To A. Gapitche 24 February 1880
Down,
Feb. 24th, 1880.
I suppose that no one can prove that death is inevitable, but the evidence in favour of this belief is overwhelmingly strong from the evidence of all other living creatures.1 I do not believe that it is by any means invariably true that the higher organisms always live longer than the lower ones. Elephants, parrots, ravens, tortoises and some fish live longer than man. As evolution depends on a long succession of generations, which implies death, it seems to me in the highest degree improbable that man should cease to follow the general law of evolution, and this would follow if he were to be immortal.
This is all that I can say.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Gapitche, A. 1880. Quelques mots sur l’éternité du corps humaine. Nice: Berna.
ML: More letters of Charles Darwin: a record of his work in a series of hitherto unpublished letters. Edited by Francis Darwin and Albert Charles Seward. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1903.
Summary
No one can prove death is inevitable, but the evidence in favour of this belief is overwhelming. It is in the highest degree improbable that man should cease to follow the general law of evolution, and evolution implies successive generations, which implies death.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12499
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- A. Gapitche
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- ML 2: 444–5
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12499,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12499.xml
