The Quotable Darwin
Page 5
I have been attending a very little to species of birds, & the passages of forms do appear frightful—every thing is arbitrary; no two naturalists agree on any fundamental idea that I can see.
Darwin to Charles Lyell,
30 July 1837, DCP 367
I have lately been sadly tempted to be idle, that is as far as pure geology is concerned, by the delightful number of new views, which have been coming in, thickly & steadily, on the classification & affinities & instincts of animals—bearing on the question of species—note book after note book has been filled with facts which begin to group themselves clearly under sub-laws.
Darwin to Charles Lyell,
[14] September [1838], DCP 428
In July [1837] opened first note-Book on “Transmutation of Species”.—Had been greatly struck from about month of previous March on character of S. American fossils—& species on Galapagos Archipelago.—These facts origin (especially latter) of all my views.
Darwin’s Journal, 7
It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another.
Notebook B, 74
As [John] Gould remarked to me, the “beauty of species is their exactness,” but do not known varieties do the same, May you not breed ten thousand greyhounds & will they not be greyhounds?
Notebook B, 171
People often talk of the wonderful event of intellectual Man appearing—the appearance of insects with other senses is more wonderful.
Notebook B, 206
Why is thought, being a secretion of brain, more wonderful than gravity a property of matter? It is our arrogance, it our admiration of ourselves.
Notebook C, 166
Love of the deity effect of organization. Oh you Materialist!
Notebook C, 166
Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a deity, more humble & I believe true to consider him created from animals.
Notebook C, 196–97
One may say there is a force like a hundred thousand wedges trying [to] force every kind of adapted structure into the gaps in the oeconomy of nature, or rather forming gaps by thrusting out weaker ones. The final cause of all this wedgings, must be to sort out proper structure & adapt it to change.
Notebook D, 135
He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.
Notebook M, 84e
Our descent, then, is the origin of our evil passions!!—The Devil under form of Baboon is our grandfather!
Notebook M, 123
Erasmus [Darwin’s brother] says in [Plato’s] Phaedo that our “necessary ideas” arise from the preexistence of the soul, are not derivable from experience.—read monkeys for preexistence.
Notebook M, 128
October 8th. Jenny [the orang-utan at London zoo] was amusing herself by getting out ears of corn with her teeth from the straw, & just like child not knowing what to do with them, came several times & opened my hand, & put them in—like child.
Notebook N, 13
During the summer of 1839, and, I believe, during the previous summer, I was led to attend to the cross-fertilisation of flowers by the aid of insects, from having come to the conclusion in my speculations on the origin of species, that crossing played an important part in keeping specific forms constant. I attended to the subject more or less during every subsequent summer; and my interest in it was greatly enhanced by having procured and read in November 1841, through the advice of Robert Brown, a copy of C. K. Sprengel’s wonderful book, Das entdeckte Geheimnis der Natur.
Autobiography, 127
28th [September 1838] Even the energetic language of [Augustin] Decandolle does not convey the warring of the species as inference from Malthus.—increase of brutes must be prevented solely by positive checks, excepting that famine may stop desire.—in nature production does not increase, whilst no check prevail, but the positive check of famine & consequently death. I do not doubt every one till he thinks deeply has assumed that increase of animals exactly proportionate to the number that can live.
Notebook D, 134e
In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement [Thomas Robert] Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work.
Autobiography, 120
Marriage
As for a wife, that most interesting specimen in the whole series of vertebrate animals Providence only knows whether I shall ever capture one or be able to feed her if caught. All such considerations are hidden far in futurity, but at the end of a distant view, I sometimes see a cottage & some white object like a petticoat, which always drives granite & trap out of my head in the most unphilosophical manner.
Darwin to C. T. Whitley,
[8 May 1838], DCP 411A
This is the question.
Marry
Children—(if it Please God)—Constant companion, (& friend in old age) who will feel interested in one,—object to be beloved & played with,—better than a dog anyhow…. My God, it is intolerable to think of spending ones whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, & nothing after all.—No, no won’t do.—Imagine living all one’s day solitarily in smoky dirty London House.—Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music perhaps—Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Grt. Marlbro’ St. [the London house where he was living] Marry—Marry—Marry Q.E.D.
Not Marry
Freedom to go where one liked—choice of Society & little of it—Conversation of clever men at clubs. Not forced to visit relatives & to bend in every trifle—to have the expense & anxiety of children—perhaps quarelling—Loss of time.—cannot read in the Evenings—fatness & idleness—Anxiety & responsibility—less money for books &c—if many children forced to gain one’s bread…. Eheu!! I never should know French,—or see the Continent—or go to America, or go up in a Balloon, or take solitary trip in Wales—poor slave.—you will be worse than a negro—And then horrid poverty (without one’s wife was better than an angel & had money)—Never mind my boy—Cheer up—One cannot live this solitary life, with groggy old age, friendless & cold, & childless staring one in ones face, already beginning to wrinkle.—Never mind, trust to chance—keep a sharp look out—There is many a happy slave—
[July 1838], Correspondence,
vol. 2, 444–45
November 11th. [1838] Sunday. The day of days!
