Charles Robert Darwin to GHL, Downe, 18 November 1868
Title
Charles Robert Darwin to GHL, Downe, 18 November 1868
Title
Charles Robert Darwin to GHL, Downe, 18 November 1868
Sender
Charles Robert Darwin
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1868-11-18
Place
Downe
Letter Content
Charles Robert Darwin to GHL, Downe, 18 November 1868
MS: Cambridge University Library. Only signature and postscript are in Darwin's hand.
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
November 18 1868.
My dear Mr. Lewes
I shall be delighted to propose you for the Linn[ean] Soc[iety]. As Mr. Busk 826 is familiar with what is usually done will you ask him to fill up the printed form with your claims for admission, and second it, and be so kind as to forward it to me. I will then return it to the Society or to you as I may be directed. I think you will not repent of joining the Society which deserves patronage.
As Sir C. Lyell 827 is very much engaged, not to mention his advanced years, I am very doubtful whether he will feel inclined to put his remarks on paper, though he was certainly very much interested by your articles. I will however write to him by today's post and hint your request, leaving it quite open to him to comply or not.
As for my own opinion I have no objection to your "Germinal membrane" developing 1000 forms of life, if you will allow me to kill all in the course of time except as many as there are leading types. 828 I do not think I shall ever be convinced that organisms belonging to the same type, having a similar embryological development or homological structure, and graduating into each other with no very wide intervals, are the offspring of primordially distinct so-called creations. &unknown;After the most careful study&unknown; All the arguments from Geographical Distribution, Geological Successions or mutual affinities, which arguments appear now to be fairly harmonious, would be greatly invalidated, as it appears to me, if your views were admitted. 829 This I think is Lyell's main objection.
I thoroughly enjoyed my hour's talk with you and Mrs. Lewes -- and I remain
Yours very sincerely
Ch. Darwin.
P.S. There is much truth in what Professor Weismann writes me, that the nature of the organism which is acted on is as important as, or more important a factor in the resultant variability, than the conditions of life. -- This I have also insisted on in very strong language and shown to be the case in my last book. -- Now if two distinct independently &unknown;created&unknown; produced primordial organisms, were exposed to precisely similar conditions, they would vary differently, besides inheriting differently, and therefore I cannot believe that they would be developed to form members of the same type or group. -- All the curious cases insisted on by Fritz M'fcller of the same end being generally analogous and not strictly homologous structures, seem to me to point to a similar conclusion.
MS: Cambridge University Library. Only signature and postscript are in Darwin's hand.
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
November 18 1868.
My dear Mr. Lewes
I shall be delighted to propose you for the Linn[ean] Soc[iety]. As Mr. Busk 826 is familiar with what is usually done will you ask him to fill up the printed form with your claims for admission, and second it, and be so kind as to forward it to me. I will then return it to the Society or to you as I may be directed. I think you will not repent of joining the Society which deserves patronage.
As Sir C. Lyell 827 is very much engaged, not to mention his advanced years, I am very doubtful whether he will feel inclined to put his remarks on paper, though he was certainly very much interested by your articles. I will however write to him by today's post and hint your request, leaving it quite open to him to comply or not.
As for my own opinion I have no objection to your "Germinal membrane" developing 1000 forms of life, if you will allow me to kill all in the course of time except as many as there are leading types. 828 I do not think I shall ever be convinced that organisms belonging to the same type, having a similar embryological development or homological structure, and graduating into each other with no very wide intervals, are the offspring of primordially distinct so-called creations. &unknown;After the most careful study&unknown; All the arguments from Geographical Distribution, Geological Successions or mutual affinities, which arguments appear now to be fairly harmonious, would be greatly invalidated, as it appears to me, if your views were admitted. 829 This I think is Lyell's main objection.
I thoroughly enjoyed my hour's talk with you and Mrs. Lewes -- and I remain
Yours very sincerely
Ch. Darwin.
P.S. There is much truth in what Professor Weismann writes me, that the nature of the organism which is acted on is as important as, or more important a factor in the resultant variability, than the conditions of life. -- This I have also insisted on in very strong language and shown to be the case in my last book. -- Now if two distinct independently &unknown;created&unknown; produced primordial organisms, were exposed to precisely similar conditions, they would vary differently, besides inheriting differently, and therefore I cannot believe that they would be developed to form members of the same type or group. -- All the curious cases insisted on by Fritz M'fcller of the same end being generally analogous and not strictly homologous structures, seem to me to point to a similar conclusion.
Signature
Ch. Darwin.
Citation
Charles Robert Darwin, Charles Robert Darwin to GHL, Downe, 18 November 1868, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91756