1871.] 'PRIMITIVE CULTURE.' 151 



Hesperiadae, which display their wings differently, according to 

 which surface is coloured. I cannot believe that such display 

 is accidental and purposeless. . . . 



No fact of your letter has interested me more than that 

 about mimicry. It is a capital fact about the males pursuing 

 the wrong females. You put the difficulty of the first steps in 

 imitation in a most striking and convincing manner. Your 

 idea of sexual selection having aided protective imitation 

 interests me greatly, for the same idea had occurred to me in 

 quite different cases, viz. the dulness of all animals in the 

 Galapagos Islands, Patagonia, &c, and in some other cases ; 

 but I was afraid even to hint at such an idea. Would you 

 object to my giving some such sentence as follows : " F 

 Miiller suspects that sexual selection may have come into 

 play, in aid of protective imitation, in a very peculiar manner, 

 which will appear extremely improbable to those who do not 

 fully believe in sexual selection. It is that the appreciation 

 of certain colour is developed in those species which frequently 

 behold other species thus ornamented." Again let me thank 

 you cordially for your most interesting letter. . . . 



C. Darwin to E. B. Tylor* 



Down [Sept. 24, 1871]. 



My DEAR Sir, — I hope that you will allow me to have the 

 pleasure of telling you how greatly I have been interested by 

 your ' Primitive Culture,' now that I have finished it. It seems 

 to me a most profound work, which will be certain to have 

 permanent value, and to be referred to for years to come. It 

 is wonderful how you trace animism from the lower races up 

 to the religious belief of the highest races. It will make me 

 for the future look at religion — a belief in the soul, &c. — from 

 a new point of view. How curious, also, are the survivals or 



, * Keeper of the Museum, and Reader in Anthropology at Oxford. 



