ch. xiv.] 18611871. 295 



did not afterwards sell so rapidly, and thus a mass of notes 

 collected by the author was never employed for a second 

 edition during his lifetime.* 



As usual he had no belief in the possibility of the book 

 being generally successful. The following passage in a let- 

 ter to Haeckel serves to show that he had felt the writing 

 of this book as a somewhat severe strain : 



" I have finished my little book on Expression, and 

 when it is published in November I will of course send you 

 a copy, in case you would like to read it for amusement. I 

 have resumed some old botanical work, and perhaps I shall 

 never again attempt to discuss theoretical views. 



" I am growing old and weak, and no man can tell when 

 his intellectual powers begin to fail. Long life and happi- 

 ness to you for your own sake and for that of science." 



A good review by Mr. Wallace appeared in the Quarter- 

 ly Journal of Science, Jan. 1873. Mr. Wallace truly re- 

 marks that the book exhibits certain " characteristics of the 

 author's mind in an eminent degree," namely, " the insati- 

 able longing to discover the causes of the varied and com- 

 plex phenomena presented by living things." He adds that 

 in the case of the author " the restless curiosity of the child 

 to know the ' what for ? ' the ' why ? ' and the ' how ? ' of 

 everything " seems " never to have abated its force." 



The publication of the Expression book was the occasion 

 of the following letter to one of his oldest friends, the late 

 Mrs. Haliburton, who was the daughter of a Shropshire 

 neighbour, Mr. Owen of Woodhouse, and became the wife 

 of the author of Sam Slick. 



Nov. 1, 1872. 



My dear Mrs. Haliburtox, I dare say you will be 

 surprised to hear from me. My object in writing now is to 

 say that I have just published a book on the Expression of 

 the Emotions in Man and Animals ; and it has occurred to 

 me that you might possibly like to read some parts of it ; 

 and I can hardly think that this would have been the case 

 with any of the books which I have already published. So 

 I send by this post my present book. Although I have had 

 no communication with you or the other members of your 

 family for so long a time, no scenes in my whole life pass so 

 frequently or so vividly before my mind as those which re- 



* They were utilised to some extent in the 2nd edition, edited by me, and 

 published in 18'JO. F. D. 

 20 



