From George Bentham 21 April 1863
25 Wilton Place
April 21/63
My dear Darwin
I am afraid I have omitted thanking you for your great kindness in lending me the very things I wanted to see1 I have been so very busy the last week the printer having almost got up to me in the flora Australiensis that I have not had a moment for anything else—2 I now hope to send him the last words of the Preface tomorrow—and will then immediately go through these pamphlets and return them to you—3 I trust you do not expect anything to come of it of value to you or any one else I do not feel up to a thorough discussion of your views founded upon such a vast amount of undeniable facts and wonderful observations which you have made. For though I do not go so far as Jos. Hooker in the thorough adoption of all your hypotheses, and though I fully agree with John Mill and other such experienced logicians in the appreciation of your arguments still I do not feel competent to enter into the lists and argue upon the very limited observations I have myself made.4 All I want is to make myself as well acquainted as I can with the present state of the question with the view perhaps of saying a few words in my anniversary address.—5 and this I knew I could not do without your assistance in telling me which of the unmanageable mass of criticisms it was worth looking into.
I have nearly got through Sir C. Lyell’s book which is admirable as to the Geological as main portion—6 I wish there had been a little more method in the early part—and I should rather he had left the brain question in Huxley’s hands who is fully equal to holding his own with Owen7—but I cannot understand Dr Falconer’s attack which seems to me quite unwarrantable.8
I will return the pamphlets as soon as possible—9 may I keep them a fortnight?
Yours very sincerely | George Bentham
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bentham, George. 1863. [Anniversary address, 25 May 1863.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 7 (1864): xi–xxix.
Bentham, George and Mueller, Ferdinand von. 1863–78. Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian territory. 7 vols. London: Lovell Reeve and Company.
Taxonomic literature: Taxonomic literature. A selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries and types. By Frans A. Stafleu and Richard S. Cowan. 2d edition. 7 vols. Utrecht, Netherlands: Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema. The Hague, Netherlands: W. Junk. 1976–88.
Summary
Has not yet read the pamphlets [selection of reviews of Origin, sent by CD at GB’s request]. Though GB does not go so far as Hooker in accepting all of CD’s hypotheses and does not feel up to a thorough discussion of his views, he hopes in his Linnean Anniversary Address [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1863): xi–xxix] to speak on the present state of the [species] question.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4118
- From
- George Bentham
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Wilton Place, 25
- Source of text
- DAR 160: 156
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4118,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4118.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11