Ɛpsilon

To Charles Lyell   [19 March 1868]1

4 Chester Place | N.W

Thursday

My dear Lyell

Many thanks for the grand Book.—2 I have literally not read a word, except the newspaper, since I have been in London, & I vowed I wd not look at your book; but I became so curious that I broke my vow & began last night the organic part & read some & skimmed provisionally several pages.— I can see that you have given a perfectly fair history of the progress of opinion on Species; but you will perhaps think it would be strange if I did not say so, seeing what high credit you give to me.—3 I see in Table of Contents you allude to Pangenesis,4 which is heroic on your part, as an untried hypothesis is always dangerous ground, & quite delights me. My fear has always been that Pangenesis would be a still-born infant, over whom no one would rejoice or cry.5

I shall be intensely curious to read your Chaptr. on Domestication & even more so on man.—6

With most hearty thanks | Ever yours | C. Darwin

Endorsement: ‘19 March 1868’

1
The date is established by the reference to the second volume of Lyell 1867–8 (see n. 2, below) and by an endorsement in an unknown hand.
2
The second volume of the tenth edition of Lyell’s Principles of Geology (Lyell 1867–8) was published between 16 and 31 March 1868 (Publishers’ Circular, 1 April 1868, p. 179). CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL.
3
Lyell’s book was divided into three major subsections, the last of which was titled ‘Changes of the organic world now in progress’ and included chapters 34 to 49 (Lyell 1867–8, 2: 244–613). Lyell discussed different theories of transmutation of species in chapter 35, variation under domestication in chapter 36, and natural selection in chapter 37 (Lyell 1867–8, 2: 261–328); he referred frequently to Variation and Origin.
4
In the list of additions and corrections in the preface to the second volume (Lyell 1867–8, 2: vii), Lyell mentioned CD’s ‘doctrine of “Pangenesis”, or the manner in which long-lost characters may be revived in the offspring of cross-breeds’.
5
CD refers to his provisional hypothesis of pangenesis (see Variation 2: 357–404).
6
CD refers to chapters 36 and 43 (Lyell 1867–8, 2: 284–315, 464–94).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.5 on Species] interl
1.6 would] after del illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6023,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6023