Volume II Part 47 (2/2)

Anthony Rich, he wrote on February 4, 1882, ”I have been plagued with an endless stream of letters on the subject; most of them very foolish and enthusiastic; but some containing good facts which I have used in correcting yesterday the 'Sixth Thousand.'” The popularity of the book may be roughly estimated by the fact that, in the three years following its publication, 8500 copies were sold--a sale relatively greater than that of the 'Origin of Species.'

It is not difficult to account for its success with the non-scientific public. Conclusions so wide and so novel, and so easily understood, drawn from the study of creatures so familiar, and treated with unabated vigour and freshness, may well have attracted many readers. A reviewer remarks: ”In the eyes of most men... the earthworm is a mere blind, dumb, senseless, and unpleasantly slimy annelid. Mr. Darwin undertakes to rehabilitate his character, and the earthworm steps forth at once as an intelligent and beneficent personage, a worker of vast geological changes, a planer down of mountain sides... a friend of man... and an ally of the Society for the preservation of ancient monuments.” The ”St.

James Gazette”, October 17, 1881, pointed out that the teaching of the c.u.mulative importance of the infinitely little is the point of contact between this book and the author's previous work.

One more book remains to be noticed, the 'Life of Erasmus Darwin.'

In February 1879 an essay by Dr. Ernst Krause, on the scientific work of Erasmus Darwin, appeared in the evolutionary journal, 'Kosmos.' The number of 'Kosmos' in question was a ”Gratulationsheft” (The same number contains a good biographical sketch of my father, of which the material was to a large extent supplied by him to the writer, Professor Preyer of Jena. The article contains an excellent list of my father's publications.), or special congratulatory issue in honour of my father's birthday, so that Dr. Krause's essay, glorifying the older evolutionist, was quite in its place. He wrote to Dr. Krause, thanking him cordially for the honour paid to Erasmus, and asking his permission to publish (The wish to do so was shared by his brother, Erasmus Darwin the younger, who continued to be a.s.sociated with the project.) an English translation of the Essay.

His chief reason for writing a notice of his grandfather's life was ”to contradict flatly some calumnies by Miss Seward.” This appears from a letter of March 27, 1879, to his cousin Reginald Darwin, in which he asks for any doc.u.ments and letters which might throw light on the character of Erasmus. This led to Mr. Reginald Darwin placing in my father's hands a quant.i.ty of valuable material, including a curious folio common-place book, of which he wrote: ”I have been deeply interested by the great book,... reading and looking at it is like having communion with the dead...[it] has taught me a good deal about the occupations and tastes of our grandfather.” A subsequent letter (April 8) to the same correspondent describes the source of a further supply of material:--

Since my last letter I have made a strange discovery; for an old box from my father marked ”Old Deeds,” and which consequently I had never opened, I found full of letters--hundreds from Dr. Erasmus--and others from old members of the Family: some few very curious. Also a drawing of Elston before it was altered, about 1750, of which I think I will give a copy.”

Dr. Krause's contribution formed the second part of the 'Life of Erasmus Darwin,' my father supplying a ”preliminary notice.” This expression on the t.i.tle-page is somewhat misleading; my father's contribution is more than half the book, and should have been described as a biography. Work of this kind was new to him, and he wrote doubtfully to Mr. Thiselton Dyer, June 18th: ”G.o.d only knows what I shall make of his life, it is such a new kind of work to me.” The strong interest he felt about his forebears helped to give zest to the work, which became a decided enjoyment to him. With the general public the book was not markedly successful, but many of his friends recognised its merits. Sir J.D.

Hooker was one of these, and to him my father wrote, ”Your praise of the Life of Dr. D. has pleased me exceedingly, for I despised my work, and thought myself a perfect fool to have undertaken such a job.”

To Mr. Galton, too, he wrote, November 14:--

”I am EXTREMELY glad that you approve of the little 'Life' of our grandfather, for I have been repenting that I ever undertook it, as the work was quite beyond my tether.”

