A REVIVAL OF GEOLOGICAL WORK--THE BOOK ON
EARTHWORMS--LIFE OF ERASMUS DARWIN--MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS.
1876-1882.
[We have now to consider the work (other than botanical) which occupied
the concluding six years of my father's life. A letter to his old friend
Rev. L. Blomefield (Jenyns), written in March, 1877, shows what was my
father's estimate of his own powers of work at this time:--
"My dear Jenyns (I see I have forgotten your proper names).--Your
extremely kind letter has given me warm pleasure. As one gets old, one's
thoughts turn back to the past rather than to the future, and I often
think of the pleasant, and to me valuable, hours which I spent with you
on the borders of the Fens.
"You ask about my future work; I doubt whether I shall be able to do
much more that is new, and I always keep before my mind the example
of poor old --, who in his old age had a cacoethes for writing. But I
cannot endure doing nothing, so I suppose that I shall go on as long as
I can without obviously making a fool of myself. I have a great mass
of matter with respect to variation under nature; but so much has been
published since the appearance of the 'Origin of Species,' that I very
much doubt whether I retain power of mind and strength to reduce the
mass into a digested whole. I have sometimes thought that I would try,
but dread the attempt..."
His prophecy proved to be a true one with regard to any continuation
of any general work in the direction of Evolution, but his estimate of
powers which could afterwards prove capable of grappling with the 'Power
of Movement in Plants,' and with the work on 'Earthworms,' was certainly
a low one.
The year 1876, with which the present chapter begins, brought with it
a revival of geological work. He had been astonished, as I hear from
Professor Judd, and as appears in his letters, to learn that his books
on 'Volcanic Islands,' 1844, and on 'South America,' 1846, were still
consulted by geologists, and it was a surprise to him that new editions
should be required. Both these works were originally published by
Messrs. Smith and Elder, and the new edition of 1876 was also brought
out by them. This appeared in one volume with the title 'Geological
Observations on the Volcanic Islands, and Parts of South America visited
during the Voyage of H.M.S. "Beagle".' He has explained in the preface
his reasons for leaving untouched the text of the original editions:
"They relate to parts of the world which have been so rarely visited
by men of science, that I am not aware that much could be corrected or
added from observations subsequently made. Owing to the great progress
which Geology has made within recent times, my views on some few points
may be somewhat antiquated; but I have thought it best to leave them as
they originally appeared."
It may have been the revival of geological speculation, due to the
revision of his early books, that led to his recording the observations
of which some account is given in the following letter. Part of it
has been published in Professor James Geikie's 'Prehistoric Europe,'
chapters vii. and ix. (My father's suggestion is also noticed in Prof.
Geikie's address on the 'Ice Age in Europe and North America,' given
at Edinburgh, November 20, 1884.), a few verbal alterations having been
made at my father's request in the passages quoted. Mr. Geikie lately
wrote to me: "The views suggested in his letter as to the origin of the
angular gravels, etc., in the South of England will, I believe, come to
be accepted as the truth. This question has a much wider bearing than
might at first appear. In point of fact it solves one of the most
difficult problems in Quaternary Geology--and has already attracted the
attention of German geologists."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO JAMES GEIKIE. Down, November 16, 1876.
My dear Sir,
I hope that you will forgive me for troubling you with a very long
letter. But first allow me to tell you with what extreme pleasure and
admiration I have just finished reading your 'Great Ice Age.' It seems
to me admirably done, and most clear. Interesting as many chapters are
in the history of the world, I do not think that any one comes [up]
nearly to the glacial period or periods. Though I have steadily read
much on the subject, your book makes the whole appear almost new to me.
I am now going to mention a small observation, made by me two or three
years ago, near Southampton, but not followed out, as I have no strength
for excursions. I need say nothing about the character of the drift
there (which includes palaeolithic celts), for you have described its
essential features in a few words at page 506. It covers the whole
country [in an] even plain-like surface, almost irrespective of the
present outline of the land.
The coarse stratification has sometimes been disturbed. I find that you
allude "to the larger stones often standing on end;" and this is the
point which struck me so much. Not only moderately sized angular stones,
but small oval pebbles often stand vertically up, in a manner which I
have never seen in ordinary gravel beds. This fact reminded me of what
occurs near my home, in the stiff red clay, full of unworn flints over
the chalk, which is no doubt the residue left undissolved by rain
water. In this clay, flints as long and thin as my arm often stand
perpendicularly up; and I have been told by the tank-diggers that it
is their "natural position!" I presume that this position may safely be
attributed to the differential movement of parts of the red clay as it
subsided very slowly from the dissolution of the underlying chalk; so
that the flints arrange themselves in the lines of least resistance. The
similar but less strongly marked arrangement of the stones in the
drift near Southampton makes me suspect that it also must have
slowly subsided; and the notion has crossed my mind that during the
commencement and height of the glacial period great beds of frozen snow
accumulated over the south of England, and that, during the summer,
gravel and stones were washed from the higher land over its surface, and
in superficial channels. The larger streams may have cut right through
the frozen snow, and deposited gravel in lines at the bottom. But on
each succeeding autumn, when the running water failed, I imagine that
the lines of drainage would have been filled up by blown snow afterwards
congealed, and that, owing to great surface accumulations of snow, it
would be a mere chance whether the drainage, together with gravel and
sand, would follow the same lines during the next summer. Thus, as I
apprehend, alternate layers of frozen snow and drift, in sheets and
lines, would ultimately have covered the country to a great thickness,
with lines of drift probably deposited in various directions at the
bottom by the larger streams. As the climate became warmer, the lower
beds of frozen snow would have melted with extreme slowness, and the
many irregular beds of interstratified drift would have sunk down with
equal slowness; and during this movement the elongated pebbles would
have arranged themselves more or less vertically. The drift would also
have been deposited almost irrespective of the outline of the underlying
land. When I viewed the country I could not persuade myself that any
flood, however great, could have deposited such coarse gravel over the
almost level platforms between the valleys. My view differs from that
of Holst, page 415 ['Great Ice Age'], of which I had never heard, as
his relates to channels cut through glaciers, and mine to beds of drift
interstratified with frozen snow where no glaciers existed. The upshot
of this long letter is to ask you to keep my notion in your head,
and look out for upright pebbles in any lowland country which you may
examine, where glaciers have not existed. Or if you think the notion
deserves any further thought, but not otherwise, to tell any one of
it, for instance Mr. Skertchly, who is examining such districts. Pray
forgive me for writing so long a letter, and again thanking you for the
great pleasure derived from your book,
I remain yours very faithfully, CH. DARWIN.
P.S.... I am glad that you have read Blytt (Axel Blytt.--'Essay on
the Immigration of the Norwegian Flora during alternate rainy and dry
Seasons.' Christiania, 1876.); his paper seemed to me a most important
contribution to Botanical Geography. How curious that the same
conclusions should have been arrived at by Mr. Skertchly, who seems to
be a first-rate observer; and this implies, as I always think, a sound
theoriser.
I have told my publisher to send you in two or three days a copy (second
edition) of my geological work during the voyage of the "Beagle". The
sole point which would perhaps interest you is about the steppe-like
plains of Patagonia.
For many years past I have had fearful misgivings that it must have been
the level of the sea, and not that of the land which has changed.
I read a few months ago your [brother's] very interesting life of
Murchison. (By Mr. Archibald Geikie.) Though I have always thought that
he ranked next to W. Smith in the classification of formations, and
though I knew how kind-hearted [he was], yet the book has raised him
greatly in my respect, notwithstanding his foibles and want of broad
philosophical views.
[The only other geological work of his later years was embodied in
his book on earthworms (1881), which may therefore be conveniently
considered in this place. This subject was one which had interested him
many years before this date, and in 1838 a paper on the formation of
mould was published in the Proceedings of the Geological Society (see
volume i.).
Here he showed that "fragments of burnt marl, cinders, etc., which had
been thickly strewed over the surface of several meadows were found
after a few years lying at a depth of some inches beneath the turf, but
still forming a layer." For the explanation of this fact, which forms
the central idea of the geological part of the book, he was indebted to
his uncle Josiah Wedgwood, who suggested that worms, by bringing earth
to the surface in their castings, must undermine any objects lying on
the surface and cause an apparent sinking.
