More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume I

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I am very sorry to hear about the failures in the graft experiments, and
not from your own fault or ill-luck. Trollope in one of his novels gives
as a maxim of constant use by a brickmaker--"It is dogged as does it"
(281/6. "Tell 'ee what, Master Crawley;--and yer reverence mustn't think as
I means to be preaching; there ain't nowt a man can't bear if he'll only be
dogged. You go whome, Master Crawley, and think o' that, and may be it'll
do ye a good yet. It's dogged as does it. It ain't thinking about it."
(Giles Hoggett, the old Brickmaker, in "The Last Chronicle of Barset,"
Volume II., 1867, page 188.))--and I have often and often thought that this
is the motto for every scientific worker. I am sure it is yours--if you do
not give up pangenesis with wicked imprecations.

By the way, G. Jager has brought out in "Kosmos" a chemical sort of
pangenesis bearing chiefly on inheritance. (281/7. Several papers by
Jager on "Inheritance" were published in the first volume of "Kosmos,"
1877.)

I cannot conceive why I have not offered my garden for your experiments. I
would attend to the plants, as far as mere care goes, with pleasure; but
Down is an awkward place to reach.

Would it be worth while to try if the "Fortnightly" would republish it
[i.e. the lecture]?

LETTER 282. TO T.H. HUXLEY.

(282/1. In 1877 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on Mr. Darwin
by the University of Cambridge. At the dinner given on the occasion by the
Philosophical Society, Mr. Huxley responded to the toast of the evening
with the speech of which an authorised version is given by Mr. L. Huxley in
the "Life and Letters" of his father (Volume I., page 479). Mr. Huxley
said, "But whether the that doctrine [of evolution] be true or whether it
be false, I wish to express the deliberate opinion, that from Aristotle's
great summary of the biological knowledge of his time down to the present
day, there is nothing comparable to the "Origin of Species," as a connected
survey of the phenomena of life permeated and vivified by a central idea."

In the first part of the speech there was a brilliant sentence which he
described as a touch of the whip "tied round with ribbons," and this was
perhaps a little hard on the supporters of evolution in the University.
Mr. Huxley said "Instead of offering her honours when they ran a chance of
being crushed beneath the accumulated marks of approbation of the whole
civilised world, the University has waited until the trophy was finished,
and has crowned the edifice with the delicate wreath of academic
appreciation.")

Down, Monday night, November 19th [1877].

I cannot rest easy without telling you more gravely than I did when we met
for five minutes near the Museum, how deeply I have felt the many generous
things (as far as Frank could remember them) which you said about me at the
dinner. Frank came early next morning boiling over with enthusiasm about
your speech. You have indeed always been to me a most generous friend, but
I know, alas, too well how greatly you overestimate me. Forgive me for
bothering you with these few lines.

(282/2. The following extract from a letter (February 10th, 1878) to his
old schoolfellow, Mr. J. Price, gives a characteristic remark about the
honorary degree.)

"I am very much obliged for your kind congratulations about the LL.D. Why
the Senate conferred it on me I know not in the least. I was astonished to
hear that the R. Prof. of Divinity and several other great Dons attended,
and several such men have subscribed, as I am informed, for the picture for
the University to commemorate the honour conferred on me."

LETTER 283. TO W. BOWMAN.

(283/1. We have not discovered to what prize the following letter to the
late Sir W. Bowman (the well known surgeon) refers.)

Down, February 22nd, 1878.

I received your letter this morning, and it was quite impossible that you
should receive an answer by 4 p.m. to-day. But this does not signify in
the least, for your proposal seems to me a very good one, and I most
entirely agree with you that it is far better to suggest some special
question rather than to have a general discussion compiled from books. The
rule that the Essay must be "illustrative of the wisdom and beneficence of
the Almighty" would confine the subjects to be proposed. With respect to
the Vegetable Kingdom, I could suggest two or three subjects about which,
as it seems to me, information is much required; but these subjects would
require a long course of experiment, and unfortunately there is hardly any
one in this country who seems inclined to devote himself to experiments.

LETTER 284. TO J. TORBITT.

(284/1. Mr. Torbitt was engaged in trying to produce by methodical
selection and cross-fertilisation a fungus-proof race of the potato. The
plan is fully described in the "Life and Letters," III., page 348. The
following letter is given in additional illustration of the keen interest
Mr. Darwin took in the project.)

