To George Harris 4 October [1872]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Oct. 4th
Dear Sir
I am much obliged for your very courteous letter & kind present of your Theory of the Arts.—2 I hope soon to read it, but the part about Expression cannot aid me in my work, as my book has been printed some months, though it will not be published until Mr Murray’s season in November.3
I shall feel it my duty & an honour to give you any zoological information in my power, whenever you may think fit to write; but I must mention that I have very little spare strength, from being much out of health. I am compelled to leave home tomorrow morning for 3 weeks in order to get some rest.4
I thank you for your kind offer of books. I have read long ago White’s Gradation,5 & I doubt whether the others would be worth my reading, as my reading powers are now very limited.
When my little book on Expression is published, I will do myself the pleasure of sending you a copy;6 but whether the manner in which I have treated the subject, will at all interest you—I really do not know.—
With my best thanks | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully Ch. Darwin
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.
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
Harris, George. 1869. Theory of the arts: or, art in relation to nature, civilization, and man; comprising an investigation, analytical and critical, into the origin, rise, province, principles, and application of each of the arts. 2 vols. London: Trübner and Co.
White, Charles. 1799. An account of the regular gradation in man, and in different animals and vegetables; and from the former to the latter. London: C. Dilly.
Summary
Thanks GH for his Theory of the ants [1869] and offers to supply any zoological information that he can.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8541
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George Harris
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- University of California Los Angeles, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division (Ms. 10, Letters concerning George Harris’s A Philosophical Treatise on the Nature and Constitution of Man)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8541,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8541.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20