To G. H. K. Thwaites 21 March [1860]
Summary
Is pleased GHKT goes a little way with him.
Has rectified in foreign editions of Origin his omission of an explanation of the failure of many forms to progress;
also has discussion of beauty in MS. Does GHKT really believe Diatomaceae, for instance, were created beautiful so that man, millions of generations later, should admire them through a microscope? CD attributes most of these structures to unknown laws of growth; useful structures are accounted for by natural selection.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Henry Kendrick Thwaites |
Date: | 21 Mar [1860] |
Classmark: | Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology MSS 405 A. Gift of the Burndy Library) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2731 |
To G. H. K. Thwaites 20 October [1860]
Summary
Thanks for fact about ducks in Ceylon. Asks for more information.
Pleased by GHKT’s sentence [about Origin].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Henry Kendrick Thwaites |
Date: | 20 Oct [1860] |
Classmark: | The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Manuscripts and Archives Division. (Richard John Levy and Sally Waldman Sweet collection: box 2, folder 12) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2957 |
letter | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (2) |