RECORD: Darwin, C. R. 10.1865. Signed autograph paragraph from Origin of species 3d ed. for Hermann Kindt. Sothebys-N11124. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed and edited by John van Wyhe 3-11.2022. RN2

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with the permission of William Huxley Darwin.

Introduction by John van Wyhe

Hermann Kindt (1835-1889) was a German journalist and French teacher living in England who edited the bilingual journal The Autographic Mirror (L'Autographe Cosmopolite) which published facsimiles of the handwriting of famous people and biographical entries. This was part of the growing popularity of collecting autographs. Kindt began writing to Darwin in 1864 requesting autographs and a photograph. (Photographs of Darwin are fully detailed only in the iconography by John van Wyhe in Darwin: A Companion, 2021.)

On 17 October 1865 Kindt wrote to Darwin with a further request:

"I have forwarded to you a journal, which I beg you will not take the trouble of returning, for which I should be happy to have a page in your handwriting for a facsimile reproduction. In case you will kindly comply with my wish, will you please to extract a longer passage from your 'Origin of Species', written on a piece of paper in the size of a page of our publication and signed with your esteemed name. As the journal also appears on the Continent, your numerous friends there would be much pleased to see your handwriting thus reproduced. You will also oblige me by looking over the enclosed biographical notice intended for a similar purpose and by altering dates and such passages as you cannot approve of." (Correspondence vol. 13, p. 271.)

Two folio volumes of The Autographic Mirror were published from 20 February 1864 when the format was enlarged to quarto in July 1865.

Darwin chose a powerful passage from the conclusion of Origin, but one that was not in the first edition. Instead he copied from the third and most recent edition of 1861, p. 514:

"It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain what is the essence of the attraction of gravity? No one now objects to following out the results consequent on this unknown element of attraction; notwithstanding that Leibnitz formerly accused Newton of introducing 'occult qualities and miracles into philosophy.'"

The introduction of these lines to Origin can be traced back to a sentence in David Brewster's Memoirs of the life, writings, and discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855), vol. 2, p. 282: "Leibnitz...accuses Newton of introducing occult qualities and miracles into philosophy [i.e. gravity]". Darwin recorded reading this on 23 February 1860 in his 'Books Read / Books to be Read' notebook. CUL-DAR128.-. On the same day, Darwin wrote to Charles Lyell:

"With respect to Bronn's objection that it cannot be shown how life arises, & likewise to certain extent Asa Gray's remark that natural selection is not a vera causa,—I was much interested by finding accidentally in Brewster's life of Newton, that Leibnitz objected to the law of gravity, because Newton could not show what gravity itself is. As it has chanced I have used in letters this very same argument, little knowing that anyone had really thus objected to Law of Gravity.— Newton answers by saying that it is philosophy to make out the movements of a clock, though you do not know why the weight descends to ground.— Leibnitz further objected that the Law of Gravity was opposed to natural Religion!— Is this not curious? I really think I shall use these facts for some introductory remarks for my bigger book." (Correspondence vol. 8, p. 102. First published in Life and letters vol. 2, p. 289.)

The "bigger book" (usually called the 'big book' today) was never published. Instead, Darwin inserted the lines in the "Supplement" to the 4th American printing of Origin, p. 431 in 1860. It also appeared the same year in the first German translation (by Bronn), p. 484. From the 3d English edition (1861) onwards, the new passage formed part of the conclusion of Origin. Thus we can understand why Darwin chose this particular passage to copy out for Hermann Kindt in 1865.

Kindt replied to Darwin on 23 October: "Many warm thanks for your so kindly complying with my request as well as for the corrections of, and additions to, my biographical sketch, which latter I will correct accordingly." (Correspondence vol. 13, p. 282.) This enclosure was published as Darwin to Kindt [18-22 Oct. 1865] in the Correspondence as letter 4918F. The original 320 x 245 mm manuscript written in black ink is reproduced here with a transcription. For a brief video interview about this manuscript, see Sotheby's Age of Wonder.

The number "245." in the upper right corner of the manuscript is not in Darwin's hand and is not present in the 1865 facsimile. Similarly, the "p 514 3d Edit of 'Origin'" at the bottom left is in another hand, that of Darwin's daughter Henrietta Emma Litchfield. It is present in the 1865 facsimile.

Kindt's biographical entry edited by Darwin is also in Darwin Online: The Autographic Mirror (11 Nov. 1865). Text PDF F3448. In the entry, as usual, Darwin chose to indicate that he was a county magistrate. See the only book dedicated to this almost totally unknown chapter in Darwin's life: John van Wyhe & Christine Chua, Charles Darwin: Justice of the peace. The complete records (1857-1882), 2021 PDF.

Curiously, a copy of the manuscript was published in John Chancellor, Charles Darwin (1973), p. [165] with, however, the annotations on the top margin: "Page 2 / - Autograph of / Charles Darwin". The author must have reproduced a copy that had been thus annotated. The source for the image is given as Radio Times Hulton Picture Library. The manuscript is also incorrectly labelled as "Part of the manuscript of the Origin of Species." The manuscript from the second line onwards was also reproduced in F. D. Fletcher, Darwin, 1975, p. 36 and is likewise described as "Darwin's Manuscript of 'The Origin of Species'."

It was sold at Sotheby's New York in 1979 for £1,300 to John Taylor, again described as 'ONE PAGE OF THE AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES'"

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Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

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