Ɛpsilon

From Hensleigh Wedgwood   [1867–72]1

I think that a brown study is merely another version of the same metaphor which speaks of a sombre countenance, ein düsteres gesicht2 Heiter and düster express chearful and moody as being open to light and external influences or closed and shut up within itself.3

1
The date range is established from the relationship between this letter and the first letter from Hensleigh Wedgwood, [1867–72]
2
CD used the phrase ‘in a brown study’ for abstraction and meditation in Expression, p. 228.
3
Wedgwood was a philologist: the italicised words (except for ‘sombre’) are German.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7042,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7042