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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15997-8.txt b/15997-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aeaa858 --- /dev/null +++ b/15997-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11709 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and +Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2), by James Marchant + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2) + +Author: James Marchant + +Release Date: June 7, 2005 [EBook #15997] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE: *** + + + + +Produced by Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State +University Libraries., Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Josephine +Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: Footnotes moved to end of book.] + +[Illustration] + + + + +Alfred Russel Wallace + +Letters and Reminiscences + + +By + +James Marchant + +_With Two Photogravures and Eight Half-tone Plates_ + +IN TWO VOLUMES + +Volume I + + +CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD + +London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne + +1916 + + + + +To the Memory of + +ANNIE WALLACE + + + + +PREFACE + + +These two volumes consist of a selection from several thousands of +letters entrusted to me by the Wallace family and dating from the dawn +of Darwinism to the second decade of the twentieth century, supplemented +by such biographical particulars and comments as are required for the +elucidation of the correspondence and for giving movement and continuity +to the whole. + +The wealth and variety of Wallace's own correspondence, excluding the +large collection of letters which he received from many eminent men and +women, and the necessity for somewhat lengthy introductions and many +annotations, have expanded the work to two (there was, indeed, enough +good material to make four) volumes. The family has given me unstinted +confidence in using or rejecting letters and reminiscences, and although +I have consulted scientific and literary friends, I alone must be blamed +for sins of omission or commission. Nothing has been suppressed in the +unpublished letters, or in any of the letters which appear in these +volumes, because there was anything to hide. Everything Wallace wrote, +all his private letters, could be published to the world. His life was +an open book--"no weakness, no contempt, dispraise, or blame, nothing +but well and fair." + +The profoundly interesting and now historic correspondence between +Darwin and Wallace, part of which has already appeared in the "Life and +Letters of Charles Darwin" and "More Letters," and part in Wallace's +autobiography, entitled "My Life," is here published, with new +additions, for the first time as a whole, so that the reader now has +before him the necessary material to form a true estimate of the origin +and growth of the theory of Natural Selection, and of the personal +relationships of its noble co-discoverers. + +My warmest thanks are offered to Sir Francis Darwin for permission to +use his father's letters, for his annotations, and for rendering help in +checking the typescript of the Darwin letters; to Mr. John Murray, +C.V.O., for permission to use letters and notes from the "Life and +Letters of Charles Darwin" and from "More Letters"; to Messrs. Chapman +and Hall for their great generosity in allowing the free use of letters +and material in Wallace's "My Life"; to Prof. E.B. Poulton, Prof. Sir +W.F. Barrett, Sir Wm. Thiselton-Dyer, Dr. Henry Forbes, and others for +letters and reminiscences; and to Prof. Poulton for reading the proofs +and for valuable suggestions. An intimate chapter on Wallace's Home Life +has been contributed by his son and daughter, Mr. W.G. Wallace and Miss +Violet Wallace. + +J.M. + +_March, 1916._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Volume I + + +INTRODUCTION + + +PART I + +I. WALLACE AND DARWIN--EARLY YEARS + +II. EARLY LETTERS (1854-62) + + +PART II + +I. THE DISCOVERY OF NATURAL SELECTION + +II. THE COMPLETE EXTANT CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN WALLACE AND DARWIN +(1857-81) + + +Volume II + + +PART III + +I. WALLACE'S WORKS ON BIOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION + +II. CORRESPONDENCE ON BIOLOGY, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, ETC. (1864-93) + +III. CORRESPONDENCE ON BIOLOGY, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, ETC. +(1894-1913) + + +PART IV + +HOME LIFE + + +PART V + +SOCIAL AND POLITICAL VIEWS + + +PART VI + +SOME FURTHER PROBLEMS + +I. ASTRONOMY + +II. SPIRITUALISM + + +PART VII + +CHARACTERISTICS + + +APPENDIX: LISTS OF WALLACE'S WRITINGS + +INDEX + + + + +LIST OF PLATES IN VOLUME I + + +A.R. WALLACE (1912) + +A.R. WALLACE (SINGAPORE, 1862) + +A.R. WALLACE'S MOTHER + +A.R. WALLACE SOON AFTER HIS RETURN FROM THE EAST + + + + +Alfred Russel Wallace + +Letters and Reminiscences + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +In Westminster Abbey there repose, almost side by side, by no conscious +design yet with deep significance, the mortal remains of Isaac Newton +and of Charles Darwin. "'The Origin of Species,'" said Wallace, "will +live as long as the 'Principia' of Newton." Near by are the tombs of Sir +John Herschel, Lord Kelvin and Sir Charles Lyell; and the medallions in +memory of Joule, Darwin, Stokes and Adams have been rearranged so as to +admit similar memorials of Lister, Hooker and Alfred Russel Wallace. Now +that the plan is completed, Darwin and Wallace are together in this +wonderful galaxy of the great men of science of the nineteenth century. +Several illustrious names are missing from this eminent company; +foremost amongst them being that of Herbert Spencer, the lofty master of +that synthetic philosophy which seemed to his disciples to have the +proportions and qualities of an enduring monument, and whose +incomparable fertility of creative thought entitled him to share the +throne with Darwin. It was Spencer, Darwin, Wallace, Hooker, Lyell and +Huxley who led that historic movement which garnered the work of Lamarck +and Buffon, and gave new direction to the ceaseless interrogation of +nature to discover the "how" and the "why" of the august progression of +life. + +Looking over the long list of the departed whose names are enshrined in +our Minster, one has sorrowfully to observe that contemporary opinion of +their place in history and abiding worth was not infrequently astray; +that memory has, indeed, forgotten their works; and their memorials +might be removed to some cloister without loss of respect for the dead, +perhaps even with the silent approval of their own day and generation +could it awake from its endless sleep and review the strange and +eventful course of human life since they left "this bank and shoal of +time." But may it not be safely prophesied that of all the names on the +starry scroll of national fame that of Charles Darwin will, surely, +remain unquestioned? And entwined with his enduring memory, by right of +worth and work, and we know with Darwin's fullest approval, our +successors will discover the name of Alfred Russel Wallace. Darwin and +Wallace were pre-eminent sons of light. + +Among the great men of the Victorian age Wallace occupied a unique +position. He was the co-discoverer of the illuminating theory of Natural +Selection; he watched its struggle for recognition against prejudice, +ignorance, ridicule and misrepresentation; its gradual adoption by its +traditional enemies; and its final supremacy. And he lived beyond the +hour of its signal triumph and witnessed the further advance into the +same field of research of other patient investigators who are disclosing +fresh phases of the same fundamental laws of development, and are +accumulating a vast array of new facts which tell of still richer light +to come to enlighten every man born into