Book review: ‘The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 30 • 1882’

The thirtieth and final volume of Charles Darwin’s correspondence comprises all the surviving letters both from and to Darwin from the year 1882—the year in which Darwin died ☹️. It also contains a supplement of nearly 400 letters written between 1831 and 1880, which came to light after the volumes for the years in question had been published.

Highlights from the 1831–1880 supplement

• During the Beagle voyage, an old school friend advising Darwin on an itinerary for an inland expedition up the River Uruguay.
• A couple of years later in the voyage, a similar letter from another contact, complete with maps, describing part of Chile between Santiago and San Fernando. (I have seen and photographed this letter.)
• Darwin’s cousin (and future wife) Emma Wedgwood describing his return from the Beagle voyage.
• Days before its publication, Darwin sending his former geology tutor Adam Sedgwick a copy of On the Origin of Species, while acknowledging his and Sedgwick’s views will be totally at odds.
• Darwin abandoning “with a groan” his incorrect marine-origin hypothesis of the formation of the so-called ‘parallel roads’ of Glen Roy. He later thanks Thomas Jamieson for destroying his hypothesis in such a gentle manner that it was “as pleasant as being thrown down on a soft hay-cock on a fine summer’s day”.
• Charles Lyell informing Darwin that the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, described On the Origin of Species as ‘the most illogical book ever written’.
• Lyell later telling Darwin that Queen Victoria has been quizzing him about Darwin and his theory.
• Darwin stating: ‘I cannot believe that a false theory would explain, as it seems to me that the theory of natural selection does explain, the several large classes of facts above specified. It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain what is the essence of attraction of gravity? No one now objects to following out the results consequent on this unknown element of attraction; not-withstanding that Leibnitz formerly accused Newton of introducing “occult qualities & miracles into philosophy.”‘
• Charles Lyell saying he is having to incorporate recent advances in scientific knowledge into the 10th edition of is book Principles of Geology. These include the identification of the Neolithic and Palaeolithic ages, and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
• Darwin the dog-lover observing, “when I know a dog, I love it with all my heart & soul”.
• Darwin lending his support for a committee for securing medical educations for women.
• Darwin being told of a pigeon that is infatuated with a ginger beer bottle.
• As his work on the expression of emotions drags on, Darwin moaning to his son, “I am sick of the subject, and myself, and the world”.
• Darwin stating his belief that habitual criminals should be confined for life.
• Darwin asking his architect to measure the depths of worm burrows, “which if I asked most persons to observe I shd. be thought to be a raving lunatic”.
• Darwin thanking his best friend’s wife, Lady Hooker, for sending the latest batch of bananas from Kew Gardens, saying they are his favourite fruit.
• Darwin describing his negative views on alcohol to a temperance advocate.

Highlights from the 1882 correspondence

• Darwin replying to an American feminist, Caroline Kennard, who wrote to him the previous year regarding women’s intellectual powers. Darwin opines that, “women though generally superior to men [in] moral qualities are inferior intellectually”. He believes men and women may once have been intellectually equal, but that to regain equality women would have to become regular bread-winners like men—but he suspects the education of children and domestic happiness would suffer as a result.
• …and Kennard’s spirited response, pointing out that women are already (mostly unpaid) bread-winners.
• Darwin observing, “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.”
• Darwin’s remarking about his final book, ‘The success of this worm-book has been almost laughable. I have, however, been plagued with an endless stream of letters on the subject; most of them very foolish & enthusiastic, but some containing good fact, which I have used in correcting yesterday the “Sixth Thousandth”.
• Darwin being sent a large slab of coal containing annelid tracks, and his grateful acknowlegement of its safe arrival.
• Darwin writing to an old friend, “We are both growing old men, & I feel as old as Methusalem”, and to another friend, “I feel a very old man, & my course is nearly run.”
• Darwin informing Anton Dohrn he suspects Richard Owen has ‘borrowed’ one of Dohrn’s ideas.
• Darwin on his modest use of wine, snuff and tobacco.
• Darwin writing to Thomas Henry Huxley’s son-in-law about Huxley brilliance as an essayist.
• A letter from W. D. Crick (the future father of Francis Crick, of DNA fame) regarding a water-snail attached to a water-beetle’s leg.
• Darwin declaring, “Linnæus & Cuvier have been my two Gods, though in very different way, but they were mere school-boys to old Aristotle.”
• Darwin’s views on the origin of life: “Though no evidence worth anything has as yet in my opinion been advanced in favour of a living being, being developed from inorganic matter, yet I cannot avoid believing the possibility of this will be proved some day in accordance with the law of continuity”.
• After mentioning he has been very unwell, Darwin ordering morphia pills for potential future use, and being sent revised instructions by his doctor.
• In an affectionate letter, Thomas Henry Huxley, who has heard of Darwin’s latest health issues, suggesting arranging additional doctors for Darwin, without stepping on the current doctor’s toes. In an equally affectionate reply, Darwin agrees.
• Darwin describing how stooping over a microscope is now difficult, as it affects his heart.
• Emma Darwin breaking the sad news of Darwin’s death to his best friend, Joseph Dalton Hooker, saying: “He loved you more than any one of his own family & I am sure you returned the affection.”

As with all the volumes in this series, this book is really aimed at people with a serious interest in Charles Darwin. As with all the other volumes, every letter is annotated with meticulously researched footnotes explaining its context and references. The series as a whole is a masterpiece of scholarship.