Down, Monday, March 4th, 1878.

I have nothing good to report. Mr. Caird called upon me yesterday; both he
and Mr. Farrer (284/2. The late Lord Farrer.) have been most energetic and
obliging. There is no use in thinking about the Agricultural Society. Mr.
Caird has seen several persons on the subject, especially Mr. Carruthers,
Botanist to the Society. He (Mr. Carruthers) thinks the attempt hopeless,
but advances in a long memorandum sent to Mr. Caird, reasons which I am
convinced are not sound. He specifies two points, however, which are well
worthy of your consideration--namely, that a variety should be tested three
years before its soundness can be trusted; and especially it should be
grown under a damp climate. Mr. Carruthers' opinion on this head is
valuable because he was employed by the Society in judging the varieties
sent in for the prize offered a year or two ago. If I had strength to get
up a memorial to Government, I believe that I could succeed; for Sir J.
Hooker writes that he believes you are on the right path; but I do not know
to whom else to apply whose judgment would have weight with Government, and
I really have not strength to discuss the matter and convert persons.

At Mr. Farrer's request, when we hoped the Agricultural Society might
undertake it, I wrote to him a long letter giving him my opinion on the
subject; and this letter Mr. Caird took with him yesterday, and will
consider with Mr. Farrer whether any application can be made to Government.

I am, however, far from sanguine. I shall see Mr. Farrer this evening, and
will do what I can. When I receive back my letter I will send it to you
for your perusal.

After much reflection it seems to me that your best plan will be, if we
fail to get Government aid, to go on during the present year, on a reduced
scale, in raising new cross-fertilised varieties, and next year, if you are
able, testing the power of endurance of only the most promising kind. If
it were possible it would be very advisable for you to get some grown on
the wet western side of Ireland. If you succeed in procuring a fungus-
proof variety you may rely on it that its merits would soon become known
locally and it would afterwards spread rapidly far and wide. Mr. Caird
gave me a striking instance of such a case in Scotland. I return home to-
morrow morning.

I have the pleasure to enclose a cheque for 100 pounds. If you receive a
Government grant, I ought to be repaid.

P.S. If I were in your place I would not expend any labour or money in
publishing what you have already done, or in sending seeds or tubers to any
one. I would work quietly on till some sure results were obtained. And
these would be so valuable that your work in this case would soon be known.
I would also endeavour to pass as severe a judgment as possible on the
state of the tubers and plants.

LETTER 285. TO E. VON MOJSISOVICS.
Down, June 1st, 1878.

I have at last found time to read [the] first chapter of your "Dolomit
Riffe" (285/1. "Dolomitriffe Sudtirols und Venetiens." Wien, 1878.), and
have been exceedingly interested by it. What a wonderful change in the
future of geological chronology you indicate, by assuming the descent-
theory to be established, and then taking the graduated changes of the same
group of organisms as the true standard! I never hoped to live to see such
a step even proposed by any one. (285/2. Published in "Life and Letters,"
III., pages 234, 235.)

Nevertheless, I saw dimly that each bed in a formation could contain only
the organisms proper to a certain depth, and to other there existing
conditions, and that all the intermediate forms between one marine species
and another could rarely be preserved in the same place and bed. Oppel,
Neumayr, and yourself will confer a lasting and admirable service on the
noble science of Geology, if you can spread your views so as to be
generally known and accepted.

With respect to the continental and oceanic periods common to the whole
northern hemisphere, to which you refer, I have sometimes speculated that
the present distribution of the land and sea over the world may have
formerly been very different to what it now is; and that new genera and
families may have been developed on the shores of isolated tracts in the
south, and afterwards spread to the north.

LETTER 286. TO J.W. JUDD.
Down, June 27th, 1878.

I am heartily glad to hear of your intended marriage. A good wife is the
supreme blessing in this life, and I hope and believe from what you say
that you will be as happy as I have been in this respect. May your future
geological work be as valuable as that which you have already done; and
more than this need not be wished for any man. The practical teaching of
Geology seems an excellent idea.

Many thanks for Neumayr, (286/1. Probably a paper on "Die Congerien und
Paludinenschichten Slavoniens und deren Fauna. Ein Beitrag zur Descendenz-
Theorie," "Wien. Geol. Abhandl." VII. (Heft 3), 1874-82.), but I have
already received and read a copy of the same, or at least of a very similar
essay, and admirably good it seemed to me.

