Charles Darwin to William Graham 3 July 1881

Down, Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R) [Glenridding House, Patterdale.]
July 3rd. 1881.

Dear Sir

I hope that you will not think it intrusive on my part to thank you heartily for the pleasure which I
have derived from reading your admirably written ‘Creed of Science,’ though I have not yet quite
finished it, as now that I am old I read very slowly. 1 It is a very long time since any other book has
interested me so much. The work must have cost you several years and much hard labour with full
leisure for work. You would not probably expect anyone fully to agree with you on so many abstruse
subjects; and there are some points in your book which I cannot digest. The chief one is that the
existence of so-called natural laws implies purpose. 2 I cannot see this. Not to mention that many
expect that the several great laws will some day be found to follow inevitably from some one single
law, yet taking the laws as we now know them, and look at the moon, what the law of gravitation—
and no doubt of the conservation of energy—of the atomic theory &c. &c. hold good, and I cannot
see that there is then necessarily any purpose. Would there be purpose if the lowest organisms
alone destitute of consciousness existed in the moon? But I have had no practice in abstract
reasoning and I may be all astray. Nevertheless you have expressed my inward conviction, though
far more vividly and clearly than I could have done, that the Universe is not the result of chance. But
then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been
developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one
trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind? Secondly I
think that I could make somewhat of a case against the enormous importance which you attribute to
our greatest men: I have been accustomed to think, 2nd, 3rd and 4th rate men of very high
importance, at least in the case of Science. 3
Lastly I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of
civilisation than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risk the nations of Europe ran, not so
many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the Turks, and how ridiculous such an idea now is in
more civilised so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for
existence. 4 Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races
will have been eliminated by the higher civilised races throughout the world. But I will write no
more, and not even mention the many points in your work which have much interested me. I have
indeed cause to apologise for troubling you with my impressions, and my sole excuse is the
excitement in my mind which your book has aroused.

I beg leave to remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully and obliged | Charles Darwin.

Footnotes
1

Graham 1881 was a discussion of how far philosophy, theology, and ethics needed to be revised in the
light of new scientific theories of the conservation of energy and evolution by natural selection.
Graham had sent CD a copy of the book (see letter to G. J. Romanes, 27 June [1881]).

See Graham 1881, pp. 344–50.

Graham argued that the development of human civilisation depended upon great men, not natural
selection (see Graham 1881, pp. 64–72).

The power of the Ottoman Empire reached a peak in the sixteenth century, when the Turks reached
Budapest (EB s.v. Turkey). On CD’s views on the Turks, see Bilgili 2017.

Bibliography
Bilgili, Alper. 2017. Beating the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence: Darwin, social Darwinism
and the Turks. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy
of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 65: 19–25.

EB: The Encyclopædia Britannica. A dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general
information. 11th edition. 29 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1910–11.

Graham, William. 1881. The creed of science: religious, moral, and social. London: C. Kegan Paul &
Co.

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13230,” accessed on 20 February

2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13230.xml