To Ernst Haeckel 26 December 1874
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Dec 26 1874
My dear Haeckel
According to our English fashion, I wish you “a merry Christmas & many of them”. As you are so young & have such wonderful energy, I am sure you will do more than any man in Europe in inculcating our great principle of evolution. I thank you very sincerely for your most kind letter of the 20th.1
I was very much disappointed with the review of your book in Nature, & grieved at its spirit.2 The reason that so few copies have been sold in England is, I believe, that very few Englishmen read German with ease; & this I attribute to our wretched early education.
In my own case, I find I never improve in German, & have consequently read only a few chapters of you Anthropogenie; but these I read with much interest, & as usual, found many new ideas.3 I am glad to hear that you are going to the Mediterranean to continue your Gastræa theory, which has excited so wide-spread an interest.4 I have not heard of Hellwald’s book, & I should be glad to see it, although I shall not be able to read the whole.5 Dr Dodel of Zurich tells me that he has just published a work on evolution, from a botanical point of view, but I have not yet received it.6 Huxley tells me that he has been working on the structure of the head of the embryo Amphioxus, & it seems that he has made wonderful progress in understanding the morphology of the vertebrate skull.7 He has also been writing against genealogical classification, & seems to think all present attempts are premature.8
With all good wishes believe me | my dear Haeckel | yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Zoology: The zoology of the voyage of HMS Beagle, under the command of Captain FitzRoy RN, during the years 1832 to 1836. Edited and superintended by Charles Darwin. 5 pts. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1838–43.
Summary
Comments on review of EH’s Anthropogenie [1874].
Mentions recent work of Huxley and other scientists.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9781
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Ernst-Haeckel-Haus (Bestand A–Abt. 1: 1–52/32)
- Physical description
- LS(A) 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9781,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9781.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22