Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa
- +
Has received second part of AG's Atlantic Monthly article ["Darwin on the origin of species", 6 (1860): 109–16, 229–39], and would like to have it reprinted in England with the first part.
- +
Regrets no reviewer has touched upon embryology, which he feels provides one of his strongest arguments.
Summary Add
Transcription
Down Bromley Kent
Sept 10
My dear Gray
On receipt (through Hooker) of your letter of Aug. 26
I have ordered another copy of this August number, as I
sh
By the way I am thinking of taking a very great liberty; but after much consideration I
do not think you can object: you said that it was known that you were the author of
the 1
Hensleigh Wedgwood, above alluded to, is a very strong Theist, & I put it to him, whether he thought that each time a fly was snapped up by a swallow, its death was designed; & he admitted he did not believe so, only that God ordered general laws & left the result to what may be so far called chance, that there was no design in the death of each individual Fly.—
Farewell my good Friend | Yours most truly | Charles Darwin
Never write to me when too much pressed by labour,—though I value much your letters.—
- +
- f1 2910.f1
Dated by the reference to Gray's articles on Origin (see n. 8, below). - +
- f2 2910.f2
Gray's letter has not been found. - +
- f3 2910.f3
CD refers to Hopkins 1860 and [Wilberforce] 1860. Both articles reviewed Origin. - +
- f4 2910.f4
The reference is to Gray's defence of Origin published in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 4 (1860): 411--16. See letters to Asa Gray, 22 July [1860], and to J. D. Hooker, 7 August [1860]. - +
- f5 2910.f5
See letters to Charles Lyell, 11 August [1860] and 28 August [1860]. - +
- f6 2910.f6
Maria Hooker was Joseph Dalton Hooker's mother. - +
- f7 2910.f7
See letters to J. D. Hooker, 2 September [1860] and 6 September [1860]. Hooker and his party had travelled to Syria despite the danger of being caught up in the conflict between Christians and Muslims. They entered Damascus only a day after the Christian quarter of the city had been sacked. See L. Huxley ed. 1918, 1: 529. - +
- f8 2910.f8
[Gray] 1860b, pp. 229--39. There is an annotated copy of all three of Gray's articles for the Atlantic Monthly in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection--CUL. - +
- f9 2910.f9
There was a review of the first volume of Hensleigh Wedgwood's Dictionary of English etymology (Wedgwood 1859--65) in the Atlantic Monthly 6 (1860): 248--54. - +
- f10 2910.f10
In his second article for the Atlantic Monthly, Gray discussed the favourable opinion of CD's theory expressed by Fran¸la;cois Jules Pictet de la Rive in his review of Origin (Pictet de la Rive 1860). Gray called the review `much the fairest and most admirable opposing one that has yet appeared' ([Gray] 1860b, p. 230). - +
- f11 2910.f11
See following letter. - +
- f12 2910.f12
The October issue of the Atlantic Monthly carried Gray's concluding article, entitled `Darwin and his reviewers' ([Gray] 1860b, pp. 406--25). - +
- f13 2910.f13
[Gray] 1860b, pp. 109--16. All three of Gray's articles in the Atlantic Monthly were published anonymously. - +
- f14 2910.f14
CD's copy of [Gray] 1860b is heavily marked. The passage referred to is on p. 238:Our [classification] systems are nothing, if not definite. They are intended to express differences, and perhaps some of the coarser gradations. But this evinces, not their perfection, but their imperfection. Even the best of them are to the system of Nature what consecutive patches of the seven colors are to the rainbow. - +
- f15 2910.f15
Gray stated that both `wild horses and cattle' had lived in America during former geological periods ([Gray] 1860b, p. 235). CD circled `and cattle' and wrote `no' in the margin of his copy in pencil. - +
- f16 2910.f16
For earlier remarks on this point, see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 December [1859], and, in this volume, letter to W. B. Carpenter, 6 January [1860]. See also Autobiography, p. 125.