Ɛpsilon

To George Henslow   7 December [1871]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Dec. 7th

My dear Mr Henslow

If you will take the trouble to look at p. 431 Vol. 2. of my Variation of Animals under Domestication, you will find the perplexed conclusion at which I have arrived in relation to variation & design.—2 To this statement I have nothing to add.—

Pray believe me | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from George Henslow, 5 December 1871.
2
In Variation 2: 431–2, CD remarked on the difficulty of reconciling the operation of natural selection on randomly occurring variations with belief in an omnipotent and omniscient creator. He concluded: ‘We are brought face to face with a difficulty as insoluble as is that of free will and predestination.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8099,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8099