the world. To have lived +through that brilliant period and into the second decade of the +twentieth century; to have outlived all contemporaries, having been the +co-revealer of the greatest and most far-reaching generalisation in an +era which abounded in fruitful discoveries and in revolutionary +advances in the application of science to life, is verily to have been +the chosen of the gods. + +Who and what manner of man was Alfred Russel Wallace? Who were his +forbears? How did he obtain his insight into the closest secrets of +nature? What was the extent of his contributions to our stock of human +knowledge? In which directions did he most influence his age? What is +known of his inner life? These are some of the questions which most +present-day readers and all future readers into whose hands this book +may come will ask. + +As to his descent, his upbringing, his education and his estimate of his +own character and work, we can, with rare good fortune, refer them to +his autobiography, in which he tells his own story and relates the +circumstances which, combined with his natural disposition, led him to +be a great naturalist and a courageous social reformer; nay more, his +autobiography is also in part a peculiar revelation of the inner man +such as no biography could approach. We are also able to send inquirers +to the biographies and works of his contemporaries--Darwin, Hooker, +Lyell, Huxley and many others. All this material is already available to +the diligent reader. But there are other sources of information which +the present book discloses--Wallace's home life, the large collection of +his own letters, the reminiscences of friends, communications which he +received from many co-workers and correspondents which, besides being of +interest in themselves, often cast a sidelight upon his own mind and +work. All these are of peculiar and intimate value to those who desire +to form a complete estimate of Wallace. And it is to help the reader to +achieve this desirable result that the present work is published. + +It may be stated here that Wallace had suggested to the present writer +that he should undertake a new work, to be called "Darwin and Wallace," +which was to have been a comparative study of their literary and +scientific writings, with an estimate of the present position of the +theory of Natural Selection as an adequate explanation of the process of +organic evolution. Wallace had promised to give as much assistance as +possible in selecting the material without which the task on such a +scale would obviously have been impossible. Alas! soon after the +agreement with the publishers was signed and in the very month that the +plan of the work was to have been shown to Wallace, his hand was +unexpectedly stilled in death; and the book remains unwritten. But as +the names of Darwin and Wallace are inseparable even by the scythe of +time, a slight attempt is here made, in the first sections of Part I. +and Part II., to take note of their ancestry and the diversities and +similarities in their respective characters and environments--social and +educational; to mark the chief characteristics of their literary works +and the more salient conditions and events which led them, +independently, to the idea of Natural Selection. + +Finally, it may be remarked that up to the present time the unique work +and position of Wallace have not been fully disclosed owing to his great +modesty and to the fact that he outlived all his contemporaries. "I am +afraid," wrote Sir W.T. Thiselton-Dyer to him in one of his letters +(1893), "the splendid modesty of the big men will be a rarer commodity +in the future. No doubt many of the younger ones know an immense deal; +but I doubt if many of them will ever exhibit the grasp of great +principles which we owe to you and your splendid band of +contemporaries." If this work helps to preserve the records of the +influence and achievements of this illustrious and versatile genius and +of the other eminent men who brought the great conception of Evolution +to light, it will surely have justified its existence. + + + + +PART I + + + + +I.--Wallace and Darwin--Early Years + + +As springs burst forth, now here, now there, on the mountain side, and +find their way together to the vast ocean, so, at certain periods of +history, men destined to become great are born within a few years of +each other, and in the course of life meet and mingle their varied gifts +of soul and intellect for the ultimate benefit of mankind. Between the +years 1807 and 1825 at least eight illustrious scientists "saw the +light"--Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Joseph Hooker, T.H. Huxley, Herbert +Spencer, John Tyndall, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Louis +Agassiz; whilst amongst statesmen and authors we recall Bismarck, +Gladstone, Lincoln, Tennyson, Longfellow, Robert and Elizabeth Browning, +Ruskin, John Stuart Blackie and Oliver Wendell Holmes--a wonderful +galaxy of shining names. + +The first group is the one with which we are closely associated in this +section, in which we have brought together the names of Charles Darwin +and Alfred Russel Wallace--between whose births there was a period of +fourteen years, Darwin being born on the 12th of February, 1809, and +Wallace on the 8th of January, 1823. + +In each case we are indebted to an autobiography for an account of their +early life and work, written almost entirely from memory when at an age +which enabled them to take an unbiased view of the past. + +The autobiography of Darwin was written for the benefit of his family +only, when he was 67; while the two large volumes entitled "My Life" +were written by Wallace when he was 82, for the pleasure of reviewing +his long career. These records are characterised by that charming +modesty and simplicity of life and manner which was so marked a feature +of both men. + +In the circumstances surrounding their early days there was very little +to indicate the similarity in character and mental gifts which became so +evident in their later years. A brief outline of the hereditary +influences immediately affecting them will enable us to trace something +of the essential differences as well as the similarities which marked +their scientific and literary attainments. + +The earliest records of the Darwin family show that in 1500 an ancestor +of that name (though spelt differently) was a substantial yeoman living +on the borders of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. In the reign of James I. +the post of Yeoman of the Royal Armoury of Greenwich was granted to +William Darwin, whose son served with the Royalist Army under Charles I. +During the Commonwealth, however, he became a barrister of Lincoln's +Inn, and later the Recorder of the City of Lincoln. + +Passing over a generation, we find that a brother of Dr. Erasmus Darwin +"cultivated botany," and, when far advanced in years, published a volume +entitled "Principia Botanica," while Erasmus developed into a poet and +philosopher. The eldest son of the latter "inherited a strong taste for +various branches of science ... and at a very early age collected +specimens of all kinds." The youngest son, Robert Waring, father of +Charles Darwin, became a successful physician, "a man of genial +temperament, strong character, fond of society," and was the possessor +of great psychic power by which he could readily sum up the characters +of others, and even occasionally read their thoughts. A judicious use of +this gift was frequently found to be more efficacious than actual +medicine! To the end of his life Charles Darwin entertained the greatest +affection and reverence for his father, and frequently spoke of him to +his own children. + +From this brief summary of the family history it is easy to perceive the +inherited traits which were combined in the attractive personality of +the great