More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2

Should you succeed in making Barrande F.R.S., send me word.

LETTER 564. TO J.D. HOOKER. June 5th {1857}.

(564/1. The following, which bears on the subject of medals, forms part of the long letter printed in the "Life and Letters," II., page 100.)

I do not quite agree with your estimate of Richardson's merits. Do, I beg you (whenever you quietly see), talk with Lyell on Prestwich: if he agrees with Hopkins, I am silenced; but as yet I must look at the correlation of the Tertiaries as one of the highest and most frightfully difficult tasks a man could set himself, and excellent work, as I believe, P. has done. (564/2. Prof. Prestwich had published numerous papers dealing with Tertiary Geology before 1857. The contributions referred to are probably those "On the Correlation of the Lower Tertiaries of England with those of France and Belgium," "Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." Volume X., 1854, page 454; and "On the Correlation of the Middle Eocene Tertiaries of England, France, and Belgium," ibid., XII., 1856, page 390.) I confess I do not value Hopkins' opinion on such a point. I confess I have never thought, as you show ought to be done, on the future. I quite agree, under all circumstances, with the propriety of Lindley. How strange no new geologists are coming forward! Are there not lots of good young chemists and astronomers or physicists? Fitton is the only old geologist left who has done good work, except Sedgwick. Have you thought of him? He would be a brilliant companion for Lindley. Only it would never do to give Lyell a Copley and Sedgwick a Royal in the same year. It seems wrong that there should be three Natural Science medals in the same year. Lindley, Sedgwick, and Bunsen sounds well, and Lyell next year for the Copley. (564/3. In 1857 a Royal medal was awarded to John Lindley; Lyell received the Copley in 1858, and Bunsen in 1860.) You will see that I am speculating as a mere idle amateur.

LETTER 565. TO S.P. WOODWARD. Down, May 27th {1856}.

I am very much obliged to you for having taken the trouble to answer my query so fully. I can now be at rest, for from what you say and from what little I remember Forbes said, my point is unanswerable. The case of Terebratula is to the point as far as it goes, and is negative. I have already attempted to get a solution through geographical distribution by Dr. Hooker's means, and he finds that the same genera which have very variable species in Europe have other very variable species elsewhere. This seems the general rule, but with some few exceptions. I see from the several reasons which you assign, that there is no hope of comparing the same genus at two different periods, and seeing whether the tendency to vary is greater at one period in such genus than at another period. The variability of certain genera or groups of species strikes me as a very odd fact. (565/1. The late Dr. Neumayr has dealt, to some extent, with this subject in "Die Stamme des Thierreichs," Volume I., Wien, 1889.)

I shall have no points, as far as I can remember, to suggest for your reconsideration, but only some on which I shall have to beg for a little further information. However, I feel inclined very much to dispute your doctrine of islands being generally ancient in comparison, I presume, with continents. I imagine you think that islands are generally remnants of old continents, a doctrine which I feel strongly disposed to doubt. I believe them generally rising points; you, it seems, think them sinking points.

LETTER 566. TO T.H. HUXLEY. Down, April 14th {1860}.

Many thanks for your kind and pleasant letter. I have been much interested by "Deep-sea Soundings,", and will return it by this post, or as soon as I have copied a few sentences. (566/1. Specimens of the mud dredged by H.M.S. "Cyclops" were sent to Huxley for examination, who gave a brief account of them in Appendix A of Capt. Dayman's Report, 1858, under the title "Deep-sea Soundings in the North Atlantic.") I think you said that some one was investigating the soundings. I earnestly hope that you will ask the some one to carefully observe whether any considerable number of the calcareous organisms are more or less friable, or corroded, or scaling; so that one might form some crude notion whether the deposition is so rapid that the foraminifera are preserved from decay and thus are forming strata at this profound depth. This is a subject which seems to me to have been much neglected in examining soundings.

Bronn has sent me two copies of his Morphologische Studien uber die Gestaltungsgesetze." (H.G. Bronn, "Morphologische Studien uber die Gestaltungsgesetze der Naturkorper uberhaupt und der organischen insbesondere": Leipzig, 1858.) It looks elementary. If you will write you shall have the copy; if not I will give it to the Linnean Library.

