Editing Erasmus Darwin (section)

== Writings ==

=== Botanical works and the Lichfield Botanical Society ===
[[File:Portrait detail, Erasmus Darwin. Stipple engraving by Holl, 1803, after J. Ra Wellcome V0006492 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Erasmus Darwin in stipple engraving by Holl, 1803, after J. Rawlinson]]
Darwin formed 'A Botanical Society, at Lichfield' almost always incorrectly named as the Lichfield Botanical Society (despite the name, composed of only three men, Erasmus Darwin, [[Sir Brooke Boothby]] and Mr John Jackson, [[proctor]] of [[Lichfield Cathedral]]<ref group="notes">fl.&nbsp;1740s–1790s. Also Bookseller and Printer in Lichfield. When Darwin left Lichfield in 1781, Jackson took over his botanical garden. {{harv|Desmond|1994|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=thmPzIltAV8C&pg=PA377 Jackson, John p.&nbsp;377]}} {{harv|Seward|1804|loc=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_2fQ0AAAAMAAJ/page/n85 p.&nbsp;70]}} His daughter, Miss Mary A(nn) Jackson of Lichfield {{harv|Britten|Boulger|1889|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=b9lCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA180 p.&nbsp;180]}} (fl. 1830s–1840s), was a botanical illustrator, {{harv|Desmond|1994|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=thmPzIltAV8C&pg=PA377 Jackson, Mary Ann p.&nbsp;377]}} and author of ''Botanical Terms illustrated'' (1842) and ''Pictorial Flora'' (1840)</ref>){{sfn|Uglow|2002a}}{{sfn|Uglow|2002b}} to translate the works of the Swedish botanist [[Carl Linnaeus]] from Latin into English. This took seven years. The result was two publications: ''A System of Vegetables'' between 1783 and 1785, and ''The Families of Plants'' in 1787. In these volumes, Darwin coined many of the English names of plants that we use today.{{sfn|George|2014}}

Darwin then wrote ''[[The Loves of the Plants]],'' a long poem, which was a popular rendering of Linnaeus'  works. Darwin also wrote ''[[Economy of Vegetation]]'', and together the two were published as ''[[The Botanic Garden]]''. Among other writers he influenced were [[Anna Seward]] and [[Maria Jacson]].

=== ''Zoonomia'' ===
Darwin's most important scientific work, ''[[Zoonomia]]'' (1794–1796), contains a system of [[pathology]] and a chapter on '[[Generation]]'. In the latter, he anticipated some of the views of [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck]], which foreshadowed the modern theory of [[evolution]]. Erasmus Darwin's works were read and commented on by his grandson [[Charles Darwin]] the naturalist. Erasmus Darwin based his theories on [[David Hartley (philosopher)|David Hartley]]'s psychological theory of [[associationism]].<ref>Allen, Richard C. 1999. ''David Hartley on human nature.'' Albany, N.Y.: [[SUNY Press]]. {{ISBN|0-7914-4233-0}}</ref> The essence of his views is contained in the following passage, which he follows up with the conclusion that one and the same kind of living filament is and has been the cause of all organic life:

<blockquote>Would it be too bold to imagine, that in the great length of time, since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind, would it be too bold to imagine, that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which <small>THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE</small> endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irritations, sensations, volitions, and associations; and thus possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down those improvements by generation to its posterity, world without end!<ref name="Zoonomia">{{cite web| url = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15707/15707-h/15707-h.htm#sect_XXXIX| title = Erasmus Darwin, ''Zoonomia'': Project Gutenberg text XXXIX.4.8}}</ref> </blockquote>

Erasmus Darwin also anticipated survival of the fittest in ''Zoönomia'' mainly when writing about the "three great objects of desire" for every organism: "lust, hunger, and security."<ref name="Zoonomia" /> A similar "survival of the fittest" view in ''Zoönomia'' is Erasmus' view on how a species "should" propagate itself. Erasmus' idea that "the strongest and most active animal should propagate the species, which should thence become improved".<ref name="Zoonomia" /> Today, this is called the theory of [[survival of the fittest]]. His grandson Charles Darwin posited the different and fuller theory of natural selection. Charles' theory was that natural selection is the inheritance of changed genetic characteristics that are better adaptations to the environment; these are not necessarily based in "strength" and "activity", which themselves ironically can lead to the overpopulation that results in natural selection yielding nonsurvivors of genetic traits.