scientist. From his early forbears came the keen love of sport +and outdoor exercise (to which considerable reference is made in his +youth and early manhood); the close application of the philosopher; and +the natural aptitude for collecting specimens of all kinds. To his +grandfather he was doubtless indebted for his poetic imagination, which, +consciously or unconsciously, pervaded his thoughts and writings, saving +them from the cold scientific atmosphere which often chills the lay +mind. Lastly, the geniality of his father was strongly evidenced by his +own love of social intercourse, his courtesy and ready wit, whilst the +gentleness of his mother--who unfortunately died when he was 7 years +old--left a delicacy of feeling which pervaded his character to the very +last. + +No such sure mental influences, reaching back through several +generations, can be traced in the records of the Wallace family, +although what is known reveals the source of the dogged perseverance +with which Wallace faced the immense difficulties met with by all early +pioneer travellers, of that happy diversity of mental interests which +helped to relieve his periods of loneliness and inactivity, and of that +quiet determination to pursue to the utmost limit every idea which +impressed his mind as containing the germ of a wider and more +comprehensive truth than had yet been generally recognised and accepted. + +The innate reticence and shyness of manner which were noticeable all +through his life covered a large-heartedness even in the most careful +observation of facts, and produced a tolerant disposition towards his +fellow-men even when he most disagreed with their views or dogmas. He +was one of those of whom it may be truly said in hackneyed phrases that +he was "born great," whilst destined to have "greatness thrust upon him" +in the shape of honours which he received with hesitation. + +From his autobiography we gather that his father, though dimly tracing +his descent from the famous Wallace of Stirling, was born at Hanworth, +in Middlesex, where there appears to have been a small colony of +residents bearing the same name but occupying varied social positions, +from admiral to hotel-keeper--the grandfather of Alfred Russel Wallace +being known as a victualler. Thomas Vere Wallace was the only son of +this worthy innkeeper; and, being possessed of somewhat wider ambitions +than a country life offered, was articled to a solicitor in London, and +eventually became an attorney-at-law. On his father's death he inherited +a small private income, and, not being of an energetic disposition, he +preferred to live quietly on it instead of continuing his practice. His +main interests were somewhat literary and artistic, but without any +definite aim; and this lack of natural energy, mental and physical, +reappeared in most of the nine children subsequently born to him, +including Alfred Russel, who realised that had it not been for the one +definite interest which gradually determined his course in life (an +interest demanding steady perseverance and concentrated thought as well +as physical enterprise), his career might easily have been much less +useful. + +It was undoubtedly from his father that he acquired an appreciation of +good literature, as they were in the habit of hearing Shakespeare and +similar works read aloud round the fireside on winter nights; whilst +from his mother came artistic and business-like instincts--several of +her relatives having been architects of no mean skill, combining with +their art sound business qualities which placed them in positions of +civic authority and brought them the respect due to men of upright +character and good parts. + +During the chequered experiences which followed the marriage of Thomas +Vere Wallace and Mary Ann Greenell there appears to have been complete +mutual affection and understanding. Although Wallace makes but slight +reference to his mother's character and habits, one may readily conclude +that her disposition and influence were such as to leave an indelible +impression for good on the minds of her children, amongst her qualities +being a talent for not merely accepting circumstances but in a quiet way +making the most of each experience as it came--a talent which we find +repeated on many occasions in the life of her son Alfred. + +It is a little curious that each of these great scientists should have +been born in a house overlooking a well-known river--the home of the +Darwins standing on the banks of the Severn, at Shrewsbury, and that of +the Wallaces a stone's throw from the waters of the romantic and +beautiful Usk, of Monmouthshire. + +With remarkable clearness Dr. Wallace could recall events and scenes +back to the time when he was only 4 years of age. His first childish +experiment occurred about that time, due to his being greatly impressed +by the story of the "Fox and the Pitcher" in Ęsop's Fables. Finding a +jar standing in the yard outside their house, he promptly proceeded to +pour a small quantity of water into it, and then added a handful of +small stones. The water not rising to the surface, as it did in the +fable, he found a spade and scraped up a mixture of earth and pebbles +which he added to the stones already in the jar. The result, however, +proving quite unsatisfactory, he gave up the experiment in disgust and +refused to believe in the truth of the fable. His restless brain and +vivid imagination at this early period is shown by some dreams which he +could still recall when 82 years of age; whilst the strong impression +left on his mind by certain localities, with all their graphic detail of +form and colour, enabled him to enjoy over again many of the simple +pleasures that made up his early life in the beautiful grounds of the +ancient castle in which he used to play. + +The first great event in his life was the journey undertaken by +ferry-boat and stage-coach from Usk to Hertford, to which town the +family removed when he was 6 years old, and where they remained for the +next eight years, until he left school. + +The morning after their arrival an incident occurred which left its +trace as of a slender golden thread running throughout the fabric of his +long life. Alfred, with child-like curiosity about his new surroundings, +wandered into the yard behind their house, and presently heard a voice +coming from the other side of the low wall, saying, "Hallo! who are +you?" and saw a boy about his own age peering over the top. Explanations +followed, and soon, by the aid of two water-butts, the small boys found +themselves sitting side by side on the top of the wall, holding a long +and intimate conversation. Thus began his friendship with George Silk, +and by some curious trend of circumstances the two families became +neighbours on several subsequent occasions,[1] so that the friendship +was maintained until in due course the boys separated each to his own +way in life--the one to wander in foreign lands, the other to occupy a +responsible position at home. + +After spending about a year at private schools, Alfred Wallace was sent +with his brother John to Hertford Grammar School. His recollections of +these school days are full of interest, especially as contrasted with +the school life of to-day. He says: "We went to school even in the +winter at seven in the morning, and three days a week remained till five +in the afternoon; some artificial light was necessary, and this was +effected by the primitive method of every boy bringing his own candle or +candle-ends with any kind of candlestick he liked. An empty ink-bottle +was often used, or the candle was even stuck on to the desk with a +little of its own grease. So that it enabled us to learn our lessons or +do our sums, no one seemed to trouble about how we provided the light." + +Though never robust in health, he enjoyed all the usual boyish sports, +especially such as appealed to his