I quite agree with the letter from Lyell that your extinguished theologians lying about the cradle of each new science, etc., etc., is splendid. (566/2. "Darwiniana, Collected Essays," Volume II., page 52.)

LETTER 567. TO T.H. HUXLEY. May 10th {1862 or later}.

I have been in London, which has prevented my writing sooner. I am very sorry to hear that you have been ill: if influenza, I can believe in any degree of prostration of strength; if from over-work, for God's sake do not be rash and foolish. You ask for criticisms; I have none to give, only impressions. I fully agree with your "skimming-of-pot theory," and very well you have put it. With respect {to} contemporaneity I nearly agree with you, and if you will look to the d — d book, 3rd edition, page 349 you will find nearly similar remarks. (567/1. "When the marine forms are spoken of as having changed simultaneously throughout the world, it must not be supposed that this expression relates to the same year, or to the same century, or even that it has a very strict geological sense; for if all the marine animals now living in Europe, and all those that lived in Europe during the Pleistocene period (a very remote period as measured by years, including the whole Glacial epoch), were compared with those now existing in South America or in Australia, the most skilful naturalist would hardly be able to say whether the present or the Pleistocene inhabitants of Europe resembled most closely those of the Southern hemisphere." "Origin," Edition VI., page 298. The passage in Edition III., page 350, is substantially the same.) But at page 22 of your Address, in my opinion you put your ideas too far. (567/2. Anniversary Address to the Geological Society of London ("Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." Volume XVIII., page xl, 1862). As an illustration of the misleading use of the term "contemporaneous" as employed by geologists, Huxley gives the following illustration: "Now suppose that, a million or two of years hence, when Britain has made another dip beneath the sea and has come up again, some geologist applies this doctrine {i.e., the doctrine of the Contemporaneity of the European and of the North American Silurians: proof of contemporaneity is considered to be established by the occurrence of 60 per cent. of species in common}, in comparing the strata laid bare by the upheaval of the bottom, say, of St. George's Channel with what may then remain of the Suffolk Crag. Reasoning in the same way, he will at once decide the Suffolk Crag and the St. George's Channel beds to be contemporaneous; although we happen to know that a vast period...of time...separates the two" (loc. cit., page xlv). This address is republished in the "Collected Essays," Volume VIII.; the above passage is at page 284.) I cannot think that future geologists would rank the Suffolk and St. George's strata as contemporaneous, but as successive sub-stages; they rank N. America and British stages as contemporaneous, notwithstanding a percentage of different species (which they, I presume, would account for by geographical difference) owing to the parallel succession of the forms in both countries. For terrestrial productions I grant that great errors may creep in (567/3. Darwin supposes that terrestrial productions have probably not changed to the same extent as marine organisms. "If the Megatherium, Mylodon...had been brought to Europe from La Plata, without any information in regard to their geological position, no one would have suspected that they had co-existed with sea shells all still living" ("Origin," Edition VI., page 298).); but I should require strong evidence before believing that, in countries at all well-known, so-called Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous strata could be contemporaneous. You seem to me on the third point, viz., on non-advancement of organisation, to have made a very strong case. I have not knowledge or presumption enough to criticise what you say. I have said what I could at page 363 of "Origin." It seems to me that the whole case may be looked at from several points of view. I can add only one miserable little special case of advancement in cirripedes. The suspicion crosses me that if you endeavoured your best you would say more on the other side. Do you know well Bronn in his last Entwickelung (or some such word) on this subject? it seemed to me very well done. (567/4. Probably "Untersuchungen uber die Entwickelungsgesetze der organischen Welt wahrend der Bildungszeit unserer Erdoberflache," Stuttgart, 1858. Translated by W.S. Dallas in the "Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist." Volume IV., page 81.) I hope before you publish again you will read him again, to consider the case as if you were a judge in a court of appeal; it is a very important subject. I can say nothing against your side, but I have an "inner consciousness" (a highly philosophical style of arguing!) that something could be said against you; for I cannot help hoping that you are not quite as right as you seem to be. Finally, I cannot tell why, but when I finished your Address I felt convinced that many would infer that you were dead against change of species, but I clearly saw that you were not. I am not very well, so good-night, and excuse this horrid letter.