This essay, and one by Mojsisovics (286/2. See note to Letter 285.), which
I have lately read, show what Palaeontology in the future will do for the
classification and sequence of formations. It delighted me to see so
inverted an order of proceeding--viz., the assuming the descent of species
as certain, and then taking the changes of closely allied forms as the
standard of geological time. My health is better than it was a few years
ago, but I never pass a day without much discomfort and the sense of
extreme fatigue.

(286/3. We owe to Professor Judd the following interesting recollections
of Mr. Darwin, written about 1883:--

"On this last occasion, when I congratulated him on his seeming better
condition of health, he told me of the cause for anxiety which he had in
the state of his heart. Indeed, I cannot help feeling that he had a kind
of presentiment that his end was approaching. When I left him, he insisted
on conducting me to the door, and there was that in his tone and manner
which seemed to convey to me the sad intelligence that it was not merely a
temporary farewell, though he himself was perfectly cheerful and happy.

"It is impossible for me adequately to express the impression made upon my
mind by my various conversations with Mr. Darwin. His extreme modesty led
him to form the lowest estimate of his own labours, and a correspondingly
extravagant idea of the value of the work done by others. His deference to
the arguments and suggestions of men greatly his juniors, and his
unaffected sympathy in their pursuits, was most marked and characteristic;
indeed, he, the great master of science, used to speak, and I am sure felt,
as though he were appealing to superior authority for information in all
his conversations. It was only when a question was fully discussed with
him that one became conscious of the fund of information he could bring to
its elucidation, and the breadth of thought with which he had grasped it.
Of his gentle, loving nature, of which I had so many proofs, I need not
write; no one could be with him, even for a few minutes, without being
deeply impressed by his grateful kindliness and goodness.")

LETTER 287. TO COUNT SAPORTA.
Down, August 15th, 1878.

I thank you very sincerely for your kind and interesting letter. It would
be false in me to pretend that I care very much about my election to the
Institute, but the sympathy of some few of my friends has gratified me
deeply.

I am extremely glad to hear that you are going to publish a work on the
more ancient fossil plants; and I thank you beforehand for the volume which
you kindly say that you will send me. I earnestly hope that you will give,
at least incidentally, the results at which you have arrived with respect
to the more recent Tertiary plants; for the close gradation of such forms
seems to me a fact of paramount importance for the principle of evolution.
Your cases are like those on the gradation in the genus Equus, recently
discovered by Marsh in North America.

LETTER 288. TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.

(288/1. The following letter was published in "Nature," March 5th, 1891,
Volume XLIII., page 415, together with a note from the late Duke of Argyll,
in which he stated that the letter had been written to him by Mr. Darwin in
reply to the question, "why it was that he did assume the unity of mankind
as descended from a single pair." The Duke added that in the reply Mr.
Darwin "does not repudiate this interpretation of his theory, but simply
proceeds to explain and to defend the doctrine." On a former occasion the
Duke of Argyll had "alluded as a fact to the circumstance that Charles
Darwin assumed mankind to have arisen at one place, and therefore in a
single pair." The letter from Darwin was published in answer to some
scientific friends, who doubted the fact and asked for the reference on
which the statement was based.)

Down, September 23rd, 1878.

The problem which you state so clearly is a very interesting one, on which
I have often speculated. As far as I can judge, the improbability is
extreme that the same well-characterised species should be produced in two
distinct countries, or at two distinct times. It is certain that the same
variation may arise in two distinct places, as with albinism or with the
nectarine on peach-trees. But the evidence seems to me overwhelming that a
well-marked species is the product, not of a single or of a few variations,
but of a long series of modifications, each modification resulting chiefly
from adaptation to infinitely complex conditions (including the inhabitants
of the same country), with more or less inheritance of all the preceding
modifications. Moreover, as variability depends more on the nature of the
organism than on that of the environment, the variations will tend to
differ at each successive stage of descent. Now it seems to me improbable
in the highest degree that a species should ever have been exposed in two
places to infinitely complex relations of exactly the same nature during a
long series of modifications. An illustration will perhaps make what I
have said clearer, though it applies only to the less important factors of
inheritance and variability, and not to adaptation--viz., the improbability
of two men being born in two countries identical in body and mind. If,
however, it be assumed that a species at each successive stage of its
modification was surrounded in two distinct countries or times, by exactly
the same assemblage of plants and animals, and by the same physical
conditions, then I can see no theoretical difficulty [in] such a species
giving birth to the new form in the two countries. If you will look to the
sixth edition of my "Origin," at page 100, you will find a somewhat
analogous discussion, perhaps more intelligible than this letter.

