To Alexander Goodman More   8 March [1861]1

Down Bromley Kent

March 8th

My dear Sir

I am much obliged for your note & most kind offer of observing Orchids.2 Later on I will remind you on points connected with E. palustris; & I will further venture to trouble you for a few specimens of O. ustulata & Aceras, if they grow anywhere near you; for then I shall have examined large majority of British species.—3 I never understood whether E. palustris grew near you: I have always regretted that I did not ask you last Autumn to gather me two or three roots, which I would have attempted to grow in pot with lot of water. I have got many orchids in my garden; including the rare Goodyera.—4

I am not in the least surprised at your demurring to accept my notions on species. It took me long years before I converted myself; though daily thinking & observing on the subject. You ask why I shd. not draw a line & allow natural selection to do a little work & no more. I can give no direct answer to this. But I think you do not fully see how, as it seems to me, the subject may fairly be approached. Take the case of Light,—the existence of Ether, & the existence of its undulations are both absolutely hypothetical or conjectural; but because this hypothesis explains and groups together a multitude of phenomena, it is now universally admitted as a true theory. So, as it seems to me, the descent of species with their modifications through natural selection groups together & fairly well explains many phenomena (as classification, morphology, rudimentary organs, embryology, partially geograph. Distrib. & partially geolog. succession) & therefore I believe in its truth. These phenomena are otherwise inexplicable; & my many hostile Reviewers have hardly attempted to impugn my explanations, therefore I believe Natural Selection will after many years prevail.

My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin.

1
This letter was first published in Correspondence vol. 9, transcribed from a copy on which the year is recorded (DAR 146: 393).
2
More’s letter has not been found.
3
CD had enlisted More’s assistance in the summer of 1860 to help him procure specimens of orchids. More collected and sent to CD various species that grew near his home on the Isle of Wight. See Correspondence vol. 8. In Orchids, p. 95 n., CD thanked More for repeatedly sending him specimens of the ‘beautiful Orchis’ Epipactis palustris.
4
CD referred to Goodyera repens, ‘this rare Highland Orchid’ in Orchids, p. 112 n.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.00 work] above del ‘work’
2.00 Ether, &] ‘&’ added
2.00 the descent] ‘the’ after del ‘thenQQQQ’
2.00 partially] interl
2.00 hostile] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3084,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3084