imagination and love of adventure. +Not far from the school a natural cave, formed in a chalky slope and +partially concealed by undergrowth, made an excellent resort for +"brigands"; and to this hiding place were brought potatoes and other +provisions which could be cooked and eaten in primitive fashion, with an +air of secrecy which added to the mystery and attraction of the boyish +adventure. + +It is curious to note that one destined to become a great traveller and +explorer should have found the study of geography "a painful subject." +But this was, as he afterwards understood, entirely due to the method of +teaching then, and sometimes now, in vogue, which made no appeal +whatever to the imagination by creating a mental picture of the peoples +and nations, or the varied wonders and beauties of nature which +distinguish one country from another. "No interesting facts were ever +given, no accounts of the country by travellers were ever read, no good +maps ever given us, nothing but the horrid stream of unintelligible +place names to be learnt." The only subjects in which he considered that +he gained some valuable grounding at school were Latin, arithmetic, and +writing. + +This estimate of the value of the grammar-school teaching is echoed in +Darwin's own words when describing his school days at precisely the same +age at Shrewsbury Grammar School, where, he says, "the school as a means +of education to me was simply a blank." It is therefore interesting to +notice, side by side, as it were, the occupation which each boy found +for himself out of school hours, and which in both instances proved of +immense value in their respective careers in later life. + +Darwin, even at this early age, found his "taste for natural history, +and more especially for collecting," well developed. "I tried," he says, +"to make out the names of plants, and collected all sorts of things, +shells, seals, franks, coins and minerals. The passion for collecting +which leads a man to be a systematic naturalist ... was very strong in +me, and was clearly innate, as none of my sisters or brothers ever had +this taste." + +He also speaks of himself as having been a very "simple little fellow" +by the manner in which he was either himself deceived or tried to +deceive others in a harmless way. As an instance of this, he remembered +declaring that he could "produce variously coloured polyanthuses and +primroses by watering them with certain coloured fluids," though he knew +all the time it was untrue. His feeling of tenderness towards all +animals and insects is revealed in the fact that he could not +remember--except on one occasion--ever taking more than one egg out of a +bird's nest; and though a keen angler, as soon as he heard that he +could kill the worms with salt and water he never afterwards "spitted a +living worm, though at the expense, probably, of some loss of success!" + +Nothing thwarted young Darwin's intense joy and interest in collecting +minerals and insects, and in watching and making notes upon the habits +of birds. In addition to this wholesome outdoor hobby, the tedium of +school lessons was relieved for him by reading Shakespeare, Byron and +Scott--also a copy of "Wonders of the World" which belonged to one of +the boys, and to which he always attributed his first desire to travel +in remote countries, little thinking how his dreams would be fulfilled. + +Whilst Charles Darwin occupied himself with outdoor sport and +collecting, with a very moderate amount of reading thrown in at +intervals, Wallace, on the contrary, devoured all the books he could +get; and fortunately for him, his father having been appointed Librarian +to the Hertford Town Library, Alfred had access to all the books that +appealed to his mental appetite; and these, especially the historical +novels, supplemented the lack of interesting history lessons at school, +besides giving him an insight into many kinds of literature suited to +his varied tastes and temperament. In addition, however, to the hours +spent in reading, he and his brother John found endless delight in +turning the loft of an outhouse adjoining their yard into a sort of +mechanical factory. Here they contrived, by saving up all their pence +(the only pocket-money that came to them), to make crackers and other +simple fireworks, and to turn old keys into toy cannon, besides making a +large variety of articles for practical domestic purposes. Thus he +cultivated the gift of resourcefulness and self-reliance on which he had +so often to depend when far removed from all civilisation during his +travels on the Amazon and in the Malay Archipelago. + +A somewhat amusing instance of this is found in a letter to his sister, +dated June 25th, 1855, at a time when he wanted a really capable man for +his companion, in place of the good-natured but incapable boy Charles, +whom he had brought with him from London to teach collecting. In reply +to some remarks by his sister about a young man who she thought would be +suitable, he wrote: "Do not tell me merely that he is 'a very nice young +man.' Of course he is.... I should like to know whether he can live on +rice and salt fish for a week on occasion.... Can he sleep on a +board?... Can he walk twenty miles a day? Whether he can work, for there +is sometimes as hard work in collecting as in anything. Can he saw a +piece of wood straight? Ask him to make you anything--a little card box, +a wooden peg or bottle-stopper, and see if he makes them neat and +square." + +In another letter he describes the garden and live stock he had been +able to obtain where he was living; and in yet another he gives a long +list of his domestic woes and tribulations--which, however, were +overcome with the patience inculcated in early life by his hobbies, and +also by the fact that the family was always more or less in straitened +circumstances, so that the children were taught to make themselves +useful in various ways in order to assist their mother in the home. + +As he grew from childhood into youth, Alfred Wallace's extreme +sensitiveness developed to an almost painful degree. He grew rapidly, +and his unusual height made him still more shy when forced to occupy any +prominent position amongst boys of his own age. During the latter part +of his time at Hertford Grammar School his father was unable to pay the +usual fees, and it was agreed that Alfred should act as pupil teacher +in return for the lessons received. This arrangement, while acceptable +on the one hand, caused him actual mental and physical pain on the +other, as it increased his consciousness of the disabilities under which +he laboured in contrast with most of the other boys of his own age. + +At the age of 14 Wallace was taken away from school, and until something +could be definitely decided about his future--as up to the present he +had no particular bent in any one direction--he was sent to London to +live with his brother John, who was then working for a master builder in +the vicinity of Tottenham Court Road. This was in January, 1837, and it +was during the following summer that he joined his other brother, +William, at Barton-on-the-Clay, Bedfordshire, and began land surveying. +In the meantime, while in London, he had been brought very closely into +contact with the economics and ethics of Robert Owen, the well-known +Socialist; and although very young in years he was so deeply impressed +with the reasonableness and practical outcome of these theories that, +though considerably modified as time went on, they formed the foundation +for his own writings on Socialism and allied subjects in after years. + +As one of our aims in this section is to suggest an outline of the +contrasting influences governing the early lives of Wallace and Darwin, +it is interesting to note that at the ages of 14 and 16 respectively, +and immediately on leaving school, they came under the first