To F. E. Abbot 30 March 1874
Summary
FEA has expressed CD’s views on the moral sense with remarkable clearness and correctness; his eulogy is magnificent ["Darwin’s theory of conscience and its relation to scientific ethics", Index 12 Mar 1874]. Cannot give a judgment on the essay because he has had "no practice in following abstract and abstruse reasoning".
CD does not see how morality can be "objective and universal". No one would call the maternal bond in lower animals a "moral obligation". When a social animal "becomes in some slight incipient degree" a moral creature "capable of approving or disapproving of its own conduct" do not such obligations remain of a so-called instinctive nature rather than becoming at once moral obligations?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Ellingwood Abbot |
| Date: | 30 Mar 1874 |
| Classmark: | Harvard University Archives (Papers of F. E. Abbot, 1841–1904. Named Correspondence, 1857–1903. Folder: Darwin, Charles and W. E. Darwin (son), 1871–1883, box 44. HUG 1101) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9377 |
From J. S. Burdon Sanderson 30 March [1874]
Summary
Sends results of experiments on digestion. Encloses two sets of notes: "Experiments on the digestibility of certain preparations sent by Mr Darwin" and "Note for Mr Darwin" [marked by CD for insertion in ch. 6 of Insectivorous plants].
| Author: | John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 30 Mar [1874] |
| Classmark: | University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections (Darwin - Burdon Sanderson letters RBSC-ARC-1731-1-28); DAR 58.2: 59–64 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9378A |
| letter | (2) |
| Burdon Sanderson, J. S. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
| Abbot, F. E. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (2) |
| Abbot, F. E. | (1) |
| Burdon Sanderson, J. S. | (1) |
Visiting the Darwins
Summary
'As for Mr Darwin, he is entirely fascinating…' In October 1868 Jane Gray and her husband spent several days as guests of the Darwins, and Jane wrote a charming account of the visit in a sixteen-page letter to her sister. She described Charles…
