Dear Marion,

Michael Joseph Donovan, the Clerk of the Civil Division
of the Suffolk Superior Court is dragging his feet about
assembling the records of Meyer v. Nantucket Building
Department et al., SUCV2008-05664, - and until he does
so the Appeal won't be docketed and the fifty days allotted
to me for filing my Brief and Record Appendix will not 
have started to run. That was my excuse for taking the time
to sneak a look at the rather lengthy essay about Charles
Darwin in Wikipedia, and although I haven't begun to learn
all I need to know, I can't resist the impulse to write
down the thoughts that come to mind, and I suppose until
you stop telling me that you enjoy reading e-mail from
me, I'll keep sending you my ruminations, no matter how
raw, half-baked, or overdone they may turn out to be.

The essay confirmed what I thought I had remembered about
the origin of The Origin of Species and natural selection:

"Continuing his research in London, Darwin's wide reading
now included the sixth edition of Malthus's An Essay on
the Principle of Population

"In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun
my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement
Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate
the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from
long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants,
it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable
variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones
to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of
new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which
to work...""

Perhaps then, my surmise that underlying Darwin's theory was
reflection and concern with human affairs, was not too far off
the mark; and once in human territory, the first person singular,
it seems to me, becomes inescapable. I was impressed also by the
contrast of Darwin with Kierkegaard, (who was 4 years his junior),
and for that matter with Spinoza, in that Kierkegaard's and Spinoza's
thought was nurtured in seclusion and isolation, whereas Darwin,
judging at least from the Wikipedia essay, was intellectually
very gregarious, and the success of his ideas was very much a
consequence of their immediate acceptance by a critical mass
of his contemporaries, in contrast to Spinoza and Kierkegaard
the significance of whose thought was discovered only after their
deaths.  I have the impression that from its very inception,
Darwinism was very much a public, if not indeed a popular movement,
with some of the social, literary and intellectual qualities of
journalism; a fact which seems to corroborate my hypothesis that
"objective" thought is inherently public and social, as opposed
to the separateness and seclusion of "subjective" ideas. Although
Darwin himself may have skirted the theological implications of
his theories, reading between the lines of the Wikipedia essay,
I get the impression that these theories were carried to the acme
of influence on a wave of religious revisionism. In the second
half of the 19th century, I think, traditional religion was being
widely superseded by beliefs in science. If contemporary historians
credit Darwin with the paternity of modern biology, they do so,
if I understand correctly, not because of the uniqueness of his
contributions, but because the public celebrated - and still
celebrates him - as a latter day Martin Luther who stands at
the threshold of modern secular thought. The persistence of the
Evolution vs Creationism controversy into our own day, would
seem to strengthen that hypothesis.

Klemens came over last night to look at some of his grandparents'
transatlantic correspondence. He proposes to digitize it, and to
try to manipulate the graphic images to enhance the very poor
contrast which makes them legible only with difficulty. While
glancing at various of the letters, I found one which touched
me in particular. It was from my father, addressed to my mother,
dated December 25, 1938, and described your parents' care and
concern and affection for him at Christmas time. Under the tree,
he found a notebook diary for 1939, a book in English about an
immigrant physician, and 200 cigarettes, and Georg, when they
all visited there later that day, made him a gift of another
two hundred. Then another wave of embarrassment for my parents'
inability to acknowledge and reciprocate your parents' efforts
swept over me.

And now back to my legal composition.

Jochen