From:
Sir John Herschel
To:
Adam Sedgwick
Date:
[1 January 1850]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.442 (C: RS:HS 23.79)
Summary:
Has heard of AS's broken arm. Sends regards from the family.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Adam Sedgwick
Date:
11 Oct [1850]
Source of text:
Rensselaer Libraries, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Gerald and Sue Friedman manuscript collection MC 72 Box 1)
Summary:
Thanks AS for a copy of his book, Discourse [on the studies of the University, 5th ed.].
Thinking of not sending his eldest son [William] to a classical school.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Adam Sedgwick
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[16 May 1853]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.443
Summary:
Asks JH to consider Reginald Octavius Day for an appointment to the new mint in Australia. Sends regards of his nieces and self.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Adam Sedgwick
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[1854?]
Source of text:
Harvard: Houghton AAH 67m-67 (63)
Summary:
'Delighted' to hear that JH is in 'such good spirits.' Has been giving regular class lectures.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Adam Sedgwick
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[27 February 1854]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.444
Summary:
William Conybeare has asked AS to assist in the certification of George Wilson. Mentions William Whewell's book [Of the Plurality of Worlds: An Essay], but has been too ill to study it.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Sir John Herschel
To:
Adam Sedgwick
Date:
[11 March 1854]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.445 (C: RS:HS 23.146)
Summary:
Has signed George Wilson's certificate. Says William Whewell's book is 'clever but wrong.' Says moral and intellectual life is possible on Jupiter.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Adam Sedgwick
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[17 December 1855]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.446
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Sir John Herschel
To:
Adam Sedgwick
Date:
[1856]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.448 (C: RS:HS 23.185)
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Sir John Herschel
To:
Adam Sedgwick
Date:
[11 February 1856]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.447 (C: RS:HS 23.165)
Summary:
Praises AS's new book [Synopsis of the Classification of the British Palaeozoic Rocks...]. All is well at Collingwood.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Adam Sedgwick
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[23 May 1857]
Source of text:
RS:HS 15.450
Summary:
JH's Essays [Essays Q.E.R.] has reached Lowestoft, but AS has been too ill to read them. Sends regards to family.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Adam Sedgwick
Date:
24 Aug [1859]
Source of text:
Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection)
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Adam Sedgwick
Date:
11 Nov [1859]
Source of text:
Sotheby’s, New York (dealers) (13 December 2018, lot 235)
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Adam Sedgwick
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
24 Nov 1859
Source of text:
DAR 98: B17–18
Summary:
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".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Adam Sedgwick
Date:
26 Nov [1859]
Source of text:
The British Library (Egerton MS 3020: 1–3)
Summary:
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".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project