Summary

CD thanks CW for long, interesting letter; hopes the ideas will be worked into an essay some day.

Suggests dates for a proposed visit and gives instructions for reaching Down.

Summary

Recommends J. C. Houzeau’s Études sur les facultés mentales des animaux [1872].

Was glad to make CW’s acquaintance.

Summary

Arranges to visit CD at Down.

Summary

Discusses the mental powers and habits of animals and considers that those of man are not separated from those of animals by any sort of fundamental barrier; the gulf seems formidable only from a self-conscious, human point of view. Man’s important distinction is his greater ability to act and respond independently of external stimuli, in consequence of his internal accumulation of personal experience.

Summary

Discusses ideas on the development of language; agrees with CD that it is a process governed by unconscious selection; he considers it analogous to unconscious selection of domestic animals by savages. Remarks on the differing views of Max Müller and W. D. Whitney regarding the origin of language and its development. Comments on the extent to which unintentional effects can be ascribed directly to the agency of free intelligent wills.