The Invention of Nature

by Andrea Wulf

  23 ‘I plague them’: Darwin to William Darwin Fox, 11 May 1831, ibid., p.123.

  24 ‘to fan your Canary’: Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, 11 July 1831, ibid., p.125.

  25 ‘I have written myself’: Darwin to Caroline Darwin, 28 April 1831, ibid., p.122; for Spanish expressions, see Darwin to William Darwin Fox, 9 July 1831, ibid., p.124.

  26 Henslow bailed out: Darwin to William Darwin Fox, 1 August 1831, ibid., p.127; see also Browne 2003a, p.135; Thomson 2009, p.131.

  27 FitzRoy looked for naturalist: John Stevens Henslow to Darwin, 24 August 1831, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, pp.128–9.

  28 ‘a wild scheme’: Darwin to Robert Darwin, 31 August 1831, ibid., p.133; see also Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, 30 August 1831; Robert Darwin to Josiah Wedgwood, 30–31 August 1831; Josiah Wedgwood II to Robert Darwin, 31 August 1831, ibid., pp.131–4; Darwin 1958, pp.71–2; Darwin 31 August–1 September 1831, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.3; Browne 2003a, p.152ff.

  29 Darwin’s father savvy investor: Browne 2003a, p.7.

  30 ‘If I saw Charles’: Josiah Wedgwood II to Robert Darwin, 31 August 1831; Darwin’s father agrees to expedition, Robert Darwin to Josiah Wedgwood II, 1 September 1831, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, pp.134–5.

  31 lighter clothes: Darwin, 10 January 1832, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.21; see also Darwin to Robert Darwin, 8 February–1 March 1832, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.202.

  32 crew on Beagle: Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, Appendix III, p.549.

  33 Captain FitzRoy: Browne 2003a, pp.144–9; Thomson 2009, p.139ff.

  34 ‘bordering on insanity’: Darwin 1958, p.73ff.; Darwin to Robert Darwin, 8 February–1 March 1832, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.203; see also Thomson 1995, p.155.

  35 ‘The hold would contain’: Darwin, 23 October 1831, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.8; for Beagle and supplies, see also Browne 2003a, p.169; Darwin to Susan Darwin, 6 September 1831, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.144; Thomson 1995, pp.115, 123, 128.

  36 first landfall Santiago: Darwin, 16 January 1832 and following entries, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.23ff.

  37 ‘perfect hurricane of delight’: Darwin to William Darwin Fox, May 1832, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.232.

  38 ‘heavily laden with’: Darwin, 17 January 1832, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.24.

  39 Darwin like child: Robert FitzRoy to Francis Beaufort, 5 March 1832, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.205, n.1.

  40 ‘like giving to a blind’: Darwin, 16 January 1832, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.23.

  41 ‘if you really want’: Darwin to Robert Darwin, 8 February–1 March 1832; see also Darwin to William Darwin Fox, May 1832, ibid., pp.204, 233.

  42 ‘much struck by the justness’: Darwin, 26 May 1832; see also 6 February, 9 April and 2 June 1832, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, pp.34, 55, 67, 70.

  43 Darwin on Lyell: Darwin 1958, p.77.

  44 Darwin reading rocks at Santiago: Thomson 2009, p.148; Browne 2003a, p.185; see also Darwin 1958, pp.77, 81, 101.

  45 ‘I shall be able to’: Darwin to Robert Darwin, 10 February 1832, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.206; see also Darwin 1958, p.81.

  46 like Arabian Nights: Darwin to Frederick Watson, 18 August 1832, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.260.

  47 ‘My feelings amount’: Darwin to Robert Darwin, 8 February–1 March 1832, ibid., p.204.

  48 ‘I formerly admired Humboldt’: Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, 18 May–16 June 1832 ibid., p.237.

  49 ‘rare union of poetry’: Darwin, 28 February 1832, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.42.

  50 walking in a new world: Darwin to Robert Darwin, 8 February–1 March 1832, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.202ff.

