Ɛpsilon

From Lawson Tait   7 September [1875]1

7, Great Charles St. | Birmingham.

Sep 7

My Dear Sir,

I am engaged in working out a curious speculation as to the origin of the peculiarities of our moral nature, tracing them from the common origin of parental assistance to the young in the struggle for existence   I purpose making it the subject of my introductory lecture to my biology class next month.2

Do you know of any earlier instances of parental protection than that of the stickleback?

Spiders don’t?

Nor ants?

Anything above vertebrata?

Yours ever, | Lawson Tait

I dont think it so “hopeless to speculate” on this as you seemed to be when you wrote Chap III of “Descent of Man”.3 I think I see my way into the mist at least a short distance. My difficulty is to unlearn enough!

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Lawson Tait, 10 September [1875].
2
Tait was a lecturer in physiology at the Midland Institute (ODNB); no publication by him on this subject has been found.
3
In Descent 1: 80, CD had written, ‘With respect to the origin of the parental and filial affections, which apparently lie at the basis of the social affections, it is hopeless to speculate; but we may infer that they have been to a large extent gained through natural selection.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10153,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10153