Beg my colleague, Mrs. Huxley, not to forget the corrugator supercilii:
it will not be easy to catch the exact moment when the child is on the
point of crying, and is struggling against the wrinkling up [of] its
little eyes; for then I should expect the corrugator, from being little
under the command of the will, would come into play in checking or
stopping the wrinkling. An explosion of tears would tell nothing.
LETTER 410. TO FRANCIS GALTON. Down, December 23rd [1870?].
I have only read about fifty pages of your book (to the Judges) (410/1.
"Hereditary Genius: an Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences," by
Francis Galton, London, 1869. "The Judges of England between 1660 and
1865" is the heading of a section of this work (page 55). See "Descent
of Man" (1901), page 41.), but I must exhale myself, else something
will go wrong in my inside. I do not think I ever in all my life read
anything more interesting and original. And how well and clearly you
put every point! George, who has finished the book, and who expressed
himself just in the same terms, tells me the earlier chapters are
nothing in interest to the later ones! It will take me some time to get
to these later chapters, as it is read aloud to me by my wife, who is
also much interested. You have made a convert of an opponent in one
sense, for I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not
differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work; and I still think
[this] is an eminently important difference. I congratulate you on
producing what I am convinced will prove a memorable work. I look
forward with intense interest to each reading, but it sets me thinking
so much that I find it very hard work; but that is wholly the fault of
my brain, and not of your beautifully clear style.
LETTER 411. TO W.R. GREG. March 21st [1871?].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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