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From Herbert Spencer   2 May 1871

37 Queens Gardens | Bayswater, London, W.

2 May 1871.

Dear Mr. Darwin,

It has occurred to me that it may be worth while to write a few lines to the Contemporary Review à propos of Sir A. Grant’s article.1 I think of drawing his attention to the “Principles of Psychology” as containing proof, both analytic & synthetic, that the division between Reason & lower forms of Intelligence, which he thinks so unquestionable, does not exist.2

Before deciding on this course, however, I think it is proper to inquire whether you propose to say anything on the matter, seeing that the attack is ostensibly directed against you.

Sincerely yours, | Herbert Spencer

LS

1
The reference is to Alexander Grant’s article, ‘Philosophy and Mr. Darwin’, published in the May issue of Contemporary Review (Grant 1871). Grant argued that the differences between higher and lower mental powers were differences in kind, not degree; and that humans alone had reason, or the ‘faculty of apprehending universals’ (Grant 1871, pp. 276–8).
2
Spencer’s reply, ‘Mental evolution’, appeared in the June issue of Contemporary Review (Spencer 1871). He summarised the argument of his Principles of psychology (Spencer 1855) for a continuity of mental evolution between reason and ‘lower’ mental functions such as instinct and reflex action.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7734,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7734