Once again allow me to thank you for having sent me your work, and for the very unusual amount of pleasure which I have received in reading it.
With much respect, I remain, my dear Sir,
Yours very sincerely, CHARLES DARWIN.
[The last revise of the 'Expression of the Emotions' was finished on August 22nd, 1872, and he wrote in his Diary:--"Has taken me about twelve months." As usual he had no belief in the possibility of the book being generally successful. The following passage in a letter to Haeckel gives the impression 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.
"I am 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."
It was published in the autumn. The edition consisted 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.
Among the reviews of the 'Expression of the Emotions' may be mentioned the unfavourable notices in the "Athenaeum", November 9, 1872, and the "Times", December 13, 1872. A good review by Mr. Wallace appeared in the 'Quarterly Journal of Science,' January 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 'why?' and the 'how?' of everything" seems "never to have abated its force."
A writer in one of the theological reviews describes the book as the most "powerful and insidious" of all the author's works.
Professor Alexander Bain criticised the book in a postscript to the 'Senses and the Intellect;' to this essay the following letter refers:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO ALEXANDER BAIN. Down, October 9, 1873.
My dear Sir,
I am particularly obliged to you for having send me your essay. Your criticisms are all written in a quite fair spirit, and indeed no one who knows you or your works would expect anything else. What you say about the vagueness of what I have called the direct action of the nervous system, is perfectly just. I felt it so at the time, and even more of late. I confess that I have never been able fully to grasp your principle of spontaneity, as well as some other of your points, so as to apply them to special cases. But as we look at everything from different points of view, it is not likely that we should agree closely. (Professor Bain expounded his theory of Spontaneity in the essay here alluded to. It would be impossible to do justice to it within the limits of a foot-note. The following quotations may give some notion of it:--
"By Spontaneity I understand the readiness to pass into movement in the absence of all stimulation whatever; the essential requisite being that the nerve-centres and muscles shall be fresh and vigorous...The gesticulations and the carols of young and active animals are mere overflow of nervous energy; and although they are very apt to concur with pleasing emotion, they have an independent source...They are not properly movements of expression; they express nothing at all except an abundant stock of physical power.")
I have been greatly pleased by what you say about the crying expression and about blushing. Did you read a review in a late 'Edinburgh?' (The review on the 'Expression of the Emotions' appeared in the April number of the 'Edinburgh Review,' 1873.