Ɛpsilon

To John Lubbock   9 February [1859]1

Moor Park, Farnham | Surrey

Feb. 9th

Dear Lubbock

Many thanks for your interesting note.— I am very glad to hear about your brother.2 What a splendid joke about Falconer.—3

I shd. much like to see the Builder, with Huxley, which shall be returned.—4

I do not think Instincts present any great difficulty, for they vary & the variations are inherited. Your cases of important organs differing much in (apparently) allied forms is a much greater & very serious difficulty & I can take refuge only in our ignorance of correlations5

I have several other letters to write & am as idle as a dog, so Farewell | Yours very truly | C. Darwin

I have despatched letter to Wollaston.—6

1
The year 1859 is the only one in which CD visited Moor Park in February (de Beer ed. 1959).
3
The reference to Hugh Falconer was apparently in the missing portion of the letter from John Lubbock, 8 February 1859.
4
An extract from Thomas Henry Huxley’s closing lecture to working men, delivered at the Government School of Mines in the autumn of 1858, appeared in the Builder, 15 January 1859,pp. 35–6. It concerned the relationship between science and religion.
6
This letter was written in pencil. The letter from Lubbock to Thomas Vernon Wollaston has not been found. CD was to forward it to Wollaston (see letter to John Lubbock, [6 February 1859]).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.3 (apparently)] interl
3.3 very] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2411,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2411