Darwin Correspondence Project

 

Quick search Advanced search...
Letter icon
Letter 10338

Darwin, C. R. to Darwin, G. H.

[1876?]

    Summary Add

  • +

    Has received a baffling article on God, immortality, and socialism under a Darwinian point of view.

  • +

    Clerk Maxwell has disagreed with CD on molecular calculations in relation to Pangenesis in Encyclopaedia Britannica article ["Atom", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed. (1875) 3: 36–49].

Transcription

My dear G.—

I do not think that you will care for Jacksonian pamphet sent by this post.— Hermann Müller has sent you & Frank a newspaper on the development of the instincts of bees in relation to sucking flowers which I am sure you wd not care about in the least & I have not sent it.—

I have received a German pamphet about the idea of God & immortality & socialism under a Darwinian point of view: it is so difficult I cannot make head or tails of it; I at first thought of sending it you, but then thought you wd. not care for it. I could, however, send it.— Do you remember calculating for me about number of molecules in a square of 11000 of an inch, in relation to Pangenesis; well I hear from Eras. that in Encyclop. Britannica, Clark-Maxwell has been writing on this subject in relation to Pangenesis, & opposed to my views, but Eras. says he cannot understand it, & that you might on your return read it.— I have been grieved, my dear George, to hear how very bad you have been.

Yours affect. | C. Darwin

    Footnotes Add

  • +
    f1 10338.f1
    The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Hermann Müller, 4 September 1876, and by the reference to (Parow 1876). See nn. 2 and 3 below.
  • +
    f2 10338.f2
    See letter from Hermann Müller, 4 September 1876.
  • +
    f3 10338.f3
    CD refers to Der Gottes-Begriff, Unsterblichkeit und die sittliche Idee gegenüber dem Darwinismus [The idea of God, immortality, and the concept of morality, versus Darwinism] (Parow 1876). CD's copy is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection--CUL. In this copy, a marginal note in CD's hand reads, `Too difficult– I have read hardly any of it—'.
Maximized view Print letter