To Asa Gray 5 June [1874]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
June 5th
My dear Gray
I have now read your article in Nature, & the 2 last paragraphs were not included in the slip sent before.2 I wrote yesterday3 & cannot remember exactly what I said, & now cannot be easy without again telling you how profoundly I have been gratified. Everyone, I suppose occasionally thinks that he has worked in vain, & when one of these fits overtakes me, I will think of your article, & if that does not expel the evil spirit, I shall know that I am at the time a little bit insane, as we all are occasionally.
What you say about teleology pleases me especially, & I do not think anyone else has ever noticed the point.4 I have always said you were the man to hit the nail on the head.
Yours gratefully & affectionately | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
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.
Summary
Profoundly grateful for AG’s article in Nature; he is especially pleased by what AG says about teleology.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9483
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Asa Gray
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (104)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9483,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9483.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22