To Charles Lyell 1 June [1867]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
June 1st
My dear Lyell
I do not think H. Parker ever reviewed the Origin: perhaps you are thinking of an article on the D. of Argyll, which I remember praising, perhaps over-praising, to you.— I now enclose it, & you can look at it or not as you like, & please return it.—2 I am at present reading the Duke & am very much interested by him; yet I cannot but think, clever as the whole is, that parts are weak, as when he doubts whether each curvature of beak of Humming Birds is of service to each species. He admits, perhaps too fully, that I have shown use of each little ridge & shape of each petal in Orchids, & how strange he does not extend the view to Humming Birds. Still odder, it seems to me, all that he says on Beauty, which I shd have thought a non entity except in the mind of some sentient being: he might have as well said that Love existed during the Secondary or Palæozoic periods.3
I hope you are getting on with your Book, better than I am with mine, which kills me with the labour of correcting & is intolerably dull, though I did not think so when I was writing it.4 A naturalist’s life wd. be a happy one, if he had only to observe & never to write.—
We shall be in London for a week in about a fortnights time, & I shall enjoy having a break-fast talk with you.—5
Yours affectionately | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
[Campbell, George Douglas.] 1862. [Review of Orchids and other works.] Edinburgh Review 116: 378–97.
Campbell, George Douglas. 1864. Opening address, 1864–5 session. [Read 5 December 1864.] Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 5 (1862–6): 264–92.
Campbell, George Douglas. 1867. The reign of law. London: Alexander Strahan.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Lyell, Charles. 1867–8. Principles of geology or the modern changes of the earth and its inhabitants considered as illustrative of geology. 10th edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
[Parker, Henry.] 1862. The Edinburgh review on the supernatural. Saturday Review, 15 November 1862, pp. 589–90.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Comments on a discussion of humming-birds by the Duke of Argyll [in The reign of law (1867)].
Encloses article by Henry Parker on the Duke’s book [Saturday Rev. 23 (1867): 82–4].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5558
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.328)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5558,” accessed on 17 August 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5558.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15