From Hensleigh Wedgwood [1868–70?]
Summary
Development of complex language does not require an early civilisation. [See Descent 1: 56ff.]
| Author: | Hensleigh Wedgwood |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1868–70?] |
| Classmark: | DAR 80: 164–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7040 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … of complex language does not require an early civilisation. [See Descent 1: 56ff. ] …
- … the argument in favour of an early civilisation from the complex nature of the rudest …
- … language structure and its relationship to civilisation found in Wake 1868 . CD scored the …
From B. J. Sulivan 23 February 1874
Summary
The Bishop of Falkland says the Fuegian natives’ health does not suffer through increased civilisation. Relates the Bishop’s observations on the state of Tierra del Fuego and its populace.
| Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Feb 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 301 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9311 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … does not suffer through increased civilisation. Relates the Bishop’s observations on the …
- … s questions about the influence of European civilisation on the Fuegians. See also letter …
From G. C. Oxenden 8 April 1872
Summary
Wild plants that live at the edges of civilisation, e.g., forest flowers growing on grazed land, are always reduced in size.
| Author: | George Chichester Oxenden |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Apr 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 173: 69 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8281 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Wild plants that live at the edges of civilisation, e.g. , forest flowers growing on …
From P. G. King 25 February 1869
Summary
CD’s queries on expression of aborigines were difficult to answer because he encounters mainly those touched by civilisation. Hopes CD did get answers.
| Author: | Philip Gidley King |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Feb 1869 |
| Classmark: | DAR 169: 28 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6635 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … because he encounters mainly those touched by civilisation. Hopes CD did get answers. …
From Patrick Matthew 3 December 1862
Summary
Apologises for not writing last summer. Scientific progress is all but complete. Our civilisation will fall now that it has reached the peak of its development.
| Author: | Patrick Matthew |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Dec 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 91 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3843 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … progress is all but complete. Our civilisation will fall now that it has reached the peak …
From J. V. Carus 2 October 1870
Summary
The outbreak of war and war work have interfered with JVC’s scientific work.
Publisher does not, however, think the war will hurt success of Descent in Germany, and JVC asks for corrected sheets for his use in translating it.
Wishes struggle between Romanic and Teutonic races could be fought out in a form more appropriate to their cultures and civilisation.
| Author: | Julius Victor Carus |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Oct 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 76 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7332 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … races could be fought out in a form more appropriate to their cultures and civilisation. …
- … standing of their respective culture and civilisation. It is a most dreaful ‘struggle for …
From Louis Bouton 15 December 1871
Summary
Pleased to hear from CD. Sends more facts about the life and habits of the inhabitants of the Seychelles.
| Author: | Louis Sulpice (Louis) Bouton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 Dec 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 260 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8107A |
Matches: 2 hits
- … la voie qu’on est convenu d’appeler civilisation . Les Seychellois vivaient donc presque …
- … far along the path that we agree to call civilisation . The Seychellois thus lived in near …
From W. B. Bowles 17 May 1877
Summary
Has read a German author’s exposition of CD’s theory.
Believes "missing link" between higher mammals and man consists of a race of "speaking monkeys" – akin to Africans – who pollute blood of better race and impede civilisation.
| Author: | William Burrows Bowles |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 May 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 263 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10963 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … monkeys" – akin to Africans – who pollute blood of better race and impede civilisation. …
From Henry Fletcher Hance 3 September 1868
Summary
Sends CD an article [missing] on the early domestication and culture of the goldfish.
| Author: | Henry Fletcher Hance |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Sept 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 96 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6348 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … matters, and the early & unbroken civilisation of the nation would, I imagine, render …
From J. D. Hooker [12 January 1863]
Summary
Huxley’s lectures [Man’s place in nature (1863)]; he would be a scientific H. T. Buckle, if he were more careful.
Asks CD what the evidence is for inheritance of acquired characteristics.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [12 Jan 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 98 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3892 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Buckle , the author of History of civilisation in England ( Buckle 1857–61 ), a work that …
From J. D. Hooker 29 December 1874
Summary
Explains that his letter had to do with how he should act publicly to Mivart if he retracted. He would not forgive him. If he does not retract, it would no longer be possible to keep him Secretary of the Linnean Society.
