From Charles Lyell 2 May 1860
Summary
It is small comfort to be told you will be succeeded in lineal descent by angels when Lamarck and Darwin have made your ancestors without souls. However, can the progressive system not be seen as most consonant with a higher destiny if all spiritual natures advance? The link of common descent to inferior beings like idiots should be obvious. Infants die before they become responsible. Pope’s An essay on Man [1733] shows how man was "In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast", without speculation on his genealogy.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 May 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/5: 176–9) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2779A |
To Charles Lyell 4 May [1860]
Summary
Is sending CL an arrow-head. Says John Lubbock tells of vast numbers of flint tools in peat in France. Urges CL to conduct further research on the subject.
Comments on paper by J. S. Newberry concerning palaeozoic deposits in America [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 29 (1860): 208–18]
and on A. von Keyserling’s view of species change.
Mentions J. W. Salter’s chart arranging Spirifer.
Comments on Andrew Murray’s paper on the Origin ["On Mr Darwin’s theory of the origin of species", Proc. R. Soc. Edinburgh 4 (1860): 274–91].
A Manchester newspaper article says CD has proved "might is right".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 4 May [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.210) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2782 |
From Charles Lyell 7 May 1860
Summary
Saw Salter’s Spirifer specimens; a very good proof of indefinite modifiability.
Beginning to think gap between Cambrian and Lower Silurian enormous.
Édouard Lartet to give paper before Geological Society ["On coexistence of man with certain extinct quadrupeds", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 16 (1859–60): 471–5].
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 May 1860 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 396 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2787 |
To Charles Lyell 8 [May 1860]
Summary
Did not know about separation between Silurian and Cambrian.
Cannot attend Geological Society meeting.
Etty [Henrietta Darwin] ill.
Sedgwick in his attack at Cambridge Philosophical Society states "there must be [on CD’s theory] large genera not varying".
Discusses migration of plants and animals from Old World to New.
Views of Asa Gray on Aster.
Mentions flora of coal period.
Has been elected to Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 8 [May 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.211) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2788 |
To Charles Lyell 18 May [1860]
Summary
Comments on enclosed letters from Asa Gray and Wallace [missing].
Discusses hybrid fertility in rabbits and hares, and pheasants and fowls.
Asks about paper by Hermann Schaaffhausen ["Über Beständigkeit u. Umwandlung der Arten", Verh. Naturhist. Ver. Preuss. Rheinlande 10 (1853): 420–51].
Mentions criticism by Sedgwick and William Clark at Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Notes importance of CL and Hooker in defending Origin.
Comments on papers by D. A. Godron ["Considérations sur les migrations des végétaux", Acad. Stanislas Mem. Soc. Sci. Nancy (1853): 329–67].
Mentions receiving anonymous verses.
A Manchester newspaper lampoon shows CD has proved "might makes right" to be a universal law.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 18 May [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.212) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2806 |
To Charles Lyell 22 May [1860]
Summary
Mentions American edition of Origin.
A "savage" review [by John Duns] in North British Review [32 (1860): 455–68].
Comments on views of G. H. K. Thwaites on the survival of simple forms as a problem in his theory.
Mentions imperfection of geological record.
Marine origin of coal.
Illness of Etty.
Encloses article by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire on hare–rabbit crosses [Histoire naturelle générale (1854–62) 3: 222].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 22 May [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.213) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2812 |
To Charles Lyell 1 [June 1860]
Summary
Comments on review of Origin by Andrew Murray [Proc. R. Soc. Edinburgh 4 (1860): 274–91] and views of William Hopkins on Origin ["Physical theories and the phenomena of life" Fraser’s Mag. 61 (1860): 739–52; 62 (1860): 74–90]. The attacks will tell heavily.
Mentions Blyth’s failure to receive appointment as naturalist to China expedition of 1860.
Encloses letter from Asa Gray.
Discusses gestation period in domesticated dogs.
Comments on hybrid fertility.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 1 [June 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.214) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2820 |
To Charles Lyell 6 June [1860]
Summary
Mentions Etty’s illness.
A "coarsely contemptuous" review of Origin by Samuel Haughton ["On the form of the cells made by various wasps and by the honey bee; with an appendix on the origin of species", Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Dublin 3 (1860): 128–40].
Comments on reception of Malthus’ ideas.
Says William Hopkins does not understand him.
Discusses problem of term "natural selection".
J. A. Lowell’s review of Origin [Christian Examiner (1860): 449–64].
Relationship between instinct and structure.
Discusses blindness of cave animals.
The fallacy of Andrew Murray and others; the slight importance of climate.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 6 June [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.215) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2822 |
To Charles Lyell 14 [June 1860]
Summary
Mentions letters from Edward Blyth and William Hopkins.
Sees little in review of Origin by J. A. Lowell [Christian Examiner (1860): 449–64].
Sees only one sentence approaching natural selection in paper by Hermann Schaaffhausen. Emphasises importance of natural selection.
Comments on Agassiz’s view of species.
Cites account of flint tools in travel book by F. P. Wrangell [Narrative of an expedition to the Polar Sea (1840)]. Mentions Eskimo tools.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 14 [June 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.216) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2832 |
From Charles Lyell 15 June 1860
Summary
Rejects CD’s comparison of natural selection with the architect of a building. The architect who plans and oversees construction should not be confused in his function with the wisest breeder. That would be to deify natural selection.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 June 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 108–9) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2832A |
To Charles Lyell 17 June [1860]
Summary
Discusses relationship between natural selection and more general laws. Law of gravity is not seen as requiring design. Mentions mathematicians’ judgment of probability.
Notes gestation periods for hounds.
Etty is somewhat better.
