Ch. XIV.] 1861—1871. 279 



lessens the glory of Natural Selection, and is so confoundedly 

 doubtful. Perhaps I shall change again when I get all my 

 facts under one point of view, and a pretty hard job this 

 will be." 



Reference has already been made to the growth of his book 

 on the Expression of the Emotions out of a projected chapter in 

 the Descent of Man, 



It was published in the autumn of 1872. The edition con- 

 sisted of 7000, and of these 5267 copies were sold at Mr. 

 Murray's sale in November. Two thousand were printed at 

 the end of the year, and this proved a misfortune, as they 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 letter 

 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. 



"lam growing old and weak, and no man can tell when his 

 intellectual powers begin to fail. Long life and happiness to 

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



A good review by Mr. Wallace appeared in the Quarterly 

 Journal of Science y Jan. 1873. Mr. Wallace truly remarks that 

 the book exhibits certain "characteristics of the author's mind in 

 an eminent degree," namely, " the insatiable longing to discover 

 the causes of the varied and complex 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 

 1 why ? ' and the 4 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. Haliburton, — I dare say you will be surprised 

 to hear from me. My object in writing now is to say that I 



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

 and published in 1890.— F. D. 



