Ɛpsilon

To Frederic Harrison   1 April [1871]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

April 1st

Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your note & especially for your writing at some length.—2 I will keep it & reconsider it whenever I have time to bring out a corrected Edition. At present the Printers are printing off so quickly, that I can make only trifling corrections.3

With respect to Beauty I can at present see nothing to do but to reiterate my caution that I do not mean by the word the highly complex & lofty notions implied by cultivated men. I will also endeavour to show, very imperfectly no doubt, that the sense or capacity of enjoying beauty is acquired.—4

Your remarks on the queries—selection of opinions & judgments for admiration by society seem very just. I daresay I have made too much of natural selection, though less than some who agree with me generally on such points.5

I shall be truly glad to receive & read carefully anything which you may publish on these subjects, & which you are so good as to say you will send me.—6

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to Descent (see n. 4, below), which was published in February 1871 (Freeman 1977).
2
The letter from Harrison has not been found.
3
Murray had already printed 4500 copies of Descent by April 1871, and a third printing was planned (Freeman 1977).
4
CD discussed beauty in Descent 1: 63–5.
5
CD discussed the role of natural selection in dictating what was worthy of admiration and blame in society in Descent 1: 165–6.
6
No further correspondence with Harrison on this subject has been found.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Beckenham] before del ‘Bromley.’
2.2 & lofty] interl
3.1 opinions] after del ‘good’
3.1 for admiration] interl
3.3 generally] interl
4.2 you are] ‘you’ over illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7650,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7650