LETTER 568. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, June 30th {1866}.

I have heard from Sulivan (who, poor fellow, gives a very bad account of his own health) about the fossils (568/1. In a letter to Huxley (June 4th, 1866) Darwin wrote: "Admiral Sulivan several years ago discovered an astonishingly rich accumulation of fossil bones not far from the Straits {of Magellan}...During many years it has seemed to me extremely desirable that these should be collected; and here is an excellent opportunity.")... The place is Gallegos, on the S. coast of Patagonia. Sulivan says that in the course of two or three days all the boats in the ship could be filled twice over; but to get good specimens out of the hardish rock two or three weeks would be requisite. It would be a grand haul for Palaeontology. I have been thinking over your lecture. (568/2. A lecture on "Insular Floras" given at the British Association meeting at Nottingham, August 27th, 1866, published in the "Gard. Chron." 1867.) Will it not be possible to give enlarged drawings of some leading forms of trees? You will, of course, have a large map, and George tells me that he saw at Sir H. James', at Southampton, a map of the world on a new principle, as seen from within, so that almost 4/5ths of the globe was shown at once on a large scale. Would it not be worth while to borrow one of these from Sir H. James as a curiosity to hang up?

Remember you are to come here before Nottingham. I have almost finished the last number of H. Spencer, and am astonished at its prodigality of original thought. But the reflection constantly recurred to me that each suggestion, to be of real value to science, would require years of work. It is also very unsatisfactory, the impossibility of conjecturing where direct action of external circumstances begins and ends — as he candidly owns in discussing the production of woody tissue in the trunks of trees on the one hand, and on the other in spines and the shells of nuts. I shall like to hear what you think of this number when we meet.

LETTER 569. TO A. GAUDRY. Down, November 17th, 1868.

On my return home after a short absence I found your note of Nov. 9th, and your magnificent work on the fossil animals of Attica. (569/1. The "Geologie de l'Attique," 2 volumes 4to, 1862-7, is the only work of Gaudry's of this date in Mr. Darwin's library.) I assure you that I feel very grateful for your generosity, and for the honour which you have thus conferred on me. I know well, from what I have already read of extracts, that I shall find your work a perfect mine of wealth. One long passage which Sir C. Lyell quotes from you in the 10th and last edition of the "Principles of Geology" is one of the most striking which I have ever read on the affiliation of species. (569/2. The quotation in Lyell's "Principles," Edition X., Volume II., page 484, is from M. Gaudry's "Animaux Fossiles de Pikermi," 1866, page 34: —

"In how different a light does the question of the nature of species now present itself to us from that in which it appeared only twenty years ago, before we had studied the fossil remains of Greece and the allied forms of other countries. How clearly do these fossil relics point to the idea that species, genera, families, and orders now so distinct have had common ancestors. The more we advance and fill up the gaps, the more we feel persuaded that the remaining voids exist rather in our knowledge than in nature. A few blows of the pickaxe at the foot of the Pyrenees, of the Himalaya, of Mount Pentelicus in Greece, a few diggings in the sandpits of Eppelsheim, or in the Mauvaises Terres of Nebraska, have revealed to us the closest connecting links between forms which seemed before so widely separated. How much closer will these links be drawn when Palaeontology shall have escaped from its cradle!")

LETTER 570. A. SEDGWICK TO CHARLES DARWIN.

(570/1. In May, 1870, Darwin "went to the Bull Hotel, Cambridge, to see the boys, and for a little rest and enjoyment." (570/2. See "Life and Letters," III., 125.) The following letter was received after his return to Down.)

Trinity College, Cambridge, May 30th, 1870.

