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Darwin Correspondence Project

To S. T. Preston   22 May 1880

Down,

May 22nd, 1880.

Dear Sir

Your letter appears to me an interesting and valuable one;1 but I have now been working for some years exclusively on the physiology of plants and all other subjects have gone out of my head, and it fatigues me much to try and bring them back again into my head. I am, moreover, at present very busy as I leave home for a fortnight’s rest at the beginning of next week.2 My conviction as yet remains unchanged, that a man who (for instance) jumps into a river to save a life without a second’s reflexion (either from an innate tendency or from one gained by habit) is deservedly more honoured than a man who acts deliberately and is conscious for however short a time that the risk and sacrifice give him some inward satisfaction.3

Wishing you success in your studies, I remain, Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

You are of course familiar with Herbert Spencer’s writings on Ethics.4

Footnotes

CD was in Southampton from 25 May to 8 June (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
Preston had argued that morality originated in self-interest; CD believed that morality had originated in the social instincts (see letter from S. T. Preston, 20 May 1880 and n. 3). CD had given the drowning man example in Descent 2d ed., p. 110.
CD probably referred to Herbert Spencer’s The data of ethics (Spencer 1879). His copy is in the Darwin Library–Down.

Bibliography

Spencer, Herbert. 1879. The data of ethics. London: Williams and Norgate.

Summary

Discusses ethics of risking one’s life to save another.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12615
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Samuel Tolver Preston
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 147: 250
Physical description
C 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12615,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12615.xml

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