difference it would have made in the world, when we consider America,
Australia, New Zealand, and S. Africa! No words can exaggerate the
importance, in my opinion, of our colonisation for the future history of
the world.

If it were universally known that the birth of children could be
prevented, and this were not thought immoral by married persons, would
there not be great danger of extreme profligacy amongst unmarried women,
and might we not become like the "arreoi" societies in the Pacific? In
the course of a century France will tell us the result in many ways, and
we can already see that the French nation does not spread or increase
much.

I am glad that you intend to continue your investigations, and I hope
ultimately may publish on the subject.

LETTER 419. TO K. HOCHBERG. Down, January 13th, 1879.

I am much obliged for your note and for the essay which you have sent
me. I am a poor german scholar, and your german is difficult; but I
think that I understand your meaning, and hope at some future time, when
more at leisure, to recur to your essay. As far as I can judge, you have
made a great advance in many ways in the subject; and I will send your
paper to Mr. Edmund Gurney (The late Edmund Gurney, author of "The Power
of Sound," 1880.), who has written on and is much interested in the
origin of the taste for music. In reading your essay, it occurred to me
that facility in the utterance of prolonged sounds (I do not think that
you allude to this point) may possibly come into play in rendering them
musical; for I have heard it stated that those who vary their voices
much, and use cadences in long continued speaking, feel less fatigued
than those who speak on the same note.

LETTER 420. TO G.J. ROMANES. Down, February 5th, 1880.

(420/1. Romanes was at work on what ultimately came to be a book on
animal intelligence. Romanes's reply to this letter is given in his
"Life," page 95. The table referred to is published as a frontispiece to
his "Mental Evolution in Animals," 1885.)

As I feared, I cannot be of the least use to you. I could not venture to
say anything about babies without reading my Expression book and paper
on Infants, or about animals without reading the "Descent of Man" and
referring to my notes; and it is a great wrench to my mind to change
from one subject to another.

I will, however, hazard one or two remarks. Firstly, I should have
thought that the word "love" (not sexual passion), as