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Dinesh

Dinesh club

Posted: 21 May 2022

Taken: 21 May 2022

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Charles Darwin, A New Life •
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John Bowlby •

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 Dinesh
Dinesh club
. . . At the end of January 1860 Darwin received a copy of an enthusiastic letter written to Hooker by Asa Gray, to whom it will be remembered Darwin had already confided his ideas on evolution. Gray who for over forty years held the chair of natural history at Harvard University, had written in reply to a letter from Hooker expressing admiration for the ‘Origin’. Gray concurred (5 January 1860): ‘It is done in a masterly manner. . . . It is crammed full of most interesting matter -- thoroughly digested -- well expressed -- close, cogent, and taken as a system it makes out a better case than I had supposed possible.’ Gray then refers to the hostile attitude of his close colleague in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Louis Agassize -- who some years earlier had solved the Glen Roy problem. ‘Agassiz, when I saw him last had read but a part of ]the Origin]. He says it is poor -- very poor!! The fact is he is very much annoyed by it. Tell Darwin this. . . As I have promised, he and you shall have fair here.’ He explains that he is starting to write a review for the March number of the influential American ‘Journal of Science and Arts.’ Gray was to be as good as his word. In an obituary many years later Hooker described his as ‘one of the first to accept and defend the doctrine of Natural Selection. . . . so that Darwin. . . regarded him as a naturalist who had most thoroughly gauged the ‘Origin of Species’ and as a tower of strength to himself and his cause.’. Gray’s tireless advocacy led Huxley to write: ‘Among evolutionists. . . Asa Gray. . . fought the battle splendidly in the United States.’ Already in early 1860 battle lines had been drawn in the USA. Gray, as the great proponent, quickly arranged for an American edition, which appeared on the 22 May that very year. Agassize remained a hostile critic until the end of his life. ~ Page 352

Concurrently, another first rate man was doing great good in USA. During Juluy, Aigist. Amd Pctpner the ‘Atlantic Monthly’ carried three articles by Asa Gray expounding and supporting Darwin’s ideas. So pleased was Darwin with them that he arranged for them to be republished in Britain, where he believed they made many converts. ~ Page 358

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1860/07/darwin-on-the-origin-of-species/304152
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/08/defending-darwin/304225
23 months ago. Edited 23 months ago.

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