To T. H. Huxley 21 February [1868]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Feb 21st | Thursday
My dear Huxley
I received the Jermyn St. programme,2 but have hardly yet considered it, for I was all day on sofa on Tuesday & Wednesday. Bad though I was, I thought with constant pleasure of your very great kindness in offering to read the proofs of my essay on man.3 I do not know whether I said anything which might have appeared like a hint, but I assure you that such a thought had never even momentarily passed through my mind.—
Your offer has just made all the difference, that I can now write, whether or no my essay is ever printed, with a feeling of satisfaction instead of vague dread.—
Yours gratefully | Ch. Darwin
Beg my colleague Mrs. Huxley not to forget the corrugator supercilii: it will not be easy to catch the exact moment when the child is only on the point of crying & is struggling against the wrinkling up its little eyes, for then I shd. expect the corrugator, from being little under the command of the will, would come into play in checking or stopping of the wrinkling. An explosion of tears would tell nothing.—4
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Summary
THH’s offer to read proof of essay on man encourages CD to write with satisfaction instead of a vague dread.
Begs Mrs Huxley not to forget corrugator supercilii in a crying child.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5408
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Henry Huxley
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 260)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5408,” accessed on 31 August 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5408.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16