Ɛpsilon

To M. D. Conway   12 September [1873]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Sept 12th

My dear Mr Conway

I must thank you for many things. Firstly for your letter, which has amused & interested me greatly.2 Secondly for the strange Debate, which I return in case you shd. wish to lend it to anyone else.3 And thirdly for the Tribune, which I have been glad to read & which I suppose you do not want returned. The principle of Evolution has first-rate supporters in Morse & Gill who are excellent naturalists. As for Prof. Swallows remarks they are worth very little.4

I have had a very bad week & am ordered by my Doctor to do very little;5 so I will do no more than thank you again

Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

I have heard of your intended book of the Scriptures of all times & nations, & I shd. think it wd. be extremely curious & valuable—6

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from M. D. Conway, 10 September [1873]).
4
George Clinton Swallow had challenged CD’s views on the evolution of a moral sense in humans in a paper delivered at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (see letter from M. D. Conway, 10 September [1873] and n. 4); in the discussion following Swallow’s presentation, Edward Sylvester Morse and Theodore Nicholas Gill had defended CD’s arguments (see New York Tribune, 23 August 1873, p. 2).
5
Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) records that Henry Willey, CD’s physician, visited on 5 September 1873.
6
See letter from M. D. Conway, 10 September [1873] and n. 2. Conway’s book was published under the title Sacred anthology (Conway 1874).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9051,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9051