To Herbert Spencer 23 [February 1860]
Summary
HS put the case of selection strikingly and clearly in his article [Anonymous, "A theory of population, deduced from the general law of animal fertility", Westminster Rev. 57 (1852): 468–501]. Of CD’s numerous private critics only HS has rendered the philosophy fairly: his argument is an hypothesis that explains groups of facts.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Herbert Spencer |
Date: | 23 [Feb 1860] |
Classmark: | University of London, Senate House Library (MS. 791/51) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3126 |
From Herbert Spencer 22 February 1860
Summary
CD has caused a great change in HS’s views, in showing how a great proportion of adaptation should be explained by natural selection not direct adaptation to changing conditions. HS had remarked on the survival of the best individuals as a cause of improvement in man, but he "& every one" overlooked selection of spontaneous variation. Believes so many kinds of indirect evidence must add up to a conclusive demonstration of the doctrine.
Author: | Herbert Spencer |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 22 Feb 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/5: 107–9) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2706B |
Matches: 5 hits
- … From Herbert Spencer 22 February 1860 …
- … Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/5: 107–9) Herbert Spencer 22 Feb 1860 Charles Robert Darwin …
- … s work, see letter to Herbert Spencer, 2 February [1860] , and Correspondence vol. 7, …
- … apparently enclosed with the letter (see letter to Herbert Spencer, 23 [February 1860] ). …
- … s journal is headed: ‘ Herbert Spencer to C. Darwin, 22 d Feb y .1860 | H. S. ’s own …
To Herbert Spencer 2 February [1860]
Summary
Has prepared a historical sketch [of writers on origin of species] for foreign editions of Origin. It includes HS. He was too ill to provide it for the 1st ed.
Sorry Murray has not sent HS his copy of Origin, as he was instructed.
Huxley will put CD and E. A. Darwin down for HS’s gigantic [publishing] programme. Suggests Dr Drysdale be approached about it.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Herbert Spencer |
Date: | 2 Feb [1860] |
Classmark: | University of London, Senate House Library (MS.791/47) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2680 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … To Herbert Spencer 2 February [1860] …
- … Senate House Library (MS.791/47) Charles Robert Darwin Down 2 Feb [1860] Herbert Spencer …
- … Darwin. New York: D. Appleton. 1860. [Spencer, Herbert]. 1852. A theory of population, …
- … essay. See also letter from Herbert Spencer, 22 February 1860 . Spencer sent a copy of the …
- … Brown, Green, and Longmans. Spencer, Herbert. 1860–2. First principles. London: George …
Spencer, Herbert. 1860–2. First principles. London: George Manwaring; Williams & Norgate.
From A. R. Wallace 2 January 1864
Summary
Remarks on ARW’s review of Samuel Haughton’s paper on bees’ cells
and Origin.
Agassiz’s strength as geologist and weakness in natural history theory.
Work problems.
His butterfly collection.
Problems with book on Malay journey.
Recommends Herbert Spencer and his Social statics.
Spencer’s "masterly" nebular hypothesis.
Author: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Jan 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 106: B8–11 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4378 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … vol. 8, letter to Herbert Spencer, 2 February [1860] . CD’s annotated instalments of …
- … vol. 8, letters to Herbert Spencer , 2 February [1860] and 23 [February 1860] , and …
- … Roberts; Williams & Norgate. Spencer, Herbert. 1860–2. First principles. London: George …
- … instalments of Herbert Spencer’s First principles ( Spencer 1860–2 ); these constituted …
- … 1860. Richards, Robert J. 1987. Darwin and the emergence of evolutionary theories of mind and behavior. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. Spencer, Herbert. …
To T. H. Huxley [26 January 1860]
Summary
Has arranged with Baily the poulterer for pigeons for THH to exhibit at Royal Institution lecture.
E. A. Darwin will subscribe to H. Spencer’s book [First principles: a system of philosophy (1862)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | [26 Jan 1860] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 119) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2673 |
From J. D. Hooker 10 June 1863
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 June 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 149–50 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4210 |
From J. D. Hooker [27 or 28 December 1862]
Summary
Hostile to Spencer’s application of natural selection to society.
JDH on J. E. Gray’s views on collecting.
JDH collecting Wedgwood ware.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [27 or 28] Dec 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 93–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3891 |
From Henry Holland 4 November [1864]
Summary
Congratulations on the Copley Medal.
Author: | Henry Holland, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Nov [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 244 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4659 |
To J. D. Hooker 15 January [1861]
Summary
CD’s opinion of minor critics and commentators on Origin.
H. C. Watson’s notion of genera converging is dismissed.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 Jan [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 115.2: 85 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3047 |
To Herbert Spencer 9 December [1867]
Summary
Thanks for copy of HS’s First principles [? 2d ed. (1867)].
