To Charles Lyell 4 [January 1860]
Down.
4th
My dear L.
Gardener Ch. returned safe.—1 Thanks for note. I am beyond measure glad that you get more & more roused on subject of species; for, as I have always said, I am well convinced that your opinion & writing will do far more to convince the world than mine.— You will make grand discussion on Man.2 You are very bold in this & I honour you.—
You saw I suppose Saturday Review: argument confined to Geology, but has given me some perfectly just & severe raps on knuckles.—3 I have been like you quite surprised at want of originality in opposed arguments & in favour too. G. Jeffrey attacks me justly in letter about strictly littoral shells not being often embedded at least in Tertiary deposits.4 I was in muddle for I was thinking of Secondary, yet Chthamalus applied to Tertiary.— Jeffrey write me, I think nonsense, about non-migration of sea-shells.—
Possibly you might like to see enclosed note from Whewell, merely as showing that he is not horrified with us.—5 You can return it, whenever you have occasion to write, so as not to waste your time.
C.D. I think it likely I shall have to send long letter from H. C. Watson, not yet read by me.6
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Summary
Praises CL’s work on human species.
A critical review of Origin in Saturday Review [24 Dec 1859].
A letter from J. G. Jeffreys criticises CD’s geological statements.
A note from William Whewell concerning Origin.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2637
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.190)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2637,” accessed on 23 November 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2637.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8