  51 ‘I am at present red-hot’: Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, 18 May–16 June 1832, ibid., p.238.

  52 ‘make a florist go’: Darwin, 1 March 1832, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.43.

  53 ‘I am at present fit’: Darwin, 28 February 1832, ibid., p.42.

  54 ‘a great wanderer’: Darwin to William Darwin Fox, 25 October 1833, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.344.

  55 routine Beagle: Browne 2003a, p.191ff.

  56 ‘everything is so close’: Darwin to Robert Darwin, 8 February–1 March 1832, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.202.

  57 dinner in mess-room and food: Browne 2003a, pp.193, 222.

  58 ‘Philos’ and ‘flycatcher’: Thomson 2009, pp.142–3.

  59 others helped with collections: Browne 2003a, p.225

  60 ‘damned beastly bedevilment’: Thomson 1995, p.156.

  61 collections to Henslow: Browne 2003a, p.230.

  62 Darwin asked for AH’s books: Darwin to Catherine Darwin, 5 July 1832; see also Erasmus Darwin to Darwin, 18 August 1832, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, pp.247, 258.

  63 southern stars: Darwin, 24, 25, 26 March 1832, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.48.

  64 ‘new sensations’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.6, p.69.

  65 ‘very refreshing, after being’: Darwin, 12 February 1835, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.288.

  66 ‘one instant is sufficient’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, p.321.

  67 ‘an earthquake like’: Darwin, 20 February 1835, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.292.

  68 ‘spreads life’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.6, p.8.

  69 Darwin on kelp: Darwin, 1 June 1834, Darwin 1997, pp.228–9.

  70 ‘that you had, probably’: Caroline Darwin to Darwin, 28 October 1833, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.345.

  71 ‘vivid, Humboldt-like’: Herman Kindt to Darwin, 16 September 1864, ibid., vol.12, p.328.

  72 animals Galapagos Islands: Darwin, 17 September 1835, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.353.

  73 ‘There never was a Ship’: Darwin to William Darwin Fox, 15 February 1836, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1. p.491.

  74 ‘most dangerous inclination’: Darwin to Catherine Darwin, 14 February 1836; for dreaming of England, Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, 9 July 1836 and Darwin to Caroline Darwin, 18 July 1836, ibid., pp.490, 501, 503.

  75 longing for horse chestnut: Darwin to Susan Darwin, 4 April 1836, 1, p.503

  76 ‘zig-zag manner’: Ibid.

  77 ‘I hate every wave’: Darwin to William Darwin Fox, 15 February 1836, ibid., p.491.

  78 ‘All mine were taken’: Darwin, after 25 September 1836, Darwin Beagle Diary 2001, p.443.

  79 Beagle arrived at Falmouth: Darwin, 2 October 1836, ibid., p.447.

  80 fields greener: Darwin to Robert FitzRoy, 6 October 1836, Darwin Correspondence, vol.1, p.506.

  81 ‘looking very thin’: Caroline Darwin to Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood, 5 October 1836, ibid., p.504.

  82 Darwin to London: Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, 6 October 1836, ibid., p.507.

  83 Darwin and Geological Society: Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, 9 July 1838, ibid., p.499.

  84 ‘The voyage of the Beagle’: Darwin 1958, p.76.

  85 ‘resemble on a humbler scale’ (footnote): Darwin to Leonard Jenyns, 10 April 1837, Darwin Correspondence, vol.2, p.16.

  86 Darwin worked on journal: Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, 28 March and 18 May 1837; Darwin to Leonard Jenyns, 10 April 1837, ibid., pp.14, 16, 18; Browne 2003a, p.417.

  87 Voyage of the Beagle: Darwin’s account was the third volume of Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, which was a four-volume account of the Beagle voyages written by FitzRoy. Darwin’s volume proved so popular that it was reissued in August 1839 as a separate publication called Journal of Researches. It became known as the Voyage of the Beagle.

