1860-1882] DESCENT OF MAN 41 



To Francis Galton. Letter 410 



Down, Dec. 23rd [1870?]. 



I have only read about fifty pages of your book (to the 

 Judges), 1 but I must exhale myself, else something will go 

 wrong in my inside. I do not think I ever in all my life 

 read anything more interesting and original. And how well 

 and clearly you put every point ! George, who has finished 

 the book, and who expressed himself just in the same terms, 

 tells me the earlier chapters are nothing in interest to the 

 later ones! It will take me some time to get to these later 

 chapters, as it is read aloud to me by my wife, who is also 

 much interested. You have made a convert of an opponent 

 in one sense, for I have always maintained that, excepting 

 fools, men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and 

 hard work ; and I still think [this] is an eminently important 

 difference. I congratulate you on producing what I am 

 convinced will prove a memorable work. I look forward 

 with intense interest to each reading, but it sets me thinking 

 so much that I find it very hard work ; but that is wholly the 

 fault of my brain, and not of your beautifully clear style. 



To W. R. Greg. 2 Letter 411 



March 2ist [1871 ?]. 



Many thanks for your note. I am very glad indeed to 

 read remarks made by a man who possesses such varied and 

 odd knowledge as you do, and who is so acute a reasoner. I 

 have no doubt that you will detect blunders of many kinds in 

 my book. 3 Your MS. on the proportion of the sexes at birth 

 seems to me extremely curious, and I hope that some day 

 you will publish it. It certainly appears that the males are 

 decreasing in the London districts, and a most strange fact it 

 is. Mr. Graham, however, I observe in a note enclosed, does 

 not seem inclined to admit your conclusion. I have never 



1 Hereditary Genius : an Inquiry into its Laws and Conseqiiences, 

 by Francis Galton, London, 1869. "The Judges of England between 

 1660 and 1865" is the heading of a section of this work (p. 55). See 

 Descent of Man (1901), p. 41. 



2 Author of The Enigmas of Life, 1872. 



3 The Descent of Man, 



