Gould on Marx and Darwin

Another friend of mine sent this to me about Stephen Jay Gould's
thoughts on Marx and Darwin:

--

Stephen Jay Gould had this to say in Ever Since Darwin:


The most ardent materialists of the nineteenth century, Marx and Engels,

were quick to recognize what Darwin had accomplished and to exploit its
radical content.  In 1869, Marx wrote to Engels about Darwin's Origin
(of
Species):

"Although it is developed in the crude English style, this is the book
which
contains the basis in natural history for our view."

Marx later offered to dedicate Volume 2 of Das Kapital to Darwin, but
Darwin
gently declined, stating that he did not want to imply approval of a
work he
had not read.  (I have seen Darwin's copy of volume I in his library at
Down
House.  It is inscribed by Marx who calls himself a "sincere admirer" of

Darwin.  Its pages are uncut.  Darwin was no devotee of the German
language.)

Darwin was, indeed, a gentle revolutionary.  Not only did he delay his
work
for so long, but he also assiduously avoided any public statement about
the
philosophical implications of his theory.  In 1880, he wrote to Karl
Marx:

"It seems to me (rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against
Christianity and Theism hardly              have any effect on the
public;
and that freedom of thought will best be promoted by that gradual
enlightening of human understanding which follows the progress of
science.
I have therefore always avoided writing about religion and have confined

myself to science."