Darwin’s Journal, 8
My own dear Emma [his cousin Emma Wedgwood], I kiss the hands with all humbleness and gratitude, which have so filled up for me the cup of happiness—It is my most earnest wish I may make myself worthy of you.
Emma Darwin 1904, vol. 1, 417
My reason tells me that honest & conscientious [religious] doubts cannot be a sin, but I feel it would be a painful void between us. I thank you from my heart for your openness with me & I should dread the feeling that you were concealing your opinions from the fear of giving me pain.
Emma Wedgwood to Darwin,
[21–22 November 1838], DCP 441
I believe from your account of your own mind that you will only consider me as a specimen of the genus (I don’t know what simia I believe). You will be forming theories about me & if I am cross or out of temper you will only consider “What does that prove”. Which will be a very grand & philosophical way of considering it.
Emma Wedgwood to Darwin,
[23 January 1839], DCP 492
The state of mind that I wish to preserve with respect to you, is to feel that while you are acting conscientiously & sincerely wishing & trying to learn the truth, you cannot be wrong…. It seems to me also that the line of your pursuits m
ay have led you to view chiefly the difficulties on one side, & that you have not had time to consider & study the chain of difficulties on the other, but I believe you do not consider your opinions as formed. May not the habit in scientific pursuits of believing nothing till it is proved, influence your mind too much in other things which cannot be proved in the same way, & which if true are likely to be above our comprehension.
Emma Darwin to Darwin,
[c. February 1839]
When I am dead know that many times, I have kissed & cryed over this. C.D.
Note by Darwin, quoted in
Barlow 1958, 236–37
Mem: her beautiful letter to me, safely preserved, shortly after our marriage.
Autobiography, 97
I daresay not a word of this note is really mine; it is all hereditary, except my love for you, which I shd think could not be so, but who knows?
Darwin to Emma Darwin,
[20–21 May 1848], DCP 1176
Our dear old mother [Emma Darwin], who, as you know well, is as good as twice refined gold. Keep her as an example before your eyes, & then [Richard] Litchfield will in future years worship & not only love you, as I worship our dear old mother.
Darwin to his daughter Henrietta on
her marriage to Richard Litchfield,
4 September [1871], DCP 7922
She has been my greatest blessing, and I can declare that in my whole life I have never heard her utter one word which I had rather have been unsaid. She has never failed in the kindest sympathy towards me, and has borne with the utmost patience my frequent complaints from ill-health and discomfort. I do not believe she has ever missed an opportunity of doing a kind action to anyone near her. I marvel at my good fortune that she, so infinitely my superior in every single moral quality, consented to be my wife. She has been my wise adviser and cheerful comforter throughout life, which without her would have been during a very long period a miserable one from ill-health. She has earned the love and admiration of every soul near her.
Autobiography, 96–97
A Theory by Which to Work
At last gleams of light have come, & I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable…. I think I have found out (here’s presumption) the simple way by which species become exquisitely adapted to various ends.
Darwin to J. D. Hooker,
[11 January 1844], DCP 729
In many genera of insects, and shells, and plants, it seems almost hopeless to establish which are which. In the higher classes there are less doubts; though we find considerable difficulty in ascertaining what deserve to be called species amongst foxes and wolves, and in some birds, for instance in the case of the white barn-owl. When specimens are brought from different parts of the world, how often do naturalists dispute this same question, as I found with respect to the birds brought from the Galapagos islands.
Essay 1844, 82
Let us now suppose a Being with penetration sufficient to perceive differences in the outer and innermost organization quite imperceptible to man, and with forethought extending over future centuries to watch with unerring care and select for any object the offspring of an organism produced under the foregoing circumstances; I can see no conceivable reason why he could not form a new race (or several were he to separate the stock of the original organism and work on several islands) adapted to new ends.
Essay 1844, 85
De Candolle, in an eloquent passage, has declared that all nature is at war, one organism with another, or with external nature. Seeing the contented face of nature, this may at first be well doubted; but reflection will inevitably prove it is too true. The war, however, is not constant, but only recurrent in a slight degree at short periods and more severely at occasional more distant periods; and hence its effects are easily overlooked. It is the doctrine of Malthus applied in most cases with ten-fold force…. Lighten any check in the smallest degree, and the geometrical power of increase in every organism will instantly increase the average numbers of the favoured species. Nature may be compared to a surface, on which rest ten thousand sharp wedges touching each other and driven inwards by incessant blows.
