Reports on his geological work in N. Wales since he and CD parted. Answers CD’s queries.
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The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
Reports on his geological work in N. Wales since he and CD parted. Answers CD’s queries.
Is glad of CD’s appointment and hopes it will be a source of happiness and honour.
Answers a query about books.
Suggests CD go to Geological Society, present himself, as AS’s friend, to William Lonsdale and study the Society’s collection.
Tells CD of his work in Wales; includes a diagram and explanations.
Ramsay’s death a grievous loss.
Thanks CD for the Origin; AS has read the book "with more pain than pleasure". CD has deserted "the true method of induction" and many of his wide conclusions are "based upon assumptions which can neither be proved nor disproved". His "grand principle – natural selection" is "but a secondary consequence of supposed, or known, primary facts".
Congratulates CD on election of his son [George] as a Fellow of Trinity College.
Describes his ill health.
Invites CD to visit Cambridge.
[Letter dated November in error.]
Writes of CD’s recent visit to Cambridge and the joy it gave him.
Thanks AS for a copy of his book, Discourse [on the studies of the University, 5th ed.].
Thinking of not sending his eldest son [William] to a classical school.
Sorry to hear of AS’s poor health.
Would like to attend Aberdeen meeting [BAAS, 1859] but is unfit for so great an exertion. Has been told he has "suppressed gout".
Pleased that AS remembers their 1831 geological trip, which made CD appreciate the noble science of geology.
Has told Murray to send AS a copy of Origin. CD’s conclusion is diametrically opposed to that which AS has often advocated, but he assures AS he does not send his book out of a spirit of bravado.
CD expected AS’s "strong disapprobation" of his book [Origin] but is grieved "to have shocked a man whom I sincerely honour". Has worked "like a slave" on the subject for over 20 years and is not conscious that bad motives have influenced the conclusions at which he has arrived. CD does not think the book will be mischievous and "if I be wrong I shall soon be annihilated". CD may have written too confidently from feeling confident that no "false theory would explain so many classes of facts".
CD informs AS of the position of the Council of the Geological Society on recommending J. B. Jukes for a geological survey of Newfoundland. Feels Jukes’s application would have best chance of success if Sedgwick, his Professor at Cambridge, wrote a letter.
Thanks AS for congratulations on George Darwin’s Trinity fellowship.
Reminiscence of his geological tour of North Wales with AS and the encouraging messages received during the Beagle voyage.
Thanks AS for his kindness towards himself and his family. Looks back with great satisfaction to his last visit ("as it will probably prove") to Cambridge.
Express their concern that the offer for sale to the British Museum, by G. A. Mantell and Thomas Hawkins, of two valuable collections, has been declined.