Darwin’s Letter to Thomas Thomson Saying I Do Not Have Proof ... (1861)

7/25/2019 Darwins Letter to Thomas Thomson Saying I Do Not Have Proof ... (1861)

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Darwin Correspondence Project

Letter 3088

Darwin, C. R.toCollingwood, Cuthbert

14 Mar [1861]f1

Summary

CD is not surprised at CCs entire rejection of his views. Agrees that there is no direct proof of

unlimited variation. Says natural selection should be viewed as comparable to wave theory of light:

it is probable because it groups and explains a host of facts in several fields of science.

Agrees Louis Agassizs review [Am. J. Sci.2d ser. 30 (1860): 14255] is not unfair, but Agassizmisunderstands CD. His categories of thought are to CD merely empty words.

Transcription

Down Bromley Kent

March 14th.

Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your long letter, as I always like to know how naturalists view the subject.

I feel not a shade of surprise at your entirely rejecting my views;f2my surprise is that I have been

successful in converting some few eminent Botanists, Zoologists, & Geologists. In several casesthe conversion has been very slow & that is the only sort of conversion which I respect. Ientirely

agree with you that there is no more direct proof of variation beingunlimited in amount than

there is that it is strictly limited. In a new & corrected Edit. of the Origin, which will appear in

about a week or two, I have pointed this as emphatically as I could.f3I did not formerly explicitly

say this (but indirectly in several places) because I thought it was obvious.

The manner in which I wish to approach the whole subject, & in which it seems to me it may

fairly be approached, I can best illustrate by the case of Light. The Ether is hypothetical, as are its

undulations; but as the undulatory hypothesis groups together & explains a multitude of

phenomena, it is universally now admitted as the true theory. The undulations in the ether areconsidered in some degree probable, because sound is produced by undulations in air. So natural

selection, I look at as in some degree probable, or possible, because we know what artificial

selection can do. But I believe in Nat. Selection, not because, I can prove in any single case that it

has changed one species into another, but because it groups & explains well (as it seems to me) a

host of facts in classification, embryology, morphology, rudimentary organs, geological succession

& Distribution.

I have no space to discuss the many points alluded to in your letter. I cannot see such

perfection in structure as you do. In the new Edit. I have attempted to explain how it is that many

low forms have not progressed to a higher grade of organisation.f4I did not allude to the very curious subject of alternate generations, because I did not, & do not

yet, see, how it has anyspecialbearing on my views.f5I look at alternate generations, as not
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essentiallydiffering from various stages in any one individual larvaa form of gemmation being

merely added at some stage. Under this point of view I see no essential difference between

alternative generation & metamorphosis: you, I presume, take some very different view.

I forget what Agassiz says on subject. I quite agree with you that Agassizs Review is not in the

least unfair.f6He misunderstands me a good deal. His categories of thought, prophetictypes &

his views on classification are to me merely empty sounds.f7

To others they seem full of meaning.I received several months ago, & thank you for, a very curious pamphlet on representative

forms, (or some such title) which interested mevery much.f8

With my best thanks, I remain | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

I am much pleased at & grateful for the sentence which you kindly copy from a recent letter

from Agassiz. I once saw him, & was charmed with him.f9

Footnotes

f1The identity of the correspondent and the year are based on the reference to CDs having received several

months ago a pamphlet on representative forms (Collingwood 1860a). See n. 8, below.

f2Collingwoods letter has not been found. Presumably the letter raised many of the objections to CDs theory

discussed in a paper Collingwood delivered before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool on

10 December 1860. In the paper, Collingwood contrasted Darwins views on the origin of species with those of

Louis Agassiz, as expressed in his critical review ofOrigin(Agassiz 1860). Collingwood concluded that Agassizs

criticism was one of the most conclusive and formidable (against Darwins theory) which had yet appeared.

(Collingwood 1860b, p. 81). Collingwood sent CD a copy of this paper, which is in the Darwin Pamphlet

CollectionCUL.

f3Origin3d ed., p. 89.

f4Origin3d ed., pp. 13343.

f5In his paper, Collingwood discussed Agassizs view that the alternation of generations and other examples of

polymorphism within a species were far more astonishing phenomena, strictly circumscribed between the

natural limits of unvarying species, than the slight differences produced by the intervention of men, among

domesticated animals (Agassiz 1860, p. 153). Collingwood then stated that these phenomena had been ignored

by CD. See Collingwood 1860b, pp. 925. The passages in question are marked in CDs copy of the paper.

f6Collingwood 1860b was written to defend Agassiz 1860 against the view expressed by Henry Hugh Higgins

that Agassizs review was quite unworthy of so distinguished a naturalist (Higgins 1860, p. 42).

f7In Collingwood 1860b, pp. 835, Collingwood attempted to elucidate Agassizs concept that species, while

having no material existence, yet existed as categories of thought (Agassiz 1860, p. 142). Agassiz discussed the

concept of prophetic types in the first volume ofContributions to the natural history of the United States of America

(Agassiz 185762, 1: 11618), a copy of which is in the Darwin LibraryCUL (see also letter to George Rolleston,

7 March [1861] and n. 4).

f8A lightly annotated copy of Collingwood 1860a, inscribed Charles Darwin Esq with the Authors Compts., is

in the Darwin Pamphlet CollectionCUL.

f9CD may be referring to the 1846 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at which

Agassiz spoke to a meeting of the Ray Society that CD attended. SeeCorrespondencevol. 4, letter to J. E. Gray,
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18 December 1847.

Letter details

Letter no.

DCP-LETT-3088

From

Darwin, C. R.

To

Collingwood, Cuthbert

Sent from

Down

Source of text

British Library(Add. MS. 37725, ff. 69b)

Physical description

ALS 8pp

Also published in

De Beer (1958): 112

Correspondence9: 53

Please cite asDarwin Correspondence Database,

http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-3088accessed on Wed Oct 8 2014

Source

http://darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3088.xml

For scanned images of this letter from published sources see Charles Darwin,The Correspondence of

Charles Darwin: Volume 9: 1861, ed. Frederick Burkhardt et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1994), 9:535:

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=FSjKOoqg-

WAC&pg=PA54&dq=darwin+but+i+believe+in+natural+selection+not+because+it+has+changed+

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DAE#v=onepage&q=darwin%20but%20i%20believe%20in%20natural%20selection%20not

%20because%20it%20has%20changed%20one%20species%20into%20another&f=false
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