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The whale-bear
Summary
Darwin came to regard ‘bear’ as a ‘word of ill-omen’. In the first edition of Origin he told the story of a black bear seen swimming for hours with its mouth wide open scooping insects from the water ‘like a whale’. He went on to imagine that natural…
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- … regretting ever including it. As he wrote to one reviewer : I by no means believe that …
4.43 'Illustrated London News' article
Summary
< Back to Introduction In September 1887 the Illustrated London News reviewed G.T. Bettany’s popular biography of Darwin, and the reviewer took this opportunity to offer his own thoughts on the ‘domestic tranquillity’ and ‘unassuming modesty’ of…
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- … G.T. Bettany’s popular biography of Darwin, and the reviewer took this opportunity to offer his own …
4.55 Harry Furniss caricature
Summary
< Back to Introduction Harry Furniss’s caricature of Darwin is in a set of seventy-two pen and ink drawings by this artist now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. They were acquired in 1947-8 from Theodore Cluse, who, acting…
Essay: Evolutionary teleology
Summary
—by Asa Gray EVOLUTIONARY TELEOLOGY When Cuvier spoke of the ‘combination of organs in such order that they may be in consistence with the part which the animal has to play in Nature,’ his opponent, Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, rejoined, ‘I know nothing of…
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- … design first and foremost. ‘ Why ’–the Westminster Reviewer repeats the question–‘ why, if …
- … only as subservient to usefulness, the Westminster Reviewer shows us how: ‘ The …
- … of what he can conceive and know, is what the Westminster Reviewer comes to, as follows: …
- … falling into a fit medium, is imagined by the Westminster Reviewer to argue design from the …
- … It not only acknowledges purpose (in the Contemporary Reviewer’s sense), but builds upon it; and …
- … in fact supersedes, this principle. The Westminster Reviewer cleverly expounds how it …
List of correspondents
Summary
Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. Click on a name to see the letters Darwin exchanged with that correspondent. "A child of God" (1) Abberley,…
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- … Reuter, Adolf (10) Reviewer (1) …
Essay: Natural selection & natural theology
Summary
—by Asa Gray NATURAL SELECTION NOT INCONSISTENT WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY. Atlantic Monthly for July, August, and October, 1860, reprinted in 1861. I Novelties are enticing to most people; to us they are simply annoying. We cling to a long-accepted…
Matches: 15 hits
- … by the American reviewers. The North British reviewer, indeed, roundly denounces the book as …
- … the eye.’ And then follows the second extract of the reviewer. But what is the position of the …
- … was undesigned? As to the other illustration, is the reviewer so complete an optimist as to …
- … be confronted upon any theory. The North American reviewer also has a world of his own—just …
- … cause,’ born only to perish, which a relentless reviewer has imposed upon his theory—rightly enough …
- … The Examiner inclines toward, the North American reviewer fully adopts, the third view, to the …
- … as interpositions or interferences, but rather—to use the reviewer’s own language—as ‘exertions so …
- … What does the difference between Mr. Darwin and his reviewer now amount to? If we say that according …
- … species, no less than that of an individual, is natural; the reviewer, that the natural origination …
- … remains. And so, concludes the North American reviewer, ‘a proper view of the nature of …
- … a subsidiary philosophical objection of the North American reviewer, which the Examiner also raises, …
- … and developed their long succession of generations. Now, the reviewer declares that such indefinite …
- … it does, still larger ‘instalments of infinity,’ as the reviewer calls them, both as to time and …
- … may say that they vary together because designed to do so. A reviewer says that the chance of their …
- … leap be increased by practice? The North American reviewer’s position, that the higher brute …
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,…
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- … of paper, reveals that Darwin had guessed, correctly, the reviewer’s identity: St George Jackson …
- … given historically. The laws and customs referred to by the Reviewer are those of the early German …
- … enough to fancy or malicious enough to represent that the Reviewer meant to imply some personal …
- … meanwhile took the opportunity to lambast ‘the anonymous Reviewer’, Mivart, in a passage of his …
- … Academy , 16 January 1875, p. 66, signed, ‘The Quarterly Reviewer of 1874’. In it he reiterated his …
Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
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- … an anonymous article on the book in January 1882. The reviewer’s assessment was mixed: ‘we still …
- … complimentary, indeed more than complimentary.’ ‘If the Reviewer is a young man & a worker in …
- … much,—but this is a relatively unimportant point. Your reviewer is in the position of the men who …
The Lyell–Lubbock dispute
Summary
In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book Prehistoric times, accused Lyell of plagiarism. The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took immediate action…
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…
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- … critiques of his views. ‘One cannot expect fairness in a Reviewer’, Darwin commented to Hooker after …
3.9 Leonard Darwin, photo on horseback
Summary
< Back to Introduction It is so rare to encounter an image of Darwin in a specific locale that a family photograph of him riding his horse Tommy takes on a special interest. He is at the front of Down House, the door of which is open; it seems as…
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- … in 1912, but without indications of date or authorship; a reviewer of this exhibition in the Pall …
1.6 Ouless oil portrait
Summary
< Back to Introduction The first commissioned oil portrait of Darwin was painted by Walter William Ouless, who was given sittings at Down House in March 1875. The idea for such a portrait came from Darwin’s son William, who as far back as 1872 had…
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- … was shown at the Royal Academy in May 1875, the Times reviewer noted Ouless’s gift for …
1.14 William Richmond, oil
Summary
< Back to Introduction William Blake Richmond’s portrait of Darwin, dating from 1879, celebrated his honorary degree of LL.D (Doctor in Laws), awarded by Cambridge University in 1877. Darwin’s return to his alma mater for the presentation ceremony…
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- … distinguished academics. According to the Observer ’s reviewer, who saw the painting at the …
2.1 Thomas Woolner bust
Summary
< Back to Introduction Thomas Woolner’s marble bust of Darwin was the first portrayal of him that reflected an important transition in his status in the later 1860s. In the 1840s–1850s Darwin had been esteemed within scientific circles as one among…
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- … exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1870, the Observer ’s reviewer thought it was the best of the …
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…
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- … society. Huxley chose journalism, depicting the anonymous reviewer (Mivart) as a blind antagonist of …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
1.18 John Collier, oil in Linnean
Summary
< Back to Introduction By 1881 it was clear to Darwin’s intimates that he was increasingly frail, and that, as he approached death, he had finally escaped from religious controversy to become a heroic figure, loved and venerated for his achievements…
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- … sense of representation’, according to the Times reviewer – and he turned out to be the perfect …
5935_4582
Summary
From J. D. Hooker 26[–7] February 1868KewFeby 26th/68Dear Darwin I have been bursting with impatience to hear what you would say of the Athenæum Review & who wrote it— I could not conceive who…
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- … CD’s ideas on causes of variation may be as hazy as the reviewer’s. Huxley’s …
Review: The Origin of Species
Summary
- by Asa Gray THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION (American Journal of Science and Arts, March, 1860) This book is already exciting much attention. Two American editions are announced, through which it will become familiar to many…
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- … and say how much of truth there may be in each? The present reviewer has not the presumption to …
Descent
Summary
There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…
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- … from them , and the reviews, describing one anonymous reviewer as ‘a windbag full of metaphysics …
