On sexual selection and the sense of beauty among the W. African Negroes.
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On sexual selection and the sense of beauty among the W. African Negroes.
Sends quotation about Lycurgus and Spartan exposure of infants who were deemed defective.
Bibliographic references on sense of beauty and morals.
Meeting with CD postponed.
Thinks G. H. Lewes will review Descent in Pall Mall Gazette.
Sir Andrew Smith says Hottentots and Kaffirs laugh till they cry.
Various comments on Descent;
on suicide on Gold Coast;
on mulattoes’ not being prolific.
Praise for gentle but resolute tone of Descent.
Prefers W. C. Wells’s explanation of the formation of the Nehro type to CD’s sexual selection.
Outlines his view of the origin of man by natural selection.
Believes CD will not consider him a good Darwinian since he accepts natural selection only as a secondary law.
There is a primary law of growth and innate improvement. Natural selection is a secondary law that operates to "arrange the details". This is not Lamarckian, because will is not involved.
Thanks for Chauncey Wright’s pamphlet [Darwinism (1871)].
Amused by critics who say CD is metaphysically unsophisticated.
Surprised at Mivart’s harsh review [Q. Rev. 131 (1871): 47–90], considering courteous tone of his book. Assures CD he has not been converted by Mivart.
Sees his ideas on conscious and non-conscious intelligence are already in Murphy [J. J. Murphy, Habit and intelligence (1869)].
Encloses an extract from S. W. Baker’s The Albert N’yanza [1866] on the behaviour of the giraffe [See Origin, 6th ed., p. 178], and some references to Baker’s Nile tributaries [1867].