To Charles Lyell 2 September [1859]
Down Bromley Kent
Sept. 2d.—
My dear Lyell
It was very good of you to write about the Flint tools.1 I feel an uncommon idle curiosity on subject, & last night said to Emma how I shd. like to write to you to enquire; but refrained not to give you trouble of answering. I shall look with extreme interest to what you say at Aberdeen: it will be a grand subject for you.2 No one, as far as I have seen, has discussed under what circumstances the beds were deposited. Are the beds like those with angular flints at Greenstreet Green, where Lubbock found Elephant remains, & subsequently head of Musk ox?3 Do you remember telling me that you thought that they were glacial, & afterwards enquiring of Arctic travellers about nature of the beach in those icy regions; & now that musk-ox has been found, the story is complete. I have often told it with striking effect.— What ages Men must have lived on the old icy shores to have lost so many weapons! Esquimaux living on beach & on sea & on ice would be likely to lose more than any other races, & have them embedded. It is a grand case, & I am so glad you have investigated it.—
I am very glad you wish to see my clean sheets; I shd. have offered them, but did not know whether it would bore you; I wrote by this mornings post to Murray to send them.4 Unfortunately I have not got to part which would interest you, I think, most, & which tells most in favour of view: viz Geological Succession— Geographical Distribution, & especially Morphology, Embryology & Rudimentary organs. I will see that the remaining sheets, when printed off, are sent to you. But would you like for me to send last & perfect Revises of the sheets, as I correct them?; if so, send me your address in blank envelope.—
I hope that you will read all, whether dull (specially latter part of Ch. 2.) or not, for I am convinced there is not a sentence which has not bearing on whole argument.— You will find Ch. IV perplexing & unintelligble, without the aid of enclosed queer Diagram, of which I send old & useless proof.—5 I have, as Murray says, corrected so heavily as almost to have rewritten it; but yet I fear it is poorly written. Parts are intricate; & I do not think that even you could make them quite clear. Do not, I beg, be in a hurry in committing yourself, (like so many naturalists) to go a certain length & no further; for I am deeply convinced, that it is absolutely necessary to go whole vast length, or stick to creation of each separate species; I argue this point briefly in the last chapter. Remember that your verdict will probably have more influence than my Book in deciding whether such views as I hold, will be admitted or rejected at present,—in the future I cannot doubt about their admittance, & our posterity will marvel as much about the current belief as we do about fossil-shells having been thought to have been created as we now see them.— But forgive me for running on about my hobby-horse.—
You ask about our healths; I cannot give a very flourishing account of Emma or of some of the children; and for myself I am in a very poor way, & quite worn out, & useless for everything. Immediately my last proof is done in 14 or 20 days; we start for 2 months’ Hydropathy & rest—& perhaps that will make a man of me.—
Give our kindest remembrances to Lady Lyell & my dear Master | Yours affectionately | C. Darwin
I have read some of Hookers Introduction to Australian Flora, & he gives up species in grand style.
I enclose P.S. of letter from Wallace lately received.6
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Hutchinson, Horace Gordon. 1914. Life of Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury. 2 vols. London: Macmillan.
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.
Owen, Richard. 1856. Description of a fossil cranium of the musk-buffalo … from the ‘lower-level drift’ at Maidenhead, Berkshire. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 12: 124–31. [Vols. 6,7]
Wallace, Alexander. 1860. Remarks on the occurrence of rarer British Sphingidae. [Read 4 June 1860.] Transactions of the Entomological Society of London n.s. 5 (1858–61), Proceedings, pp. 119–20.
Summary
CL’s research on flint tools.
Promises to send proof-sheets of Origin. Discusses his view of species.
Ill health of himself and his family.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2486
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.167)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2486,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2486.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7