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From Friedrich Max Müller   29 June 1873

Parks End, | Oxford.

29 June 1873.

Sir

In taking the liberty of forwarding to you a copy of my Lectures,1 I feel certain that you will accept my remarks as what they were intended to be—an open statement of the difficulties which a student of language feels when called upon to explain the languages of man, such as he finds them, as the possible development of what has been called the language of animals.2 The interjectional and mimetic theories of the origin of language, are no doubt very attractive and plausible, but if they were more than that, one at least of the great authorities in the Science of Language, Humboldt, Bopp, Grimm, Burnouf, Curtius, Schleicher ec. would have adopted them.3 However, it matters very little who is right and who is wrong; but it matters a great deal what is right and what is wrong, and as an honest, though it may be unsuccessful attempt at finding out what is true with regard to the conditions under which human language is possible, I venture to send you my three Lectures, trusting that, though I differ from some of your conclusions, you will believe me to be one of your diligent readers and sincere admirers

AL incomplete

1
Max Müller’s ‘Lectures on Mr. Darwin’s philosophy of language’ had been delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in March and April 1873. They were published in Fraser’s Magazine in May, June, and July (Max Müller 1873a). CD’s annotated offprint is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.
2
CD had discussed the origin of language from animal sounds in Descent 1: 56–62. He expanded his discussion in the second edition, addressing Max Müller’s claim that animals lacked language, and that they therefore also lacked the ability to form general ideas or concepts (Descent 2d ed., pp. 83, 88–90).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8957,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8957