Ɛpsilon

To G. M. Asher   28 October 1879

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Oct 28. 79

Dear Sir,

I have resolved owing to my advanced age not to write again on such difficult subjects as the origin of Instinct, Sociology &c, & therefore cannot comply with your request.1 The subject is a very interesting one. Formerly I made many observations on the manner in which bees make their cells, & I have given an abstract of the conclusions at which I arrived in my ‘Origin of Species’.2 There can, I think, be no doubt that each bee continually regards the work of its fellow bees. I have also treated in my ‘Descent of Man’ on the origin of the conscience as being derived from the Social instinct.3

Believe me my dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Charles Darwin

LS

1
Asher had asked CD to comment on a note by him on bee cells and send it to Macmillan’s Magazine for publication (see letter from G. M. Asher, 26 October 1879).
2
CD had worked extensively on the social instincts of bees and the geometry of bee cells (see especially Correspondence vols. 7 and 9). In Origin, pp. 224–35, he explained the hexagonal shape of bee cells as a by-product of the spacing of circular cells.
3
See Descent 1: 70–106.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12273,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12273