To H. N. Moseley 22 November [1876]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Nov. 22d
My dear Mr Moseley
It is very kind of you to send me the Japanese books, which are extremely curious & amusing. My son Frank is away, but I am sure he will be much obliged for the two papers which you have sent him.2
Thanks, also, for your interesting note: it is pity that Peripatus is so stupid as to spit out the viscid matter at the wrong end of its body: it would have been beautiful thus to have explained the origin of the spiders web.—3
Yours very sincerely. | Ch. Darwin
P.S | I am not disappointed at what W. Thomson says: as long as a man believes in evolution biology will progress, & it signifies comparatively little whether he admits natural selection & thus gains some light on the method, or remains in utter darkness.4
Footnotes
Summary
Thanks for Japanese books, and papers by HNM.
Comments on Peripatus.
Not disappointed at what William Thomson says about evolution.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10685
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Henry Nottidge Moseley
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Christie’s, London (dealers) (online 31 October – 8 November 2018, lot 8)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10685,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10685.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24