Has JH received the second or third of AS's Cambridge Paleozoic? Asks about William Whewell's pamphlets regarding the University. Describes trip to Scotland.
Has JH received the second or third of AS's Cambridge Paleozoic? Asks about William Whewell's pamphlets regarding the University. Describes trip to Scotland.
Discusses AS's new book [Synopsis of the Classification of the British Palaeozoic Rocks...]. Wishes to have the completed work sent to him and sends congratulations on its completion. JH's health is improving.
Praises AS's new book [Synopsis of the Classification of the British Palaeozoic Rocks...]. All is well at Collingwood.
JH's Essays [Essays Q.E.R.] has reached Lowestoft, but AS has been too ill to read them. Sends regards to family.
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.
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 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".
Writes to point out an error in a pamphlet he had written. Discusses plans for upcoming trip to the north.
Thanks JH for translation of Iliad. AS's health has been poor. Invites the Herschels to Norwich.
Is glad that J. C. Maxwell has received the Aberdeen Professorship. Has forwarded 'your last' to the Principal. Is feeling better, but still needs crutches.
JH's daughter Maria is getting married. JH has been ill. The Iliad translation is almost finished.
Thanks AS for his letter. Offers congratulations to newly married Maria Herschel. Will be returning to Cambridge to give his 46th course of lectures.
Asks that AS show JH's son Alexander around Norwich when he arrives there. Reflects on changes in geology. Has finished hexameter Iliad translation.
Eyesight is failing. Discusses William Whewell's death and pays him tribute. Says Professor [W. H.] Thompson will replace Whewell.
Has printed a Memorial about Norwich. Discusses this pamphlet. Has been ill. Discusses solitude and says almost none of his friends are still living.
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.]
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.
No summary available.
Wilberforce Clarke, the nephew of an old friend, has been appointed to a meteorological observatory. He needs a list of useful books and instruments for his job from JH.