To T. H. Huxley 18 January 1879
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Jan 18th 1879
My dear Huxley
I have just finished your present of the life of Hume, & must thank you for the great pleasure which it has given me.—1 Your discussions are, as it seems to me, clear to a quite marvellous degree, & many of the little interspersed flashes of wit are delightful. I particularly enjoyed the pithy judgment in about 5 words on Comte.—2 Notwithstanding the clearness of every sentence, the subjects are in part so difficult, that I found them stiff reading. I fear, therefore, that it will be too stiff for the general public; but I heartily hope that this will prove to be a mistake, & in this case the intelligence of the public will be greatly exalted in my eyes.
The writing of this book must have been awfully hard work, I should think.
My dear Huxley | Ever yours | Ch. Darwin
George has paid a visit to Mr Rich & liked the old gentleman much. They talked incessantly for about 24 hours— Mr R. seems to have enjoyed your visit hugely.—3
Footnotes
if M. Comte had been asked what he meant by “physiologie cérébrale,” except that which other people call “psychology;” and how he knew anything about the functions of the brain, except by that very “observation intérieure,” which he declares to be an absurdity—it seems probable that he would have found it hard to escape the admission, that, in vilipending psychology, he had been propounding solemn nonsense.
Bibliography
Huxley, Thomas Henry. 1879. Hume. London: Macmillan and Co.
Summary
Has read Hume with great pleasure, but found parts very stiff reading.
George Darwin has visited Anthony Rich.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11834
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Henry Huxley
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 333)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11834,” accessed on 30 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11834.xml