Ɛpsilon

To Charles Lyell   30 July [1860]

Hartfield.

July 30th

My dear Lyell

We have been here for 3 weeks on Etty’s account, but return home in a few days.—   We had Sir H. Holland here a few days ago, as we got much alarmed about poor dear Etty. He gives us hope for future, but says the fever has left mischief in internal organs, & that her recovery will be excessively slow. We have had an unhappy time of it. All this trouble has prevented my writing, which I shd. have done sooner, though I have nothing to say, as I have seen no one (except indeed Hooker for an hour or two at Kew) for an age. I had lots of pleasant letters about Brit. Assoc. & our side seems to have got on very well. There has been as much discussion on other side of Atlantic as on this. No one I think understands whole case better than Asa Gray, & he has been fighting nobly. He is capital reasoner; I have sent one of his printed discussions to our Athenæum, & Editor says he will print it.1 The Quarterly has been out sometime; it contains no malice, which is wonderful considering Owen’s aid (by the way it seems generally admitted that Huxley smashed Owen at Oxford); it quizzes me really in capital style; it makes me say many things which I do not say.—   At the end it quotes all your conclusions against Lamarck & makes solemn appeal to you to keep firm in the true faith.—2 I fancy it will make you quake a little. Owen has ingeniously primed the Bishop with Murchison against you as head of uniformitarians.3 Owen is really wonderfully clever in his malevolence.—

The only other review worth mentioning, which I can think of is in 3d Nor of “London Review”; by some geologist & favourable for a wonder; it is very ably done, & I shd. like much to know who is author.—4 I shall be very curious to hear on your return, whether Bronns German Translation of the Origin has drawn any attention to subject.—5 Huxley is eager about a Natural History Review, which he & others are going to Edit, & he has got so many first-rate assistants, that I really believe he will make it a first-rate production.—6 I have been doing nothing, except a little Botanical work as amusement.—   I shall hereafter be very curious to hear how your tour has answered.— I expect your Book on Geological History of man will with a vengeance be a bomb-shell:7 I hope it will not be very long delayed.

Our kindest remembrances to Lady Lyell.—8 This is not worth sending, but I have nothing better to say. Yours affectionately | C. Darwin

Endorsement: ‘1860’

1
See letters to Asa Gray, 22 July [1860], and to J. D. Hooker, 7 August [1860].
2
[Wilberforce] 1860, pp. 263–4. See letter to J. D. Hooker, [20? July 1860] and n. 5.
3
In his review of Origin ([Wilberforce] 1860), Samuel Wilberforce cited Roderick Impey Murchison’s views and implied that he was a prominent advocate for gradual geological change. CD believed that Richard Owen had supplied Wilberforce with much of the scientific material discussed in the review.
4
London Review and Weekly Journal of Politics, Literature, Art and Society 1 (1860): 11–12, 32–3, 58–9. See also letter to J. D. Hooker, 29 July [1860].
5
Lyell was travelling on the Continent (see letter to Charles Lyell, 5 [July 1860]). CD refers to Bronn trans. 1860.
6
See letters to T. H. Huxley, 20 July [1860], and to John Lubbock, 20 July [1860]. Thomas Henry Huxley had recently agreed to become general editor of the new series of the Natural History Review; the board of eleven editors also included John Lubbock, George Busk, William Benjamin Carpenter, Philip Lutley Sclater, and Daniel Oliver.
7
C. Lyell 1863.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.6 (except] parenthesis over comma
1.12 has been] above del ‘is’
1.13 (by the way … Oxford)] square brackets in MS
2.4 of the Origin] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2881,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2881