Ɛpsilon

To Joseph Kaines?1   8 April 1872

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Ap 8. 1872

Dear Sir

I am much obliged to you for having sent me your interesting paper & for yr kind remarks about my works.2 Although I formerly read Miss Martineau’s book & some others on Comte I had entirely forgotten his striking observations on the relations of Man to the lower forms of life.3

Pray believe me dear Sir | yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The recipient is conjectured from the content of the letter.
2
Kaines probably sent a copy of his article ‘The anthropology of Auguste Comte’ (Kaines 1871). The article was published in the January 1872 issue of the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. CD subscribed to the journal, and his copy of the issue is in the collection of unbound journals in the Darwin Library–CUL. The copy sent by Kaines has not been found. For Kaines’s references to CD, see ibid., pp. 352–3.
3
Harriet Martineau had introduced British readers to Comte’s writing in her book The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte (H. Martineau trans. 1853). Comte had argued that humans and animals had both instincts and intelligence, and further, that the differences between human and animal intelligence were not essential but only differed in degree (H. Martineau trans. 1853, 1: 464–5). He favoured the study of animal societies as a method of understanding human society.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8278,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8278