To Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny 16 July [1860]1
Hartfield | Tonbridge Wells2
16 July
My dear Dr. Daubeny
Henslow has sent me part of a note of yours & his answer.—3 You are quite right that there is nothing direct in my Book on the final cause or manner of origination of the sexes.4 It seems to me one of the profoundest mysteries in nature. Especially since the facts of parthenogenesis have been clearly made out.5 I have heard Huxley remark that the old saying was “it was a wise child who knew who his Father was”, but now the saying might be, “it was a wise child who knew whether he had a Father.”—6
I have often speculated on your view,7 & I have somewhere got a case of a trifling variation being propagated by gemmation with anim⟨als⟩ (in a coral) just as we see almost every shade of difference propagated by grafts & buds with plants.8
I daresay that you are quite right that one of the final causes of sexuality is the origination of varieties;9 but the number of cases which can be collected of “sporting” plants ie plants which have varied by gemmation has made me rather doubtful on this head.—10 I am inclined to lay more stress on sexuality (p. 103 Origin of Species 1st edit) being the means of keeping forms constant ie of checking variation. This is a subject on which I have worked much; but have said hardly anything in the Origin.—11 The whole subject of sexuality seems to me profoundly interesting & mysterious; & the more it is stirred up the better.
Pray believe me | My dear Dr. Daubeny | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
England, Richard. 2001. Natural selection, teleology, and the logos: from Darwin to the Oxford neo-Darwinists, 1859–1909. Osiris 2d ser. 16: 270–87.
Siebold, Karl Theodor Ernst von. 1857. On a true parthenogenesis in moths and bees; a contribution to the history of reproduction in animals. Translated by William S. Dallas. London: John van Voorst.
Sloan, Phillip R. 2001. ‘The sense of sublimity’: Darwin on nature and divinity. Osiris 2d ser. 16: 251–69.
Summary
Confirms CGBD’s impression given in a letter to J. S. Henslow that CD in the Origin did not touch directly upon the final causes of sexuality, which CD considers one of the "profoundest mysteries in nature". CD is inclined to stress sexuality as the means of keeping forms constant and checking variation although he grants its role in the origination of varieties. [See 2869.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2869A
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny
- Sent from
- Hartfield
- Source of text
- Magdalen College, Oxford (MC:F26/C1/118)
- Physical description
- ALS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2869A,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2869A.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13 (Supplement)