Drosophyllum will be sent when weather permits.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Dec 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 243–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9788 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … refers also to Lubbock’s Origin of civilisation and the primitive condition of man ( …
From Werner von Voigts-Rhetz [after 18 April 1881]
Summary
On vivisection. Has read CD’s letter to Frithiof Holmgren and answers the points raised in it.
| Author: | Werner Adolf Friedrich Wilhelm (Werner) von Voigts-Rhetz |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 18 Apr 1881] |
| Classmark: | DAR 180: 14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13127 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … there will come a time, as long as civilisation does not cease its progress, when future …
- … qu’il viendra un temps, pourvu que la civilisation ne s’arrête pas dans sa marche, où les …
From John Hutton Balfour 14 January 1862
Summary
Thanks for Primula paper [Collected papers 2: 45–63]; will examine some [Edinburgh] Botanic Garden samples in its light.
Huxley visiting Edinburgh and spoke on man’s zoological relations with monkeys [see Man’s place in nature (1863)]. JHB disagrees with his views.
| Author: | John Hutton Balfour |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Jan 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160.1: 31 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3387 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Richard. 1854. On the origin of civilisation. A lecture by his grace the archbishop of …
From George Rolleston 30 August 1875
Summary
Sends copy of his "Address [to the department of anthropology", Rep. BAAS 45 (1875): 142–56].
Notes criticism of remark by Walter Bagehot dealing with extinction of barbarians [cited in Descent 1: 239].
| Author: | George Rolleston |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 30 Aug 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 147: 554 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10141 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … had not declined when in contact with civilisation in the classical era as they had in …
From George Morrish 18 March 1871
Summary
Having read extracts of CD’s work, he argues that the scriptural version of man’s origin is superior, and he is concerned about CD’s salvation.
| Author: | George Morrish |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Mar 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 244 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7599 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Richard. 1854. On the origin of civilisation. A lecture by his grace the archbishop of …
From Alfred Espinas March 1872
Summary
AE, philosophy professor, is disposed to accept natural selection, but argues that it lacks direction. Suggests that direction would be given if one assumed the appearance of multiple advantageous traits in a single individual. Cites Herbert Spencer, Rudolf Virchow, Claude Bernard, and Carl Vogt.
| Author: | Alfred Victor (Alfred) Espinas |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | Mar 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 163: 33 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8231 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … d’individus sexués, 3 o . la civilisation (vie politique, πολιτικὸν ζῶον) réalisée par un …
- … a group of sexed individuals, 3 o . civilisation (political life, [textgreek[politikon zw …
From B. J. Sulivan 7 February 1874
Summary
The Bishop of Falkland [Waite Hockin Stirling] is coming to visit BJS, who will question him for CD.
Discusses politics; regrets they have been badly beaten by the Tory candidate.
| Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Feb 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 300 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9273 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … under the influence of European civilisation ( letter from B. J. Sulivan, 23 February …
From Andrew Smith 18 July 1871
Summary
Thanks CD for a letter to Galton which enabled him to get information on the inhabitants of a part of South Africa. Is trying to work up the ethnology of South Africa, but fears he will become disheartened.
| Author: | Andrew Smith |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 July 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 186 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7872 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … it as the time is passing when when civilisation and its consequences will be taking the …
From W. F. Segrave 28 May 1875
Summary
Has heard from Italian minister that the inhabitants of the Japanese island of Saghalien [Sakhalin], lately ceded to Russia, have their bodies covered with hair, like the gorilla, and are supposedly the remnant of the aboriginal population of the Japanese islands.
| Author: | William Francis Segrave |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 28 May 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 131 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9999 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to progress to higher levels of civilisation ( Siddle 1997 , 22–3). In 1875, following the …
From C.-F. Reinwald 4 March 1873
Summary
Recounts the difficulties in preparing the French translation of Origin: the 1870 war, the illness and death of J. J. Moulinié, the alterations and additions from the 6th English edition. Despite competition from Royer’s three editions, Reinwald is contemplating a new edition.
