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100 DARWIN, CHARLES English naturalist.

[To Charles Kingsley 10 June [1867]]

L.S. (incomplete), 9 full pages, 8vo. Down, Bromley, To Charles Kingsley, Long, extremely important scientific letter, penned to Kingsley, the English clergyman and novelist.

"... I have looked through my whole large collection of pamphlets on the Origin [of Species] & the only thing which I can find at all answering to yr description is that which I send by this post... I have just finished reading the Duke's book & N. Brit. Rev. [The Duke of Argyll's Reign of Law, published in 1867, was reviewed in North British Review, v. 46, 1867, pp. 277-318] & I shd very much like for my own sake to make some remarks on them ... The Duke's book strikes me as very well written, very interesting, honest & clever & very arrogant. How cooly he says that even J. S. Mill does not know what he means ... some parts are weak, as about rudimentary organs & about the diversified structure of humming birds. How strange it is that he shd freely admit that every detail of structure is of service in the flowers of orchids, & not in the beak of birds. His argument with respect to diversity of structure is much the same as if he were to say that a mechanic wd succeed better ... if he cd do a little work in many trades, than by being a first-rate workman in one trade ... read what I have said upon diversity of structure at 226 in the new Ed. of Origin [published December, 1866] ... also read what I have said (p. 328) on Beauty ... With respect to the Diety having created objects beautiful for his own pleasure ... such a view cd hardly come into a scientific book ... I am glad you are inclined to admit sexual selection. I ... am more than ever convinced of the truth of the view ... Mr. Wallace [A.R. Wallace, author of A Theory of Birds' Nests'] is going to generalize the same view ... for he finds there is almost always a relation between the nature of the nest & the beauty of the female. No doubt sexual selection seems very improbable when one looks at a peacock's tail, but it is an error to suppose that the female selects each detail of colour. She merely selects beauty, & laws of growth determine the varied zones of colour ..."

Darwin continues with a discussion of sexual selection, then returns to a criticism of the Duke of Argyll's theories and his attack on Darwin's "correlation of growth." Darwin comments, "Correlation of variation wd perhaps have been a better term for me. He depreciates the importance of natural selection ..." Darwin then attacks the North British Review which "lays great stress on our domestic races having been rapidly formed, but I can shew that this is a complete error; it is the work of centuries ... With respect to the antiquity of the world & the uniformity of its changes, I cannot implicitly believe the mathematicians, seeing what widely different results Haughton Hopkins & Thompson have arrived at ... Is there not great doubt on the bearing of the attraction of gravity with respect to the conversion of energy? The glacial period may make one doubt whether the temperature of the universe is so simple a question..."

The leaves of Darwin's letter are numbered, and pages 9-12 are missing, but the bulk of the letter—its theories and arguments—remains undisturbed. Although penned by a clerk, there are about 15 words of corrections and additions in Darwin's hand, plus a two-line postscript beneath his full signature on the concluding page. Remarkable and in fine condition. Probably unpublished, as bibliographers note only two other known letters from Darwin to Charles Kingsley.