Down, Beckenham
May 8 1874
Dear Sir
It is a pleasure to me to answer as far as I can any enquiry from so earnest a student of science as yourself1
Unfortunately I have never studied political economy, and it has always seemed to me a very abstruse subject. Nevertheless I cannot doubt that it would be very interesting if discussed under the light of the principle of evolution. Mr Bagehot has partially so considered political economy or more strictly speaking, politics, in relation to primitive races of man, as may be seen in his ‘Physics and Politics’ a volume of the International Series2
With respect to the moral sense, I have discussed its source in the first volume of my Descent of Man, and after having read many hostile criticisms, still think that I have thrown some light on its development3
With much respect | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9445,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on