definite +mental influence which was to shape their future thought and action. Yet +how totally different from Wallace's trials as a pupil teacher was the +removal of Darwin from Dr. Butler's school at Shrewsbury because "he was +doing no good" there, and his father thought it was "time he settled +down to his medical study in Edinburgh," never heeding the fact that +his son had already one passion in life, apart from "shooting, dogs, and +rat-catching," which stood a very good chance of saving him from +becoming the disgrace to the family that his good father feared. So that +while Wallace was imbibing his first lessons in Socialism at 14 years of +age, Darwin at 16 found himself merely enduring, with a feeling of +disgust, Dr. Duncan's lectures, which were "something fearful to +remember," on materia medica at eight o'clock on a winter's morning, +and, worse still, Dr. Munro's lectures on human anatomy, which were "as +dull as he was himself." Yet he always deeply regretted not having been +urged to practise dissection, because of the invaluable aid it would +have been to him as a naturalist. + +By mental instinct, however, Darwin soon found himself studying marine +zoology and other branches of natural science. This was in a large +measure due to his intimacy with Dr. Grant, who, in a later article on +Flustra, made some allusion to a paper read by Darwin before the Linnean +Society on a small discovery which he had made by the aid of a "wretched +microscope" to the effect that the so-called ova of Flustra were really +larvę and had the power of independent action by means of cilia. + +During his second year in Edinburgh he attended Jameson's lectures on +geology and zoology, but found them so "incredibly dull" that he +determined never to study the science. + +Then came the final move which, all unknowingly, was to lead Darwin into +the pursuit of a science which up to that time had only been a hobby and +not in any sense the serious profession of his life. But again how wide +the difference between his change from Edinburgh to Cambridge, and that +of Wallace from a month's association with a working-class Socialistic +community in London to land surveying under the simplest rural +conditions prevalent amongst the respectable labouring farmers of +Bedfordshire--Darwin to the culture and privileges of a great University +with the object of becoming a clergyman, and Wallace taking the first +road that offered towards earning a living, with no thought as to the +ultimate outcome of this life in the open and the systematic observation +of soils and land formation. + +But the inherent tendencies of Darwin's nature drew him away from +theology to the study of geology, entomology and botany. The ensuing +four years at Cambridge were very happy ones. While fortunate in being +able to follow his various mental and scientific pursuits with the +freedom which a good social and financial position secured for him, he +found himself by a natural seriousness of manner, balanced by a cheerful +temperament and love of sport, the friend and companion of men many +years his seniors and holding positions of authority in the world of +science. Amongst these the name of Professor Henslow will always take +precedence. "This friendship," says Darwin, "influenced my whole career +more than any other." Henslow's extensive knowledge of botany, geology, +entomology, chemistry and mineralogy, added to his sincere and +attractive personality, well-balanced mind and excellent judgment, +formed a strong and effective bias in the direction Darwin was destined +to follow. + +Apart, however, from the strong personal influence of Henslow, Sedgwick +and others with whom he came much in contact, two books which he read at +this time aroused his "burning zeal to add the most humble contribution +to the noble structure of Natural Science"; these were Sir J. Herschel's +"Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy," and Humboldt's +"Personal Narrative." Indeed, so fascinated was he by the description +given of Teneriffe in the latter that he at once set about a plan +whereby he might spend a holiday, with Henslow, in that locality, a +holiday which was, indeed, to form part of his famous voyage. + +By means of his explorations in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and one +or two visits to North Wales, Darwin's experimental knowledge of geology +and allied sciences was considerably increased. In his zeal for +collecting beetles he employed a labourer to "scrape the moss off old +trees in winter, and place it in a bag, and likewise to collect the +rubbish at the bottom of the barges in which reeds were brought from the +fens, and thus ... got some very rare species." + +During the summer vacation of 1831, at the personal request of Henslow, +he accompanied Professor Sedgwick on a geological tour in North Wales. +In order, no doubt, to give him some independent experience, Sedgwick +sent Darwin on a line parallel with his own, telling him to bring back +specimens of the rocks and to mark the stratification on a map. In later +years Darwin was amazed to find how much both of them had failed to +observe, "yet these phenomena were so conspicuous that ... a house burnt +down by fire could not tell its story more plainly than did the valley +of Cwm Idwal." + +This tour was the introduction to a momentous change in his life. On +returning to Shrewsbury he found a letter awaiting him which contained +the offer of a voyage in H.M.S. _Beagle_. But owing to several +objections raised by Dr. Darwin, he wrote and declined the offer; and if +it had not been for the immediate intervention of his uncle, Mr. Josiah +Wedgwood (to whose house he went the following day to begin the shooting +season), who took quite a different view of the proposition, the +"Journal of Researches during the Voyage of H.M.S. _Beagle_," by Charles +Darwin, would never have been written. + +At length, however, after much preparation and many delays, the +_Beagle_ sailed from Plymouth on December 27th, 1831, and five years +elapsed before Darwin set foot again on English soil. The period, +therefore, in Darwin's life which we find covered by his term at +Edinburgh and Cambridge, until at the age of 22 he found himself +suddenly launched on an entirely new experience full of adventure and +fresh association, was spent by Wallace in a somewhat similar manner in +so far as his outward objective in life was more or less distinct from +the pursuits which gradually dawned upon his horizon, though they were +followed as a "thing apart" and not as an ultimate end. + +With Wallace's removal into Bedfordshire an entirely new life opened up +before him. His health, never very good, rapidly improved; both brain +and eye were trained to practical observations which proved eminently +valuable. His descriptions of the people with whom he came in contact +during these years of country life reveal the quiet toleration of the +faults and foibles of others, not devoid of the keen sense of humour and +justice which characterised his lifelong attitude towards his +fellow-men. + +The many interests of his new life, together with the use of a pocket +sextant, prompted him to make various experiments for himself. The only +sources from which he could obtain helpful information, however, were +some cheap elementary books on mechanics and optics which he procured +from the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; these he studied +and "puzzled over" for several years. "Having no friends of my own age," +he wrote, "I occupied myself with various pursuits in which I had begun +to take an interest. Having learnt the use of the sextant in surveying, +and my brother having a book on Nautical Astronomy, I practised a few of +the simpler observations. Among these were determining the meridian by +equal altitudes of the sun, and also by the pole-star at its upper or +lower culmination; finding the latitude by the meridian altitude of the +sun, or of some of the principal stars; and making a rude sundial by +erecting a gnomon towards the pole. For these simple calculations I had +Hannay and Dietrichsen's Almanac, a copious publication which gave all +the important data in the Nautical Almanac, besides much other +interesting matter useful for the astronomical amateur or the ordinary +navigator. I also tried to make a telescope by purchasing a lens of +about 2 ft. focus at an optician's in Swansea, fixing it in a paper tube +and using the eye-piece of a small opera-glass. With it I was able to +observe the moon and Jupiter's satellites, and some of the larger +star-clusters; but, of course, very imperfectly. Yet it served to +increase my interest in astronomy, and to induce me to study with some +care the various methods of construction of the more important +astronomical instruments; and it also led me throughout my life to be +deeply interested in the grand onward march of astronomical +discovery."