In the book of 1881 he extended his observations on this burying action,
and devised a number of different ways of checking his estimates as to
the amount of work done. (He received much valuable help from Dr. King,
of the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. The following passage is from a
letter to Dr. King, dated January 18, 1873:--
"I really do not know how to thank you enough for the immense trouble
which you have taken. You have attended EXACTLY and FULLY to the points
about which I was most anxious. If I had been each evening by your side,
I could not have suggested anything else.") He also added a mass of
observations on the habits, natural history and intelligence of worms, a
part of the work which added greatly to its popularity.
In 1877 Sir Thomas Farrer had discovered close to his garden the remains
of a building of Roman-British times, and thus gave my father the
opportunity of seeing for himself the effects produced by earthworms'
work on the old concrete-floors, walls, etc. On his return he wrote to
Sir Thomas Farrer:
"I cannot remember a more delightful week than the last. I know very
well that E. will not believe me, but the worms were by no means the
sole charm."
In the autumn of 1880, when the 'Power of Movement in Plants' was nearly
finished, he began once more on the subject. He wrote to Professor Carus
(September 21):--
"In the intervals of correcting the press, I am writing a very little
book, and have done nearly half of it. Its title will be (as at present
designed) 'The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of
Worms.' (The full title is 'The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the
Action of Worms with Observations on their Habits,' 1881.) As far as I
can judge it will be a curious little book."
The manuscript was sent to the printers in April, 1881, and when the
proo-sheets were coming in he wrote to Professor Carus: "The subject
has been to me a hobby-horse, and I have perhaps treated it in foolish
detail."
It was published on October 10, and 2000 copies were sold at once. He
wrote to Sir J.D. Hooker, "I am glad that you approve of the 'Worms.'
When in old days I used to tell you whatever I was doing, if you were at
all interested, I always felt as most men do when their work is finally
published."
To Mr. Mellard Reade he wrote (November 8): "It has been a complete
surprise to me how many persons have cared for the subject." And to Mr.
Dyer (in November): "My book has been received with almost laughable
enthusiasm, and 3500 copies have been sold!!!" Again, to his friend Mr.
Anthony Rich, he wrote on February 4, 1882, "I have been plagued with an
endless stream of letters on the subject; most of them very foolish
and enthusiastic; but some containing good facts which I have used in
correcting yesterday the 'Sixth Thousand.'" The popularity of the book
may be roughly estimated by the fact that, in the three years following
its publication, 8500 copies were sold--a sale relatively greater than
that of the 'Origin of Species.'
It is not difficult to account for its success with the non-scientific
public. Conclusions so wide and so novel, and so easily understood,
drawn from the study of creatures so familiar, and treated with unabated
vigour and freshness, may well have attracted many readers. A reviewer
remarks: "In the eyes of most men... the earthworm is a mere blind, dumb,
senseless, and unpleasantly slimy annelid. Mr. Darwin undertakes to
rehabilitate his character, and the earthworm steps forth at once as
an intelligent and beneficent personage, a worker of vast geological
changes, a planer down of mountain sides... a friend of man... and an
ally of the Society for the preservation of ancient monuments." The "St.
James Gazette", October 17, 1881, pointed out that the teaching of the
cumulative importance of the infinitely little is the point of contact
between this book and the author's previous work.
One more book remains to be noticed, the 'Life of Erasmus Darwin.'
In February 1879 an essay by Dr. Ernst Krause, on the scientific work
of Erasmus Darwin, appeared in the evolutionary journal, 'Kosmos.' The
number of 'Kosmos' in question was a "Gratulationsheft" (The same number
contains a good biographical sketch of my father, of which the material
was to a large extent supplied by him to the writer, Professor Preyer
of Jena. The article contains an excellent list of my father's
publications.), or special congratulatory issue in honour of my father's
birthday, so that Dr. Krause's essay, glorifying the older evolutionist,
was quite in its place. He wrote to Dr. Krause, thanking him cordially
for the honour paid to Erasmus, and asking his permission to publish
(The wish to do so was shared by his brother, Erasmus Darwin the
younger, who continued to be associated with the project.) an English
translation of the Essay.
His chief reason for writing a notice of his grandfather's life was "to
contradict flatly some calumnies by Miss Seward." This appears from a
letter of March 27, 1879, to his cousin Reginald Darwin, in which
he asks for any documents and letters which might throw light on the
character of Erasmus. This led to Mr. Reginald Darwin placing in my
father's hands a quantity of valuable material, including a curious
folio common-place book, of which he wrote: "I have been deeply
interested by the great book,... reading and looking at it is like having
communion with the dead...[it] has taught me a good deal about the
occupations and tastes of our grandfather." A subsequent letter (April
8) to the same correspondent describes the source of a further supply of
material:--
Since my last letter I have made a strange discovery; for an old box
from my father marked "Old Deeds," and which consequently I had never
opened, I found full of letters--hundreds from Dr. Erasmus--and others
from old members of the Family: some few very curious. Also a drawing of
Elston before it was altered, about 1750, of which I think I will give a
copy."
Dr. Krause's contribution formed the second part of the 'Life of Erasmus
Darwin,' my father supplying a "preliminary notice." This expression on
the title-page is somewhat misleading; my father's contribution is more
than half the book, and should have been described as a biography. Work
of this kind was new to him, and he wrote doubtfully to Mr. Thiselton
Dyer, June 18th: "God only knows what I shall make of his life, it is
such a new kind of work to me." The strong interest he felt about
his forebears helped to give zest to the work, which became a decided
enjoyment to him. With the general public the book was not markedly
successful, but many of his friends recognised its merits. Sir J.D.
Hooker was one of these, and to him my father wrote, "Your praise of the
Life of Dr. D. has pleased me exceedingly, for I despised my work, and
thought myself a perfect fool to have undertaken such a job."
To Mr. Galton, too, he wrote, November 14:--
"I am EXTREMELY glad that you approve of the little 'Life' of our
grandfather, for I have been repenting that I ever undertook it, as the
work was quite beyond my tether."
The publication of the 'Life of Erasmus Darwin' led to an attack by
Mr. Samuel Butler, which amounted to a charge of falsehood against my
father. After consulting his friends, he came to the determination to
leave the charge unanswered, as unworthy of his notice. (He had, in a
letter to Mr. Butler, expressed his regret at the oversight which caused
so much offence.) Those who wish to know more of the matter, may gather
the facts of the case from Ernst Krause's 'Charles Darwin,' and they
will find Mr. Butler's statement of his grievance in the "Athenaeum",
January 31, 1880, and in the "St. James's Gazette", December 8, 1880.
The affair gave my father much pain, but the warm sympathy of those
whose opinion he respected soon helped him to let it pass into a
well-merited oblivion.
The following letter refers to M. J.H. Fabre's 'Souvenirs
Entomologiques.' It may find a place here, as it contains a defence of
Erasmus Darwin on a small point. The postscript is interesting, as
an example of one of my father's bold ideas both as to experiment and
theory:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.H. FABRE. Down, January 31, 1880.
My dear Sir,
I hope that you will permit me to have the satisfaction of thanking you
cordially for the lively pleasure which I have derived from reading
your book. Never have the wonderful habits of insects been more vividly
described, and it is almost as good to read about them as to see them. I
feel sure that you would not be unjust to even an insect, much less to
a man. Now, you have been misled by some translator, for my grandfather,
Erasmus Darwin, states ('Zoonomia,' volume i. page 183, 1794) that it
was a wasp (guepe) which he saw cutting off the wings of a large fly. I
have no doubt that you are right in saying that the wings are generally
cut off instinctively; but in the case described by my grandfather, the
wasp, after cutting off the two ends of the body, rose in the air, and
was turned round by the wind; he then alighted and cut off the wings. I
must believe, with Pierre Huber, that insects have "une petite dose de
raison." In the next edition of your book, I hope that you will alter
PART of what you say about my grandfather.