Descent, vol. 1, has almost sold out. Offers CD £40 for rights to reprint a corrected version of Descent.
| Author: | Charles-Ferdinand Reinwald |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 Mar 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 99 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8797 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1867 ) and his work on the origins of civilisation ( Lubbock 1870 and Lubbock 1873 ). The …
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Sulivan, B. J. | (2) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (2) |
| Balfour, J. H. | (1) |
| Bouton, Louis | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (28) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Sulivan, B. J. | (2) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (2) |
| Balfour, J. H. | (1) |
Darwin on race and gender
Summary
Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In Descent of man, he tried to explain the origin of human races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual…
Matches: 2 hits
- … conflicts such as the American Civil War. Gender and civilisation In his early …
- … contemporaries, he nonetheless clung to a single scale of civilisation on which different peoples …
John Lubbock
Summary
John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down House, Down, Kent; the total of one hundred and seventy surviving letters he went on to exchange with Darwin is a large number considering that the two men lived…
Matches: 2 hits
- … ( Descent p. 233). Lubbock’s Origin of civilisation , published in 1870 as Darwin was …
- … the result of degeneration from a natural state of civilisation. Darwin used Lubbock's counter …
The evolution of a misquotation
Summary
We gave you six things Darwin never said (despite what you may read elsewhere). None of the fake soundbites is more insidious than the first: It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is…
Matches: 1 hits
- … as a discussion of Darwin’s views in a 1960s textbook, Civilisation Past and Present , was quoted …
4.53 Claud Warren, 'Outlines of Hands'
Summary
< Back to Introduction Claud Warren’s The Life-size Outlines of the Hands of Twenty-four Celebrated Persons was a ‘portfolio’, circulated in varying editions in 1881-2. It is an amateurish and rather eccentric work, without typographic letterpress –…
Matches: 1 hits
- … he would probably have been burnt at the stake. Although civilisation has advanced since then, and …
'An Appeal' against animal cruelty
Summary
The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma and Charles Darwin (see letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863]). The pamphlet, which protested against the cruelty of steel vermin…
Matches: 2 hits
- … was one of the noblest moral qualities possessed by human civilisation. However, Darwin was not …
- … cruelty can have been permitted to continue in these days of civilisation; and no doubt if men of …
Language: Interview with Gregory Radick
Summary
Darwin made a famous comment about parallels between changes in language and species change. Gregory Radick, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds University, talks about the importance of the development of language to Darwin, what…
Matches: 2 hits
- … circumstances with no interesting technology, no advanced civilisation, speaking lowly languages. …
- … that all human peoples, no matter what the states of their civilisation, speak languages of more or …
4.58 'Simian, savage' . . . drawings
Summary
< Back to Introduction An anonymous satire in the Darwin archive has been descriptively titled ‘Simian, savage and savant’. Darwin on the right, elegantly dressed and carrying a top hat, represents the acme of civilisation. The central, nearly naked,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … dressed and carrying a top hat, represents the acme of civilisation. The central, nearly naked, …
Six things Darwin never said – and one he did
Summary
Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly attributed to Darwin that never flowed from his pen.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly …
St George Jackson Mivart
Summary
In the second half of 1874, Darwin’s peace was disturbed by an anonymous article in the Quarterly Review suggesting that his son George was opposed to the institution of marriage and in favour of ‘unrestrained licentiousness’. Darwin suspected, correctly,…
Matches: 2 hits
- … can co-exist with the most varied appliances of a complex civilisation.’ p. 77: ‘A deep debt …
- … can co-exist with the most varied appliances of a complex civilisation.’ The Review thus …
Religion
Summary
Design|Personal Belief|Beauty|The Church Perhaps the most notorious realm of controversy over evolution in Darwin's day was religion. The same can be said of the evolution controversy today; however the nature of the disputes and the manner in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … believes natural selection is doing more for progress of civilisation than Graham admits. …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 2 hits
- … on Navvies [C. M. Marsh] 1858] Buckle History of Civilisation [Buckle 1857] Feb. 28 …
- … practice; and its moral influence on the progress of civilisation . Edinburgh: William and …
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilisation than you seem inclined to …
Darwin in letters, 1860: Answering critics
Summary
On 7 January 1860, John Murray published the second edition of Darwin’s Origin of species, printing off another 3000 copies to satisfy the demands of an audience that surprised both the publisher and the author. It wasn't long, however, before ‘the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … paper giving a Darwinian view of the development of Western civilisation. Wilberforce, Hooker …
Darwin's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?
Summary
Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … all over their bodies, which had receded with the advance of civilisation and good breeding ( …
Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings
Summary
‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to the sterility of many wild animals when made captive. The civilisation of savages & the …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 1 hits
- … selection had not contributed greatly to the progress of civilisation was contested by Darwin, who …
