Returning from Moor Park. CD will take up proofs of JDH’s Flora Tasmaniae.
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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.
Returning from Moor Park. CD will take up proofs of JDH’s Flora Tasmaniae.
Reports events at Down.
Is busy with proofs [of Origin];
is anxious to hear how WED does in his examinations.
CD making extensive corrections on proofs of Origin. Worries that style is too dry.
Doubts about Joseph Prestwich’s discovery [of flint tools].
Returns JDH’s proofs. He is so involved in Origin he cannot judge force of JDH’s arguments. Some detailed comments.
Haldeman’s old paper [see 2470] clever, but does not have natural selection. Explaining adaptation has always seemed turning point of theory of natural selection.
Discusses affairs at Down and WED’s coming trip to the Lakes.
Is getting on very slowly with his "confounded proof-sheets" [of Origin].
CD wants JDH to make clear in introduction to Flora Tasmaniae that remarks on CD’s theory refer to his 1858 paper ["On the tendency of species to form varieties", Collected papers 2: 3–19].
Writes of a visit to Leith Hill and WED’s injured ankle.
All but last two chapters of Origin proofs corrected.
Praise for JDH’s introductory essay [to Flora Tasmaniae].
Very ill and sick of work.
Corrected last proof of Origin yesterday. Still has revises and index to do.
Will read more JDH proofs of Flora Tasmaniae.
Tells how to get information on, and gain membership in, the London Library.
Discusses events at Ilkley.
Praises the Origin: a "splendid case of close reasoning".
Objects to CD’s having ignored Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
Thinks CD should omit mentioning problem of explaining the eye at the beginning of chapter 14. Suggests rewording several passages.
Thinks want of peculiar birds in Madeira a difficulty, considering presence of them in Galapagos.
Has always felt that the case of man and his races is one and the same with animals and plants.
Book finished some two weeks.
Feeling much better at Ilkley.
Lyell thinks favourably of book but "staggered" at lengths to which CD goes.
Which continental botanists should receive presentation copies?
Discusses presentation copies [of the Origin].
Congratulates JDH on finishing his introductory essay [to Flora Tasmaniae].
Lyell’s position on mutability appears more positive in his letters to JDH than in those to CD. Considers JDH a convert.
The antlers of 800 deer of the glacial period have been found in a cave. They show great variety of form, but gradation from one to the other can be traced when all are laid out. Suggests CD study changes that have taken place in the species since glacial period.
Has ordered the wicked book [Origin] CD has been so long a-hatching.
More detailed comments on JDH’s introductory essay [to Flora Tasmaniae]. Remarks on struggle of vegetation are admirable.
JDH will receive Origin in about ten days.
Sends the Origin to his "dear old master in natural history"; fears he will not approve of his pupil in this case. Asks for criticisms. If JSH is even in slight degree staggered on the immutability of species, CD is convinced that he will be more staggered on further reflection – this has been the process of his own mind.
Has told John Murray to send copy of the Origin. There are "many valid and weighty arguments against my notions".
CD’s former admiration for Paley’s Natural theology [1802].
Cares not for reviews [of Origin] but for opinions of men like Lubbock, Huxley, Hooker, Lyell.