To Lawson Tait 22 February [1876]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Feb 22 75
My dear Sir
I shall be pleased to read your review in the Spectator.2 Herbert Spencer is the inventor of the term “survival of the fittest”. I have sometimes used this term, and intended to use it much oftener, but found a substantive like “natural selection” much more convenient.3
I think there is much truth in the distinction which you draw but it is so fine a one that I rather doubt whether the public would appreciate it, so as to understand or use it.4 I have often spoken of Natural Selection destroying the individuals which do not come up to the proper standard in structure, & this comes to nearly the same thing5
My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
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.
Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Herbert Spencer invented the term "survival of the fittest". CD used it but found "natural selection" more convenient.
He has often spoken of natural selection’s destruction of individuals which do not come up to "proper standards of structure", which comes to nearly the same thing as RLT’s suggested distinction.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10406
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Randall House, Santa Barbara (dealers) (Catalogue XXV, 1993)
- Physical description
- LS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10406,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10406.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24
