From Julius von Haast 16 December 1876
Canterbury Museum | Christchurch
Decb 16. 1876
My dear Dr Darwin—
In the life, letters & journals of George Ticknor Vol I page 196, there is a passage having reference to Pangenesis, which is so extremely interesting, that I wish to draw your attention to it and as this book, which I found on the table of my wife, is probably not in your possession, I take the liberty to enclose a copy of the passage in question—1
I need scarcely say, that I follow always with great interest the subjects of your studies and that I read your classical works as soon as I can get hold of them with avidity and with the greatest advantage to myself
There is a great contest in Dunedin just now in re. Evolution in which the Gentlemen in black take a most prominent part and talk as usual a great deal of nonsense.— To show you how far this goes, I may only mention that a wesleyan clergyman, who is an honest studious man, Mr Fitchett and who has the misfortune to be a “Darwinian”, in their eyes something very horrible indeed, has been blackballed in a Young Men’s Christian Association.2 However all this tends to advance truth.— Fortunately he has not to say ‘Epur si muove’—3 because this persecution has made him many friends amongst the educated classes & as Hutton4 tells me a great number of educated Church of England people go now regularly to his Chapel.
All this will of course help to open people’s eyes and superstition and its evils will gradually disappear, as education becomes more national and more diffused amongst the working classes—
With my best and most sincere wishes for your health | believe me | ever most faithfully yours | Julius von Haast
Footnotes
Bibliography
Fitchett, Alfred Robertson. 1876. The ethics of evolution, or, The relation of the doctrine of development to theism and Christianity: a lecture delivered on behalf of the Dunedin Athenaeum. Dunedin: Mills, Dick, Steam Printers.
Hawking, Stephen. 2002. On the shoulders of giants: the great works of physics and astronomy. London: Running Press.
Stenhouse, John. 1999. Darwinism in New Zealand, 1859–1900. In Disseminating Darwinism: the role of place, race, religion, and gender, edited by Ronald L. Numbers and John Stenhouse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ticknor, George. 1876. Life, letters, and journals of George Ticknor. Edited by George Stillman Hillard. 2 vols. Boston: Osgood. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.
Summary
Sends a passage relevant to Pangenesis [on regional accents distinguishable in the speech of those born deaf] from Life, letters, and journals of George Ticknor [ed. G. S. Hillard, vol. 1 (1876)], p. 196.
Tells of the controversy about evolution raging in Dunedin, with clergy playing a prominent part.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10722
- From
- John Francis Julius (Julius) von Haast
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Canterbury Museum, Christchurch
- Source of text
- DAR 166: 13
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10722,” accessed on 29 September 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10722.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24