Ɛpsilon

From F. W. Harmer   28 August 1872

Heigham Grove, | Norwich.

Aug 28/72

Sir/

I have unwisely undertaken a newspaper controversy with the Revd. W. P. Lyon—the author of “Homo v. Darwin”—1 In one of his letters he quotes the following passage as if from yourself,

“Mr. Darwin tells us that natural selection is a kind of god that never slumbers nor sleeps, that scrutinizes everything, is ever selecting what is useful” &c &c2

May I ask whether you will kindly inform me—(if you can do so without giving yourself any trouble) yes or no, on the enclosed P. Card, whether I am right in supposing that the part of the sentence I have underlined is not yours at all, but added by Mr. Lyon. The only passage I can find in your writings to correspond is that in the “Origin of Species” (5th. Edtn) chap 4 p 96,3 but I am afraid to charge him with the error without your confirmation   The words added (as I suppose) seem to me to give a different & an unfair meaning to the sentence.

apologizing very much for having to trouble you about such a matter,

I am | Yours truly | F. W. Harmer

C. Darwin Esq F.R.S.

1
William Penman Lyon’s book, Homo versus Darwin (Lyon [1871]), was written in the form of a judicial examination and included lengthy quotations from Descent and other publications by CD. The letters of Lyon and Harmer appeared in the Eastern Daily Press.
2
The letter that Harmer quotes appeared in the Eastern Daily Press, 23 May 1872, p. 2, under the heading ‘Darwinism and the missing link’. The quotation continues, ‘and profitable in animal existence, and preserving it that it may be transmitted to future generations; and that through these accumulated and inherited useful variations in animal life new species are developed’. Lyon put quotation marks before ‘natural selection’ and after ‘developed’, and did not use any emphasis. The same sentence appeared in Lyon’s book; however it was not given as a direct quotation (Lyon [1871], pp. 138–9).
3
Harmer refers to the passage: ‘It may metaphorically be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life’ (Origin 5th ed., p. 96). CD had added the word ‘metaphorically’ to the second and later editions.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8490,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8490