My dear Darwin,

Your very kind letter surprised me. Not that I was surprised at the pleasant and very welcome feeling with which it was written. But I could not make out what I had done to deserve the praise of "extraordinary kindness to yourself and family." I would most willingly have done my best to promote the objects of your visit, but you gave me no opportunity of doing so. I was truly grieved to find that my joy at seeing you again was almost too robust for your state of nerves, and that my society, after a little while, became oppressive to you. But I do trust that your Cambridge visit has done you no constitutional harm; nay, rather that it has done you some good. I only speak honest truth when I say that I was overflowing with joy when I saw you, and saw you in the midst of a dear family party, and solaced at every turn by the loving care of a dear wife and daughters. How different from my position — that of a very old man, living in cheerless solitude! May god help and cheer you all with the comfort of hopeful hearts — you and your wife, and your sons and daughters!

You were talking about my style of writing, — I send you my last specimen, and it will probably continue to be my last. It is the continuation of a former pamphlet of which I have not one spare copy. I do not ask you to read it. It is addressed to the old people in my native Dale of Dent, on the outskirts of Westmorland. While standing at the door of the old vicarage, I can see down the valley the Lake mountains — Hill Bell at the head of Windermere, about twenty miles off. On Thursday next (D.V.) I am to start for Dent, which I have not visited for full two years. Two years ago I could walk three or four miles with comfort. Now, alas! I can only hobble about on my stick.

I remain your true-hearted old friend A. Sedgwick.

LETTER 571. TO C. LYELL. Down, September 3rd {1874}.

Many thanks for your very kind and interesting letter. I was glad to hear at Southampton from Miss Heathcote a good account of your health and strength.

With respect to the great subject to which you refer in your P.S., I always try to banish it from my mind as insoluble; but if I were circumstanced as you are, no doubt it would recur in the dead of the night with painful force. Many persons seem to make themselves quite easy about immortality (571/1. See "Life and Letters," I., page 312.) and the existence of a personal God, by intuition; and I suppose that I must differ from such persons, for I do not feel any innate conviction on any such points.

We returned home about ten days ago from Southampton, and I enjoyed my holiday, which did me much good. But already I am much fatigued by microscope and experimental work with insect-eating plants.

When at Southampton I was greatly interested by looking at the odd gravel deposits near at hand, and speculating about their formation. You once told me something about them, but I forget what; and I think that Prestwich has written on the superficial deposits on the south coasts, and I must find out his paper and read it. (571/2. Prof. Prestwich contributed several papers to the Geological Society on the Superficial Deposits of the South of England.)

From what I have seen of Mr. Judd's papers I have thought that he would rank amongst the few leading British geologists.

LETTER 572. TO J.D. HOOKER.

(572/1. The following letter was written before Mr. Darwin knew that Sir Charles Lyell was to be buried in Westminster Abbey, a memorial which thoroughly satisfied him. See "Life and Letters," III., 197.)

Down, February 23rd, 1875.

I have just heard from Miss Buckley of Lyell's death. I have long felt opposed to the present rage for testimonials; but when I think how Lyell revolutionised Geology, and aided in the progress of so many other branches of science, I wish that something could be done in his honour. On the other hand it seems to me that a poor testimonial would be worse than none; and testimonials seem to succeed only when a man has been known and loved by many persons, as in the case of Falconer and Forbes. Now, I doubt whether of late years any large number of scientific men did feel much attachment towards Lyell; but on this head I am very ill fitted to judge. I should like to hear some time what you think, and if anything is proposed I should particularly wish to join in it. We have both lost as good and as true a friend as ever lived.

LETTER 573. TO J.D. HOOKER.

(573/1. This letter shows the difficulty which the inscription for Sir Charles Lyell's memorial gave his friends. The existing inscription is, "Charles Lyell...Author of 'The Principles of Geology'...Throughout a long and laborious life he sought the means of deciphering the fragmentary records of the Earth's history in the patient investigation of the present order of Nature, enlarging the boundaries of knowledge, and leaving on Scientific thought an enduring influence..."

Down, June 21st {1876}.

I am sorry for you about the inscription, which has almost burst me. We think there are too many plurals in yours, and when read aloud it hisses like a goose. I think the omission of some words makes it much stronger. "World" (573/2. The suggested sentence runs: "he gave to the world the results of his labour, etc.") is much stronger and truer than "public." As Lyell wrote various other books and memoirs, I have some little doubt about the "Principles of Geology." People here do not like your "enduring value": it sounds almost an anticlimax. They do not much like my "last (or endure) as long as science lasts." If one reads a sentence often enough, it always becomes odious.

