Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF CHARLES DARWIN

INCLUDING AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL CHAPTER

EDITED BY HIS SON

FRANCIS DARWIN

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOLUME II




TABLE OF CONTENTS.


VOLUME II.


CHAPTER 2.I.--The Publication of the 'Origin of Species'--October 3,
1859, to December 31, 1859.

CHAPTER 2.II.--The 'Origin of Species' (continued)--1860.

CHAPTER 2.III.--The Spread of Evolution--1861-1862.

CHAPTER 2.IV.--The Spread of Evolution. 'Variation of Animals and
Plants' --1863-1866.

CHAPTER 2.V.--The Publication of the 'Variation of Animals and Plants
under Domestication'--January 1867-June 1868.

CHAPTER 2.VI.--Work on 'Man'--1864-1870.

CHAPTER 2.VII.--The Publication of the 'Descent of Man.' Work on
'Expression'--1871-1873.

CHAPTER 2.VIII.--Miscellanea, including Second Editions of 'Coral
Reefs,' the 'Descent of Man,' and the 'Variation of Animals and
Plants'--1874 and 1875.

CHAPTER 2.IX.--Miscellanea (continued). A Revival of Geological
Work--The Book on Earthworms--Life of Erasmus Darwin--Miscellaneous
Letters--1876-1882.

BOTANICAL LETTERS.

CHAPTER 2.X.--Fertilisation of Flowers--1839-1880.

CHAPTER 2.XI.--The 'Effects of Cross- and Self-Fertilisation in the
Vegetable Kingdom'--1866-1877.

CHAPTER 2.XII.--'Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the same
Species' --1860-1878.

CHAPTER 2.XIII.--Climbing and Insectivorous Plants--1863-1875.

CHAPTER 2.XIV.--The 'Power of Movement in Plants'--1878-1881.

CHAPTER 2.XV.--Miscellaneous Botanical Letters--1873-1882....

CHAPTER 2.XVI.--Conclusion.


APPENDICES.

I.--The Funeral in Westminster Abbey.

II.--List of Works by C. Darwin.

III.--Portraits.

IV.--Honours, Degrees, Societies, etc.




TRANSCRIPT OF A FACSIMILE OF A PAGE FROM A NOTE-BOOK OF 1837.

--led to comprehend true affinities. My theory would give zest to recent
& Fossil Comparative Anatomy: it would lead to study of instincts,
heredity, & mind heredity, whole metaphysics, it would lead to closest
examination of hybridity & generation, causes of change in order to know
what we have come from & to what we tend, to what circumstances favour
crossing & what prevents it, this & direct examination of direct
passages of structure in species, might lead to laws of change, which
would then be main object of study, to guide our speculations.




LIFE AND LETTERS OF CHARLES DARWIN.




VOLUME II.




CHAPTER 2.I. -- THE PUBLICATION OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.'

OCTOBER 3, 1859, TO DECEMBER 31, 1859.


1859.

[Under the date of October 1st, 1859, in my father's Diary occurs the
entry: "Finished proofs (thirteen months and ten days) of Abstract
on 'Origin of Species'; 1250 copies printed. The first edition was
published on November 24th, and all copies sold first day."

On October 2d he started for a water-cure establishment at Ilkley, near
Leeds, where he remained with his family until December, and on the 9th
of that month he was again at Down. The only other entry in the Diary
for this year is as follows: "During end of November and beginning of
December, employed in correcting for second edition of 3000 copies;
multitude of letters."

The first and a few of the subsequent letters refer to proof sheets, and
to early copies of the 'Origin' which were sent to friends before the
book was published.]

C. LYELL TO CHARLES DARWIN. (Part of this letter is given in the 'Life
of Sir Charles Lyell,' volume ii. page 325.) October 3d, 1859.

My dear Darwin,

I have just finished your volume and right glad I am that I did my best
with Hooker to persuade you to publish it without waiting for a time
which probably could never have arrived, though you lived till the age
of a hundred, when you had prepared all your facts on which you ground
so many grand generalizations.

It is a splendid case of close reasoning, and long substantial argument
throughout so many pages; the condensation immense, too great perhaps
for the uninitiated, but an effective and important preliminary
statement, which will admit, even before your detailed proofs appear,
of some occasional useful exemplification, such as your pigeons and
cirripedes, of which you make such excellent use.

I mean that, when, as I fully expect, a new edition is soon called for,
you may here and there insert an actual case to relieve the vast
number of abstract propositions. So far as I am concerned, I am so well
prepared to take your statements of facts for granted, that I do
not think the "pieces justificatives" when published will make much
difference, and I have long seen most clearly that if any concession
is made, all that you claim in your concluding pages will follow. It is
this which has made me so long hesitate, always feeling that the case of
Man and his races, and of other animals, and that of plants is one and
the same, and that if a "vera causa" be admitted for one, instead of a
purely unknown and imaginary one, such as the word "Creation," all the
consequences must follow.

I fear I have not time to-day, as I am just leaving this place, to
indulge in a variety of comments, and to say how much I was delighted
with Oceanic Islands--Rudimentary Organs--Embryology--the genealogical
key to the Natural System, Geographical Distribution, and if I went on I
should be copying the heads of all your chapters.