352 * DESCENT OF MAN '—EXPRESSION. [1872. 



C. Darwin to Mrs. Halibiirton.* 



Down, November i [1872]. 



My dear Mrs. Haliburton, — 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 fre- 

 quently or so vividly before my mind as those which relate 

 to happy old days spent at Woodhouse. I should very much 

 like to hear a little news about yourself and the other mem- 

 bers of your family, if you will take the trouble to write to 

 me. Formerly I used to glean some news about you from my 

 sisters. 



I have had many years of bad health and have not been 

 able to visit anywhere ; and now I feel very old. As long as 

 I pass a perfectly uniform life, I am able to do some daily 

 work in Natural History, which is still my passion, as it was 

 in old days, when you used to laugh at me for collecting 

 beetles with such zeal at Woodhouse. Excepting from my 

 continued ill-health, which has excluded me from society, my 

 life has been a very happy one ; the greatest drawback being 



use of such expressions as "dogmatism," "intolerance," "presumptuous," 

 " arrogant." Together with accusations of such various faults a " virtual 

 abandonment of the inductive method," and the use of slang and vulgar- 

 isms. 



The part of the article which seems to have interested my father is the 

 discussion on the use which he ought to have made of painting and 

 sculpture. 



* Mrs. Haliburton was a daughter of my father's old friend, Mr. Owen 

 of Woodhouse. Her husband. Judge Haliburton, was the well-known 

 author of * Sam Slick.* 