[2] + +At the same time Wallace became attracted by, and interested in, the +flowers, shrubs and trees growing in that part of Bedfordshire, and he +acquired some elementary knowledge of zoology. "It was," he writes, +"while living at Barton that I obtained my first information that there +was such a science as geology.... My brother, like most land-surveyors, +was something of a geologist, and he showed me the fossil oysters of the +genus Gryphęa and the Belemnites ... and several other fossils which +were abundant in the chalk and gravel around Barton.... It was here, +too, that during my solitary rambles I first began to feel the influence +of nature and to wish to know more of the various flowers, shrubs and +trees I daily met with, but of which for the most part I did not even +know the English names. At that time I hardly realised that there was +such a science as systematic botany, that every flower and every meanest +and most insignificant weed had been accurately described and +classified, and that there was any kind of system or order in the +endless variety of plants and animals which I knew existed. This wish to +know the names of wild plants, to be able to speak ... about them, had +arisen from a chance remark I had overheard about a year before. A lady +... whom we knew at Hertford, was talking to some friends in the street +when I and my father met them ... [and] I heard the lady say, 'We found +quite a rarity the other day--the Monotropa; it had not been found here +before.' This I pondered over, and wondered what the Monotropa was. All +my father could tell me was that it was a rare plant; and I thought how +nice it must be to know the names of rare plants when you found +them."[3] + +One can picture the tall quiet boy going on these solitary rambles, his +eye becoming gradually quickened to perceive new forms in nature, +contrasting them one with another, and beginning to ponder over the +_cause_ which led to the diverse formation and colouring of leaves +apparently of the same family. + +It was in 1841, four years later, that he heard of, and at once +procured, a book published at a shilling by the S.P.C.K. (the title of +which he could not recall in after years), to which he owed his first +scientific glimmerings of the vast study of botany. The next step was to +procure, at much self-sacrifice, Lindley's "Elements of Botany," +published at half a guinea, which to his immense disappointment he found +of very little use, as it did not deal with British plants! His +disappointment was lessened, however, by the loan from a Mr. Hayward of +London's "Encyclopedia of Plants," and it was with the help of these two +books that he made his first classification of the specimens which he +had collected and carefully kept during the few preceding years. + +"It must be remembered," he says in "My Life," "that my ignorance of +plants at this time was extreme. I knew the wild rose, bramble, +hawthorn, buttercup, poppy, daisy and foxglove, and a very few others +equally common.... I knew nothing whatever as to genera and species, nor +of the large number of distinct forms related to each and grouped into +natural orders. My delight, therefore, was great when I was ... able to +identify the charming little eyebright, the strange-looking cow-wheat +and louse-wort, the handsome mullein and the pretty creeping toad-flax, +and to find that all of them, as well as the lordly foxglove, formed +parts of one great natural order, and that under all their superficial +diversity of form was a similarity of structure which, when once clearly +understood, enabled me to locate each fresh species with greater ease." +This, however, was not sufficient, and the last step was to form a +herbarium. + +"I soon found," he wrote, "that by merely identifying the plants I found +in my walks I lost much time in gathering the same species several +times, and even then not being always quite sure that I had found the +same plant before. I therefore began to form a herbarium, collecting +good specimens and drying them carefully between drying papers and a +couple of boards weighted with books or stones.... I first named the +species as nearly as I could do so, and then laid them out to be pressed +and dried. At such times," he continues--and I have quoted the passage +for the sake of this revealing confession--"I experienced the joy which +every discovery of a new form of life gives to the lover of nature, +almost equal to those raptures which I afterwards felt at every capture +of new butterflies on the Amazon, or at the constant stream of new +species of birds, beetles and butterflies in Borneo, the Moluccas, and +the Aru Islands."[4] + +Anything in the shape of gardening papers and catalogues which came in +his way was eagerly read, and to this source he owed his first interest +in the fascinating orchid. + +"A catalogue published by a great nurseryman in Bristol ... contained a +number of tropical orchids, of whose wonderful variety and beauty I had +obtained some idea from the woodcuts in Loudon's 'Encyclopedia.' The +first epiphytal orchid I ever saw was at a flower show in Swansea ... +which caused in me a thrill of enjoyment which no other plant in the +show produced. My interest in this wonderful order of plants was further +enhanced by reading in the _Gardener's Chronicle_ an article by Dr. +Lindley on one of the London flower shows, where there was a good +display of orchids, in which ... he added, 'and _Dendrobium Devonianum_, +too delicate and beautiful for a flower of earth.' This and other +references ... gave them, in my mind, a weird and mysterious charm ... +which, I believe, had its share in producing that longing for the +tropics which a few years later was satisfied in the equatorial forests +of the Amazon."