Volume II Part 37 (2/2)
[With regard to the success of the 'Descent of Man,' I quote from a letter to Professor Ray Lankester (March 22, 1871):--
”I think you will be glad to hear, as a proof of the increasing liberality of England, that my book has sold wonderfully... and as yet no abuse (though some, no doubt, will come, strong enough), and only contempt even in the poor old 'Athenaeum'.”
As to reviews that struck him he wrote to Mr. Wallace (March 24, 1871):--
”There is a very striking second article on my book in the 'Pall Mall'.
The articles in the ”Spectator” (”Spectator”, March 11 and 18, 1871.
With regard to the evolution of conscience the reviewer thinks that my father comes much nearer to the ”kernel of the psychological problem”
than many of his predecessors. The second article contains a good discussion of the bearing of the book on the question of design, and concludes by finding in it a vindication of Theism more wonderful than that in Paley's 'Natural Theology.') have also interested me much.”
On March 20 he wrote to Mr. Murray:--
”Many thanks for the ”Nonconformist” [March 8, 1871]. I like to see all that is written, and it is of some real use. If you hear of reviewers in out-of-the-way papers, especially the religious, as ”Record”, ”Guardian”, ”Tablet”, kindly inform me. It is wonderful that there has been no abuse (”I feel a full conviction that my chapter on man will excite attention and plenty of abuse, and I suppose abuse is as good as praise for selling a book.”--(from a letter to Mr. Murray, January 31, 1867.) as yet, but I suppose I shall not escape. On the whole, the reviews have been highly favourable.”
The following extract from a letter to Mr. Murray (April 13, 1871) refers to a review in the ”Times”. (”Times”, April 7 and 8, 1871. The review is not only unfavourable as regards the book under discussion, but also as regards Evolution in general, as the following citation will show: ”Even had it been rendered highly probable, which we doubt, that the animal creation has been developed into its numerous and widely different varieties by mere evolution, it would still require an independent investigation of overwhelming force and completeness to justify the presumption that man is but a term in this self-evolving series.”)
”I have no idea who wrote the ”Times” review. He has no knowledge of science, and seems to me a wind-bag full of metaphysics and cla.s.sics, so that I do not much regard his adverse judgment, though I suppose it will injure the sale.”
A review of the 'Descent of Man,' which my father spoke of as ”capital,”
appeared in the ”Sat.u.r.day Review” (March 4 and 11, 1871). A pa.s.sage from the first notice (March 4) may be quoted in ill.u.s.tration of the broad basis as regards general acceptance, on which the doctrine of Evolution now stood: ”He claims to have brought man himself, his origin and const.i.tution, within that unity which he had previously sought to trace through all lower animal forms. The growth of opinion in the interval, due in chief measure to his own intermediate works, has placed the discussion of this problem in a position very much in advance of that held by it fifteen years ago. The problem of Evolution is hardly any longer to be treated as one of first principles; nor has Mr. Darwin to do battle for a first hearing of his central hypothesis, upborne as it is by a phalanx of names full of distinction and promise, in either hemisphere.”
The infolded point of the human ear, discovered by Mr. Woolner, and described in the 'Descent of Man,' seems especially to have struck the popular imagination; my father wrote to Mr. Woolner:--
”The tips to the ears have become quite celebrated. One reviewer ('Nature') says they ought to be called, as I suggested in joke, Angulus Woolneria.n.u.s. ('Nature' April 6, 1871. The term suggested is Angulus Woolnerii.) A German is very proud to find that he has the tips well developed, and I believe will send me a photograph of his ears.”]
CHARLES DARWIN TO JOHN BRODIE INNES. (Rev. J. Brodie Innes, of Milton Brodie, formerly Vicar of Down.) Down, May 29 [1871].
My dear Innes,
I have been very glad to receive your pleasant letter, for to tell you the truth, I have sometimes wondered whether you would not think me an outcast and a reprobate after the publication of my last book ['Descent']. (In a former letter of my father's to Mr. Innes:--”We often differed, but you are one of those rare mortals from whom one can differ and yet feel no shade of animosity, and that is a thing which I should feel very proud of, if any one could say it of me.”) I do not wonder at all at your not agreeing with me, for a good many professed naturalists do not. Yet when I see in how extraordinary a manner the judgment of naturalists has changed since I published the 'Origin,' I feel convinced that there will be in ten years quite as much unanimity about man, as far as his corporeal frame is concerned...
[The following letters addressed to Dr. Ogle deal with the progress of the work on expression.]
Down, March 12 [1871].
My dear Dr. Ogle,
I have received both your letters, and they tell me all that I wanted to know in the clearest possible way, as, indeed, all your letters have ever done. I thank you cordially. I will give the case of the murderer ('Expression of the Emotions,' page 294. The arrest of a murderer, as witnessed by Dr. Ogle in a hospital.) in my hobby-horse essay on expression. I fear that the Eustachian tube question must have cost you a deal of labour; it is quite a complete little essay. It is pretty clear that the mouth is not opened under surprise merely to improve the hearing. Yet why do deaf men generally keep their mouths open? The other day a man here was mimicking a deaf friend, leaning his head forward and sideways to the speaker, with his mouth well open; it was a lifelike representation of a deaf man. Shakespeare somewhere says: ”Hold your breath, listen” or ”hark,” I forget which. Surprise hurries the breath, and it seems to me one can breathe, at least hurriedly, much quieter through the open mouth than through the nose. I saw the other day you doubted this. As objection is your province at present, I think breathing through the nose ought to come within it likewise, so do pray consider this point, and let me hear your judgment. Consider the nose to be a flower to be fertilised, and then you will make out all about it.
(Dr. Ogle had corresponded with my father on his own observations on the fertilisation of flowers.) I have had to allude to your paper on 'Sense of Smell' (Medico-chirurg. Trans. liii.); is the paging right, namely, 1, 2, 3? If not, I protest by all the G.o.ds against the plan followed by some, of having presentation copies falsely paged; and so does Rolleston, as he wrote to me the other day. In haste.
Yours very sincerely, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO W. OGLE. Down, March 25 [1871].
<script>