To L. H. Morgan 11 August [1870]1
Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.
Aug. 11th
Dear Sir
I am much obliged for your extremely kind letter & your present of the concluding chapter, which I am sure I shall read with the greatest interest.2 In one respect it is fortunate for me that you are compelled to leave England so soon, for I shd. have been much disappointed at not being able to receive you here, & this I could not have done, as I am pledged to a visit for 10 days or a fortnight to a friend, & we all leave home very early on Saturday morning.3
I fully agree with your remarks on the extreme importance of studying the habits & institutions, if they can be so called, of savages. I have had lately to attend a little to this subject, as I have sent my M.S. to the Printers for a work on the “Descent of man”; but I have chiefly to treat of veritably primeval times before man was fully man.—4
With much respect for your admirable investigations, believe me | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Summary
Thanks LHM for concluding chapter [to Systems of consanguinity and affinity of the human family (1871)]. Agrees that it is important to study the habits and institutions of savages.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7300
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Lewis Henry Morgan
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- University of Rochester Libraries, Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7300,” accessed on 23 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7300.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18