Essay 87–88, 89–90
Now can it be doubted from the struggle each individual (or its parents) has to obtain subsistence that any minute variation in structure, habits, or instincts, adapting that individual better to the new conditions, would tell upon its vigour and health? In the struggle it would have a better chance of surviving, and those of its offspring which inherited the variation, let it be ever so slight, would have a better chance to survive.
Essay 1844, 91
As long as species were thought to be divided and defined by an impassable barrier of sterility, whilst we were ignorant of geology, and imagined that the world was of short duration, and the number of its past inhabitants few, we were justified in assuming individual creations, or in saying with [William] Whewell that the beginnings of all things are hidden from man.
Essay 1844, 248
My dear Emma,
I have just finished my sketch of my species theory. If, as I believe that my theory is true & if it be accepted even by one competent judge, it will be a considerable step in science. I therefore write this, in case of my sudden death, as my most solemn & last request, which I am sure you will consider the same as if legally entered in my will, that you will devote £400 to its publication.
Darwin to Emma Darwin,
5 July 1844, DCP 761
I hate arguments from results, but on my views of descent, really Nat. Hist. becomes a sublimely grand result-giving subject (now you may quiz me for so foolish an escape of mouth).
Darwin to J. D. Hooker,
[11–12 July 1845], DCP 889
How painfully (to me) true is your remark that no one has hardly a right to examine the question of species who has not minutely examined many…. My only comfort is, (as I mean to attempt the subject) that I have dabbled in several branches of Nat. Hist. & seen good specific men work out my species & know something of geology; (an indispensible union) & though I shall get more kicks than half-pennies, I will, life serving, attempt my work.
Darwin to J. D. Hooker,
[10 September 1845], DCP 915
From September 1854 onwards I devoted all my time to arranging my huge pile of notes, to observing, and experimenting, in relation to the transmutation of species. During the voyage of the Beagle I had been deeply impressed by discovering in the Pampean formation great fossil animals covered with armour like that on the existing armadillos; secondly, by the manner in which closely allied animals replace one another in proceeding southwards over the Continent; and thirdly, by the South American character of most of the productions of the Galapagos archipelago, and more especially by the manner in which they differ slightly on each island of the group; none of these islands appearing to be very ancient in a geological sense. It was evident that such facts as these, as well as many others, could be explained on the supposition that species gradually become modified; and the subject haunted me.
Autobiography, 118–19
May 14th [1856] Began by Lyell’s advice writing species sketch.
Darwin’s Journal, 14
But at that time I overlooked one problem of great importance…. This problem is the tendency in organic beings descended from the same stock to diverge in character as they become modified. That they have diverged greatly is obvious from the manner in which species of all kinds can be classed under genera, genera under families, families under sub-orders, and so forth; and I can remember the very spot in the road, whilst in my carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me; and this was long after I had come to Down. The solution, as I believe, is that the modified offspring of all dominant and increasing forms tend to become adapted to many and highly diversified places in the economy of nature.
Autobiography, 120–21
What a book a Devil’s chaplain might write o
n the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low & horridly cruel works of nature!
Darwin to J. D. Hooker,
13 July [1856], DCP 1924
The time will come I believe, though I shall not live to see it, when we shall have very fairly true genealogical trees of each great kingdom of nature.
Darwin to T. H. Huxley,
26 September [1857], DCP 2143
I am like Crœsus overwhelmed with my riches in facts. & I mean to make my Book as perfect as ever I can. I shall not go to press at soonest for a couple of years.
Darwin to W. D. Fox,
8 February [1857], DCP 2049
To my mind to say that species were created so & so is no scientific explanation only a reverent way of saying it is so & so.
Darwin to Asa Gray,
20 July [1857], DCP 2125
We have set up a Billiard Table, & I find it does me a deal of good, & drives the horrid species out of my head.
Darwin to W. D. Fox,
24 [March 1859], DCP 2436
It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaws & holes as sound parts.—My question is whether the rag is worth anything? I think by careful treatment I can carry in it my fruit to market for a short distance over a gentle road; but I fear that you will give the poor rag such a devil of a shake that it will fall all to atoms; & a poor rag is better than nothing to carry one’s fruit to market in—So do not be too ferocious.
Darwin to T. H. Huxley,
2 June [1859], DCP 2466
I cannot too strongly express my conviction of the general truth of my doctrines, & God knows I have never shirked a difficulty.
Darwin to Charles Lyell,
20 September [1859], DCP 2492
I fully admit that there are very many difficulties not satisfactorily explained by my theory of descent with modification, but I cannot possibly believe that a false theory would explain so many classes of facts, as I think it certainly does explain.—On these grounds I drop my anchor & believe that the difficulties will slowly disappear.
Darwin to Asa Gray,
11 November [1859], DCP 2520
Children