From F. E. Abbot   3 March 1874

Dear Sir,

Today I have put into my printer’s hands the MSS. of a lecture entitled “Darwin’s Theory of Conscience: its Relation to Scientific Ethics,” for publication in the Index. It will appear in the issue for March 12, and I beg leave to invite your attention to it. Extra copies shall be sent you.¹

I think you will not be wholly displeased with my lecture, as it essays to bring the science of Ethics into thorough harmony with your great theory; and the fact that I have ventured to go outside of this theory, in order to give an impregnable philosophical basis to it, and to show how vast a service to ethical science you have rendered, will not, I believe, be regarded by you as otherwise than a fresh proof of the value of your labors where, perhaps, you least anticipated it. If I am not mistaken, the central conception of my treatment,—namely, that there is a Moral Environment, properly to be regarded as grounded in the Nature of Things, and that conscience is a result of Evolution through the constant action and reaction between this Environment and Man,—is an original one; and it shows only an unsuspected importance in your chapters of the “Descent of Man” which treat of this subject.² I believe that now for the first time it is proper to speak of morals as a science; and if I am correct, philosophy owes to you the first attempt to make it such.

Naturally I am extremely solicitous to know whether you will receive my attempt with favor. May I beg the honor of your criticisms? If you should be so kind as to put them in the form of a letter for publication, you would render me a service of incalculable value in my Efforts to give the Index a high and dignified character. But if you should conclude only to write your opinion for my private study, I should still be your debtor, and full of gratitude.³ Believing I have helped to make some real advance in moral science by the aid of your thought, I shall be deprived of a great satisfaction if I do not learn your estimate of my results.

Very respectfully yours, | Francis E. Abbot.