The publication of the 'Life of Erasmus Darwin' led to an attack by Mr. Samuel Butler, which amounted to a charge of falsehood against my father. After consulting his friends, he came to the determination to leave the charge unanswered, as unworthy of his notice. (He had, in a letter to Mr. Butler, expressed his regret at the oversight which caused so much offence.) Those who wish to know more of the matter, may gather the facts of the case from Ernst Krause's 'Charles Darwin,' and they will find Mr. Butler's statement of his grievance in the ”Athenaeum”, January 31, 1880, and in the ”St. James's Gazette”, December 8, 1880.

The affair gave my father much pain, but the warm sympathy of those whose opinion he respected soon helped him to let it pa.s.s into a well-merited oblivion.

The following letter refers to M. J.H. Fabre's 'Souvenirs Entomologiques.' It may find a place here, as it contains a defence of Erasmus Darwin on a small point. The postscript is interesting, as an example of one of my father's bold ideas both as to experiment and theory:]

CHARLES DARWIN TO J.H. FABRE. Down, January 31, 1880.

My dear Sir,

I hope that you will permit me to have the satisfaction of thanking you cordially for the lively pleasure which I have derived from reading your book. Never have the wonderful habits of insects been more vividly described, and it is almost as good to read about them as to see them. I feel sure that you would not be unjust to even an insect, much less to a man. Now, you have been misled by some translator, for my grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, states ('Zoonomia,' volume i. page 183, 1794) that it was a wasp (guepe) which he saw cutting off the wings of a large fly. I have no doubt that you are right in saying that the wings are generally cut off instinctively; but in the case described by my grandfather, the wasp, after cutting off the two ends of the body, rose in the air, and was turned round by the wind; he then alighted and cut off the wings. I must believe, with Pierre Huber, that insects have ”une pet.i.te dose de raison.” In the next edition of your book, I hope that you will alter PART of what you say about my grandfather.

I am sorry that you are so strongly opposed to the Descent theory; I have found the searching for the history of each structure or instinct an excellent aid to observation; and wonderful observer as you are, it would suggest new points to you. If I were to write on the evolution of instincts, I could make good use of some of the facts which you give.

Permit me to add, that when I read the last sentence in your book, I sympathised deeply with you. (The book is intended as a memorial of the early death of M. Fabre's son, who had been his father's a.s.sistant in his observations on insect life.)

With the most sincere respect, I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully, CHARLES DARWIN.

P.S.--Allow me to make a suggestion in relation to your wonderful account of insects finding their way home. I formerly wished to try it with pigeons: namely, to carry the insects in their paper ”cornets,”

about a hundred paces in the opposite direction to that which you ultimately intended to carry them; but before turning round to return, to put the insect in a circular box, with an axle which could be made to revolve very rapidly, first in one direction, and then in another, so as to destroy for a time all sense of direction in the insects. I have sometimes IMAGINED that animals may feel in which direction they were at the first start carried. (This idea was a favourite one with him, and he has described in 'Nature' (volume vii. 1873, page 360) the behaviour of his cob Tommy, in whom he fancied he detected a sense of direction. The horse had been taken by rail from Kent to the Isle of Wight; when there he exhibited a marked desire to go eastward, even when his stable lay in the opposite direction. In the same volume of 'Nature,' page 417, is a letter on the 'Origin of Certain Instincts,' which contains a short discussion on the sense of direction.) If this plan failed, I had intended placing the pigeons within an induction coil, so as to disturb any magnetic or dia-magnetic sensibility, which it seems just possible that they may possess.

C.D.

[During the latter years of my father's life there was a growing tendency in the public to do him honour. In 1877 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Cambridge. The degree was conferred on November 17, and with the customary Latin speech from the Public Orator, concluding with the words: ”Tu vero, qui leges naturae tam docte ill.u.s.traveris, legum doctor n.o.bis esto.”

The honorary degree led to a movement being set on foot in the University to obtain some permanent memorial of my father. A sum of about 400 pounds was subscribed, and after the rejection of the idea that a bust would be the best memorial, a picture was determined on. In June 1879 he sat to Mr. W. Richmond for the portrait in the possession of the University, now placed in the Library of the philosophical Society at Cambridge. He is represented seated in his Doctor's gown, the head turned towards the spectator: the picture has many admirers, but, according to my own view, neither the att.i.tude nor the expression are characteristic of my father.

A similar wish on the part of the Linnean Society-- with which my father was so closely a.s.sociated--led to his sitting in August, 1881, to Mr.

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