To Charles Lyell [19 March 1868]1
4 Chester Place | N.W
Thursday
My dear Lyell
Many thanks for the grand Book.—2 I have literally not read a word, except the newspaper, since I have been in London, & I vowed I wd not look at your book; but I became so curious that I broke my vow & began last night the organic part & read some & skimmed provisionally several pages.— I can see that you have given a perfectly fair history of the progress of opinion on Species; but you will perhaps think it would be strange if I did not say so, seeing what high credit you give to me.—3 I see in Table of Contents you allude to Pangenesis,4 which is heroic on your part, as an untried hypothesis is always dangerous ground, & quite delights me. My fear has always been that Pangenesis would be a still-born infant, over whom no one would rejoice or cry.5
I shall be intensely curious to read your Chaptr. on Domestication & even more so on man.—6
With most hearty thanks | Ever yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Lyell, Charles. 1867–8. Principles of geology or the modern changes of the earth and its inhabitants considered as illustrative of geology. 10th edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
The second volume of Lyell’s [Principles, 10th ed.] gives a "fair history of the progress of opinion on Species".
Pleased by allusion to Pangenesis: "an untried hypothesis is always dangerous ground".
Looks forward to chapter on domestication and on man.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6023
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- London, Chester Place, 4
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.349)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6023,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6023.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16