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 |
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 |
letter | (3) |
Darwin, C. R. | (2) |
Spencer, Herbert | (1) |
Spencer, Herbert | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (1) |