134 



'DESCENT OF MAN' — EXPRESSION. 



[I8;i. 



began to write it. Thus he wrote to Dr. Asa Gray, April 15, 

 1867:— 



" I have been lately getting up and looking over my old 

 notes on Expression, and fear that I shall not make so much 

 of my hobby-horse as I thought I could ; nevertheless, it 

 seems to me a curious subject which has been strangely 

 neglected." 



It should, however, be remembered that the subject had 

 been before his mind, more or less, from 1837 or : ^3^j as 

 I judge from entries in his early note-books. It was in 

 December 1839, that he began to make observations on 

 children. 



The work required much correspondence, not only with 

 missionaries and others living among savages, to whom he 

 sent his printed queries, but among physiologists and phy- 

 sicians. He obtained much information from Professor 

 Donders, Sir W. Bowman, Sir James Paget, Dr. W. Ogle, 

 Dr. Crichton Browne, as well as from other observers. 



The first letter refers to the ' Descent of Man.'] 



C. Darwin to A. R. Wallace. 



Down, January 30 [187 1]. 

 My DEAR Wallace, — Your note * has given me very great 

 pleasure, chiefly because I was so anxious not to treat you 



* In the note referred to, dated 

 January 27, Mr. Wallace wrote : — 

 " Many thanks for your first volume 

 which I have just finished reading 

 through with the greatest pleasure 

 and interest ; and I have also to 

 thank you for the great tenderness 

 with which you have treated me 

 and my heresies." 



The heresy is the limitation of 

 natural selection as applied to man. 

 My father wrote (' Descent of 

 Man,' i. p. 137):—" I cannot there- 

 fore understand how it is that Mr. 



Wallace maintains that ' natural 

 selection could only have endowed 

 the savage with a brain a little 

 superior to that of an ape.' " In 

 the above quoted letter Mr. Wallace 

 wrote : — " Your chapters on ' Man ' 

 are of intense interest, but as touch- 

 ing my special heresy not as yet 

 altogether convincing, though of 

 course I fully agree with every word 

 and every argument which goes to 

 prove the evolution or development 

 of man out of a lower form." 



