To W. E. Gladstone 25 October [1877]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Oct. 25.
My dear Sir
I send by this post the two numbers. At p. 264, you will find the criticism & at 423 Dr. Magnus’ answer, & at p 376 my few words on infants.2
The subject seems to me an extremely curious one, whatever the explanation may be. A missionary could say whether low savages have names for shades of colour. I shd. expect that they have not, & this wd. be remarkable for the Indians of Chiloe & Tierra del Fuego have names for every slight promontory & hill,—even to a marvellous degree.—
I beg leave to remain with great respect, Yours faithfully Ch. Darwin
Will you please direct your Secretary to return the numbers, when you have quite finished with them.
Footnotes
Bibliography
‘Biographical sketch of an infant’: A biographical sketch of an infant. By Charles Darwin. Mind 2 (1877): 285–94. [Shorter publications, pp. 409–16.]
Summary
Sends WEG the two articles [see 11163] with references.
CD thinks savages do not have names for shades of colours, which is curious since those he has known have names for every slight promontory or hill.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11207
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Ewart Gladstone
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The British Library (Add MS 44455: 210)
- Physical description
- ALS 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11207,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11207.xml
