To Anatole Roujou? 28 February [1872]1
9 Devonshire St. | Portland Place | London
Feb 28—
My dear Sir
I am much obliged for your note.2 I have read your work, but the subject is so abstruse, & as my health is weak, I am not sure that I have mastered your views.3
I can however see that your work exhibits much talent. It has delighted me to find that you are not shocked at the belief that man is a modified and wonderfully improved descendant of some lower animal-form.4 This belief, considering the date of the publication & that your country is France, is a surprising & very gratifying fact. Throughout Europe, with the exception of France, the great principle of evolution seems to me to be now fixed on a sure basis; though very many yet demur to man being included in the same category.5
I still fear that we differ much in our views on the origin of the moral sense, but I shall be pleased to find that I am mistaken.6
Pray believe me dear Sir. | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Roujou, Anatole. 1872. Note sur quelques analogies du type humain avec celui de très-anciens mammifères. [Read 18 January 1872.] Bulletins de la Société d’anthropologie de Paris 2d ser. 7: 44–122.
Summary
Has read correspondent’s work. Glad he is not shocked at belief that man is descendant of lower form. An unusual attitude for a Frenchman.
Fears they differ greatly on origins of moral sense.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8226
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Anatole Roujou
- Sent from
- London, Devonshire St, 9
- Source of text
- The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature.
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8226,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8226.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20