I am sorry that you are so strongly opposed to the Descent theory; I
have found the searching for the history of each structure or instinct
an excellent aid to observation; and wonderful observer as you are, it
would suggest new points to you. If I were to write on the evolution of
instincts, I could make good use of some of the facts which you give.
Permit me to add, that when I read the last sentence in your book, I
sympathised deeply with you. (The book is intended as a memorial of the
early death of M. Fabre's son, who had been his father's assistant in
his observations on insect life.)
With the most sincere respect, I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully,
CHARLES DARWIN.
P.S.--Allow me to make a suggestion in relation to your wonderful
account of insects finding their way home. I formerly wished to try it
with pigeons: namely, to carry the insects in their paper "cornets,"
about a hundred paces in the opposite direction to that which you
ultimately intended to carry them; but before turning round to return,
to put the insect in a circular box, with an axle which could be made to
revolve very rapidly, first in one direction, and then in another, so
as to destroy for a time all sense of direction in the insects. I have
sometimes IMAGINED that animals may feel in which direction they were at
the first start carried. (This idea was a favourite one with him, and he
has described in 'Nature' (volume vii. 1873, page 360) the behaviour of
his cob Tommy, in whom he fancied he detected a sense of direction. The
horse had been taken by rail from Kent to the Isle of Wight; when there
he exhibited a marked desire to go eastward, even when his stable lay in
the opposite direction. In the same volume of 'Nature,' page 417, is
a letter on the 'Origin of Certain Instincts,' which contains a short
discussion on the sense of direction.) If this plan failed, I had
intended placing the pigeons within an induction coil, so as to disturb
any magnetic or dia-magnetic sensibility, which it seems just possible
that they may possess.
C.D.
[During the latter years of my father's life there was a growing
tendency in the public to do him honour. In 1877 he received the
honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Cambridge. The degree
was conferred on November 17, and with the customary Latin speech
from the Public Orator, concluding with the words: "Tu vero, qui leges
naturae tam docte illustraveris, legum doctor nobis esto."
The honorary degree led to a movement being set on foot in the
University to obtain some permanent memorial of my father. A sum of
about 400 pounds was subscribed, and after the rejection of the idea
that a bust would be the best memorial, a picture was determined on. In
June 1879 he sat to Mr. W. Richmond for the portrait in the possession
of the University, now placed in the Library of the philosophical
Society at Cambridge. He is represented seated in his Doctor's gown, the
head turned towards the spectator: the picture has many admirers, but,
according to my own view, neither the attitude nor the expression are
characteristic of my father.
A similar wish on the part of the Linnean Society-- with which my father
was so closely associated--led to his sitting in August, 1881, to Mr.
John Collier, for the portrait now in the possession of the Society.
Of the artist, he wrote, "Collier was the most considerate, kind and
pleasant painter a sitter could desire." The portrait represents him
standing facing the observer in the loose cloak so familiar to those who
knew him, and with his slouch hat in his hand. Many of those who knew
his face most intimately, think that Mr. Collier's picture is the best
of the portraits, and in this judgment the sitter himself was inclined
to agree. According to my feeling it is not so simple or strong a
representation of him as that given by Mr. Ouless. There is a certain
expression in Mr. Collier's portrait which I am inclined to consider an
exaggeration of the almost painful expression which Professor Cohn has
described in my father's face, and which he had previously noticed in
Humboldt. Professor Cohn's remarks occur in a pleasantly written account
of a visit to Down in 1876, published in the "Breslauer Zeitung", April
23, 1882. (In this connection may be mentioned a visit (1881) from
another distinguished German, Hans Richter. The occurrence is otherwise
worthy of mention, inasmuch as it led to the publication, after my
father's death, of Herr Richter's recollections of the visit. The sketch
is simply and sympathetically written, and the author has succeeded in
giving a true picture of my father as he lived at Down. It appeared in
the "Neue Tagblatt" of Vienna, and was republished by Dr. O. Zacharias
in his 'Charles R. Darwin,' Berlin, 1882.)
Besides the Cambridge degree, he received about the same time honours of
an academic kind from some foreign societies.
On August 5, 1878, he was elected a Corresponding Member of the French
Institute ("Lyell always spoke of it as a great scandal that Darwin
was so long kept out of the French Institute. As he said, even if the
development hypothesis were objected to, Darwin's original works on
Coral Reefs, the Cirripedia, and other subjects, constituted a more
than sufficient claim"--From Professor Judd's notes.), in the Botanical
Section, and wrote to Dr. Asa Gray:--
"I see that we are both elected Corresponding Members of the Institute.
It is rather a good joke that I should be elected in the Botanical
Section, as the extent of my knowledge is little more than that a daisy
is a Compositous plant and a pea a Leguminous one."
(The statement has been more than once published that he was elected to
the Zoological Section, but this was not the case.
He received twenty-six votes out of a possible 39, five blank papers
were sent in, and eight votes were recorded for the other candidates.
In 1872 an attempt had been made to elect him to the Section of Zoology,
when, however, he only received 15 out of 48 votes, and Loven was chosen
for the vacant place. It appears ('Nature,' August 1, 1872) that an
eminent member of the Academy wrote to "Les Mondes" to the following
effect:--
"What has closed the doors of the Academy to Mr. Darwin is that the
science of those of his books which have made his chief title to
fame-the 'Origin of Species,' and still more the 'Descent of Man,'
is not science, but a mass of assertions and absolutely gratuitous
hypotheses, often evidently fallacious. This kind of publication and
these theories are a bad example, which a body that respects itself
cannot encourage.")
In the early part of the same year he was elected a Corresponding Member
of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and he wrote (March 12) to Professor
Du Bois Reymond, who had proposed him for election:--
"I thank you sincerely for your most kind letter, in which you announce
the great honour conferred on me. The knowledge of the names of the
illustrious men, who seconded the proposal is even a greater pleasure to
me than the honour itself."
The seconders were Helmholtz, Peters, Ewald, Pringsheim and Virchow.
In 1879 he received the Baly Medal of the Royal College of Physicians.
(The visit to London, necessitated by the presentation of the Baly
Medal, was combined with a visit to Miss Forster's house at Abinger,
in Surrey, and this was the occasion of the following characteristic
letter:--"I must write a few words to thank you cordially for lending us
your house. It was a most kind thought, and has pleased me greatly; but
I know well that I do not deserve such kindness from any one. On the
other hand, no one can be too kind to my dear wife, who is worth her
weight in gold many times over, and she was anxious that I should
get some complete rest, and here I cannot rest. Your house will be a
delightful haven and again I thank you truly.")
Again in 1879 he received from the Royal Academy of Turin the "Bressa"
prize for the years 1875-78, amounting to the sum of 12,000 francs.
In the following year he received on his birthday, as on previous
occasions, a kind letter of congratulation from Dr. Dohrn of Naples. In
writing (February 15th) to thank him and the other naturalists at the
Zoological Station, my father added:--
"Perhaps you saw in the papers that the Turin Society honoured me to an
extraordinary degree by awarding me the "Bressa" Prize. Now it occurred
to me that if your station wanted some pieces of apparatus, of about the
value of 100 pounds, I should very much like to be allowed to pay for
it. Will you be so kind as to keep this in mind, and if any want should
occur to you, I would send you a cheque at any time."
I find from my father's accounts that 100 pounds was presented to the
Naples Station.
He received also several tokens of respect and sympathy of a more
private character from various sources. With regard to such incidents
and to the estimation of the public generally, his attitude may be
illustrated by a passage from a letter to Mr. Romanes:--(The lecture
referred to was given at the Dublin meeting of the British association.)
"You have indeed passed a most magnificent eulogium upon me, and I
wonder that you were not afraid of hearing 'oh! oh!' or some other sign
of disapprobation. Many persons think that what I have done in science
has been much overrated, and I very often think so myself; but my
comfort is that I have never consciously done anything to gain applause.
Enough and too much about my dear self."