  88 ‘for I know no more’: Darwin to John Washington, 1 November 1839, Darwin Correspondence, vol.2, p.241.

  89 ‘they might ever be present’: Darwin to AH, 1 November 1839, ibid., p.240.

  90 ‘excellent and admirable book’: AH to Darwin, 18 September 1839, ibid., pp.425–6.

  91 ‘one of the most remarkable’: AH, 6 September 1839, Journal Geographical Society, 1839, vol.9, p.505.

&n
bsp; 92 ‘Few things in my life’: Darwin to John Washington, 14 October 1839, Darwin Correspondence, vol.2, p.230.

  93 Darwin honoured: Darwin to AH, 1 November 1839, ibid., p.239.

  94 ‘I must with unpardonable’: Darwin to Joseph Hooker, 3–17 February 1844, ibid., vol.3, p.9.

  95 ‘I cannot bear to’: Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, 21 January 1838, ibid., vol.2, p.69.

  96 ‘flurries me’: Darwin to John Stevens Henslow, 14 October 1837; for heart palpitations, see also 20 September 1837, ibid., pp.47, 51–2; Thomson 2009, p.205.

  97 Darwin and transmutation: Darwin started thinking seriously about transmutation in late spring 1837. By July 1837 he began a new notebook devoted to the transmutation of species (Notebook B), Thomson 2009, p.182ff.; see also Darwin, Notebook B, Transmutation of species 1837–38, CUL MS.DAR.121.

  98 Darwin and Galapagos: Thomson 2009, p.180ff

  99 Lamarck and transmutation: Lamarck’s Système des animaux sans vertèbres (1801) and Philosophie zoologique (1809).

  100 row at Académie: between Georges Cuvier and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, see Päßler 2009, p.139ff.; for AH whispering comments, see Louis Agassiz about AH, October–December 1830, Beck 1959, p.123.

  101 ‘gradual transformations of’: AH Aspects 1849, vol.2, p.112; AH Views 2014, p.201; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.2, p.135 (this is not in the German 1808 edition of Views of Nature but similar p.185); already in his Essay on the Geography of Plants, Humboldt had discussed how accidental varieties of plants might have transformed into ‘permanent ones’, AH Geography 2009, p.68.

  102 ‘must also have been subjected’: AH Aspects 1849, vol.2, p.20; AH Views 2014, p.163.; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.2, p.25; see also AH Ansichten 1808, p.185.

  103 ‘key-stone of the’: Darwin to Joseph Dalton Hooker, 10 February 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.140.

  104 similar plants across continents: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, pp.491–5; Darwin highlighted this in his copy.

  105 similar climate not always similar plants: AH Aspects 1849, vol.2, p.112; AH Views 2014, p.201; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.2, p.136.

  106 ‘In Humboldt great work’ (footnote): Darwin, Notebook B, Transmutation of species 1837–38, pp.92, 156, CUL MS.DAR.121.

  107 tigers, birds and crocodiles: Darwin’s copy of AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, pp.180, 183, 221ff. CUL, DAR.LIB:T.301.

  108 ‘like Patagonia’: Ibid., vol.4, pp.336, 384 and vol.5, pp.24, 79, 110.

  109 ‘When studying Geograph’: Ibid., vol.1, endpapers; Darwin, Notebook A, Geology 1837–1839, p.15, CUL DAR127; Darwin, Santiago Notebook, EH1.18, p.123, English Heritage, Darwin Online

  110 ‘Nothing respect to’: Darwin’s copy of AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.6, endpapers, CUL, DAR.LIB:T.301

  111 Darwin and species migration: ibid., vol.1, endpapers; see also Werner 2009, p.77ff.

  112 ‘how transported was’: Darwin’s copy of AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.1, list at back, CUL, DAR.LIB:T.301.

  113 ‘so dispersed’: Ibid., vol.5, p.543.

