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From Lawson Tait   25 February 1877

7, Gt. Charles Street, | Birmingham.

Feb 25/77

My Dear Sir,

At page 106 of “Descent of Man” I find a sentence: “as I have so lately endeavoured to shew that the social instincts—the prime principle of man’s moral constitution39.—” & a footnote:

‘The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, &c p. 139. But I cannot find in any list of books under your name one with that title & I never heard of it1  Can you tell me its full title & where to get it? I am amazed at my ignorance of it!

Yours ever, | Lawson Tait

I am engaged in a short “Kritic of the Individuum” which may interest you & of which I hope to send you a copy in a day or two.2 It is intended as a mite towards evolutionary theosophy.

1
In Descent 1: 106, CD paraphrased the following passage from Aurelius 1862: ‘The prime principle then in man’s constitution is the social.’ The title of the work by Marcus Aurelius is usually translated as Meditations.
2
The article by Tait has not been found; he had recently written on the evolution of morality (L. Tait 1876; see Correspondence vol. 24, letter from Lawson Tait, 4 August [1876] and n. 3).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10868,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10868