Among such expressions of regard he valued very highly the two
photographic albums received from Germany and Holland on his birthday,
1877. Herr Emil Rade of Munster, originated the idea of the German
birthday gift, and undertook the necessary arrangements. To him my
father wrote (February 16, 1877):--
"I hope that you will inform the one hundred and fifty-four men of
science, including some of the most highly honoured names in the world,
how grateful I am for their kindness and generous sympathy in having
sent me their photographs on my birthday."
To Professor Haeckel he wrote (February 16, 1877):--
The album has just arrived quite safe. It is most superb. (The album is
magnificently bound and decorated with a beautifully illuminated
title page, the work of an artist, Herr A. Fitger of Bremen, who also
contributed the dedicatory poem.) It is by far the greatest honour which
I have ever received, and my satisfaction has been greatly enhanced by
your most kind letter of February 9... I thank you all from my heart.
I have written by this post to Herr Rade, and I hope he will somehow
manage to thank all my generous friends."
To Professor A. van Bemmelen he wrote, on receiving a similar present
from a number of distinguished men and lovers of Natural History in the
Netherlands:--
"Sir,
I received yesterday the magnificent present of the album, together
with your letter. I hope that you will endeavour to find some means to
express to the two hundred and seventeen distinguished observers and
lovers of natural science, who have sent me their photographs, my
gratitude for their extreme kindness. I feel deeply gratified by this
gift, and I do not think that any testimonial more honourable to me
could have been imagined. I am well aware that my books could never have
been written, and would not have made any impression on the public mind,
had not an immense amount of material been collected by a long series
of admirable observers; and it is to them that honour is chiefly due. I
suppose that every worker at science occasionally feels depressed, and
doubts whether what he has published has been worth the labour which
it has cost him, but for the few remaining years of my life, whenever
I want cheering, I will look at the portraits of my distinguished
co-workers in the field of science, and remember their generous
sympathy. When I die, the album will be a most precious bequest to my
children. I must further express my obligation for the very interesting
history contained in your letter of the progress of opinion in the
Netherlands, with respect to Evolution, the whole of which is quite new
to me. I must again thank all my kind friends, from my heart, for their
ever-memorable testimonial, and I remain, Sir,
Your obliged and grateful servant, CHARLES R. DARWIN."
[In the June of the following year (1878) he was gratified by learning
that the Emperor of Brazil had expressed a wish to meet him. Owing to
absence from home my father was unable to comply with this wish; he
wrote to Sir J.D. Hooker:--
"The Emperor has done so much for science, that every scientific man is
bound to show him the utmost respect, and I hope that you will express
in the strongest language, and which you can do with entire truth, how
greatly I feel honoured by his wish to see me; and how much I regret my
absence from home."
Finally it should be mentioned that in 1880 he received an address
personally presented by members of the Council of the Birmingham
Philosophical Society, as well as a memorial from the Yorkshire
Naturalist Union presented by some of the members, headed by Dr. Sorby.
He also received in the same year a visit from some of the members of
the Lewisham and Blackheath Scientific Association,--a visit which was,
I think, enjoyed by both guests and host.]
MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS--1876-1882.
[The chief incident of a personal kind (not already dealt with) in the
years which we are now considering was the death of his brother Erasmus,
who died at his house in Queen Anne Street, on August 26th, 1881. My
father wrote to Sir J.D. Hooker (August 30):--
"The death of Erasmus is a very heavy loss to all of us, for he had
a most affectionate disposition. He always appeared to me the most
pleasant and clearest headed man, whom I have ever known. London will
seem a strange place to me without his presence; I am deeply glad that
he died without any great suffering, after a very short illness from
mere weakness and not from any definite disease. ("He was not, I
think, a happy man, and for many years did not value life, though never
complaining."--From a letter to Sir Thomas Farrer.)
"I cannot quite agree with you about the death of the old and young.
Death in the latter case, when there is a bright future ahead, causes
grief never to be wholly obliterated."
An incident of a happy character may also be selected for especial
notice, since it was one which strongly moved my father's sympathy.
A letter (December 17, 1879) to Sir Joseph Hooker shows that the
possibility of a Government Pension being conferred on Mr. Wallace first
occurred to my father at this time. The idea was taken up by others, and
my father's letters show that he felt the most lively interest in the
success of the plan. He wrote, for instance, to Mrs. Fisher, "I hardly
ever wished for anything more than I do for the success of our plan." He
was deeply pleased when this thoroughly deserved honour was bestowed on
his friend, and wrote to the same correspondent (January 7, 1881),
on receiving a letter from Mr. Gladstone announcing the fact: "How
extraordinarily kind of Mr. Gladstone to find time to write under the
present circumstances. (Mr. Gladstone was then in office, and the letter
must have been written when he was overwhelmed with business connected
with the opening of Parliament (January 6). Good heavens! how pleased I
am!"
The letters which follow are of a miscellaneous character and refer
principally to the books he read, and to his minor writings.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO MISS BUCKLEY (MRS. FISHER). Down, February 11 [1876].
My dear Miss Buckley,
You must let me have the pleasure of saying that I have just finished
reading with very great interest your new book. ('A Short History of
Natural Science.') The idea seems to me a capital one, and as far as I
can judge very well carried out. There is much fascination in taking
a bird's eye view of all the grand leading steps in the progress of
science. At first I regretted that you had not kept each science more
separate; but I dare say you found it impossible. I have hardly any
criticisms, except that I think you ought to have introduced Murchison
as a great classifier of formations, second only to W. Smith. You have
done full justice, and not more than justice, to our dear old master,
Lyell. Perhaps a little more ought to have been said about botany, and
if you should ever add this, you would find Sachs' 'History,' lately
published, very good for your purpose.
You have crowned Wallace and myself with much honour and glory. I
heartily congratulate you on having produced so novel and interesting a
work, and remain,
My dear Miss Buckley, yours very faithfully, CH. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE. [Hopedene] (Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood's
house in Surrey.), June 5, 1876.
My dear Wallace,
I must have the pleasure of expressing to you my unbounded admiration of
your book ('Geographical Distribution,' 1876.), though I have read only
to page 184--my object having been to do as little as possible while
resting. I feel sure that you have laid a broad and safe foundation
for all future work on Distribution. How interesting it will be to see
hereafter plants treated in strict relation to your views; and then all
insects, pulmonate molluscs and fresh-water fishes, in greater detail
than I suppose you have given to these lower animals. The point which
has interested me most, but I do not say the most valuable point, is
your protest against sinking imaginary continents in a quite reckless
manner, as was stated by Forbes, followed, alas, by Hooker, and
caricatured by Wollaston and [Andrew] Murray! By the way, the main
impression that the latter author has left on my mind is his utter want
of all scientific judgment. I have lifted up my voice against the above
view with no avail, but I have no doubt that you will succeed, owing
to your new arguments and the coloured chart. Of a special value, as it
seems to me, is the conclusion that we must determine the areas, chiefly
by the nature of the mammals. When I worked many years ago on this
subject, I doubted much whether the now called Palaearctic and Nearctic
regions ought to be separated; and I determined if I made another region
that it should be Madagascar. I have, therefore, been able to appreciate
your evidence on these points. What progress Palaeontology has made
during the last 20 years; but if it advances at the same rate in the
future, our views on the migration and birth-place of the various groups
will, I fear, be greatly altered. I cannot feel quite easy about the
Glacial period, and the extinction of large mammals, but I must hope
that you are right. I think you will have to modify your belief about
the difficulty of dispersal of land molluscs; I was interrupted when
beginning to experimentize on the just hatched young adhering to the
feet of groun-roosting birds. I differ on one other point, viz. in the
belief that there must have existed a Tertiary Antarctic continent, from
which various forms radiated to the southern extremities of our present
continents. But I could go on scribbling forever. You have written, as
I believe, a grand and memorable work which will last for years as the
foundation for all future treatises on Geographical Distribution.
My dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, CHARLES DARWIN.
P.S.--You have paid me the highest conceivable compliment, by what
you say of your work in relation to my chapters on distribution in the
'Origin,' and I heartily thank you for it.