[5] + +For a brief period, when there was a lull in the surveying business and +his prospects of continuing in this profession looked uncertain, he +tried watchmaking, and would probably--though not by choice--have been +apprenticed to it but for an unexpected circumstance which caused his +master to give up his business. Alfred gladly, when the occasion +offered, returned to his outdoor life, which had begun to make the +strongest appeal to him, stronger, perhaps, than he was really aware. + +Early in 1844 another break occurred, due to the sudden falling off of +land surveying as a profitable business. His brother could no longer +afford to keep him as assistant, finding it indeed difficult to obtain +sufficient employment for himself. As Wallace knew no other trade or +profession, the only course which occurred to his mind as possible by +which to earn a living was to get a post as school teacher. + +After one or two rather amusing experiences, he eventually found himself +in very congenial surroundings under the Rev. Abraham Hill, headmaster +of the Collegiate School at Leicester. Here he stayed for a little more +than a year, during which time--in addition to his school work and a +considerable amount of hard reading on subjects to which he had not +hitherto been able to devote himself--he was led to become greatly +interested in phrenology and mesmerism, and before long found himself +something of an expert in giving mesmeric demonstrations before small +audiences. Phrenology, he believed, proved of much value in determining +his own characteristics, good and bad, and in guiding him to a wise use +of the faculties which made for his ultimate success; while his +introduction to mesmerism had not a little to do with his becoming +interested and finally convinced of the part played by spiritualistic +forces and agencies in human life. + +The most important event, however, during this year at Leicester was his +meeting with H.W. Bates, through whom he was introduced to the absorbing +study of beetles and butterflies, the link which culminated in their +mutual exploration of the Amazon. It is curious that Wallace retained no +distinct recollection of how or when he met Bates for the first time, +but thought that "he heard him mentioned as an enthusiastic +entomologist and met him at the Library." Bates was at this time +employed by his father, who was a hosiery manufacturer, and he could +therefore only devote his spare time to collecting beetles in the +surrounding neighbourhood. The friendship brought new interests into +both lives, and though Wallace was obliged a few months later to leave +Leicester and return to his old work of surveying (owing to the sudden +death of his brother William, whose business affairs were left in an +unsatisfactory condition and needed personal attention), he no longer +found in it the satisfaction he had previously experienced, and his +letters to Bates expressed the desire to strike out on some new line, +one which would satisfy his craving for a definite pursuit in the +direction of natural science. + +Somewhere about the autumn of 1847, Bates paid a visit to Wallace at +Neath, and the plan to go to the Amazon which had been slowly forming +itself at length took shape, due to the perusal of a little book +entitled "A Voyage up the River Amazon," by W.H. Edwards. Further +investigations showed that this would be particularly advantageous, as +the district had only been explored by the German zoologist, von Spix, +and the botanist von Martins, in 1817-20, and subsequently by Count de +Castelnau. + +During this interval we find, in a letter to Bates, the following +allusion to Darwin, which is the first record of Wallace's high estimate +of the man with whom his own name was to be dramatically associated ten +years later. "I first," he says, "read Darwin's Journal three or four +years ago, and have lately re-read it. As the journal of a scientific +traveller it is second only to Humboldt's Narrative; as a work of +general interest, perhaps superior to it. He is an ardent admirer and +most able supporter of Mr. Lyell's views. His style of writing I very +much admire, so free from all labour, or egotism, yet so full of +interest and original thought."[6] + +The early part of 1848 was occupied in making arrangements with Mr. +Samuel Stevens, of King Street, Covent Garden, to act as their agent in +disposing of a duplicate collection of specimens which they proposed +sending home; by this means paying their expenses during the time they +were away, any surplus being invested against their return. This and +other matters being satisfactorily settled, they eventually sailed from +Liverpool on April 20th in a barque of 192 tons, said to be "a very fast +sailer," which proved to be correct. On arriving at Para about a month +later, they immediately set about finding a house, learning something of +the language, the habits of the people amongst whom they had come to +live, and making short excursions into the forest before starting on +longer and more trying explorations up country. + +Wallace's previous vivid imaginings of what life in the tropics would +mean, so far as the surpassing beauty of nature was concerned, were not +immediately fulfilled. As a starting-point, however, Para had many +advantages. Besides the pleasant climate, the country for some hundreds +of miles was found to be nearly level at an elevation of about 30 or 40 +ft. above the river; the first distinct rise occurring some 150 miles up +the river Tocantins, south-west of Para; the whole district was +intersected by streams, with cross channels connecting them, access by +this means being comparatively easy to villages and estates lying +farther inland. + +Before making an extensive excursion into the interior, he spent some +time on the larger islands at the mouth of the Amazon, on one of which +he immediately noticed the scarcity of trees, while "the abundance of +every kind of animal life crowded into a small space was here very +striking, compared with the sparse manner in which it is scattered in +the virgin forests. It seems to force us to the conclusion that the +luxuriance of tropical vegetation is not favourable to the production of +animal life. The plains are always more thickly peopled than the forest; +and a temperate zone, as has been pointed out by Mr. Darwin, seems +better adapted to the support of large land animals than the tropics." + +We have already referred to the fact that at the very early age of 14 +Wallace had imbibed his first ideas of Socialism, or how the +"commonwealth" of a people or nation was the outcome of cause and +effect, largely due to the form of government, political economy and +progressive commerce best suited to any individual State or country. The +seed took deep root, and during the years spent for the most part +amongst an agricultural people in England and Wales his interest in +these questions had been quickened by observation and intelligent +inquiry. It is no wonder, therefore, that during the whole of his +travels we find many intimate references to such matters regarding the +locality in which he happened to find himself, but which can only be +noticed in a very casual manner in this section. For instance, he soon +discovered that the climate and soil round Para conduced to the +cultivation of almost every kind of food, such as cocoa, coffee, sugar, +farinha (the universal bread of the country) from the mandioca plant, +with vegetables and fruits in inexhaustible variety; while the articles +of export included india-rubber, Brazil nuts, and piassaba (the coarse, +stiff fibre of a palm, used for making brooms for street sweeping), as +well as sarsaparilla, balsam-capivi, and a few other drugs. + +The utter lack of initiative, or even ordinary interest, in making the +most of the opportunities lying at hand, struck him again and again as +he went from place to place and was entertained hospitably by hosts of +various nationalities; until at times the impression is conveyed that +apart from his initial interest as a naturalist, a longing seized him to +arouse those who were primarily responsible for these conditions out of +the apathy into which they had fallen, and to make them realise the +larger pleasure which life offers to those who recognise the +opportunities at hand, not only for their own advancement but also for +the benefit of those placed under their control. All of which we find +happily illustrated during his visit to Sarawak, in the Malay +Archipelago. + +The whole of these four years was crowded with valuable experiences of +one sort and another. Some of the most toilsome journeys proved only a +disappointment, while others brought success beyond his most sanguine +dreams. At the end of two years it was agreed between himself and Bates +that they should separate, Wallace doing the northern parts and +tributaries of the Amazon, and Bates the main stream, which, from the +fork of the Rio Negro, is called the Upper Amazon, or