Ɛpsilon

To Reviewer   [February–April 1868?]1

Mr D. is much obliged to Mr Reviewer for his kind note.2 & believes that very few Reviewers feel such conscientious scruples.— Mr D. overlooked the error, but had he observed it, he would have felt positive from the fair & very friendly spirit of the whole article, that the word was a in some way the result of an accident.

a)

If as it is printed any further notice be taken of Mr D.’ book, he wd venture to suggest to the Reviewer to grapple with the Ch. on Pang.3 A parent is not a trustworthy [judge] of the merits of his own offspring, but now that Mr D. knows what some few capable judges think, he ventures to express the conviction, that Pangenesis after some improvement, which follows from collision with the world, is destined to enjoy a wide admission. Mr D. believes that it is the first hypothesis which has been advanced showing in which generation [connects] & giving [here] a material connection for some large classes of facts

ADraft

1
The date range is conjectured from the dates of publication of most of the reviews of Variation (see n. 2, below).
2
The note has not been found; it was evidently sent to CD with a manuscript of a review of Variation. A number of anonymous reviews of Variation were published between February and April 1868 (see Correspondence vol. 16, Appendix VI).
3
CD refers to his provisional hypothesis of heredity, pangenesis, presented in chapter 27 of Variation (Variation 2: 357–404).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 for his] interl
1.1 & … scruples.— 1.2] added
1.1 &] above del ‘Mr D. suspects’
1.3 observed] ‘d’ added pencil
1.3 positive] above del ‘sure’
1.3 spirit of] ‘of’ over ‘in’
1.4 the word] after del ‘it had’
1.4 in some way] interl above del red crayon ‘misprint or’
1.4 the result of] pencil above del pencil ‘an’
2.1 it is] interl pencil
2.1 wd] over del ‘is’
2.3 the merits of] interl pencil
2.3 Mr D.] above del ‘he’
2.3 what] after del ‘privately’
2.4 capable] after del illeg
2.4 conviction,] after del illeg
2.5 which] after interl and del, pencil, ‘[smaller & sizeable]’
2.5 collision] after del ‘by’
2.6 enjoy a] above del ‘have a’
2.6 wide admission] pencil above del pencil ‘grand future’
2.7 showing … giving 3.8] interl
2.7 [here] a] above del ‘giving away’
2.7 material] after del illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5829,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5829