[The following letters illustrate my father's power of taking a vivid
interest in work bearing on Evolution, but unconnected with his own
special researches at the time. The books referred to in the first
letter are Professor Weismann's 'Studien zur Descendenzlehre' (My father
contributed a prefatory note to Mr. Meldola's translation of Prof.
Weismann's 'Studien,' 1880-81.), being part of the series of essays
by which the author has done such admirable service to the cause of
evolution:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO AUGUST WEISMANN. January 12, 1877.
... I read German so slowly, and have had lately to read several other
papers, so that I have as yet finished only half of your first essay and
two-thirds of your second. They have excited my interest and admiration
in the highest degree, and whichever I think of last, seems to me
the most valuable. I never expected to see the coloured marks on
caterpillars so well explained; and the case of the ocelli delights me
especially...
... There is one other subject which has always seemed to me more
difficult to explain than even the colours of caterpillars, and that is
the colour of birds' eggs, and I wish you would take this up.
CHARLES DARWIN TO MELCHIOR NEUMAYR (Professor of Palaeontology at
Vienna.), VIENNA. Down, Beckenham, Kent, March 9, 1877.
Dear Sir,
From having been obliged to read other books, I finished only
yesterday your essay on 'Die Congerien,' etc. ('Die Congerien und
Paludinenschichten Slavoneins.' 4to, 1875.)
I hope that you will allow me to express my gratitude for the pleasure
and instruction which I have derived from reading it. It seems to me to
be an admirable work; and is by far the best case which I have ever
met with, showing the direct influence of the conditions of life on the
organization.
Mr. Hyatt, who has been studying the Hilgendorf case, writes to me with
respect to the conclusions at which he has arrived, and these are nearly
the same as yours. He insists that closely similar forms may be derived
from distinct lines of descent; and this is what I formerly called
analogical variation. There can now be no doubt that species may become
greatly modified through the direct action of the environment. I have
some excuse for not having formerly insisted more strongly on this head
in my 'Origin of Species,' as most of the best facts have been observed
since its publication.
With my renewed thanks for your most interesting essay, and with the
highest respect, I remain, dear Sir,
Yours very faithfully, CHARLES DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO E.S. MORSE. Down, April 23, 1877.
My dear Sir,
You must allow me just to tell you how very much I have been interested
with the excellent Address ("What American Zoologists have done for
Evolution," an Address to the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, August, 1876. Volume xxv. of the Proceedings of the
Association.) which you have been so kind as to send me, and which I had
much wished to read. I believe that I had read all, or very nearly all,
the papers by your countrymen to which you refer, but I have been fairly
astonished at their number and importance when seeing them thus put
together. I quite agree about the high value of Mr. Allen's works
(Mr. J.A. Allen shows the existence of geographical races of birds and
mammals. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. volume xv.), as showing how much
change may be expected apparently through the direct action of the
conditions of life. As for the fossil remains in the West, no words will
express how wonderful they are. There is one point which I regret that
you did not make clear in your Address, namely what is the meaning and
importance of Professors Cope and Hyatt's views on acceleration and
retardation. I have endeavoured, and given up in despair, the attempt to
grasp their meaning.
Permit me to thank you cordially for the kind feeling shown towards me
through your Address, and I remain, my dear Sir,
Yours faithfully, CH. DARWIN.
[The next letter refers to his 'Biographical Sketch of an Infant,'
written from notes made 37 years previously, and published in 'Mind,'
July, 1877. The article attracted a good deal of attention, and was
translated at the time in 'Kosmos,' and the 'Revue Scientifique,'
and has been recently published in Dr. Krause's 'Gesammelte kleinere
SchrifteN von Charles Darwin,' 1887:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO G. CROOM ROBERTSON. (The editor of 'Mind.') Down,
April 27, 1877.
Dear Sir,
I hope that you will be so good as to take the trouble to read the
enclosed MS., and if you think it fit for publication in your admirable
journal of 'Mind,' I shall be gratified. If you do not think it fit, as
is very likely, will you please to return it to me. I hope that you will
read it in an extra critical spirit, as I cannot judge whether it is
worth publishing from having been so much interested in watching the
dawn of the several faculties in my own infant. I may add that I should
never have thought of sending you the MS., had not M. Taine's article
appeared in your Journal. (1877, page 252. The original appeared in the
'Revue Philosophique' 1876.) If my MS. is printed, I think that I had
better see a proof.
I remain, dear Sir, Yours faithfully, CH. DARWIN.
[The two following extracts show the lively interest he preserved in
diverse fields of enquiry. Professor Cohn of Breslau had mentioned, in
a letter, Koch's researches on Splenic Fever, my father replied, January
3:--
"I well remember saying to myself, between twenty and thirty years ago,
that if ever the origin of any infectious disease could be proved, it
would be the greatest triumph to science; and now I rejoice to have seen
the triumph."
In the spring he received a copy of Dr. E. von Mojsisovics' 'Dolomit
Riffe,' his letter to the author (June 1, 1878) is interesting as
bearing on the influence of his own work on the methods of geology.
"I have at last found time to read the first chapter of your 'Dolomit
Riffe,' 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."
Another geological research which roused my father's admiration was Mr.
D. Mackintosh's work on erratic blocks. Apart from its intrinsic merit
the work keenly excited his sympathy from the conditions under which it
was executed, Mr. Mackintosh being compelled to give nearly his
whole time to tuition. The following passage is from a letter to Mr.
Mackintosh of October 9, 1879, and refers to his paper in the Journal of
the Geological Society, 1878:--
"I hope that you will allow me to have the pleasure of thanking you
for the very great pleasure which I have derived from just reading your
paper on erratic blocks. The map is wonderful, and what labour each
of those lines show! I have thought for some years that the agency of
floating ice, which nearly half a century ago was overrated, has of
late been underrated. You are the sole man who has ever noticed the
distinction suggested by me (In his paper on the 'Ancient Glaciers of
Carnarvonshire,' Phil. Mag. xxi. 1842.) between flat or planed scored
rocks, and mammillated scored rocks."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. RIDLEY. Down, November 28, 1878.
Dear Sir,
I just skimmed through Dr. Pusey's sermon, as published in the
"Guardian", but it did [not] seem to me worthy of any attention. As I
have never answered criticisms excepting those made by scientific men,
I am not willing that this letter should be published; but I have no
objection to your saying that you sent me the three questions, and that
I answered that Dr. Pusey was mistaken in imagining that I wrote the
'Origin' with any relation whatever to Theology. I should have thought
that this would have been evident to any one who had taken the trouble
to read the book, more especially as in the opening lines of the
introduction I specify how the subject arose in my mind. This answer
disposes of your two other questions; but I may add that many years
ago, when I was collecting facts for the 'Origin,' my belief in what is
called a personal God was as firm as that of Dr. Pusey himself, and
as to the eternity of matter I have never troubled myself about such
insoluble questions. Dr. Pusey's attack will be as powerless to retard
by a day the belief in Evolution, as were the virulent attacks made by
divines fifty years ago against Geology, and the still older ones of the
Catholic Church against Galileo, for the public is wise enough always to
follow Scientific men when they agree on any subject; and now there is
almost complete unanimity amongst Biologists about Evolution, though
there is still considerable difference as to the means, such as how far
natural selection has acted, and how far external conditions, or whether
there exists some mysterious innate tendency to perfectability. I
remain, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully, CH. DARWIN.
[Theologians were not the only adversaries of freedom in science. On
September 22, 1877, Prof. Virchow delivered an address at the Munich
meeting of German Naturalists and Physicians, which had the effect of
connecting Socialism with the Descent theory. This point of view was
taken up by anti-evolutionists to such an extent that, according to
Haeckel, the "Kreuz Zeitung" threw "all the blame of" the "treasonable
attempts of the democrats Hodel and Nobiling... directly on the theory of
Descent." Prof. Haeckel replied with vigour and ability in his 'Freedom
in Science and Teaching' (English Translation 1879), an essay which must
have the sympathy of all lovers of freedom.
