Ɛpsilon

To F. E. E. Wedgwood   19 December [1871]1

6. Q. Anne St

Dec 19th

My dear Fanny

I hope that you will thank Miss Cobbe very much for her kind & liberal offer. Our differences, however, are too fundamental ever to be reconciled. She naturally referred to any little point of detail. I do not know that there are any needing correction; but my brains are too much volatilised in this dreadful London to read the article with care.—2 I have, however read over again a large part & like it much.—

Ever yours | C. Darwin

You can, if you please, take away your copy when you c⁠⟨⁠all⁠⟩⁠

1
The year is established by the address. CD was at 6 Queen Anne Street, London, from 14 to 22 December 1871 (see ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
2
No letter from Wedgwood on this subject has been found. Cobbe probably offered to make changes to her article ‘Darwinism in morals’ (Cobbe 1871), in which she took issue with the naturalistic account in Descent of the development of morality in humans. Cobbe’s article first appeared in the April 1871 issue of Theological Review; CD’s heavily annotated copy is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. The article was reprinted unchanged as the title essay in a collection published in 1872 (Cobbe 1872). CD responded to one of Cobbe’s criticisms in Descent 2d ed., p. 99 n. 6.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8110,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8110