'Origin' about the age of the world will do fairly well...
Ever yours, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE. Down, March 22 [1869].
My dear Wallace,
I have finished your book ('The Malay Archipelago,' etc., 1869.); it seems to me excellent, and at the same time most pleasant to read. That you ever returned alive is wonderful after all your risks from illness and sea voyages, especially that most interesting one to Waigiou and back. Of all the impressions which I have received from your book, the strongest is that your perseverance in the cause of science was heroic. Your descriptions of catching the splendid butterflies have made me quite envious, and at the same time have made me feel almost young again, so vividly have they brought before my mind old days when I collected, though I never made such captures as yours. Certainly collecting is the best sport in the world. I shall be astonished if your book has not a great success; and your splendid generalizations on Geographical Distribution, with which I am familiar from your papers, will be new to most of your readers. I think I enjoyed most the Timor case, as it is best demonstrated; but perhaps Celebes is really the most valuable. I should prefer looking at the whole Asiatic continent as having formerly been more African in its fauna, than admitting the former existence of a continent across the Indian Ocean...
[The following letter refers to Mr. Wallace's article in the April number of the 'Quarterly Review' (My father wrote to Mr. Murray: "The article by Wallace is inimitably good, and it is a great triumph that such an article should appear in the 'Quarterly,' and will make the Bishop of Oxford and -- gnash their teeth."), 1869, which to a large extent deals with the tenth edition of Sir Charles Lyell's 'Principles,' published in 1867 and 1868. The review contains a striking passage on Sir Charles Lyell's confession of evolutionary faith in the tenth edition of his 'Principles,' which is worth quoting: "The history of science hardly presents so striking an instance of youthfulness of mind in advanced life as is shown by this abandonment of opinions so long held and so powerfully advocated; and if we bear in mind the extreme
[The remaining letters of this year deal chiefly with the books, reviews, etc., which interested him.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO H. THIEL. Down, February 25, 1869.
Dear Sir,
On my return home after a short absence, I found your very courteous note, and the pamphlet ('Ueber einige Formen der Landwirthschaftlichen Genossenschaften.' by Dr. H. Thiel, then of the Agricultural Station at Poppelsdorf.), and I hasten to thank you for both, and for the very honourable mention which you make of my name. You will readily believe how much interested I am in observing that you apply to moral and social questions analogous views to those which I have used in regard to the modification of species. It did not occur to me formerly that my views could be extended to such widely different, and most important, subjects. With much respect, I beg leave to remain, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully and obliged, CHARLES DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO T.H. HUXLEY. Down, March 19 [1869].
My dear Huxley,
Thanks for your 'Address.' (In his 'Anniversary Address' to the Geological Society, 1869, Mr. Huxley criticised Sir William Thomson's paper ('Trans. Geol. Soc., Glasgow,' volume iii.) "On Geological Time.") People complain of the unequal distribution of wealth, but it is a much greater shame and injustice that any one man should have the power to write so many brilliant essays as you have lately done. There is no one who writes like you...If I were in your shoes, I should tremble for my life. I agree with all you say, except that I must think that you draw too great a distinction between the evolutionists and the uniformitarians.
I find that the few sentences which I have sent to press in the 'Origin' about the age of the world will do fairly well...
Ever yours, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE. Down, March 22 [1869].
My dear Wallace,
I have finished your book ('The Malay Archipelago,' etc., 1869.); it seems to me excellent, and at the same time most pleasant to read. That you ever returned alive is wonderful after all your risks from illness and sea voyages, especially that most interesting one to Waigiou and back. Of all the impressions which I have received from your book, the strongest is that your perseverance in the cause of science was heroic. Your descriptions of catching the splendid butterflies have made me quite envious, and at the same time have made me feel almost young again, so vividly have they brought before my mind old days when I collected, though I never made such captures as yours. Certainly collecting is the best sport in the world. I shall be astonished if your book has not a great success; and your splendid generalizations on Geographical Distribution, with which I am familiar from your papers, will be new to most of your readers. I think I enjoyed most the Timor case, as it is best demonstrated; but perhaps Celebes is really the most valuable. I should prefer looking at the whole Asiatic continent as having formerly been more African in its fauna, than admitting the former existence of a continent across the Indian Ocean...
[The following letter refers to Mr. Wallace's article in the April number of the 'Quarterly Review' (My father wrote to Mr. Murray: "The article by Wallace is inimitably good, and it is a great triumph that such an article should appear in the 'Quarterly,' and will make the Bishop of Oxford and -- gnash their teeth."), 1869, which to a large extent deals with the tenth edition of Sir Charles Lyell's 'Principles,' published in 1867 and 1868. The review contains a striking passage on Sir Charles Lyell's confession of evolutionary faith in the tenth edition of his 'Principles,' which is worth quoting: "The history of science hardly presents so striking an instance of youthfulness of mind in advanced life as is shown by this abandonment of opinions so long held and so powerfully advocated; and if we bear in mind the extreme