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Darwin Correspondence Project

From S. T. Preston   24 October 1880

25 Reedworth Street | Kennington Road SE. | London.

October 24th. 1880

Dear Sir

In perusing my letter of August 5th again, it strikes me that there is an appearance of pretentiousness in the mode of my allusion to Mr Herbert Spencer’s “Data of Ethics” in relation to the Essay on “Natural Science & Morality” by myself and friend.1 I can only say that this was not my intention, and my object was to express a certain amount of gratification at the apparent agreement of principles as far as they went in the comparatively very brief Essay by self and friend. As however one cannot in correspondence have the great advantage of knowing the impression one has created and of ascertaining whether the intended meaning has been conveyed (which is possible only in an oral communication): and as I should be sorry that the wording of my letter should convey an impression of the above kind (which I think it legitimately might do)—I am therefore induced to write these few lines, and as no correspondence is called for, I hope I shall not be thought to be unduly troubling you in alluding briefly to this matter.

Your’s truly | S Tolver Preston

Charles Darwin Esqr FRS &c—

Footnotes

In his letter of 5 August 1880, Preston had stated that some of the conclusions reached in his essay on natural science and morality (Preston 1880a) read like a popular exposition of parts of Spencer 1879. Preston’s essay was based on the privately circulated pamphlet he had written with William Sharpey Seaton on physics and ethics ([Seaton] 1879).

Bibliography

Preston, Samuel Tolver. 1880a. Natural science and morality. Journal of science 3d ser. 2: 443–62.

[Seaton, William Sharpey.] 1879. Physics and ethics: the conservation of energy and free will: scientific imagination and the origin of knowledge: the ascent of man and the basis of right and wrong. London: Harrison and Sons.

Spencer, Herbert. 1879. The data of ethics. London: Williams and Norgate.

Summary

Regrets the pretentious tone of his 5 Aug letter [12678].

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12773
From
Samuel Tolver Preston
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Kennington Rd
Source of text
DAR 174: 64
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12773,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12773.xml

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