To George Maw 13 July [1861]1
2. Hesketh Crescent | Torquay
July 13th
Dear Sir
Your kind note & Review2 & Uriconium3 have been forwarded from my home & have reached me here today.— I have cut the pages & have glanced over the pages (which shall hereafter be carefully studied) & can see that all your criticisms are written in a perfectly fair & kind tone. I thank you sincerely. I will not trouble you with any discussion, but will consider all your points.
I think it is a pity to mingle science & religion;4 but that you say you have done from conscience; & I entirely believe you.— I did not enter on case of man, from its extraordinary difficulty & from believing that the case of man will follow that of other animals, whenever my views are finally rejected or admitted.— This rejection or admission will require, I have always seen & I now see still more plainly, many years.—
My opponents would have lost nothing if they had all treated me as fairly as you seem to have done.
With my sincere thanks | pray believe me | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Maw, George. 1861. The pavements of Uriconium. Journal of the British Archaeological Association 17: 100–10.
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
Thanks GM for his fair review [of Origin, Zoologist 19 (1861): 7577–611].
Feels it is a pity to mingle science and religion;
explains why he did not deal with the case of man.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3208
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George Maw
- Sent from
- Torquay
- Source of text
- Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library (MAW/1/5)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3208,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3208.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9