Darwin Correspondence Project

The original letters, previously in private hands, are now available to researchers in the Library’s Manuscripts Department. Research by the Darwin Correspondence Project team has already thrown new light both on the letters themselves and on this fascinating period of Darwin’s life. Details of both letters will be incorporated into the Project’s Online Database. Images of the letter to John Medows Rodwell (DAR 185: 149) and of the letter to David Forbes (DAR 185: 150), complete transcripts of the text, and full details of their content, are available below.

The Darwin Correspondence Project continues to search for ‘missing’ letters written by or to Charles Darwin.

Letter from Charles Darwin toJohn Medows Rodwell, 15 October [1860], calendar number 2950f

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The original letter is in the archive at Cambridge University Library, and its full reference number is DAR 185: 149. It is reproduced here by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

This letter (DAR 185: 149), which was previously unknown and in which Darwin justifies his pivotal work in Origin of Species, was written from Darwin’s holiday home in Eastbourne. Although Darwin did not write the full date on it, just ‘Oct. 15^th’ the content of the letter establishes that it must have been written in 1860, almost exactly a year after the publication of Origin.

It was originally thought to have been addressed to the Reverend William Denton, a prominent liberal clergyman in whose family papers the letter first came to light. Research by Darwin Correspondence Project editors has now established that the correspondent is not Denton, but John Medows Rodwell, a friend and contemporary of Darwin’s at Cambridge University.

This particular letter offers an insight into the humility with which Darwin responded to the widespread attacks on the theory of natural selection that he put forward in Origin. ‘I am very far from being surprised at anyone not accepting my conclusions on the origin of species,’ he tells Rodwell. Nevertheless, he remains quietly persistent about his argument: ‘I have some confidence that I am in the main right’.

The letter shows how, despite his controversial views, Darwin enjoyed a good relationship with many of the clergy of the time. Although they did not necessarily accept his theories, they read his publications with interest and engaged in cordial and intelligent discussion with him.

It is a good example too of Darwin’s method of working — he relied very heavily on information provided for him by a wide range of correspondents, and pursued lines of enquiry with great persistence and attention to detail. In this letter Darwin asks Rodwell to give him more details about his cat: in Origin Darwin had suggested that blue-eyed cats were invariably deaf; Rodwell wrote back on 31 October 1860 and confirmed that his blue-eyed cat was not deaf — when Darwin later published Variation under domestication, he modified his previous statement about blue-eyed cats to make it clear he knew of exceptions.

Rodwell was a clergyman in London and a gifted linguist. He published a highly-regarded English translation of the Koran in 1861. His original letter to Darwin, to which this is a reply, has not been found, but Cambridge University Library does possess several letters that continue their discussion. These are already published in volume eight of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin.

Transcript

15 Marine Parade

Eastbourne

Oct. 15^th.

Dear Sir

I am truly obliged for your interesting letter. I am very far from being surprised at anyone not accepting my conclusions on the origin of species; as the argument rests almost solely on the view explaining & grouping phenomena, otherwise inexplicable. I have some confidence that I
am in the main right; for I find it as yet a universal rule, that those naturalists who go a little way with me, the more they reflect on the subject the further they go.— I am at work on my larger work, but ill-health & other interruptions make my progress very slow.— Your remarks on language seem to me very striking; — the ‘struggle for life’ with words is quite new to me.— I had often thought that a striking resemblance might be traced in the genesis of words & species; but was much too ignorant to attempt it.— It was done to a certain extent some 4 or 6 months ago in the Cornhill Magazine by Lewis in one of his Zoological papers.— Could you not publish an essay on the subject?

I have been particularly interested by your case of the Horses. I have somewhere read a nearly parallel case. I am sorry to give you trouble; but I sh ^d. very much like to know whether the case was published; & if you can give me any further particulars; such as how many Horses were affected; how soon they recovered &c.— Prof. Wyman has sent me an analogous case with respect to pigs in Florida: he was surprised at seeing them all black; & he found that they eat a certain root, which injures & kills the white pigs, but does not hurt the black; & the farmers added, ‘we help it by selection, for we kill the young white pigs’.—

It is not white cats, but white cats with blue eyes, which are deaf,—if one eye is blue the cat is deaf on that one side—if your cat has distinctly blue eyes & is not deaf, I sh^d. be particularly obliged for the fact, as it will be the sole exception which I have heard of.—

Pray accept my best thanks for your interesting letter & with respect, I beg leave to remain

Dear Sir
yours faithfully & obliged
Charles Darwin
of Down, Bromley, Kent

I shall be here for about 10 days

Notes

For related letters exchanged with Rodwell see:

2970: [Rodwell, J. M.] to Darwin, C. R., 31 Oct 1860

2976: Darwin, C. R. to Rodwell, J. M., 5 Nov [1860]

3012: [Rodwell, J. M.] to Darwin, C. R., 6 Dec 1860

Letter from Charles Darwin to David Forbes, 11 December [1860], calendar number 3019f

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The original letter is in the archive at Cambridge University Library, and its full reference number is DAR 185: 150. It is reproduced here by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

This letter (DAR 185: 150) was known to the Correspondence Project for some time, through tantalising glimpses in sales catalogues, but its purchase by Cambridge University Library made the complete letter available for the first time. Written on 11 December 1860, when Darwin was close to completing the third edition of Origin, it is to the geologist, David Forbes, and was sent in response to an as yet undiscovered letter from Forbes commenting on, and in some instances correcting, the earlier editions. ‘I am sorry for my blunder’ Darwin wrote, ‘When I saw how much error you detected in d’Orbigny, I said to myself “good heavens my turn will come next.”’ Darwin included information received from Forbes on glacial action in the third edition of Origin and this letter throws new light on the details of their discussion.

Transcript

Down Bromley Kent.
Dec. 11.

My dear Sir

Your letter has pleased me exceedingly. When I saw how much error you detected in d’Orbigny, I said to myself ‘Good Heavens my turn will come next’.—

I hope that you will be able to send your observations on Chile &c to Geolog. Soc. before your departure (which I am sorry to hear is so very soon); but of course if not written out already that will be quite impossible. On your return if you wish to publish in extenso, your case would be an excellent one for aid from the Government grant to Royal Soc^y.— Pray bear this in mind.— You would get plenty of backers.— Your paper just sent to G. Soc. will at once put you in that position, that you might boldly demand aid.

I am sorry for my blunder about Andesite. Have you ever reflected on the subject of plutonic rocks being same character throughout extensive areas at same epoch. I remember this subject treated of by (I think) Keilhau: it seems to me very mysterious & indicating some great unknown class of facts.—

How curious I shall be at some future time to read about the Uspallata formation. I know how busy you are & must be; but it would be a great favour, if you would write literally one line to me to say whether the great mound of detritus at Val del Yeso has any connection with ice-action; because I am preparing new Edition of my Origin of Species, & if you say ‘no’ I will strike out 3 lines; if you say ‘yes’ I will leave them as they now stand.— I saw in the valley of Cauquenes boulders which I now think must have had some connexion with Glacial action.—

When in S. America, would it trouble you to make a few observations on Mules, as by enclosed paper, & some time write me the results?

With every good wish for your success & prosperity, & with cordial thanks for your letter & kind expressions. Believe me

My dear Sir
Yours very sincerely
C. Darwin