The following passage from a letter (December 26, 1879) to Dr. Scherzer,
the author of the 'Voyage of the "Novara",' gives a hint of my father's
views on this once burning question:--
"What a foolish idea seems to prevail in Germany on the connection
between Socialism and Evolution through Natural Selection."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO H.N. MOSELEY. (Professor of Zoology at Oxford.
The book alluded to is Prof. Moseley's 'Notes by a Naturalist on the
"Challenger".') Down, January 20, 1879.
Dear Moseley,
I have just received your book, and I declare that never in my life
have I seen a dedication which I admired so much. ("To Charles Darwin,
Esquire, LL.D., F.R.S., etc., from the study of whose 'Journal of
Researches' I mainly derived my desire to travel round the world; to the
development of whose theory I owe the principal pleasures and interests
of my life, and who has personally given me much kindly encouragement in
the prosecution of my studies, this book is, by permission, gratefully
dedicated.") Of course I am not a fair judge, but I hope that I speak
dispassionately, though you have touched me in my very tenderest point,
by saying that my old Journal mainly gave you the wish to travel as a
Naturalist. I shall begin to read your book this very evening, and am
sure that I shall enjoy it much.
Yours very sincerely, CH. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO H.N. MOSELEY. Down, February 4, 1879.
Dear Moseley,
I have at last read every word of your book, and it has excited in me
greater interest than any other scientific book which I have read for
a long time. You will perhaps be surprised how slow I have been, but
my head prevents me reading except at intervals. If I were asked which
parts have interested me most, I should be somewhat puzzled to answer.
I fancy that the general reader would prefer your account of Japan.
For myself I hesitate between your discussions and description of the
Southern ice, which seems to me admirable, and the last chapter which
contained many facts and views new to me, though I had read your papers
on the stony Hydroid Corals, yet your resume made me realise better than
I had done before, what a most curious case it is.
You have also collected a surprising number of valuable facts bearing on
the dispersal of plants, far more than in any other book known to me.
In fact your volume is a mass of interesting facts and discussions,
with hardly a superfluous word; and I heartily congratulate you on its
publication.
Your dedication makes me prouder than ever.
Believe me, yours sincerely, CH. DARWIN.
[In November, 1879, he answered for Mr. Galton a series of questions
utilised in his 'Inquiries into Human Faculty,' 1883. He wrote to Mr.
Galton:--
"I have answered the questions as well as I could, but they are
miserably answered, for I have never tried looking into my own mind.
Unless others answer very much better than I can do, you will get no
good from your queries. Do you not think you ought to have the age
of the answerer? I think so, because I can call up faces of many
schoolboys, not seen for sixty years, with MUCH DISTINCTNESS, but
nowadays I may talk with a man for an hour, and see him several times
consecutively, and, after a month, I am utterly unable to recollect what
he is at all like. The picture is quite washed out. The greater number
of the answers are given in the annexed table."]
QUESTIONS ON THE FACULTY OF VISUALISING.
1. ILLUMINATION? Moderate, but my solitary breakfast was early, and the
morning dark.
2. DEFINITION? Some objects quite defined, a slice of cold beef, some
grapes and a pear, the state of my plate when I had finished, and a few
other objects, are as distinct as if I had photo's before me.
3. COMPLETENESS? Very moderately so.
4. COLOURING? The objects above named perfectly coloured.
5. EXTENT OF FIELD OF VIEW? Rather small.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF IMAGERY.
6. PRINTED PAGES. I cannot remember a single sentence, but I remember
the place of the sentence and the kind of type.
7. FURNITURE? I have never attended to it.
8. PERSONS? I remember the faces of persons formerly well-known vividly,
and can make them do anything I like.
9. SCENERY? Remembrance vivid and distinct, and gives me pleasure.
10. GEOGRAPHY? No.
11. MILITARY MOVEMENTS? No.
12. MECHANISM? Never tried.
13. GEOMETRY? I do not think I have any power of the kind.
14. NUMERALS? When I think of any number, printed figures arise before
my mind. I can't remember for an hour four consecutive figures.
15. CARD PLAYING? Have not played for many years, but I am sure should
not remember.
16. CHESS? Never played.
[In 1880 he published a short paper in 'Nature' (volume xxi. page 207)
on the "Fertility of Hybrids from the common and Chinese goose." He
received the hybrids from the Rev. Dr. Goodacre, and was glad of the
opportunity of testing the accuracy of the statement that these species
are fertile inter se. This fact, which was given in the 'Origin' on
the authority of Mr. Eyton, he considered the most remarkable as
yet recorded with respect to the fertility of hybrids. The fact (as
confirmed by himself and Dr. Goodacre) is of interest as giving another
proof that sterility is no criterion of specific difference, since the
two species of goose now shown to be fertile inter se are so distinct
that they have been placed by some authorities in distinct genera or
sub-genera.
The following letter refers to Mr. Huxley's lecture: "The Coming of Age
of the Origin of Species" (This same "Coming of Age" was the subject
of an address from the Council of the Otago Institute. It is given in
'Nature,' February 24, 1881.), given at the Royal Institution, April 9,
1880, published in 'Nature,' and in 'Science and Culture,' page 310:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO T.H. HUXLEY. Abinger Hall, Dorking, Sunday, April 11,
1880.
My dear Huxley,
I wished much to attend your Lecture, but I have had a bad cough, and we
have come here to see whether a change would do me good, as it has done.
What a magnificent success your lecture seems to have been, as I judge
from the reports in the "Standard" and "Daily News", and more especially
from the accounts given me by three of my children. I suppose that you
have not written out your lecture, so I fear there is no chance of its
being printed in extenso. You appear to have piled, as on so many other
occasions, honours high and thick on my old head. But I well know how
great a part you have played in establishing and spreading the belief in
the descen-theory, ever since that grand review in the "Times" and the
battle royal at Oxford up to the present day.
Ever my dear Huxley, Yours sincerely and gratefully, CHARLES DARWIN.
P.S.--It was absurdly stupid in me, but I had read the announcement of
your Lecture, and thought that you meant the maturity of the subject,
until my wife one day remarked, "it is almost twenty-one years since
the 'Origin' appeared," and then for the first time the meaning of your
words flashed on me!
[In the above-mentioned lecture Mr. Huxley made a strong point of the
accumulation of palaeontological evidence which the years between 1859
and 1880 have given us in favour of Evolution. On this subject my father
wrote (August 31, 1880):]
My dear Professor Marsh,
I received some time ago your very kind note of July 28th, and yesterday
the magnificent volume. (Odontornithes. A Monograph on the extinct
Toothed Birds of North America. 1880. By O.C. Marsh.) I have looked with
renewed admiration at the plates, and will soon read the text. Your work
on these old birds, and on the many fossil animals of North America has
afforded the best support to the theory of Evolution, which has appeared
within the last twenty years. (Mr. Huxley has well pointed out ('Science
and Culture,' page 317) that: "In 1875, the discovery of the toothed
birds of the cretaceous formation in North America, by Prof. Marsh,
completed the series of transitional forms between birds and reptiles,
and removed Mr. Darwin's proposition that, 'many animal forms of life
have been utterly lost, through which the early progenitors of birds
were formerly connected with the early progenitors of the other
vertebrate classes,' from the region of hypothesis to that of
demonstrable fact.") The general appearance of the copy which you have
sent me is worthy of its contents, and I can say nothing stronger than
this.
With cordial thanks, believe me, Yours very sincerely, CHARLES DARWIN.
[In November, 1880, he received an account of a flood in Brazil, from
which his friend Fritz Muller had barely escaped with his life. My
father immediately wrote to Hermann Muller anxiously enquiring whether
his brother had lost books, instruments, etc., by this accident, and
begging in that case "for the sake of science, so that science should
not suffer," to be allowed to help in making good the loss. Fortunately,
however, the injury to Fritz Muller's possessions was not so great as
was expected, and the incident remains only as a memento, which I trust
cannot be otherwise than pleasing to the survivor, of the friendship of
the two naturalists.
