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From Charles Loring Brace   29 April 1867

Hastings on | Hudson | N.Y.

April 29—1867

Charles Darwin Esq

My dear Sir

Permit me to introduce to you as a correspondent my friend & neighbor Rob’t S. Rowley Esq, who first called my attention to that passage in Dr Well’s Essay on the Party-colored Female, to which you allude in the preface of your New Edition.1 Your acknowledgement should be to him— — I have written an article, defending the religious idea of your Hypothesis, which I hope to send you—2

Prof Agassiz has been attacking the theory this winter very earnestly, but in too ad captandum a style to raise his reputation with scientific men—3

I think you will find that Mr Rowley has some ingenious suggestions to offer—

Trusting that your health is much better, believe me dear Sir | Yours sincerely | C. L. Brace

Footnotes

1
In the Historical sketch in Origin 4th ed., pp. xiv–xv, CD added a reference to William Charles Wells’s ‘Account of a white female, part of whose skin resembles that of a negro’ (Wells 1818), and acknowledged Brace for drawing his attention to it. In the same connection in Origin 5th ed., pp. xvi–xvii, he mentioned both Rowley and Brace. Brace had evidently sent the reference to Wells 1818 to CD before August 1866 (see letter from Asa Gray, 7 August 1866). No correspondence between CD and Rowley has been found.
2
The article has not been identified; it has not been found in the Darwin Archive–CUL. However, for Brace’s views on Darwinism and religion, see a later article of his, ‘Darwinism in Germany’, in the North American Review 90 (1870): 284–99.
3
Since his return from his expedition to South America in 1866, Louis Agassiz had been propagating what he took to be the anti-Darwinian findings of the expedition, in a series of six lectures given at the Cooper Institute in New York City in February 1867 (J. L. R. Agassiz 1867). His lectures and publications on the subject, including also his and Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz’s A journey in Brazil (J. L. R. Agassiz and Agassiz 1868), were aimed at a popular audience (see Lurie 1960, pp. 351–7). Ad captandum vulgus: ‘to catch the rabble; to tickle the ears of the mob’ (H. P. Jones ed. 1900).

Bibliography

Agassiz, Louis. 1867. The geological formation of the valley of the Amazon. The river, its basin and tributories. The ancient glaciers in the tropics. The aquatic animals of the Amazon. The land animals of South America. The monkeys and native inhabitants. [Six lectures read at the Cooper Institute, New York, 5, 11, 12, 18, 20, and 26 February 1867.] New York Herald Tribune, 6 February 1867, p. 8, 12 February 1867, p. 5, 13 February 1867, p. 5, 19 February 1867, p. 8, 21 February 1867, p. 5, 27 February 1867, p. 8.

Lurie, Edward. 1960. Louis Agassiz: a life in science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Origin 4th ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 4th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1866.

Origin 5th ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 5th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1869.

Wells, William Charles. 1818. Two essays: one upon single vision with two eyes; the other on dew. A letter to the Right Hon. Lloyd, Lord Kenyon and an account of a female of the white race of mankind, part of whose skin resembles that of a negro; with some observations on the causes of the differences in colour and form between the white and negro races of men. London: Archibald Constable and Co. [and others].

Summary

Letter of introduction to CD for CLB’s friend Robert S. Rowley.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-5518
From
Charles Loring Brace
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.
Source of text
DAR 160: 272
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5518,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5518.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15

letter

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