From Charles Pritchard 8 October 1866
Freshwater
1866 Oct 8.
Dear Mr Darwin,
As a matter of dutiful courtesy to you I take the liberty of sending you a copy of a Sermon lately preached before the British Assocn at Nottingham.1 In the Appendix Note A. I have stated certain reasons why I disagree with your (apparent) view of the gradual genesis of the Human Eye by Natural Selection.2 You will I am sure as gladly accord to the views held as a Mathn or Astronr—as I respectfully do to you as a great Naturalist & I trust you will for once at all events see that an Orthodox Clergyman can write & speak of a view which he does not accept, as a gentleman ought.
I grieve to say my eloquent colleague D. Moore indulges in railery where he ought either to have been silent or have given reason for outspeech.3
Should you read my preface you will see what is the spirit in which I think seekers after truth ought to meet each other.4
I rejoice greatly to hear of the well being of your boys,5 & am dear Sir | very Sincerely yrs | C. Pritchard
Footnotes
Bibliography
Burchfield, Joe D. 1990. Lord Kelvin and the age of the earth. With a new afterword. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
Grove, William Robert. 1866. Address of the president. Report of the thirty-sixth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Nottingham, pp. liii–lxxxii.
Moore, Daniel. 1866. The unsearchableness of God: a sermon, preached at St. Matthew’s church, Nottingham, on Sunday, 26th August, 1866, on the occasion of the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. London, Oxford, and Cambridge: Rivingtons.
Pritchard, Charles. 1866. The continuity of the schemes of nature and of revelation. A sermon preached, by request, on the occasion of the meeting of the British Association at Nottingham. With remarks on some relations of modern knowledge to theology. London: Bell and Daldy.
Summary
Sends sermon he preached at the BAAS Nottingham meeting ["The continuity of the schemes of nature and revelation" (1866)], in which he disagrees with CD on the gradual genesis of the human eye by natural selection.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5234
- From
- Charles Pritchard
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Freshwater
- Source of text
- DAR 174: 78
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5234,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5234.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14