Ɛpsilon

From Hyde Clarke   27 December 1877

32 St. George’s Square | S. W.

27 Dec 1877

My dear Sir,

It may interest you to know that I have succeeded in the task, which has occupied me for some years, of establishing the unity of language in its developement.

For this purpose it was necessarily especially to investigate the languages of america under considerable difficulty from deficiency of material, as well as the demand on my time from other occupations.1

So far as I know there is no language, which is separate, & which does not belong to the general stock.

On psychological grounds the developement of language means the developement of mythology & of culture. In this respect the nations of the highest advancement bear traces of the early culture of mankind. It may be roughly said there are no languages which are not “black” languages in their ground work

The results are of course very different from what Prof Max Muller & philogists have been accustomed to believe.2

It will take many men & many years yet to work out all the details, but, even with what I have already published, there is convincing evidence.

As knowing language is so closely connected with nature worship, there is no room for a separate creation of it, which some of our friends believe.3

I have also just found that the idea of Hand, Finger &c is only secondary in numerals, & that 5 & 10 are primarily to be referred to Navel, Belly &c, that is to the early mythology.

Yours faithfully | Hyde Clarke

Charles Darwin Esq D &c FRS

1
Clarke had published the results of his research in his book Researches in prehistoric and protohistoric comparative philology, mythology, and archæology, in connection with the origin of culture in America and the Accad or Sumerian families (Clarke 1875).
2
Friedrich Max Müller associated the study of language with the study of culture and separated language families on this basis. Max Müller’s ‘Lectures on Mr. Darwin’s philosophy of language’ (Max Müller 1873) had challenged CD’s theory of language; CD addressed the criticisms in Descent 2d ed., pp. 88–90.
3
Clarke may allude to Max Müller’s contention that language was unique to humans and thus a separate creation (see Max Müller 1873, pp. 666–9).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11292,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11292