In 'Nature' (November 11, 1880) appeared a letter from my father,
which is, I believe, the only instance in which he wrote publicly with
anything like severity. The late Sir Wyville Thomson wrote, in the
Introduction to the 'Voyage of the "Challenger"': "The character of
the abyssal fauna refuses to give the least support to the theory which
refers the evolution of species to extreme variation guided only by
natural selection." My father, after characterising these remarks as
a "standard of criticism, not uncommonly reached by theologians
and metaphysicians," goes on to take exception to the term "extreme
variation," and challenges Sir Wyville to name any one who has "said
that the evolution of species depends only on natural selection." The
letter closes with an imaginary scene between Sir Wyville and a breeder,
in which Sir Wyville criticises artificial selection in a somewhat
similar manner. The breeder is silent, but on the departure of his
critic he is supposed to make use of "emphatic but irreverent language
about naturalists." The letter, as originally written, ended with a
quotation from Sedgwick on the invulnerability of those who write on
what they do not understand, but this was omitted on the advice of a
friend, and curiously enough a friend whose combativeness in the good
cause my father had occasionally curbed.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO G.J. ROMANES. Down, April 16, 1881.
My dear Romanes,
My MS. on 'Worms' has been sent to the printers, so I am going to amuse
myself by scribbling to you on a few points; but you must not waste your
time in answering at any length this scribble.
Firstly, your letter on intelligence was very useful to me and I tor
up and re-wrote what I sent to you. I have not attempted to define
intelligence; but have quoted your remarks on experience, and have shown
how far they apply to worms. It seems to me that they must be said
to work with some intelligence, anyhow they are not guided by a blind
instinct.
Secondly, I was greatly interested by the abstract in 'Nature' of your
work on Echinoderms ("On the locomotor system of Echinoderms," by G.J.
Romanes and J. Cossar Ewart. 'Philosophical Transactions,' 1881,
page 829.), the complexity with simplicity, and with such curious
co-ordination of the nervous system is marvellous; and you showed me
before what splendid gymnastic feats they can perform.
Thirdly, Dr. Roux has sent me a book just published by him: 'Der Kampf
der Theile,' etc., 1881 (240 pages in length).
He is manifestly a well-read physiologist and pathologist, and from his
position a good anatomist. It is full of reasoning, and this in German
is very difficult to me, so that I have only skimmed through each
page; here and there reading with a little more care. As far as I can
imperfectly judge, it is the most important book on Evolution, which
has appeared for some time. I believe that G.H. Lewes hinted at the same
fundamental idea, viz. that there is a struggle going on within every
organism between the organic molecules, the cells and the organs.
I think that his basis is, that every cell which best performs its
function is, in consequence, at the same time best nourished and best
propagates its kind. The book does not touch on mental phenomena, but
there is much discussion on rudimentary or atrophied parts, to which
subject you formerly attended. Now if you would like to read this book,
I would sent it... If you read it, and are struck with it (but I may
be WHOLLY mistaken about its value), you would do a public service by
analysing and criticising it in 'Nature.'
Dr. Roux makes, I think, a gigantic oversight in never considering
plants; these would simplify the problem for him.
Fourthly, I do not know whether you will discuss in your book on the
mind of animals any of the more complex and wonderful instincts. It is
unsatisfactory work, as there can be no fossilised instincts, and the
sole guide is their state in other members of the same order, and mere
PROBABILITY.
But if you do discuss any (and it will perhaps be expected of you), I
should think that you could not select a better case than that of the
sand wasps, which paralyse their prey, as formerly described by
Fabre, in his wonderful paper in the 'Annales des Sciences,' and since
amplified in his admirable 'Souvenirs.'
Whilst reading this latter book, I speculated a little on the subject.
Astonishing nonsense is often spoken of the sand wasp's knowledge of
anatomy. Now will any one say that the Gauchos on the plains of La Plata
have such knowledge, yet I have often seen them pith a struggling and
lassoed cow on the ground with unerring skill, which no mere anatomist
could imitate. The pointed knife was infallibly driven in between the
vertebrae by a single slight thrust. I presume that the art was first
discovered by chance, and that each young Gaucho sees exactly how the
others do it, and then with a very little practice learns the art. Now
I suppose that the sand wasps originally merely killed their prey by
stinging them in many places (see page 129 of Fabre's 'Souvenirs,' and
page 241) on the lower and softest side of the body--and that to sting
a certain segment was found by far the most successful method; and was
inherited like the tendency of a bulldog to pin the nose of a bull, or
of a ferret to bite the cerebellum. It would not be a very great step
in advance to prick the ganglion of its prey only slightly, and thus
to give its larvae fresh meat instead of old dried meat. Though Fabre
insists so strongly on the unvarying character of instinct, yet it is
shown that there is some variability, as at pages 176, 177.
I fear that I shall have utterly wearied you with my scribbling and bad
handwriting.
My dear Romanes, yours, very sincerely, CH. DARWIN.
POSTSCRIPT OF A LETTER TO PROFESSOR A. AGASSIZ, MAY 5TH, 1881:--
I read with much interest your address before the American Association.
However true your remarks on the genealogies of the several groups may
be, I hope and believe that you have over-estimated the difficulties to
be encountered in the future:--A few days after reading your address, I
interpreted to myself your remarks on one point (I hope in some degree
correctly) in the following fashion:--
Any character of an ancient, generalised, or intermediate form may, and
often does, re-appear in its descendants, after countless generations,
and this explains the extraordinarily complicated affinities of existing
groups. This idea seems to me to throw a flood of light on the lines,
sometimes used to represent affinities, which radiate in all directions,
often to very distant sub-groups,--a difficulty which has haunted me for
half a century. A strong case could be made out in favour of believing
in such reversion after immense intervals of time. I wish the idea had
been put into my head in old days, for I shall never again write on
difficult subjects, as I have seen too many cases of old men becoming
feeble in their minds, without being in the least conscious of it. If
I have interpreted your ideas at all correctly, I hope that you will
re-urge, on any fitting occasion, your view. I have mentioned it to a
few persons capable of judging, and it seemed quite new to them. I beg
you to forgive the proverbial garrulity of old age.
C.D.
[The following letter refers to Sir J.D. Hooker's Geographical address
at the York Meeting (1881) of the British Association:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, August 6, 1881.
My dear Hooker,
For Heaven's sake never speak of boring me, as it would be the greatest
pleasure to aid you in the slightest degree and your letter has
interested me exceedingly. I will go through your points seriatim, but
I have never attended much to the history of any subject, and my memory
has become atrociously bad. It will therefore be a mere chance whether
any of my remarks are of any use.
Your idea, to show what travellers have done, seems to me a brilliant
and just one, especially considering your audience.
1. I know nothing about Tournefort's works.
2. I believe that you are fully right in calling Humboldt the greatest
scientific traveller who ever lived, I have lately read two or three
volumes again. His Geology is funny stuff; but that merely means that he
was not in advance of his age. I should say he was wonderful, more for
his near approach to omniscience than for originality. Whether or not
his position as a scientific man is as eminent as we think, you might
truly call him the parent of a grand progeny of scientific travellers,
who, taken together, have done much for science.
3. It seems to me quite just to give Lyell (and secondarily E. Forbes) a
very prominent place.
4. Dana was, I believe, the first man who maintained the permanence
of continents and the great oceans... When I read the 'Challenger's'
conclusion that sediment from the land is not deposited at greater
distances than 200 or 300 miles from the land, I was much strengthened
in my old belief. Wallace seems to me to have argued the case
excellently. Nevertheless, I would speak, if I were in your place,
rather cautiously; for T. Mellard Reade has argued lately with some
force against the view; but I cannot call to mind his arguments. If
forced to express a judgment, I should abide by the view of approximate
permanence since Cambrian days.
5. The extreme importance of the Arctic fossil-plants, is self-evident.
Take the opportunity of groaning over [our] ignorance of the Lignite
Plants of Kerguelen Land, or any Antarctic land. It might do good.
6. I cannot avoid feeling sceptical about the travelling of plants from
the North EXCEPT DURING THE TERTIARY PERIOD. It may of course have been
so and probably was so from one of the two poles at the earliest period,
during Pre-Cambrian ages; but such speculations seem to me hardly
scientific seeing how little we know of the old Floras.