  114 ‘the investigation of the origin’: Ibid., p.180; see also vol.3, p.496 (Darwin underlined both).

  115 ‘the shape of our’: AH Views 2014, pp.162–3; AH Aspects 1849, vol.2, p.19; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.2, p.24.

  116 ‘veritable rubbish’: Darwin to Joseph Hooker, 10–11 November 1844, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.79.

  117 Darwin read Malthus: Darwin 1958, p.120; Thomson 2009, p.214.

  118 AH on turtle eggs: Darwin’s copy of AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.489, CUL, DAR.LIB:T.301.

  119 ‘a theory by which’: Darwin 1958, p.120.

  120 ‘limit each other’s’: AH Aspects 1849, vol.2, p.114; AH Views 2014, p.202; AH Ansichten 1849, p.138.

  121 ‘long continued contest’: AH Aspects 1849, vol.2, p.114; AH Views 2014, p.202; AH Ansichten 1849, p.138; see also AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.437.

  122 ‘fear each other’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–1829, vol.4, pp.421–2.

  123 ‘two powerful enemies’: Ibid., p.426.

  124 ‘affrighted at this struggle’: Darwin’s copy of AH Personal Narrative 1814–1829, vol.4, p.437; see also vol.5, p.590, CUL, DAR.LIB:T.301.

  125 ‘What hourly carnage’: Ibid., vol.5, p.590

  126 ‘are bound together’: Darwin, 1838, Harman 2009, p.226.

  127 tree of life: Darwin, Notebook B, p.36f, CUL MS.DAR.121.

  128 Darwin marks inspiration to tangled bank: Darwin’s copy of AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, pp.505–6, CUL, DAR.LIB:T.301.

  129 ‘The beasts of the forest’ (footnote): Ibid.

  130 ‘It is interesting to’: Darwin 1859, p.489.

  Chapter 18: Humboldt’s Cosmos

  1 ‘The mad frenzy’: AH to Varnhagen, 27 October 1834, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.15.

  2 ‘book on Nature’: AH to Varnhagen, 24 October 1834, ibid., p.19.

  3 ‘sword in the’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 28 February 1838, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.204.

  4 ‘opus of my life’: AH to Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, 14 July 1833, AH Bessel Letters 1994, p.82.

  5 ‘both heaven and’: AH to Varnhagen, 24 October 1834, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.18; ancient Greek: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.56; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, pp.61–2.

  6 army of helpers: for example Hooker to AH, 4 December 1847 and Robert Brown to AH, 12 August 1834, AH, Gr. Kasten 12, Envelope ‘Geographie der Pflanzen’; list of Polynesian plants from Jules Dumont d’Urville: AH, gr. Kasten 13, no.27, Stabi Berlin NL AH; AH to Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, 20 December 1828 and 14 July 1833, AH Bessel Letters 1994, pp.50–54, 84; AH to P.G. Lejeune Dirichlet, after May 1851, AH Dirichlet Letters 1982, p.93; AH to August Böckh, 14 May 1849, AH Böckh Letters 2011, p.189; Werner 2004, p.159.

  7 Chinese and dairy products: Kark Gützlaff to AH, n.d., AH, kl.Kasten 3b, no.112; for palm species in Nepal, Robert Brown to AH, 12 August 1834, AH, gr. Kasten 12, no.103, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

  8 ‘to pursue one’: AH to Karl Zell, 21 May 1836, Schwarz 2000, no page numbers.

  9 ‘This time you won’t’: Herman Abich about Humboldt, 1853, Beck 1959, p.346; for novelist in Algiers, see Laube 1875, p.334.

  10 ‘the material grows’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 28 February 1838; see also 18 September 1843, AH Cotta Letters 2009, pp.204, 249.

  11 ‘a kind of impossible’: AH to Gauß, 23 March 1847, AH Gauß Letters 1977, p.98.

