GHL to Charles Robert Darwin, London, 2 March 1868
Title
GHL to Charles Robert Darwin, London, 2 March 1868
Title
GHL to Charles Robert Darwin, London, 2 March 1868
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Charles Robert Darwin
Date(s)
- 1868-03-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Charles Robert Darwin, London, 2 March 1868
MS: Cambridge University Library.
The Priory, | 21 North Bank, | Regents Park.
2nd March 68.
My dear Sir
I understand that you did not disapprove the little notice I wrote of your last book in the Pall Mall Gazette, 775 and as I am now engaged in a more elaborate consideration of it for the Fortnightly Review I venture to appeal to your greater experience to enlighten me on a morphological detail of interest. Are there not some animals with nails, or hooks, at the tips of the tail? 776 I have an indistinct remembrance of such a thing, but cannot feel sure whether it exists out of my fancy -- or in what animal. The suggestion arose in my mind when considering the analogical position of nails, claws, hooks, beaks and horns -- always at extremities and never anywhere else.
While I am troubling you let me also ask in what way you understand Natural Selection to have determined the modification of leaves into flowers? Is there any advantage to the plant in having petals rather than leaves and variously colored petals rather than green? While I think every unbiassed naturalist whose rational organs are not [rudimentary] must admit your principle, I am disposed to think that many organic details are the simple consequences of organic combination and are quite irrespective of advantage.
Apologizing for trespassing on your valuable time but glad of the opportunity of expressing my gratitude to you, Believe me
Yours very truly
G. H. Lewes.
Charles Darwin Esq.
MS: Cambridge University Library.
The Priory, | 21 North Bank, | Regents Park.
2nd March 68.
My dear Sir
I understand that you did not disapprove the little notice I wrote of your last book in the Pall Mall Gazette, 775 and as I am now engaged in a more elaborate consideration of it for the Fortnightly Review I venture to appeal to your greater experience to enlighten me on a morphological detail of interest. Are there not some animals with nails, or hooks, at the tips of the tail? 776 I have an indistinct remembrance of such a thing, but cannot feel sure whether it exists out of my fancy -- or in what animal. The suggestion arose in my mind when considering the analogical position of nails, claws, hooks, beaks and horns -- always at extremities and never anywhere else.
While I am troubling you let me also ask in what way you understand Natural Selection to have determined the modification of leaves into flowers? Is there any advantage to the plant in having petals rather than leaves and variously colored petals rather than green? While I think every unbiassed naturalist whose rational organs are not [rudimentary] must admit your principle, I am disposed to think that many organic details are the simple consequences of organic combination and are quite irrespective of advantage.
Apologizing for trespassing on your valuable time but glad of the opportunity of expressing my gratitude to you, Believe me
Yours very truly
G. H. Lewes.
Charles Darwin Esq.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Charles Robert Darwin, London, 2 March 1868, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/94484