To W. D. Whitney 5 August 1874
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. [Bassett, Southampton.]
Aug 5 1874
Dear Sir
I am particularly obliged to you for having sent me your essay— It seems to me most clearly reasoned, & by far the best argument against Max Müller’s views which has ever appeared.1 I heartily wish I had read it 2 or 3 months ago, as I cd have quoted several passages with great advantage in a new ed. of my Descent of Man; but the part in question has been printed off. I have however quoted from one of your previous works, your judgment on the main question, & have added a few remarks of my own, but they are quite feeble compared with yours.2 I have been the more gratified by your article, as in the July number of our Quarterly there is an abusive attack on my short discussion on language; & your essay is so splendid an answer to it, that I have tried to get it reprinted in the Contemporary, but the Ed. is unwilling to break through his fixed rule of not republishing any thing.3
Dear Sir yours faithfully & obliged— | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent 2d ed.: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. London: John Murray. 1874.
[Mivart, St George Jackson.] 1874b. Primitive man: Tylor and Lubbock. [Essay review of the works of John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor.] Quarterly Review 137 (1874): 40–77.
Müller, Hermann. 1873. Die Befruchtung der Blumen durch Insekten und die gegenseitigen Anpassungen beider. Ein Beitrag zur Erkenntniss des ursächlichen Zusammenhanges in der organischen Natur. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.
Whitney, William Dwight. 1874. Darwinism and language. [Essay review of works by August Schleicher and Friedrich Max Müller.] North American Review 119: 61–88.
Summary
Praises WDW’s essay on language [North Am. Rev. 119 (1874): 61–88] which argues against Max Müller’s views and is a good defence against an attack made in Quarterly Review on CD’s short discussion of language.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9583
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Dwight Whitney
- Sent from
- Bassett Down letterhead
- Source of text
- Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (William Dwight Whitney Family Papers (MS 555) Box 21, folder 556 1874 Aug 1–12)
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9583,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9583.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22