To F. J. Wedgwood [after 1 April 1871?]1
My dear Snow
[‘I enter my protest against your making the struggle for existence (which is sufficiently melancholy fact) still more odious by calling it “selfish competition”.’2
Darwin discusses and deprecates his correspondent’s comment, presumably on the key passage in The Descent of Man (Part I, chapter V) where he contends that the struggle for existence, and its consequence, natural selection, are the result of a rapid rate of increase.3 He denies that success derived from energy and intellect is due to selfishness, drawing a parallel with ‘a feline animal [which] is born rather bigger, fiercer or more cunning than others of the same or some other species & succeeds in life, & rears lots of savage little kittens, who get on very well in life, yet you cannot call this, even metaphorically, selfishness’, pointing out also the role of parental affection, ‘a very important element of success’.]
C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Summary
Protests against FJW making the struggle for existence still more odious by calling it ‘selfish competition’.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7651F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Frances Julia (Snow) Wedgwood
- Source of text
- Christie’s, London (dealers) (3 March 2004)
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7651F,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7651F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19