Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters

A few words asking for information. The results were published in the Gardeners' Chronicle, May 26, Nov. 24, 1855. In the same year (p. 789) he sent a postscript to his former paper, correcting a misprint and adding a few words on the seeds of the Leguminosæ. A fuller paper on the germination of seeds after treatment in salt water, appeared in the Linnean Soc. Journal, 1857, p. 130.

143

The interval of eighteen years, from 1837 when he began to collect facts, would bring the date of this letter to 1855, not 1856, nevertheless the latter seems the more probable date.

144

"On the Law that has regulated the Introduction of New Species." —Ann. Nat. Hist., 1855.

145

Simon Bernard was tried in April 1858 as an accessory to Orsini's attempt on the life of the Emperor of the French. The verdict was "not guilty."

146

Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 1855.

147

After the death, from scarlet fever, of his infant child.

148

"Abstract" is here used in the sense of "extract;" in this sense also it occurs in the Linnean Journal, where the sources of my father's paper are described.

149

"On the tendency of Species to form Varieties and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection." —Linnean Society's Journal, iii. p. 53.

150

This passage was published as a footnote in a review of the Life and Letters of Charles Darwin which appeared in the Quarterly Review, Jan. 1888. In the new edition (1891) of Natural Selection and Tropical Nature (p. 20), Mr. Wallace has given the facts above narrated. There is a slight and quite unimportant discrepancy between the two accounts, viz. that in the narrative of 1891 Mr. Wallace speaks of the "cold fit" instead of the "hot fit" of his ague attack.

151

That is to say, he would help to pay for the printing, if it should prove too long for the Linnean Society.

152

W. H. Harvey, born 1811, died 1866: a well-known botanist.

153

See a discussion on the date of the earliest sketch of the Origin in the Life and Letters, ii. p. 10.

154

The Origin of Species.

155

Miss Tollett was an old friend of the family.

156

In the first edition Chapter iv. was on Natural Selection.

157

The following characteristic acknowledgment of the help he received occurs in a letter to Hooker, of about this time: "I never did pick any one's pocket, but whilst writing my present chapter I keep on feeling (even when differing most from you) just as if I were stealing from you, so much do I owe to your writings and conversation, so much more than mere acknowledgments show."

158

Feb. 9th, 1858.

159

"When I go over the chapter I will see what I can do, but I hardly know how I am obscure, and I think we are somehow in a mutual muddle with respect to each other, from starting from some fundamentally different notions." – Letter of May 6th, 1859.

160

Of Hooker's Flora of Australia.

161

Origin of Species, 6th edition, vol. ii. p. 357. "But with the working ant we have an insect differing greatly from its parents, yet absolutely sterile, so that it could never have transmitted successively acquired modifications of structure or instinct to its progeny. It may well be asked how is it possible to reconcile this case with the theory of natural selection?"

162

In his next letter to Lyell my father writes: "The omission of 'living' before 'eminent' naturalists was a dreadful blunder." In the first edition, as published, the blunder is corrected by the addition of the word "living."

163

Darwin wrote to Asa Gray in 1860: – "The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder, but when I think of the fine known gradations, my reason tells me I ought to conquer the cold shudder."

164

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, born at Mortier, on the lake of Morat in Switzerland, on May 28th, 1807. He emigrated to America in 1846, where he spent the rest of his life, and died Dec. 14th, 1873. His Life, written by his widow, was published in 1885. The following extract from a letter to Agassiz (1850) is worth giving, as showing how my father regarded him, and it may be added that his cordial feeling towards the great American naturalist remained strong to the end of his life: —

"I have seldom been more deeply gratified than by receiving your most kind present of Lake Superior. I had heard of it, and had much wished to read it, but I confess that it was the very great honour of having in my possession a work with your autograph as a presentation copy, that has given me such lively and sincere pleasure. I cordially thank you for it. I have begun to read it with uncommon interest, which I see will increase as I go on."

165

Mr. Wallace was in the Malay Archipelago.

166

Nov. 19, 1859.