From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Mathias Mull
Date:
[after 24 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 146: 424a
Summary:
Thanks MM for reference to Shakespeare’s eleventh sonnet.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Stevens Henslow
Date:
11 Nov 1859
Source of text:
DAR 145: 100
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
[19 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 263: 16 (EH 88206465)
Summary:
Has told John Murray to send copy of the Origin. There are "many valid and weighty arguments against my notions".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
[22 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 263: 17 (EH 88206466)
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Benjamin Carpenter
Date:
18 Nov [1859]
Source of text:
DAR 261.6: 1 (EH 88205918)
Summary:
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."
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Benjamin Carpenter
Date:
19 Nov [1859]
Source of text:
DAR 261.6: 2 (EH 88205919)
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[20 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 115: 27
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Caroline Sarah (Caroline) Darwin; Caroline Sarah (Caroline) Wedgwood
Date:
[after 21 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 153: 2
Summary:
Astounded she cares for his book [Origin] as much as she seems to.
Comments on variation among domestic dogs; believes domestic dog has descended from several wild species and those species from a single ancient ancestor.
Athenæum review is unfair.
Expects to convert four or five "really good judges".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[22 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 115: 26
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:
24 [Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 261.11: 4 (EH 88205939)
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project