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Darwin Correspondence Project

To John Murray   21 January 1882

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)

Jan 21. 1882—

My dear Mr Murray

I am much obliged for the Quarterly. I have read the few first pages of the article on my worm-book, which are highly complimentary, indeed more than complimentary. If the Reviewer is a young man & a worker in any branch of Biology, he will assuredly sooner or later write differently about evolution.1 Literally I cannot name a single youngish worker who is not as deeply convinced of the truth of Evolution as I am, though there are many who do not believe in natural selection having done much,—but this is a relatively unimportant point. Your reviewer is in the position of the men who stuck up so long & so stoutly that the sun went round the earth.

There are several other articles which I shall be glad to read, especially that on Lyell.— I liked the book so much that I was quite sorry when I finished it. Nevertheless in my opinion, it could have been greatly improved if about 100 pages had been struck out of each volume.2

Pray believe me | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

Footnotes

1
The article on Earthworms appeared in the Quarterly Review for January 1882, pp. 179–202; the author was Henry Wace (Wellesley index). He remarked: ‘we still remain convinced of the prematureness … of what is commonly … styled the Darwinian theory of Evolution. But this difference of opinion … is no obstacle to our entertaining the highest admiration for those researches themselves’ (Quarterly Review, January 1882, p. 179).
2
Charles Lyell’s sister-in-law Katharine Murray Lyell had published a selection of his letters in two volumes in November 1881 (K. M. Lyell ed. 1881). The book was reviewed in the Quarterly Review for January 1882, pp. 96–131.

Bibliography

Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.

Lyell, Katharine Murray, ed. 1881. Life, letters and journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart. 2 vols. London: John Murray.

Wellesley index: The Wellesley index to Victorian periodicals 1824–1900. Edited by Walter E. Houghton et al. 5 vols. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1966–89.

Summary

Thanks JM for copy of Quarterly Review, with article on his worm book [Henry Wace, "Darwin on earthworms", Q. Rev. 153 (1882): 179–202].

Writer will change his mind on evolution. CD cannot think of any young worker in biology who is not convinced of the truth of evolution, though many believe that natural selection has not done much.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13632
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
John Murray
Sent from
Down
Source of text
National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms. 42153 ff. 51–52)
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13632,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13632.xml

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