To Charles Lyell 1 October [1862]
Down Bromley Kent
Oct 1.
My dear Lyell
You will find the long discussion on the “Règne Humain” in Ch. VII. of Tom. 2 p. 167 of Isid. G. Hist. Nat. Générale.1 I quite forgot to ask whether you have done with Rolle, as I could have taken it away with me.—2
I found here a short & very kind note from Falconer with some pages of his Elephant memoir, which will be published, in which he treats admirably on long persistence of type.3 I thought he was going to make a good & crushing attack on me; but to my great satisfaction he ends by pointing out a loophole & adds “with him I have no faith that the mammoth & other extinct elephants made their appearance suddenly .... .... . the most rational view seems to be that they are the modified descendants of earlier progenitors &c”4
This is capital. There will not be soon one good paleontologist who believes in immutability. Falconer does not allow for the Proboscidean Group being a failing one & therefore not likely to be giving off new races.—
He adds that he does not think natural selection suffices; I do not quite see the form of his argument, & he apparently overlooks that I say over & over again that N. Selection can do nothing without variability, & that variability is subject to the most complex fixed laws.
I much enjoyed my little chat with you.—5
Very sincerely yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Isidore. 1854–62. Histoire naturelle générale des règnes organiques, principalement étudiée chez l’homme et les animaux. 3 vols. Paris: Victor Masson.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Rolle, Friedrich. 1863. Chs. Darwin’s Lehre von der Entstehung der Arten im Pflanzen- und Thierreich in ihrer Anwendung auf die Schöpfungsgeschichte. Frankfurt: J. C. Hermann.
Summary
Mentions a discussion of man by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in his Histoire naturelle générale [1854–62].
Mentions a book by Friedrich Rolle [Ch. Darwin’s Lehre von der Entstehung der Arten (1863)].
Cites evolutionary statements on elephants by Hugh Falconer and notes Falconer’s objection to natural selection.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3747
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.282)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3747,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3747.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10