LETTER 289. W.T. THISELTON-DYER TO THE EDITOR OF "NATURE."

(289/1. The following letter ("Nature," Volume XLIII., page 535)
criticises the interpretation given by the Duke to Mr. Darwin's letter.)

Royal Gardens, Kew, March 27th [1891].

In "Nature" of March 5th (page 415), the Duke of Argyll has printed a very
interesting letter of Mr. Darwin's, from which he drew the inference that
the writer "assumed mankind to have arisen...in a single pair." I do not
think myself that the letter bears this interpretation. But the point in
its most general aspect is a very important one, and is often found to
present some difficulty to students of Mr. Darwin's writings.

Quite recently I have found by accident, amongst the papers of the late Mr.
Bentham at Kew, a letter of friendly criticism from Mr. Darwin upon the
presidential address which Mr. Bentham delivered to the Linnean Society on
May 24th, 1869. This letter, I think, has been overlooked and not
published previously. In it Mr. Darwin expresses himself with regard to
the multiple origin of races and some other points in very explicit
language. Prof. Meldola, to whom I mentioned in conversation the existence
of the letter, urged me strongly to print it. This, therefore, I now do,
with the addition of a few explanatory notes.

LETTER 290. TO G. BENTHAM.
Down, November 25th, 1869.

(290/1. The notes to this letter are by Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer, and
appeared in "Nature," loc. cit.)

I was greatly interested by your address, which I have now read thrice, and
which I believe will have much influence on all who read it. But you are
mistaken in thinking that I ever said you were wrong on any point. All
that I meant was that on certain points, and these very doubtful points, I
was inclined to differ from you. And now, on further considering the point
on which some two or three months ago I felt most inclined to differ--viz.,
on isolation--I find I differ very little. What I have to say is really
not worth saying, but as I should be very sorry not to do whatever you
asked, I will scribble down the slightly dissentient thoughts which have
occurred to me. It would be an endless job to specify the points in which
you have interested me; but I may just mention the relation of the extreme
western flora of Europe (some such very vague thoughts have crossed my
mind, relating to the Glacial period) with South Africa, and your remarks
on the contrast of passive and active distribution.

Page lxx.--I think the contingency of a rising island, not as yet fully
stocked with plants, ought always to be kept in mind when speaking of
colonisation.

Page lxxiv.--I have met with nothing which makes me in the least doubt that
large genera present a greater number of varieties relatively to their size
than do small genera. (290/2. Bentham thought "degree of variability...
like other constitutional characters, in the first place an individual one,
which...may become more or less hereditary, and therefore specific; and
thence, but in a very faint degree, generic." He seems to mean to argue
against the conclusion which Sir Joseph Hooker had quoted from Mr. Darwin
that "species of large genera are more variable than those of small." [On
large genera varying, see Letter 53.]) Hooker was convinced by my data,
never as yet published in full, only abstracted in the "Origin."

Page lxxviii.--I dispute whether a new race or species is necessarily, or
even generally, descended from a single or pair of parents. The whole body
of individuals, I believe, become altered together--like our race-horses,
and like all domestic breeds which are changed through "unconscious
selection" by man. (290/3. Bentham had said: "We must also admit that
every race has probably been the offspring of one parent or pair of
parents, and consequently originated in one spot." The Duke of Argyll
inverts the proposition.)

When such great lengths of time are considered as are necessary to change a
specific form, I greatly doubt whether more or less rapid powers of
multiplication have more than the most insignificant weight. These powers,
I think, are related to greater or less destruction in early life.

Page lxxix.--I still think you rather underrate the importance of
isolation. I have come to think it very important from various grounds;
the anomalous and quasi-extinct forms on islands, etc., etc., etc.

With respect to areas with numerous "individually durable" forms, can it be
said that they generally present a "broken" surface with "impassable
barriers"? This, no doubt, is true in certain cases, as Teneriffe. But
does this hold with South-West Australia or the Cape? I much doubt. I
have been accustomed to look at the cause of so many forms as being partly
an arid or dry climate (as De Candolle insists) which indirectly leads to
diversified [?] conditions; and, secondly, to isolation from the rest of
the world during a very long period, so that other more dominant forms have
not entered, and there has been ample time for much specification and
adaptation of character.

