To Herbert Spencer 2 February [1860]1
Down Bromley Kent
Feb 2d
My dear Sir
I know so few people, that I can really think of only one person, to whom it would be any good to send your gigantic programme.2 This one is
Dr. Drysdale care of Dr. Lane Moor Park Farnham Surrey3
I asked Huxley to put my own name & that of my Brothers on the list for copies.—4
From your letter I infer that you have not received a copy of my Book, which I am very sorry for: I told Mr. Murray to send you one, amongst the first distributed, in November: it was addressed, I am almost sure, to care of Mess Longman.5 Will you enquire, if you think it worth while, & let me know if not there; & then I will write to Murray to see what has become of it—6
I was so much out of health when I was writing my Book, that I grudged every hour of labour, & therefore gave no sort of history of progress of opinion.—
I have now written a Preface for the foreign Editions & for any future English Edit (shd there be one) in which I give a very brief sketch, & have with much pleasure alluded to your excellent essay on Development in your general Essays.7 Can you give me precise date of its publication in Leader, as I arrange my notices chronologically? I am sorry to say that I have never read your Psychology,8 having no strength to spare but I have just looked at the latter part.— May I say in my Preface that you have treated Psychology on the principle “of the necessary acquirement of each mental power & capacity by gradation”? You will find that I use these words in inverted commas towards close of my volume (P. 489 of Reprint) & when I wrote them, I did not think of your work.—9
My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | C. Darwin
Kindly answer my two questions soon
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Origin 3d ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 3d edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1861.
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.
Origin US ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. A new edition, revised and augmented by the author. By Charles Darwin. New York: D. Appleton. 1860.
[Spencer, Herbert]. 1852. A theory of population, deduced from the general law of animal fertility. Westminster Review n.s. 1: 468–501.
Spencer, Herbert. 1855. The principles of psychology. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
Spencer, Herbert. 1860–2. First principles. London: George Manwaring; Williams & Norgate.
Summary
Has prepared a historical sketch [of writers on origin of species] for foreign editions of Origin. It includes HS. He was too ill to provide it for the 1st ed.
Sorry Murray has not sent HS his copy of Origin, as he was instructed.
Huxley will put CD and E. A. Darwin down for HS’s gigantic [publishing] programme. Suggests Dr Drysdale be approached about it.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2680
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Herbert Spencer
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- University of London, Senate House Library (MS.791/47)
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2680,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2680.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8