Comments on HS’s Principles of biology [1864, 1867].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Herbert Spencer |
Date: | 9 Dec [1867] |
Classmark: | DAR 147: 485a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5717 |
To Henry Holland 6 November [1864]
Summary
Thanks for congratulations on award of Copley Medal by the Royal Society.
Discusses his long period of ill health.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Holland, 1st baronet |
Date: | 6 Nov [1864] |
Classmark: | Peter Harrington (dealer) (September 2020) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4661F |
From J. F. Moulton 13 December 1879
Summary
Herbert Spencer, though not the scientific thinker he sees himself to be, was extremely important in conditioning the generation’s acceptance of evolution. Compares Spencer and Robert Chambers as teachers, rather than discoverers, of new ideas.
Author: | John Fletcher Moulton, Baron Moulton |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 13 Dec 1879 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 279 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12356 |
From J. D. Hooker 18 January 1869
Summary
Replies to CD’s questions. Advice on use of term "morphology". Is much struck by CD’s idea that uniformity of an organ throughout a group implies functional inutility; the paradox of this position for classification.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 18 Jan 1869 |
Classmark: | DAR 103: 4–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6560 |
To Charles Lyell 25 March [1865]
Summary
Mentions Miss Buckley’s information on roosting in trees [see Variation 1: 181 n.].
Refers to Duke [of Argyll] and his Lamarckian view of change.
Roosting habits and behaviour of pigeons in Egypt.
Criticises Herbert Spencer’s works.
Has finished Elements; comments on Laurentian stages.
Remarks on his health
and forthcoming work [Variation].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 25 Mar [1865] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.307) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4794 |
From A. R. Wallace 9 July 1881
Summary
Enthusiasm for Henry George’s Progress and poverty. Considers it to rank with Adam Smith’s work. His own work on the land question [Land nationalisation (1882)].
Author: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 9 July 1881 |
Classmark: | DAR 106: B154–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13238 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … them developed. London: John Chapman. Spencer, Herbert. 1860–2. First principles. London: …
- … Herbert Spencer ’s first book, and predicted the withering away of the state as humans adapted to life in society. In the context of this letter, Wallace was probably most interested in chapter 9, ‘The right to the use of the earth’ (see Raby 2001 , p. 228). First principles ( Spencer 1860– …
To J. D. Hooker 23 [June 1863]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 23 [June 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 196 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4218 |
To Charles Lyell 23 February [1860]
Summary
Gradation in the eye.
Hooker intends to reply [to W. H. Harvey’s article in Gard. Chron. (1860): 145–6].
Discusses Aspicarpa with respect to correlation.
Comments on monstrous animals.
Discusses objections of Bronn and Asa Gray to natural selection. Cites parallel between natural selection and Newton’s concept of gravitation.
Mentions German experiments on spontaneous generation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 23 Feb [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.200) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2707 |
To Charles Lyell 10 January [1860]
Summary
Comments on corrections [in Origin, 2d ed. (1860)], especially on use of Wallace’s name.
Discusses human evolution with respect to CL’s work. Cites expression as a source of evidence.
Andrew Murray’s criticisms of the Origin involving blind insects in caves [Edinburgh New Philos. J. n.s. 11 (1860): 141–51].
Humorously describes human ancestors.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 10 Jan [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.191) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2647 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Thomas Bridges, 6 January 1860 . Spencer 1855 , which Herbert Spencer presented to CD in …
- … 1860. Origin : On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859. Spencer, Herbert. …
- … Herbert Spencer, 11 March [1856] ). CD’s copy of this work is in the Darwin Library–CUL. Wedgwood 1859–65. Hensleigh Wedgwood’s account of the origin of language ran counter to contemporary opinion: he believed that words first emerged as an elaborated imitation of natural sounds. CD’s copy of a later edition of the work is in the Darwin Library–CUL. Erasmus Alvey Darwin , CD’s brother. William Benjamin Carpenter reviewed Origin in the National Review , 10 (1860): …
To Charles Lyell 25 February [1860]
Summary
Comments on CL’s reaction to the Origin. Mentions reactions of other scientists.
Discusses fertility of Aspicarpa.
Criticises Herbert Spencer’s views on population.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 25 Feb [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.201) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2714 |
letter | (27) |
bibliography | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (13) |
Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
Wallace, A. R. | (4) |
Holland, Henry | (1) |
Moulton, J. F. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (14) |
Lyell, Charles | (4) |
Spencer, Herbert | (3) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Holland, Henry | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (27) |
Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
Wallace, A. R. | (5) |
Lyell, Charles | (4) |
Spencer, Herbert | (4) |