in reading
your essay.

Many thanks about the rabbits; your letter has been sent to Balfour:
he is a very clever young man, and I believe owes his cleverness to
Salisbury blood. This letter will not be worth your deciphering. I have
almost finished Greg's "Enigmas." (412/6. "The Enigmas of Life," 1872.)
It is grand poetry--but too Utopian and too full of faith for me; so
that I have been rather disappointed. What do you think about it? He
must be a delightful man.

I doubt whether you have made clear how the families on the Register are
to be kept pure or superior, and how they are to be in course of time
still further improved.

LETTER 413. TO MAX MULLER. Down, July 3rd, 1873.

(413/1. In June, 1873, Professor Max Muller sent to Mr. Darwin a copy of
the sixth edition of his "Lectures on the Science of Language" (413/2.
A reference to the first edition occurs in "Life and Letters," II., page
390.), with a letter concluding with these words: "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.")

I am much obliged for your kind note and present of your lectures. I
am extremely glad to have received them from you, and I had intended
ordering them.

I feel quite sure from what I have read in your works that you would
never say anything of an honest adversary to which he would have any
just right to object; and as for myself, you have often spoken highly of
me--perhaps more highly than I deserve.

As far as language is concerned I am not worthy to be your adversary, as
I know extremely little about it, and that little learnt from very few
books. I should have been glad to have avoided the whole subject,
but was compelled to take it up as well as I could. He who is fully
convinced, as I am, that man is descended from some lower animal, is
almost forced to believe a priori that articulate language has been
developed from inarticulate cries (413/3. "Descent of Man" (1901), page
133.); and he is therefore hardly a fair judge of the arguments opposed
to this belief.

(413/4. In October, 1875, Mr. Darwin again wrote cordially to Professor
Max Muller on receipt of a pamphlet entitled "In Self-Defence" (413/5.
Printed in "Chips from a German Workshop," Volume IV., 1875, page 473.),
which is a reply to Professor Whitney's "Darwinism and Language" in the
"North American Review," July 1874. This