RECORD: Darwin, C. R. [1858.11.13-30]. Draft of Origin of species, Sect. 7, folio 233. FMB-Aut.D-4.2. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and John van Wyhe, edited by John van Wyhe 2.2023. RN2
NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of Fondation Martin Bodmer and William Huxley Darwin. The location of this manuscript was not previously known to Darwin scholars. It was purchased at Sotheby's in London on 6 November 1951, no. 336 for £38. From the 1951 auction description: "One folio page of the Holograph MS. of The Origin of Species, numbered 233, signed and headed Sect. 7, Instinct. With numerous corrections and alterations." In one cancelled passage Darwin had written that "An instinct may almost be called a complex trick." Buyer: Maggs. The manuscript was published in: Fritz Ernst, Grösse des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts: ein komparatistischer Versuch. Cologny-Geneva: Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, 1962, p. [102] [illustration] 16. Text F3530 which led to its current location being identified.
See the introduction to the Origin of species drafts by John van Wyhe
The text of the draft corresponds to Origin, Chapter VII, Instinct, pp. 207-8. [word at page break in green]
[233]
[top left corner damaged]
[later insertion in Darwin's hand:] Ch Darwin
(233
(Sect 7. Instinct)
why or for what good end has it is performed it, in no way said to be intuition. But it could be shown that more of these qualifications are as in all cases strictly accurate.invariable. A little dose, as Huber expresses it, of judgment or reason often comes into play, even in animals very low in the scale of nature.
(Fred. Cuvier & several of the older metaphysicians have compared instinct to habit. This comparison gives, I think, a remarkably accurate notion of the frame of mind under which an instinctive action is performed, but not of necessity of its origin. How unconsciously many an habitual action is performed, indeed not rarely in direct opposition to our conscious will; ; yet they may be modified by the reason. Habits easily become associated with other actions, with a certain time of day or states of the body. When once acquired, they often remain constant throughout life. An action may almost be called a [illeg] complex trick Several other points of resemblance between instincts & habits might be pointed out: thus, it has been noticed that in instincts, one action follows another by a sort of rhythm, as in singing a song: if a person be interrupted in singing a song or in repeating anything by rote, he generally has to go back to recover the habitual train of thought; so P. Huber
[233v]
[annotation in pencil in another hand:]
Origin of Species. P. 206. sixth Edition 1872.
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 24 November, 2023