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LITERARY CHIT-CHAT.

THE WORK WHICH more than any other is making a sensation this season is Mr. Darwin's book on "The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals," which will soon be published here by D. Appleton & Co. Mr. Darwin's discussions of the principles which control the actions of animals are really wonderful, if not always satisfactory. An instance is his principle of antithesis, by which he means the relaxation or tension of muscles in expressing opposite feelings. He argues that expressions in animals either result directly from serviceable acts or are the indirect results of serviceable acts, and he goes so far as to assert that some forms of expression, at first useful, have become hereditary. His work is full of striking theories ingeniously argued and it shows a singular and profound knowledge of animal life, which cannot but prove useful in the study of the expression of emotion.