Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Jan 18th 1879
My dear Huxley
I have just finished your present of the life of Hume, & must thank you for the great pleasure which it has given me.—1 Your discussions are, as it seems to me, clear to a quite marvellous degree, & many of the little interspersed flashes of wit are delightful. I particularly enjoyed the pithy judgment in about 5 words on Comte.—2 Notwithstanding the clearness of every sentence, the subjects are in part so difficult, that I found them stiff reading. I fear, therefore, that it will be too stiff for the general public; but I heartily hope that this will prove to be a mistake, & in this case the intelligence of the public will be greatly exalted in my eyes.
The writing of this book must have been awfully hard work, I should think.
My dear Huxley | Ever yours | Ch. Darwin
George has paid a visit to Mr Rich & liked the old gentleman much. They talked incessantly for about 24 hours— Mr R. seems to have enjoyed your visit hugely.—3
if M. Comte had been asked what he meant by “physiologie cérébrale,” except that which other people call “psychology;” and how he knew anything about the functions of the brain, except by that very “observation intérieure,” which he declares to be an absurdity—it seems probable that he would have found it hard to escape the admission, that, in vilipending psychology, he had been propounding solemn nonsense.
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11834,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on