Will judge CD’s book [Origin] free from two superstitions: the dogma of the permanent species and the need of an act of intervention to bring change.
Will judge CD’s book [Origin] free from two superstitions: the dogma of the permanent species and the need of an act of intervention to bring change.
Comments on WBC’s response to the Origin. Hopes he will review it. Acceptance will depend more on men like WBC, with well-established reputations, than on his own writings.
"Lyell thinks the chapter on the Imperfection of the Geological Record not exaggerated."
Asks to hear WBC’s conclusion about the Origin when he has read it all. Knows only one believer so far – J. D. Hooker. Sometimes feels frightened that he may be a monomaniac.
Curious about author of review of Origin in Athenæum.
W. B. Carpenter has written and sounds converted, as has Quatrefages [de Bréau], who will "go a long way with" CD.
Has been ill and thus had time to brood about reception of book.
JDH’s congratulations on Origin.
Lyell believes S. P. Woodward wrote review in Athenæum.
Lyell’s and Huxley’s positive responses.
JDH has only plunged into a few chapters.
Believes natural selection will become recognised as an established truth in science, though it will shock the ideas of many men.
Questions CD’s view in Origin that domestic dogs are not descended from a single stock. Occasional crossings of domestic stock with wild species could explain cases of reversion towards wild specific forms. CD’s views on hybridity do not then have to be contradicted in constructing an ancestral stock.
Origin will be published 22 Nov. Fears correspondent will find the conclusions "abominable".
CD hopes Woodward was not the Athenæum reviewer. "The manner in which he drags in immortality, & sets the Priests at me … is base".
JDH has made CD feel he can "face a score of savage reviewers".
H. C. Watson has written to him in tremendous praise of the Origin.
Thanks CL for his decision to accept CD’s "doctrine of modification" [in Elements of geology, 6th ed. (1865)]. Believes it "morally impossible that investigators of truth, like you and Hooker, can be wholly wrong". Does not think CL’s decision will injure his works.
Thinks CL overrates importance of multiple origin of dogs.
Mentions sending copy of Origin to Herschel. Asks CL about Herschel’s reaction.
Has just finished Origin. CD has demonstrated a true cause for the production of species.
CD has loaded himself with unnecessary difficulty in adopting natura non facit saltum.
Writes of "the Dr’s" [Henry Holland’s] mixed reactions to the book.
Adds a personal opinion, "it is the most interesting book I ever read".
Mentions reactions to Origin. It will "horrify and disgust" TCE.
Some authorities approve more than CD expected.
Sales of Origin.
Discusses revisions for second edition. Mentions possible French translation.
Views of Quatrefages [de Bréau].
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".
CD is astonished at sale of Origin [to booksellers].
Arranges to start new edition immediately. Cannot change much [while at Ilkley Wells], nor work rapidly because of health. Relieved that JM has no cause to repent of publishing Origin.
Murray has sold out Origin; wants a new edition immediately.
Asks THH to check whether Geoffroy de St Hilaire is correct [form of name].
Would be grateful for THH’s impressions on the truth of natural selection.
Comments on pp. 201, 211, and 218 [of Origin].
Discusses corrections for second edition [of Origin]. Will leave out the reference to whale and bear. Discusses pheasant crosses. Success of the book.
THH’s letter about the Origin makes CD feel like a Catholic who has received extreme unction. Can now sing nunc dimittis. Had determined to abide by judgment of Lyell, Hooker, and THH.
Problem of how variations arise at all troubles him also.