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Darwin Correspondence Project

To E. H. O’Callaghan   14 July 1879

Down, Beckenham, Kent, Railway Station Orpington S.E.R.

July 14 1879.

Dear Sir,

I will remember your remarks, but I shall never again write on such difficult subjects as that to which you refer.1 When I look to the future of the world hardly any event seems to me of such great importance as the settling of Australia, New Zealand, &c by the so called Anglo Saxons & it is very doubtful whether this would ever have occured, had there not been severe pressure on the population. From what I have seen (& from what Belt describes in Nicaragua) in South America I conclude that when men can procure subsistence with great ease they are apt to degenerate.2 Indeed wherever this is there is no progress. Decadence seems to follow.

Dear Sir | yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin.—

E H O’Callaghan | &c &c

Footnotes

No letter from O’Callaghan has been found; a note on the copy, made by O’Callaghan, reads: ‘(In the following copy (the original is before me) the writer refers to population, a question regarding which I had the misfortune to differ from him E.H.O’C)’. O’Callaghan has not been identified.
CD discussed the success of English colonisation in Descent 1: 179. Thomas Belt had described the indolence of the inhabitants of Juigalpa, Nicaragua, and commented that no progress would be made in the region until Mexico and Central America became part of the United States (Belt 1874, pp. 177–8).

Bibliography

Belt, Thomas. 1874a. The naturalist in Nicaragua: a narrative of a residence at the gold mines of Chontales; journeys in the savannahs and forests. With observations on animals and plants in reference to the theory of evolution of living forms. London: John Murray.

Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.

Summary

"… hardly any event seems to me of such great importance as the settling of Australia, New Zealand, &c &c by the so called Anglo Saxons". CD thinks this due to population pressure.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12158
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
E. H. O’Callaghan
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 147: 190
Physical description
C 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12158,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12158.xml

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