I will now jot down without any order a few miscellaneous remarks.
I think you ought to allude to Alph. De Candolle's great book, for
though it (like almost everything else) is washed out of my mind, yet I
remember most distinctly thinking it a very valuable work. Anyhow, you
might allude to his excellent account of the history of all cultivated
plants.
How shall you manage to allude to your New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego
work? if you do not allude to them you will be scandalously unjust.
The many Angiosperm plants in the Cretacean beds of the United States
(and as far as I can judge the age of these beds has been fairly well
made out) seems to me a fact of very great importance, so is
their relation to the existing flora of the United States under an
Evolutionary point of view. Have not some Australian extinct forms been
lately found in Australia? or have I dreamed it?
Again, the recent discovery of plants rather low down in our Silurian
beds is very important.
Nothing is more extraordinary in the history of the Vegetable Kingdom,
as it seems to me, than the APPARENTLY very sudden or abrupt development
of the higher plants. I have sometimes speculated whether there did
not exist somewhere during long ages an extremely isolated continent,
perhaps near the South Pole.
Hence I was greatly interested by a view which Saporta propounded to me,
a few years ago, at great length in MS. and which I fancy he has
since published, as I urged him to do--viz., that as soon as
flower-frequenting insects were developed, during the latter part of the
secondary period, an enormous impulse was given to the development of
the higher plants by cross-fertilization being thus suddenly formed.
A few years ago I was much struck with Axel Blytt's Essay showing from
observation, on the peat beds in Scandinavia, that there had apparently
been long periods with more rain and other with less rain (perhaps
connected with Croll's recurrent astronomical periods), and that these
periods had largely determined the present distribution of the plants of
Norway and Sweden. This seemed to me, a very important essay.
I have just read over my remarks and I fear that they will not be of the
slightest use to you.
I cannot but think that you have got through the hardest, or at least
the most difficult, part of your work in having made so good and
striking a sketch of what you intend to say; but I can quite understand
how you must groan over the great necessary labour.
I most heartily sympathise with you on the successes of B. and R.:
as years advance what happens to oneself becomes of very little
consequence, in comparison with the careers of our children.
Keep your spirits up, for I am convinced that you will make an excellent
address.
Ever yours, affectionately, CHARLES DARWIN.
[In September he wrote:--
"I have this minute finished reading your splendid but too short
address. I cannot doubt that it will have been fully appreciated by the
Geographers of York; if not, they are asses and fools."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO JOHN LUBBOCK. Sunday evening [1881].
My dear L.,
Your address (Presidential Address at the York meeting of the British
Association.) has made me think over what have been the great steps in
Geology during the last fifty years, and there can be no harm in telling
you my impression. But it is very odd that I cannot remember what you
have said on Geology. I suppose that the classification of the Silurian
and Cambrian formations must be considered the greatest or most
important step; for I well remember when all these older rocks were
called grau-wacke, and nobody dreamed of classing them; and now we have
three azoic formations pretty well made out beneath the Cambrian! But
the most striking step has been the discovery of the Glacial period: you
are too young to remember the prodigious effect this produced about the
year 1840 (?) on all our minds. Elie de Beaumont never believed in it to
the day of his death! the study of the glacial deposits led to the study
of the superficial drift, which was formerly NEVER STUDIED and called
Diluvium, as I well remember. The study under the microscope of
rock-sections is another not inconsiderable step. So again the making
out of cleavage and the foliation of the metamorphic rocks. But I will
not run on, having now eased my mind. Pray do not waste even one minute
in acknowledging my horrid scrawls.
Ever yours, CH. DARWIN.
[The following extracts referring to the late Francis Maitland Balfour
(Professor of Animal Morphology at Cambridge. He was born in 1851, and
was killed, with his guide, on the Aiguille Blanche, near Courmayeur,
in July, 1882.), show my father's estimate of his work and intellectual
qualities, but they give merely an indication of his strong appreciation
of Balfour's most lovable personal character:--
From a letter to Fritz Muller, January 5, 1882:--
"Your appreciation of Balfour's book ['Comparative Embryology'] has
pleased me excessively, for though I could not properly judge of it,
yet it seemed to me one of the most remarkable books which have been
published for some considerable time. He is quite a young man, and if he
keeps his health, will do splendid work... He has a fair fortune of
his own, so that he can give up his whole time to Biology. He is very
modest, and very pleasant, and often visits here and we like him very
much."
From a letter to Dr. Dohrn, February 13, 1882:--
"I have got one very bad piece of news to tell you, that F. Balfour is
very ill at Cambridge with typhoid fever... I hope that he is not in a
very dangerous state; but the fever is severe. Good Heavens, what a loss
he would be to Science, and to his many loving friends!"]
CHARLES DARWIN TO T.H. HUXLEY. Down, January 12, 1882.
My dear Huxley,
Very many thanks for 'Science and Culture,' and I am sure that I shall
read most of the essays with much interest. With respect to Automatism
("On the hypothesis that animals are automata and its history," an
Address given at the Belfast meeting of the British Association, 1874,
and published in the 'Fortnightly Review,' 1874, and in 'Science and
Culture.'), I wish that you could review yourself in the old, and
of course forgotten, trenchant style, and then you would here answer
yourself with equal incisiveness; and thus, by Jove, you might go on ad
infinitum, to the joy and instruction of the world.
Ever yours very sincerely, CHARLES DARWIN.
[The following letter refers to Dr. Ogle's translation of Aristotle, 'On
the Parts of Animals' (1882):]
CHARLES DARWIN TO W. OGLE. Down, February 22, 1882.
My dear Dr. Ogle,
You must let me thank you for the pleasure which the introduction to
the Aristotle book has given me. I have rarely read anything which has
interested me more, though I have not read as yet more than a quarter of
the book proper.
From quotations which I had seen, I had a high notion of Aristotle's
merits, but I had not the most remote notion what a wonderful man he
was. Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different
ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle. How very curious,
also, his ignorance on some points, as on muscles as the means of
movement. I am glad that you have explained in so probable a manner some
of the grossest mistakes attributed to him. I never realized, before
reading your book, to what an enormous summation of labour we owe even
our common knowledge. I wish old Aristotle could know what a grand
Defender of the Faith he had found in you. Believe me, my dear Dr. Ogle,
Yours very sincerely, CH. DARWIN.
[In February, he received a letter and a specimen from a Mr. W.D. Crick,
which illustrated a curious mode of dispersal of bivalve shells,
namely, by closure of their valves so as to hold on to the leg of a
water-beetle. This class of fact had a special charm for him, and he
wrote to 'Nature,' describing the case. ('Nature,' April 6, 1882.)
In April he received a letter from Dr. W. Van Dyck, Lecturer in Zoology
at the Protestant College of Beyrout. The letter showed that the street
dogs of Beyrout had been rapidly mongrelised by introduced European
dogs, and the facts have an interesting bearing on my father's theory of
Sexual Selection.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO W.T. VAN DYCK. Down, April 3, 1882.
Dear Sir,
After much deliberation, I have thought it best to send your very
interesting paper to the Zoological Society, in hopes that it will
be published in their Journal. This journal goes to every scientific
institution in the world, and the contents are abstracted in all
year-books on Zoology. Therefore I have preferred it to 'Nature,' though
the latter has a wider circulation, but is ephemeral.
I have prefaced your essay by a few general remarks, to which I hope
that you will not object.
Of course I do not know that the Zoological Society, which is much
addicted to mere systematic work, will publish your essay. If it does, I
will send you copies of your essay, but these will not be ready for some
months. If not published by the Zoological Society, I will endeavour
to get 'Nature' to publish it. I am very anxious that it should be
published and preserved.
Dear Sir, Yours faithfully, CH. DARWIN.
[The paper was read at a meeting of the Zoological Society on April
18th--the day before my father's death.
The preliminary remarks with which Dr. Van Dyck's paper is prefaced are
thus the latest of my father's writings.]
We must now return to an early period of his life, and give a connected
account of his botanical work, which has hitherto been omitted.