RECORD: Anon. 1873. [Review of Expression]. Lakeside Monthly (Chicago, USA), 9 (March): 252.
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 10.2022. RN1
[page] 252
THE EXPRESSION OF THE EMOTIONS IN MEN AND ANIMALS. By Charles Darwin, M. A., F.R.S., etc. With Photographic and other Illustrations. New York: D. Appleton & Co. (Jansen, McClurg & Co., and Cobb, Andrews & Co., Chicago.)
Ever since Mr. Darwin published his Journal of Researches, etc., in the Countries Visited by Her Majesty's Ship " Beagle," in her Cruise Around the World, under the command of Captain Fitzroy, whose melancholy fate will be recollected by most of our readers, he has occupied a front rank as a naturalist and observer. Many of the generalizations brought out in that volume have been adopted as axioms in Natural Science. Mr. Darwin possesses in an eminent degree the faculty of collect ng, digesting, and classifying facts; and yet these facts are made subordinate to the illustration of some great principle. This combined power of analysis and synthesis has rarely been witnessed in so eminent a degree in any single individual, whether ancient or modern, and has been employed by him most successfully in overturning many of our preconceived ideas as to special creations, the immutability of species, the fixity of types, etc., and, in fact, in originating a new philosophy which, in its main features, is represented by such honored names as Lyell, Huxley, Tyndall, Lubbock, Wallace, etc., in England, and by the rising scientists of this country. The German mind, slow, plodding, and yet rigorous in its deductions, and disposed to receive nothing on faith, but to inquire into causas rerum, has been profoundly impressed by Mr. Darwin's views; and from that source his theories have received not only substantial support, but have been pushed to consequences which the author himself never ventured upon — the proximate source of life. The more mercurial French were content to rest on the teachings of Cuvier; and the consequence is, that while the French savants have been reposing on the glories of their ancestors of the eighteenth century, foreign observers have stepped in and developed from the archæological treasures in their midst the most startling results as to the early condition of our race. Mr. Darwin, perhaps, like every one almost who discovers a new principle, may be charged with a disposition to push his views to the extreme, and regard them as a solution of many an enigma which has perplexed philosophers from the time of Aristotle to the present hour. Without adopting his views in all their length and breadth, he is justly entitled to the credit of having liberated the scientific opinion of this day from a dogmatic philosophy founded upon popular prejudice and bequeathed to us from the past, and opened up new spheres of investigation, of which Darwinism will form a starting point.
The present work, while difficult to ana lyse in a brief notice like this, is characterized by the same accumulation of facts, the same keen power of analysis and of philosophical deduction, which belong to all Mr. Darwin's writings; and everyone who would keep pace with the scientific opinion of to day should secure for his library a copy of this work.
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 11 November, 2022