Beschreibung:

Darwin (Charles Robert, naturalist, geologist, and originator of the theory of natural selection, 1809-82) Autograph Letter signed to Walter Raleigh Browne, 1p. with conjugate blank, 8vo, Down, Beckenham, Kent, 23rd November 1881, reply to an invitation to contribute an article on the state of comparative anatomy, remarkably declaring that he has little knowledge of the present state of the subject, "I never write in periodicals, as I think that my time is better spent in endeavouring to do new work. Nor indeed have I nearly enough knowledge to attempt discussing the present state of new knowledge on comparative anatomy", folds. ⁂ Unpublished letter by Darwin in which he plays down his scientific knowledge. This letter is noted in the Darwin Correspondence, but remains unpublished. The background to this letter lies in the efforts of Walter Raleigh Browne, a civil engineer and writer on religion to solicit contributions from men of science to reaffirm their religious beliefs in a series of articles in the Contemporary Review on the state of science. Browne wrote to Darwin, trying to get him to attend a conference whose object would be to persuade eminent scientists to deny that "the conclusions of modern Science are hopelessly at variance with the fundamental doctrines both of natural and revealed religion". To all of Browne's invitations Darwin replied in the negative, usually citing ill health, but of course his attitude to religion by this time was ambivalent at best. This final letter in the correspondence brings forth the remarkable assertion that Darwin had too little knowledge to be able to comment on the present state of the knowledge of comparative anatomy. Walter Raleigh Browne (1842-84), English civil engineer and Christian writer.