Page lxxx.--I suppose you think that the Restiaceae, Proteaceae (290/4. It
is doubtful whether Bentham did think so. In his 1870 address he says: "I
cannot resist the opinion that all presumptive evidence is against European
Proteaceae, and that all direct evidence in their favour has broken down
upon cross-examination."), etc., etc., once extended over the world,
leaving fragments in the south.

You in several places speak of distribution of plants as if exclusively
governed by soil and climate. I know that you do not mean this, but I
regret whenever a chance is omitted of pointing out that the struggle with
other plants (and hostile animals) is far more important.

I told you that I had nothing worth saying, but I have given you my
THOUGHTS.

How detestable are the Roman numerals! why should not the President's
addresses, which are often, and I am sure in this case, worth more than all
the rest of the number, be paged with Christian figures?

LETTER 291. TO R. MELDOLA.

(291/1. "This letter was in reply to a suggestion that in his preface Mr.
Darwin should point out by references to "The Origin of Species" and his
other writings how far he had already traced out the path which Weismann
went over. The suggestion was made because in a great many of the
continental writings upon the theory of descent, many of the points which
had been clearly foreshadowed, and in some cases even explicitly stated by
Darwin, had been rediscovered and published as though original. In the
notes to my edition of Weismann I have endeavoured to do Darwin full
justice.--R.M." See Letter 310.)

4, Bryanston Street, November 26th, 1878.

I am very sorry to say that I cannot agree to your suggestion. An author
is never a fit judge of his own work, and I should dislike extremely
pointing out when and how Weismann's conclusions and work agreed with my
own. I feel sure that I ought not to do this, and it would be to me an
intolerable task. Nor does it seem to me the proper office of the preface,
which is to show what the book contains, and that the contents appear to me
valuable. But I can see no objection for you, if you think fit, to write
an introduction with remarks or criticisms of any kind. Of course, I would
be glad to advise you on any point as far as lay in my power, but as a
whole I could have nothing to do with it, on the grounds above specified,
that an author cannot and ought not to attempt to judge his own works, or
compare them with others. I am sorry to refuse to do anything which you
wish.

LETTER 292. TO T.H. HUXLEY.
Down, January 18th, 1879.

I have just finished your present of the Life of Hume (292/1. "Hume" in
Mr. Morley's "English Men of Letters" series. Of the biographical part of
this book Mr. Huxley wrote, in a letter to Mr. Skelton, January 1879 ("Life
of T.H. Huxley," II., page 7): "It is the nearest approach to a work of
fiction of which I have yet been guilty."), and must thank you for the
great pleasure which it has given me. Your discussions are, as it seems to
me, clear to a quite marvellous degree, and many of the little interspersed
flashes of wit are delightful. I particularly enjoyed the pithy judgment
in about five words on Comte. (292/2. Possibly the passage referred to is
on page 52.) Notwithstanding the clearness of every sentence, the subjects
are in part so difficult that I found them stiff reading. I fear,
therefore, that it will be too stiff for the general public; but I heartily
hope that this will prove to be a mistake, and in this case the
intelligence of the public will be greatly exalted in my eyes. The writing
of this book must have been awfully hard work, I should think.

LETTER 293. TO F. MULLER.
Down, March 4th [1879].

I thank you cordially for your letter. Your facts and discussion on the
loss of the hairs on the legs of the caddis-flies seem to me the most
important and interesting thing which I have read for a very long time. I
hope that you will not disapprove, but I have sent your letter to "Nature"
(293/1. Fritz Muller, "On a Frog having Eggs on its Back--On the Abortion
of the Hairs on the Legs of certain Caddis-Flies, etc.": Muller's letter
and one from Charles Darwin were published in "Nature," Volume XIX., page
462, 1879.), with a few prefatory remarks, pointing out to the general
reader the importance of your view, and stating that I have been puzzled
for many years on this very point. If, as I am inclined to believe, your
view can be widely extended, it will be a capital gain to the doctrine of
evolution. I see by your various papers that you are working away
energetically, and, wherever you look, you seem to discover something quite
new and extremely interesting. Your brother also continues to do fine work
on the fertilisation of flowers and allied subjects.