Volume I Part 22 (1/2)

I aet Owen to take it to Newcastle If you have a enerous man you rite to me from Kinnordy (The house of Lyell's father), and tell , and about yourself and Mrs Lyell, and everything else in the world I will send by Hall the 'Entoical Transactions,' which I have borrowed for you; you will be disappointed in --'s papers, that is if you suppose le clear idea upon any one subject He has so involved recent insects and true fossil insects in one table that I fear you will not ht I should think to come into the 'Principles' You will be aes in the papers, and no doubt will feel acutely a sneer there is at yourself I have heard fro is expected at Newcastle (At theof the British association); I a at the Athenaeu to you or some one on the subject; I am however all in the dark I suppose, however, I shall be illu to dine with hi any excuse A friend of mine dined with him the other day, a party of four, and they finished ten bottles of wine--a pleasant prospect for me; but I am deter his infinite disgust and surprise

I pity you the infliction of this most unmerciful letter Pray remember me most kindly to Mrs Lyell when you arrive at Kinnordy I saw her name in the landlord's book of Inverorum Tell Mrs Lyell to read the second series of 'Mr Slick of Slickville's Sayings'He alht,drink to write so much nonsense, but I did not even taste Minerva's small beer to-day

Yours most sincerely, CHAS DARWIN

CHARLES DARWIN TO C LYELL Friday night, September 13th [1838]

My dear Lyell,

I was astonished and delighted at your gloriously long letter, and I a taken the trouble to write so much (Lyell dictated ood hour's enjoyical syotistically I write

I have got so s that I hardly knohat to begin about I need not say how pleased I aist) likes s is a kind of resurrection, for I feel towardssince been dead, buried, and forgotten; but the past is nothing and the future everything to us geologists, as you show in your capital motto to the 'Elements' By the way, have you read the article, in the 'Edinburgh Review,' on M Comte, 'Cours de la Philosophie' (or some such title)? It is capital; there are so prediction, which rein and go through your letter seriati the Elie de Beauood; anyhow, it is showing a bold front in the first edition which is to be translated into French It will be a curious point to geologists hereafter to note how long a man's name will support a theory so completely exposed as that of De Beaureat principles there insisted on will stand the test of time” BEGIN TO HOPE: why, the POSSIBILITY of a doubt has never crossed my mind for ical salvation is staked on it After having just come back from Glen Roy, and found how difficulties snant that you should talk of HOPING With respect to the question, how far my coral theory bears on De Beaureat caution until my whole account is published, and then you (and others) can judge how far there is foundation for such generalisation Mind, I do not doubt its truth; but the extension of any view over such large spaces, from comparatively few facts, must be received with much caution I do not myself the least doubt that within the recent (or as you, much to my annoyment, would call it, ”New Pliocene”) period, tortuous bands--not all the bands parallel to each other--have been elevated and corresponding ones subsided, though within the same period some parts probably remained for a time stationary, or even subsided I do not believe a reat straight lines being suddenly thrown up

When my book on Volcanoes and Coral Reefs will be published I hardly know; I fear it will be at least four or five reater part is written I find sotheir accuracy The Governical work is a millstone round my neck, and the Glen Roy paper has lostI can prove to others' satisfaction what I have convinced myself is the case, the inference I think you will allow to be important I cannot doubt that the ree of fluidity, almost like the sea beneath the block ice By the way, I hope you will givepreserved on the surface, but not in conteravel

Remember what I have often heard you say: the country is very bad for the intellects; the Scotch mists will put out so to become very cockneyfied, and to despise the poor country-folk, who breath fresh air instead of soodly fields instead of the brick houses in Marlborough Street, the very sight of which I confess I abhor I aive of the British association I a its battles with Basil Hall, Stokes, and several others, having made up my mind, from the report in the ”Athenaeu I have been much amused with an account I have received of the wars of Don Roderick (Murchison) and Babbage What a grievous pity it is that the latter should be so imarole letter, for after each sentence I take breath, and you will have need of it in reading it

I ith all ical book was out I have everyyour steps, work just that degree of hardness to keep well I should like my volume to be out before your new edition of 'Principles' appears Besides the Coral theory, the volcanic chapters will, I think, contain some new facts

I have lately been sadly tey is concerned--by the delightful nu in thickly and steadily,--on the classification and affinities and instincts of ani on the question of species

Note-book after note-book has been filled with facts which begin to group theht, my dear Lyell I have filled my letter and enjoyedyou in propria persona Think of the bad effects of the country--so once ain give my best thanks to Mrs Lyell

[The record of what he wrote during the year does not give a true index of theof the foundation-stones of as to be the achieve letter to Lyell, where he speaks of being ”idle,”

and the following extract from a letter to Fox, written in June, is of interest in this point of view:

”I aoodof animals It is my prime hobby, and I really think so in that most intricate subject, species and varieties”]

1839-1841

[In the winter of 1839 (January 29) hter of Josiah Wedgwood of Maer, and grand-daughter of the founder of the Etruria Pottery Works) The house in which they lived for the first few years of their married life, No 12 Upper Gower Street, was a s-room in front, and a small room behind, in which they lived for the sake of quietness In later years liness of the furniture, carpets, etc, of the Gower Street house The only redeearden than most London houses have, a strip as wide as the house, and thirty yards long Even this srass made their London house more tolerable to its two country-bred inhabitants

Of his life in London he writes to Fox (October 1839): ”We are living a life of extreme quietness; Delamere itself, which you describe as so secluded a spot, is, I will answer for it, quite dissipated coiven up all parties, for they agree with neither of us; and if one is quiet in London, there is nothing like its quietness--there is a grandeur about its ss, and the dull distant sounds of cabs and coaches; in fact you h-paced cockney, and I glory in thoughts that I shall be here for the next six months”

The entries of ill health in the Diary increase in nu these years, and as a consequence the holidays becoer and more frequent From April 26 to May 13, 1839, he was at Maer and Shrewsbury

Again, froust 23 to October 2 he ay froha of the British association

The entry under August 1839 is: ”During my visit to Maer, read a little, was ood, that NOTHING is so intolerable as idleness”

At the end of 1839 his eldest child was born, and it was then that he began his observations ultimately published in the 'Expression of the Emotions' His book on this subject, and the short paper published in 'Mind,' (July 1877) sho closely he observed his child He see baby, for he wrote to Fox (July 1840): ”He [ie the baby] is so char that I cannot pretend to any modesty I defy anybody to flatter us on our baby, for I defy any one to say anything in its praise of which we are not fully consciousI had not the smallest conception there was so much in a five-ree of paternal fervour”