To C. J. Plumptre 19 August [1873?]1
Down, Beckenham, Kent.
My Dear Sir,
I thank you for your very obliging letter, and for the information in regard to Delsarte’s views respecting the eyes.2 Although it is very easy to deceive one’s self on such a point, yet after reading over what I have said, I cannot think that we are in error.3 Surely the different appearance of the eyes in hectic fever, and during great exhaustion to which Dr. Piderit alludes, cannot be accounted for simply by the position of eyelids and eyebrows.4 Could you not observe the eyes of some one looking grave, and then smiling? I will endeavour to do so.
I remain, my dear Sir, | Yours faithfully, | Charles Darwin.
August 19th.
C. J. Plumptre, Esq.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Piderit, Theodor. 1867. Wissenschaftliches System der Mimik und Physiognomik. Detmold: Klingenberg’sche Buchhandlung.
Plumptre, Charles John. 1876. King’s College lectures on elocution; or, the physiology and culture of voice and speech, and the expression of the emotions by language, countenance, and gesture. New edition. London: T. J. Allman.
Summary
Agrees François Delsarte’s view [that the eyes do not show emotion, only indicate the object of it], is probably wrong.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10581F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles John Plumptre
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Plumptre 1876, pp. 224–5
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10581F,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10581F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24 (Supplement)