God help you.

LETTER 574. TO OSWALD HEER. Down, March 8th {1875}.

I thank you for your very kind and deeply interesting letter of March 1st, received yesterday, and for the present of your work, which no doubt I shall soon receive from Dr. Hooker. (574/1. "Flora Fossilis Arctica," Volume III., 1874, sent by Prof. Heer through Sir Joseph Hooker.) The sudden appearance of so many Dicotyledons in the Upper Chalk appears to me a most perplexing phenomenon to all who believe in any form of evolution, especially to those who believe in extremely gradual evolution, to which view I know that you are strongly opposed. (574/2. The volume referred to contains a paper on the Cretaceous Flora of the Arctic Zone (Spitzbergen and Greenland), in which several dicotyledonous plants are described. In a letter written by Heer to Darwin the author speaks of a species of poplar which he describes as the oldest Dicotyledon so far recorded.) The presence of even one true Angiosperm in the Lower Chalk makes me inclined to conjecture that plants of this great division must have been largely developed in some isolated area, whence owing to geographical changes, they at last succeeded in escaping, and spread quickly over the world. (574/3. No satisfactory evidence has so far been brought forward of the occurrence of fossil Angiosperms in pre-Cretaceous rocks. The origin of the Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons remains one of the most difficult and attractive problems of Palaeobotany.) (574/4. See Letters 395, 398.) But I fully admit that this case is a great difficulty in the views which I hold. Many as have been the wonderful discoveries in Geology during the last half-century, I think none have exceeded in interest your results with respect to the plants which formerly existed in the Arctic regions. How I wish that similar collections could be made in the Southern hemisphere, for instance in Kerguelen's Land.

The death of Sir C. Lyell is a great loss to science, but I do not think to himself, for it was scarcely possible that he could have retained his mental powers, and he would have suffered dreadfully from their loss. The last time I saw him he was speaking with the most lively interest about his last visit to you, and I was grieved to hear from him a very poor account of your health. I have been working for some time on a special subject, namely insectivorous plants. I do not know whether the subject will interest you, but when my book is published I will have the pleasure of sending you a copy.

I am very much obliged for your photograph, and enclose one of myself.

LETTER 574*. TO S.B.J. SKERTCHLY. March 2nd, 1878.

It is the greatest possible satisfaction to a man nearly at the close of his career to believe that he has aided or stimulated an able and energetic fellow-worker in the noble cause of science. Therefore your letter has deeply gratified me. I am writing this away from home, as my health failed, and I was forced to rest; and this will account for the delay in answering your letter. No doubt on my return home I shall find the memoir which you have kindly sent me. I shall read it with much interest, as I have heard something of your work from Prof. Geikie, and have read his admirable "Ice Age." (574/5. "The Great Ice Age and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man": London, 1874. By James Geikie.) I have noticed the criticisms on your work, but such opposition must be expected by every one who draws fine grand conclusions, and such assuredly are yours as abstracted in your letter. (574/6. Mr. S.B.J. Skertchly recorded "the discovery of palaeolithic flint implements, mammalian bones, and fresh-water shells in brick-earths below the Boulder-clay of East Anglia," in a letter published in the "Geol. Mag." Volume III., page 476, 1876. (See also "The Fenland, Past and Present." S.H. Miller and S.B.J. Skertchly, London, 1878.) The conclusions of Mr. Skertchly as to the pre-Glacial age of the flint implements were not accepted by some authorities. (See correspondence in "Nature," Volume XV., 1877, pages 141, 142.) We are indebted to Mr. Marr for calling our attention to Mr. Skertchly's discovery.) What magnificent progress Geology has made within my lifetime!

I shall have very great pleasure in sending you any of my books with my autograph, but I really do not know which to send. It will cost you only the trouble of a postcard to tell me which you would like, and it shall soon be sent. Forgive this untidy note, as it is rather an effort to write.

With all good wishes for your continued success in science and for your happiness...

CHAPTER 2.X. — BOTANY, 1843-1871