Mentions his paper on fertilisation of orchids by insects [Collected papers 2: 32–5].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 17 June [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.217) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2833 |
From Charles Lyell 19 June 1860
Summary
Sees Huxley’s deification of matter and force as a reaction to the way Paley likened the "Unknown Cause" to the mind of man so that new causes could be introduced. If you wish to retain free will which is inconsistent with constant law, Paley’s position is better. Free will is a recently introduced cause on our planet. It cannot be fully attributed to secondary causes.
What CD says about the variation in gestation of the hound is remarkable.
The astonishing fertile rabbit–hare hybrids encourage belief in Pallas’s theory of the multiple origin of dogs.
Does the regularity of gestation in man indicate a common stock?
Hooker’s observation of absence of forms peculiar to extra-Arctic Greenland indicates that the time since the beginning of the glacial period is brief in geological terms.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 19 June 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 117–23) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2837A |
To Charles Lyell 20 [June 1860]
Summary
Blyth’s effort to raise money for a Chinese expedition.
Comments on free-will in animals.
Says natural selection is not in the same category with Huxley’s "force" and "matter".
Discusses remarkable variation in period of gestation in dogs and ducks.
Discusses Arctic flora.
Has been working on orchids; they beat woodpeckers in adaptation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 20 [June 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.219) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2838 |
To Charles Lyell 25 [June 1860]
Summary
Encloses arrow-heads.
Comments on gestation in dogs.
Mentions BAAS meeting at Oxford.
Etty’s illness.
Criticises views of J. W. Dawson on organic and geological change.
The problems of distinguishing varieties and species.
Discusses facts explained by his theory.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 25 [June 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.220) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2843 |
To Charles Lyell 5 [July 1860]
Summary
Glad CL plans trip to Amiens to investigate flints and post-glacial period.
Mentions support by Huxley, Hooker, and Lubbock at Oxford BAAS meeting. Asa Gray also goes on fighting.
Likes article by William Hopkins ["Physical theories and the phenomena of life", Fraser’s Mag. 61 (1860): 739–52; 62 (1860): 74–90].
Comments on hybrids of hare and rabbit.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 5 [July 1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.221) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2860 |
To Charles Lyell 30 July [1860]
Summary
Comments on BAAS meeting: "our side seems to have got on very well". Asa Gray, too, is fighting nobly.
Comments on review [by Samuel Wilberforce] in the Quarterly [Rev. 108 (1860): 225–64].
Mentions a favourable review in the London Review.
Wonders if German translation [of the Origin] by Bronn has drawn attention to the subject.
The Natural History Review to be edited by Huxley and others.
Expects CL’s book [Antiquity of man (1863)] to be a bombshell.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 30 July [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.222) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2881 |
To Charles Lyell 11 August [1860]
Summary
Comments on his fear that "so many heavy guns fired by great men" might influence the public and scientists.
Sends CL the Owen-inspired Wilberforce review [Q. Rev. 108 (1860): 225–64].
Mentions defence of Origin by Asa Gray at American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Agassiz and Theophilus Parsons have poor criticisms ["Prof. Agassiz on the origin of species", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 30 (1860): 142–54].
Lists other negative reviews by Rudolph Wagner ["An essay on classification by Louis Agassiz", Göttingische Gelehrte Anz. (1860) pt 2: 761–800], Charles Daubeny ["Remarks on the final causes of the sexuality of plants, with particular reference to Mr Darwin’s work On the origin of species by natural selection", Rep. BAAS 30 (1860) pt 2: 109–10], and two anonymous ones (one favourable).
Huxley says K. E. von Baer "goes a long way with us".
Comments on "pipes" in chalk as evidence of geological processes still at work.
Is writing on origin of dog breeds [Variation 1: 15–43].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 11 Aug [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.223) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2895 |
To Charles Lyell 28 August [1860]
Summary
The adultery of Lady [Harriet Spencer] Grey and Captain Keppell.
A new species of elephant discovered by Hugh Falconer.
Comments on excellent review by Asa Gray [Atlantic Monthly 6 (1860): 229–39].
Still believes dogs descended from several wild stocks.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 28 Aug [1860] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.224) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2900 |
From Charles Lyell 28 August 1860
Summary
Objections to Origin which Owen and Wilberforce could have used. Why have incipient mammalian forms not arisen from lower vertebrates on islands separated since Miocene period? Knows CD would not derive Eocene Mammalia from higher reptiles, but would bats not be modified into other mammalian forms on an ancient island? This is not the case in New Zealand. Why have island seals not become terrestrial? Assumes rate of change is greatest in mammals. Difficulties are small compared with ability to explain absence of Mammalia in pre-Pliocene islands. Asks about descent of Amblyrhynchus. Believes objections apply equally well to independent creation of animal types, but not if the First Cause is allowed completely free agency.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 28 Aug 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 164–71) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2900A |
From Charles Lyell [before 20 November 1860]
Summary
Discusses the possibility of a land-bridge connecting Biscay with Ireland and the consequent occurrence in southern Ireland of Asturian plants which are absent from England.
Asks if Hooker or anyone has criticised Edward Forbes’ botanical migration of five floras in the British Isles ["On the connexion between the distribution of existing fauna and flora of the British Isles, and the geological changes which have affected their area", Mem. Geol. Surv. G. B. 1 (1846): 336–432].
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 20 Nov 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 170.2: 80 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2902 |
letter | (280) |
Darwin, C. R. | (210) |
Lyell, Charles | (61) |
Bunbury, C. J. F. | (2) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Wood, S. V. | (2) |
Lyell, Charles | (219) |
Darwin, C. R. | (56) |
Carpenter, W. B. | (1) |
Foster, Michael | (1) |
Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
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