  12 box with geology material: AH, Gr. Kasten 11, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

  13 chaotic finances, exact research: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 16 April 1852, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.482; AH to Alexander Mendelssohn, 24 December 1853, AH Mendelssohn Letters 2011, p.253.

  14 ‘very important’: AH, gr. Kasten 12, no.96, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

  15 ‘important, to follow up’: AH, gr. Kasten 8, envelope including no.6–11a, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

  16 dried piece of moss: AH, gr. Kasten 12, no.124, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

  17 plants from Himalaya: AH, gr. Kasten 12, no.112, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

  18 ‘Luftmeer’: AH, gr. Kasten 12, envelope including no.32–47 Stabi Berlin NL AH.

  19 material on antiquity: AH, gr Kasten 8, no.124–168, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

  20 tables of temperatures: AH, kl. Kasten 3b, no.121, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

  21 Hebrew poetry: AH, kl. Kasten 3b, no.125, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

  22 ‘loose ends’: Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg, Frankfurt, May 1832, Beck 1959, p.128.

  23 ‘had become frozen’: AH to Heinrich Christian Schumacher, 10 November 1846, AH Schumacher Letters 1979, p.85.

  24 mere ‘picture gallery’: AH to WH, 14 July 1829, AH Letters Russia 2009, p.146.

  25 ‘royal court’: Adolf Bernhard Marx about Humboldt, Beck 1969, p.253.

  26 ‘all turned to him’: Ibid.

  27 listened to every syllable: Sir Charles Hallé, 1840s, Hallé 1896, p.100.

  28 not able to interject
word: Ludwig Börne, 12 October 1830, Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.82.

  29 ‘certain Prussian savant’: Honoré Balzac, Administrative Adventures of a Wonderful Idea, 1834, Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.89.

  30 ‘It was a duet’: Sir Charles Hallé, 1840s, Hallé 1896, p.100.

  31 AH at university: Robert Avé-Lallemant, 1833; Ernst Kossak about AH, December 1834, Beck 1959, pp.134, 141; Emil du Bois-Reymond, 3 August 1883, AH du Bois-Reymond Letters 1997, p.201; Franz Lieber, 14 September 1869, AH Letters USA 2004, p.581.

  32 ‘Alexander is skipping’: Biermann and Schwarz 1999a, p.188.

  33 ‘little, illiterate, and’: AH to Varnhagen, 24 April 1837, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.27.

  34 Wilhelm’s last years and death: Geier 2010, p.298ff.

  35 ‘I never had believed’: AH to Varnhagen, 5 April 1835, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.21.

  36 ‘half of myself’: AH to Jean Antoine Letronne, 18 April 1835, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.183.

  37 ‘Pity me; I am’: AH to Gide, 10 April 1835, ibid.

  38 ‘Everything is bleak’: AH to Bunsen, 24 May 1836, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, pp.35–6.

  39 AH to Paris for research: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 25 December 1844, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.269; AH to Bunsen, 3 October 1847, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.103 and AH to Caroline von Wolzogen, 12 June 1835, Biermann 1987, p.206.

  40 ‘concentrated sunshine’: AH to Heinrich Christian Schumacher, 2 March 1836, AH Schumacher Letters 1979, p.52.

  41 AH’s rounds in Paris: Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.206.

  42 ‘dancing carnivalesque’: AH to Heinrich Christian Schumacher, 2 March 1836, AH Schumacher Letters 1979, p.52.

  43 ‘mobile resources’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 22 June 1833, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.180.

  44 ‘yesterday Pfaueninsel’: Engelmann 1969, p.11.

  45 AH felt like a planet: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 11 January 1835, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.186.

  46 AH’s life at court: AH to P.G. Lejeune Dirichlet, 28 February 1844, AH Dirichlet Letters 1982, p.67.

  47 ‘my best Alexandros’: Friedrich Wilhelm IV to AH, 1 December 1840, AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.181.

  48 AH as ‘dictionary’: Friedrich Daniel Bassermann about AH, 14 November 1848, Beck 1969, p.265.