Erasmus Darwin was familiar with the earlier proto-evolutionary thinking of [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo]], and cited him in his 1803 work ''Temple of Nature.''

=== Poem on evolution ===
Erasmus Darwin offered the first glimpse of his theory of evolution, obliquely, in a question at the end of a long footnote to his popular poem ''The Loves of the Plants'' (1789), which was republished throughout the 1790s in several editions as ''[[The Botanic Garden]]''. His poetic concept was to anthropomorphise the [[stamen]] (male) and [[pistil]] (female) sexual organs, as bride and groom. In this stanza on the flower Curcuma (also Flax and Turmeric) the "youths" are infertile, and he devotes the footnote to other examples of neutered organs in flowers, insect castes, and finally associates this more broadly with many popular and well-known cases of vestigial organs (male nipples, the third and fourth wings of flies, etc.)

{{Poemquote|
Woo'd with long care, CURCUMA cold and shy
Meets her fond husband with averted eye:
''Four'' beardless youths the obdurate beauty move
With soft attentions of Platonic love.
}}

Darwin's final long poem, ''The Temple of Nature'', was published posthumously in 1803. The poem was originally titled ''The Origin of Society''. It is considered his best poetic work. It centres on his own conception of [[evolution]]. The poem traces the progression of life from micro-organisms to civilised society. The poem contains a passage that describes the [[struggle for existence]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Zirkle |first=Conway |author-link=Conway Zirkle |date=25 April 1941 |title=Natural Selection before the 'Origin of Species' |journal=[[Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society]] | volume=84 |issue=1 |pages=71–123 |jstor=984852 |issn=0003-049X}}</ref>

His poetry was admired by [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]], while [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]] was intensely critical, writing, "I absolutely nauseate Darwin's poem".{{sfn|Uglow|2002b}}
It often made reference to his interests in science; for example botany and [[steam engine]]s.

=== Education of women ===
The last two leaves of Darwin's ''A plan for the conduct of female education in boarding schools'' (1797) contain a book list, an apology for the work, and an advert for "Miss Parkers School".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/planforconductof00darwrich|title=A plan for the conduct of female education, in boarding schools, private families, and public seminaries.|last=Darwin|first=Erasmus|date=1798|publisher=Philadelphia: : Printed by John Ormrod, no. 41, Chesnut-Street.|others=University of California Libraries}}</ref>

The school advertised on the last page is the one he set up in [[Ashbourne, Derbyshire]], for his two illegitimate children, Susanna and Mary.

Darwin regretted that a good education had not been generally available to women in Britain in his time, and drew on the ideas of [[John Locke|Locke]], [[Rousseau]], and [[Stéphanie Félicité du Crest de Saint-Aubin|Genlis]] in organising his thoughts. Addressing the education of middle-class girls, Darwin argued that amorous romance novels were inappropriate and that they should seek simplicity in dress. He contends that young women should be educated in schools, rather than privately at home, and learn appropriate subjects. These subjects include physiognomy, physical exercise, botany, chemistry, mineralogy, and [[natural philosophy|experimental philosophy]]. They should familiarise themselves with arts and manufactures through visits to sites like [[Coalbrookdale]], and Wedgwood's potteries; they should learn how to handle money, and study modern languages. Darwin's educational philosophy took the view that men and women should have different capabilities, skills, interests, and spheres of action, where the woman's education was designed to support and serve male accomplishment and financial reward, and to relieve him of daily responsibility for children and the chores of life.<ref>[[Dictionary of National Biography|DNB]] entry for Erasmus Darwin. Oxford.</ref> In the context of the times, this program may be read as a modernising influence in the sense that the woman was at least to learn about the "man's world", although not be allowed to participate in it. The text was written seven years after [[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]] by [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], which has the central argument that women should be educated in a rational manner to give them the opportunity to contribute to society.

Some women of Darwin's era were receiving more substantial education and participating in the broader world. An example is [[Susanna Wright]], who was raised in Lancashire and became an American colonist associated with the Midlands Enlightenment. It is not known whether Darwin and Wright knew each other, although they definitely knew many people in common. Other women who received substantial education and who participated in the broader world (albeit sometimes anonymously) whom Darwin definitely knew were [[Maria Jacson]] and [[Anna Seward]].