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Darwin Correspondence Project

From E. B. Aveling   27 September [1881]

Handed in at the Circus Road St Johns Wood Received here at [illeg] .M.

From | Edward Aveling | Laboratory | 13 Newman St Oxford St. W1

To | Charles Darwin | Down | Beckenham

Doctor Ludwig Buckner Germany is in London could he have Honor of Interview Wednes-day or Thurs-day at hour most convenient to you leaves Friday2 Pardon Abruptness and Boldness of request

Footnotes

After losing his lectureship in comparative anatomy at the London Hospital in June 1881 (ODNB), Aveling continued to teach in the Hall of Science school he had begun in 1879 on behalf of the National Secular Society; his science classes were given at his own ‘Practical Science Laboratory’ at 13 Newman Street (Royle ed. 1976, p. 120; Royle 1980, pp. 317–18).
The visit took place on Wednesday 28 September; after a family lunch, CD, Francis Darwin, Aveling, and Büchner retired to smoke in CD’s study when, as Aveling later reported in a pamphlet on CD’s religious views, the conversation turned to religion (Aveling 1883). Büchner also later recalled that CD defended his position as an agnostic ‘with some warmth’ in opposition to Aveling and Büchner’s atheistical views (Büchner 1901, p. 147). Büchner had been involved in controversies over materialism and anticlericalism in Germany; Aveling had published English translations of his work (see Correspondence vol. 28, letter from E. B. Aveling, 12 October 1880). The visit confirmed Emma Darwin’s worst fears; in a letter to George Howard Darwin on 28 October 1881 she had stated, ‘Herr Büchner is coming today to luncheon—& let us hope that he talks English & will refrain from airing his very strong religious opinions—’ (DAR 210.3: 22). The other visitors at lunch were house guests, Camilla Pattrick and her husband, Reginald Saint Pattrick, vicar of Sellinge, Kent, who, according to Emma Darwin, was interested in science, but ‘so languid’ that he was ‘hard work’ (ibid.).

Bibliography

Aveling, Edward Bibbins. 1883b. The religious views of Charles Darwin. London: Freethought Publishing Company.

Büchner, Ludwig. 1901. Last words on materialism and kindred subjects. Translated by Joseph McCabe. London: Watts and Co.

Royle, Edward. 1980. Radicals, secularists, and republicans: popular freethought in Britain, 1866–1915. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Royle, Edward, ed. 1976. The infidel tradition: from Paine to Bradlaugh. London: Macmillan Press.

Summary

Ludwig Büchner is in London. Requests interview for him with CD on Wednesday or Thursday; he leaves Friday.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13357
From
Edward Bibbens Aveling
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Newman St, 13
Postmark
SP 27 | 81
Source of text
DAR 159: 134
Physical description
T

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13357,” accessed on 8 November 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13357.xml

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