Ɛpsilon

From J. F. Simpson   15 January 1882

59 Norfolk Terrace | Bayswater, London

January 15. 1882

Dear Sir

In venturing to send the enclosed, pray do not return it or reply in any way. On second thoughts, I thought a “rejoinder” was required.1

There is a touching kindness of tone in your letter2 which I shall not impair by troubling you I hope unnecessarily— Believe me, Sir, | yours faithfully, &c | J. F. Simpson

C. Darwin Esq F.R.S.

P.S. I notice in new no. of Mind (p 97–100) some interesting reffs to your hypothesis on Music but have no idea of the original reference itself.3 A few ideas on what constitutes the reality & the charm of music, & how it comes about I put in Essay form recently, & which seems only narrowly to have escaped a chance of appearing in one of the first Quarterlies. I still hope my chance is not lost, as the Editor asked me to write him again. Another high opinion has been gratifying on it (in MS) as a philspl. Enquiry. I am not disposed to seek a second channel for it, so far, or as yet, but if it were likely—such as it is, worth or no worth—to be of service, or if any of your sons were engaged in any such line of study, my humble MS. is at command.4

Mr Cyples’ definitions on music seem to me to be as ample as they are true; indeed his work, generally, gives one very great satisfaction in perusal.5

1
The enclosure has not been found; it was probably an issue of the Paddington, Kensington and Bayswater Chronicle containing a letter by Simpson (see letter from J. F. Simpson, 7 January 1882 and n. 7).
2
CD’s letter has not been found.
3
CD’s views on the origin of music from primitive courtship were discussed in an article by Edmund Gurney in the January 1882 issue of Mind. Gurney argued that CD’s ‘theory of the primeval use of Music under conditions of sexual excitement’ helped explain the ‘discriminating and autocratic character of the musical faculty’ in humans, namely, why ‘certain progressions of sound’ were experienced as pleasurable, and why the emotions aroused by music were so powerful and difficult to analyse, consisting in a ‘gradual fusion and transfiguration of desires of primitive loves’ (Gurney 1882b, pp. 97–8). For CD’s theory, see Descent 2d ed., pp. 566–73; see also Correspondence vol. 24, letter to Edmund Gurney, 8 July 1876.
4
No article by Simpson on music has been identified.
5
In An inquiry into the process of human experience, William Cyples explained the ‘marvellous effects’ of music as ‘its random but multitudinous summonses of the efferent-activity, which at its vague challenges stirs unceasingly in faintly tumultuous irrelevancy. … Music arouses aimlessly, but splendidly, the sheer, as yet unfulfilled, potentiality within us’ (Cyples 1880, pp. 743).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13619,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13619