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More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1: A Record of His Work in a Series of Hitherto Unpublished LettersDarwin, Charles

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More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1: A Record of His Work in a Series of Hitherto Unpublished Letters

Name: More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1: A Record of His Work in a Series of Hitherto Unpublished Letters
Author: Darwin, Charles

Darwin, Charles

Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 -- Correspondence; Evolution (Biology); Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Correspondence

What are you doing now? I have never yet got hold of the "Edinburgh
Review," in which I hear you are well abused. By the way, I heard
lately from Asa Gray that Wyman was delighted at "Man's Place." (170/1.
"Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature," by T.H. Huxley, 1863.) I
wonder who it is who pitches weakly, but virulently into you, in the
"Anthropological Review." How quiet Owen seems! I do at last begin to
believe that he will ultimately fall in public estimation. What nonsense
he wrote in the "Athenaeum" (170/2. "Athenaeum," March 28th, 1863. See
"Life and Letters," III., page 17.) on Heterogeny! I saw in his Aye-Aye
(170/3. See Owen in the "Trans. Zool. Soc." Volume V. The sentence
referred to seems to be the following (page 95): "We know of no changes
in progress in the Island of Madagascar, necessitating a special quest
of wood-boring larvae by small quadrupeds of the Lemurine or Sciurine
types of organisation.') paper (I think) that he sneers at the manner in
which he supposes that we should account for the structure of its
limbs; and asks how we know that certain insects had increased in the
Madagascar forests. Would it not be a good rebuff to ask him how he
knows there were trees at all on the leafless plains of La Plata for his
Mylodons to tear down? But I must stop, for if I once begin about [him]
there will be no end. I was disappointed in the part about species in
Lyell. (170/4. Lyell's "Antiquity of Man." See "Life and Letters," III.,
page 11.) You and Hooker are the only two bold men. I have had a bad
spring and summer, almost constantly very unwell; but I am crawling on
in my book on "Variation under Domestication.")


LETTER 171. TO C. LYELL. Down, August 14th [1863].

Have you seen Bentham's remarks on species in his address to the Linnean
Society? (171/1. Presidential address before the Linnean Society by G.
Bentham ("Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc." Volume VII., page xi., 1864).) they
have pleased me more than anything I have read for some time. I have no
news, for I have not seen a soul for months, and have had a bad
spring and summer, but have managed to do a good deal of work. Emma is
threatening me to take me to Malvern, and perhaps I shall be compelled,
but it is a horrid waste of time; you must have enjoyed North Wales, I
should think, it is to me a most glorious country...

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1: A Record of His Work in a Series of Hitherto Unpublished LettersDarwin, Charles

History

More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1: A Record of His Work in a Series of Hitherto Unpublished Letters

Darwin, Charles

Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 -- Correspondence; Evolution (Biology); Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Correspondence

What are you doing now? I have never yet got hold of the "Edinburgh
Review," in which I hear you are well abused. By the way, I heard
lately from Asa Gray that Wyman was delighted at "Man's Place." (170/1.
"Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature," by T.H. Huxley, 1863.) I
wonder who it is who pitches weakly, but virulently into you, in the
"Anthropological Review." How quiet Owen seems! I do at last begin to
believe that he will ultimately fall in public estimation. What nonsense
he wrote in the "Athenaeum" (170/2. "Athenaeum," March 28th, 1863. See
"Life and Letters," III., page 17.) on Heterogeny! I saw in his Aye-Aye
(170/3. See Owen in the "Trans. Zool. Soc." Volume V. The sentence
referred to seems to be the following (page 95): "We know of no changes
in progress in the Island of Madagascar, necessitating a special quest
of wood-boring larvae by small quadrupeds of the Lemurine or Sciurine
types of organisation.') paper (I think) that he sneers at the manner in
which he supposes that we should account for the structure of its
limbs; and asks how we know that certain insects had increased in the
Madagascar forests. Would it not be a good rebuff to ask him how he
knows there were trees at all on the leafless plains of La Plata for his
Mylodons to tear down? But I must stop, for if I once begin about [him]
there will be no end. I was disappointed in the part about species in
Lyell. (170/4. Lyell's "Antiquity of Man." See "Life and Letters," III.,
page 11.) You and Hooker are the only two bold men. I have had a bad
spring and summer, almost constantly very unwell; but I am crawling on
in my book on "Variation under Domestication.")


LETTER 171. TO C. LYELL. Down, August 14th [1863].

Have you seen Bentham's remarks on species in his address to the Linnean
Society? (171/1. Presidential address before the Linnean Society by G.
Bentham ("Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc." Volume VII., page xi., 1864).) they
have pleased me more than anything I have read for some time. I have no
news, for I have not seen a soul for months, and have had a bad
spring and summer, but have managed to do a good deal of work. Emma is
threatening me to take me to Malvern, and perhaps I shall be compelled,
but it is a horrid waste of time; you must have enjoyed North Wales, I
should think, it is to me a most glorious country...

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1: A Record of His Work in a Series of Hitherto Unpublished Letters

More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1: A Record of His Work in a Series of Hitherto Unpublished Letters

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