WCP4109

Sumatra,¹ 100 miles E. of Bencoolen²

Nov^r. 30th. 1861

My dear Mr. Darwin

On an evening in the wet season in these Central forests of Sumatra, I occupy myself in writing a few lines to you to say a few things which I may otherwise forget altogether. About a year & a half back I wrote to you³ from somewhere Eastward of Ceram,⁴ with more digested remarks on your book,⁵ but the letter with one⁶ to my agent Mr. Stevens⁷ never I believe reached Amboyna.⁸ All I can remember of them now is to the effect that repeated perusals had made the whole clearer & more connected to me & the general & particular arguments clearer & more forcible than at first.

I have lent the book to two persons here in the East, neither of them with any but the vaguest & most general knowledge of or taste for Natural History but both men of much reading & with a taste for speculation & theory wh[ich]. as Bentham⁹ says is but another term for thought. The first Mr. Duivenbode¹⁰ of Ternate,¹¹ a Dutchman educated in England, read it three times through before he returned it to me, expressing himself so much pleased & interested that he wished to master the whole argument. The other a merchant captain¹² settled at Timor Delli¹³ with whom I lived 3 months kept it all the time, was constantly reading it & we made it [2] a subject of conversation almost whenever we met, & when I was leaving he did not return it till the steamer arrived going over the recapitulations of the chapters & the conclusion to get the most of it he possibly could. These humble testimonies prove I think both the attractive manner in which you have treated the subject & the clearness with which you have stated & enforced the arguments; & I trust they will be as pleasing to you as I [1 word struck through, illeg.] ^{assure you} they were to me.

I met the other day on board the Dutch steamer the Geologist accompanying a Prussian voyage of discovery &c. "Baron Richthofen".¹⁴ He has been t<hro>ugh Java¹⁵ where he has made large collections of fossils — He <is> going now to leave the ship & travel in British India & afterwards go to the Amoor¹⁶ & overland to Europe to study & improve himself in Geology. He seems a very intelligent & good naturalist. He was reading your Book wh[ich]. he had borrowed in Java, & on my asking him if he was a convert,— he smiled & said "It is very easy for a Geologist".¹⁷ I have also seen Dr. Schneider¹⁸ who has geologized in Timor — He assures me he found many teeth of Mastodon,— also terebratulae[,] orthoceras & other molluscs. He had given most of his collection to the Zoologist¹⁹ of the same Prussian Expedition but says he has published descriptions of all the Timor fossils in the Batavian Journal of Nat[ural]. Sciences, I forget the Dutch title but you know the work no doubt — They are to be published this month I think he told me.²⁰

[3] I trust your great work²¹ goes on & is soon to appear. I hope however you will have it copiously illustrated. I am sure it will be for the publisher[']s interest to do so as it will I have no doubt double the circulation. There are so many things that are weak when merely mentioned or described by figures ^numbers which become clear & strong when an appeal is made to the eye. The varieties of pigeons[,] the stripes of horses, the variations in ants, the formation of honeycombs ^{& a hundred other things} will all be better for good illustrations — They will also make the book newer & more distinct from its forerunner in the eyes of the public to whom it will otherwise appear as perhaps a mere enlargement — If this point is not decided, pray take it seriously into consideration.

I see nothing but the Athenaeum²² so know little of what is going on among Naturalists — Huxley²³ & Owen²⁴ seem to be at open war,²⁵ but I cannot glean that any one has ventured to attack you fairly on the whole question, or ventured to answer the whole of your argument — I see by his advertisement D^r. Brees²⁶ [sic] professes to do so but have no notice of his book.²⁷

I have lately been very unsuccessful owing to unprecedented wet weather (the effect I suppose of the comet²⁸). This is my [MS corner (bottom right) missing]

[4] P.S. The shabby way in which your opponents [MS damaged, several words missing] is amusing. First comes Owen with his new interpretation of what naturalists mean by "creation" which it turns out is not creation at all, but "the unknown manner in which species have come into existence"!!!²⁹ Phillips³⁰ I see adopts this new interpretation which ought certainly to raise up the bench of bishops against them, for what then becomes of "special creation" & "special adaptation" & "intelligent forethought visible in each special creation",— if creation is not creation at all, but a mere convenient expression of ignorance of the laws by which species have originated.

Has my friend Bates³¹ sent you his papers on Amazon Insects,³² in wh[ich]. he gives details of "variation" which are a most valuable contribution to our cause — His papers also shew what mere blind work is the making of species from what may be called chance collections;— a species here, another there, a ♂ from one locality a ♀ from another, here a rare variety, & from another place the typical form. Of course with such materials & with localities often incorrectly indicated each succeeding elucidator has but added to the confusion; & the whole has formed a chaos, till some one collecting & observing for years over an extensive but connected district has been able to bring the whole into order.

Anor³³ | Sumatra