First edition, association copy of famed English philosopher Herbert Spencer’s classic work on the evolution of society; presented and inscribed by him to Charles Darwin. Octavo, original publisher’s cloth with gilt titles to the spine, dark green endpapers. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, “Charles Darwin with the Author’s kind regards.” English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist Herbert Spencer invented the expression “survival of the fittest” which he coined in his Principles of Biology (1864) after reading Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859). A description of the mechanism of natural selection, in Principles of Biology, Spencer drew parallels between his own economic theories and Darwin’s biological ones: “This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called ‘natural selection’, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.” Darwin responded positively to Alfred Russel Wallace’s suggestion of using Spencer’s new phrase “survival of the fittest” as an alternative to “natural selection”, and adopted the phrase in The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication published in 1868. In On the Origin of Species, he introduced the phrase in the fifth edition published in 1869, intending it to mean “better designed for an immediate, local environment” (Gould). Darwin wrote on page 6 of The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication published in 1868, “This preservation, during the battle for life, of varieties which possess any advantage in structure, constitution, or instinct, I have called Natural Selection; and Mr. Herbert Spencer has well expressed the same idea by the Survival of the Fittest. The term ‘natural selection’ is in some respects a bad one, as it seems to imply conscious choice; but this will be disregarded after a little familiarity.” He defended his analogy as similar to language used in chemistry, and to astronomers depicting the “attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets”, or the way in which “agriculturists speak of man making domestic races by his power of selection.” Spencer and Darwin were occasional correspondents and would regularly send each other copies of their latest works. Accompanied by an autograph letter signed by Charles Darwin’s great grandson, Edward Darwin, gifting the book to a relative dated November 27th 1969. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box by the Harcourt Bindery. Books from Darwin’s library are very rare to the market.
