To John Fiske 8 December [1874]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Dec. 8th
My dear Sir
You must allow me to thank you for the very great interest with which I have at last slowly read the whole of your work.—2 I have long wished to know something about the views of the many great men whose doctrines you give. With the exception of special points, I did not ever understand H. Spencers general doctrine; for his style is too hard work for me.— I never in my life read so lucid an expositor (& therefore thinker) as you are; & I think that I understand nearly the whole,—perhaps less clearly about Cosmic Theism & Causation, than other parts.—3 It is hopeless to attempt out of so much to specify what has interested me most, & probably you would not care to hear.— I wish some chemist would attempt to ascertain the result of the cooling of heated gases of the proper kinds, in relation to your hypothesis of the origin of living matter.4 It pleased me to find that here & there I had arrived from my own crude thoughts at some of the same conclusions with you; though I could seldom or never have given my reasons for such conclusions.— I find that my mind is so fixed by the inductive method, that I cannot appreciate deductive reasoning: I must begin with a good body of facts & not from a principle, (in which I always suspect some fallacy) & then as much deduction as you please. This may be very narrow-minded; but the result is that such parts of H. Spencer, as I have read with care impress my mind with the idea of his inexhaustible wealth of suggestion, but never convince me; & so I find it is with some others. I believe the cause to lie in the frequency with which I have found first-formed theories, are erroneous.
I thank you for the honourable mention which you make of my works. Parts of the Descent of Man must have appeared largely weak to you: nevertheless I have sent you a new Edit. just published.5
Thanking you for the profound interest & profit with which I have read your work, I remain | My dear Sir Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent 2d ed.: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. London: John Murray. 1874.
Fiske, John. 1874. Outlines of cosmic philosophy: based on the doctrine of evolution, with criticisms on the positive philosophy. 2 vols. London: Macmillan and Co.
Summary
Praises JF’s book [Cosmic philosophy (1874)].
Has long wished to understand H. Spencer but is not convinced by him and some others. CD cannot trust deduction from a starting principle, as his mind is so fixed by the inductive method.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9749
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Fiske
- Sent from
- London, Bryanston St, 2 Down letterhead
- Source of text
- The Huntington Library (FK 1110–1112)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9749,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9749.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22