the Solimoes. By +this arrangement they were able to cover more ground, besides devoting +themselves to the special goal of research on which each was bent. + +In the meantime, Wallace's younger brother, Herbert, had come out to +join him, and for some time their journeys were made conjointly; but +finding that his brother was not temperamentally fitted to become a +naturalist, it was decided that he should return to England. +Accordingly, they parted at Barra when Wallace started on his long +journey up the Rio Negro, the duration of which was uncertain; and it +was not until many months after the sad event that he heard the +distressing news that Herbert had died of yellow fever on the eve of his +departure from Para for home. Fortunately, Bates was in Para at the +time, and did what he could for the boy until stricken down himself with +the same sickness, from which, however, his stronger constitution +enabled him to recover. + +Perhaps the most eventful and memorable journey during this period was +the exploration of the Uaupés River, of which Wallace wrote nearly sixty +years later: "So far as I have heard, no English traveller has to this +day ascended the Uaupés River so far as I did, and no collector has +stayed at any time at Javita, or has even passed through it." + +From a communication received from the Royal Geographical Society it +appears that the first complete survey of this river (a compass traverse +supplemented by astronomical observations) was made (1907-8) by Dr. +Hamilton Rice, starting from the side of Colombia, and tracing the whole +course of the river from a point near the source of its head-stream. The +result showed that the general course of the lower river was much as +represented by Wallace, though considerable corrections were necessary +both in latitude and longitude. "I am assured by authorities on the Rio +Negro region," writes Dr. Scott Keltie to Mr. W.G. Wallace, under date +May 21, 1915, "that your father's work still holds good." + +In May, 1852, Wallace returned to Para, and sailed for England the +following July. The ship took fire at sea, and all his treasures (not +previously sent to England) were unhappily lost. Ten days and nights +were spent in an open boat before another vessel picked them up, and in +describing this terrible experience he says: "When the danger appeared +past I began to feel the greatness of my loss. With what pleasure had I +looked upon every rare and curious insect I had added to my collection! +How many times, when almost overcome by the ague, had I crawled into the +forest and been rewarded by some unknown and beautiful species! How +many places, which no European foot but my own had trodden, would have +been recalled to my memory by the rare birds and insects they had +furnished to my collection! How many weary days and weeks had I passed, +upheld only by the fond hope of bringing home many new and beautiful +forms from these wild regions ... which would prove that I had not +wasted the advantage I had enjoyed, and would give me occupation and +amusement for many years to come! And now ... I had not one specimen to +illustrate the unknown lands I had trod, or to call back the +recollection of the wild scenes I had beheld! But such regrets were vain +... and I tried to occupy myself with the state of things which actually +existed."[7] + +On reaching London, Wallace took a house in Upper Albany Street, where +his mother and his married sister (Mrs. Sims), with her husband, a +photographer, came to live with him. The next eighteen months were fully +occupied with sorting and arranging such collections as had previously +reached England; writing his book of travels up the Amazon and Rio Negro +(published in the autumn of 1853), and a little book on the palm trees +based on a number of fine pencil sketches he had preserved in a tin box, +the only thing saved from the wreck. + +In summing up the most vivid impressions left on his mind, apart from +purely scientific results, after his four years in South America, he +wrote that the feature which he could never think of without delight was +"the wonderful variety and exquisite beauty of the butterflies and birds +... ever new and beautiful, strange and even mysterious," so that he +could "hardly recall them without a thrill of admiration and wonder." +But "the most unexpected sensation of surprise and delight was my first +meeting and living with man in a state of nature--with absolute +uncontaminated savages!... and the surprise of it was that I did not +expect to be at all so surprised.... These true wild Indians of the +Uaupés ... had nothing that we call clothes; they had peculiar +ornaments, tribal marks, etc.; they all carried tools or weapons of +their own manufacture.... But more than all, their whole aspect and +manner was different--they were all going about their own work or +pleasure, which had nothing to do with white men or their ways; they +walked with the free step of the independent forest-dweller, and, except +the few that were known to my companion, paid no attention whatever to +us, mere strangers of an alien race! In every detail they were original +and self-sustaining as are the wild animals of the forest, absolutely +independent of civilisation.... I could not have believed that there +would have been so much difference in the aspect of the same people in +their native state and when living under European supervision. The true +denizen of the Amazonian forest, like the forest itself, is unique and +not to be forgotten." + +The foregoing "impressions" recall forcibly those expressed by Darwin in +similar terms at the close of his "Journal": "Delight ... is a weak term +to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has +wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, +the novelty of the parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the +glossy green of the foliage ... the general luxuriance of the +vegetation, filled me with admiration. A paradoxical mixture of sound +and silence pervades the shady parts of the wood ... yet within the +recesses ... a universal silence appears to reign ... such a day as this +brings with it a deeper pleasure than he (a naturalist) can ever hope to +experience again,"[8] And in another place: "Among the scenes which are +deeply impressed on my mind, none can exceed in sublimity the primeval +forests undefaced by the hand of man; ... temples filled with the +various productions of the God of Nature; ... no one can stand in these +solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere +breath of his body."[9] + +In complete contrast to the forest, the bare, treeless, and uninhabited +plains of Patagonia "frequently crossed before" Darwin's eyes. Why, he +could not understand, except that, being so "boundless," they left "free +scope for the imagination." + +As these travels,[10] undertaken at comparatively the same age, represent +the foundation upon which their scientific work and theories were based +during the long years which followed, a glance at the conditions +governing the separate expeditions--both mental and physical--may be of +some value. The most obvious difference lies, perhaps, in the fact that +Darwin was free from the thought of having to "pay his way" by the +immediate result of his efforts, and likewise from all care and anxiety +regarding domestic concerns; the latter being provided for him when on +board the _Beagle_, or arranged by those who accompanied him on his +travels overland and by river. The elimination of these minor cares +tended to leave his mind free and open to absorb and speculate at +comparative leisure upon all the strange phenomena which presented +themselves throughout the long voyage. + +A further point of interest in determining the ultimate gain or loss +lies in the fact that Darwin's private excursions had to be somewhat +subservient to the movements of the _Beagle_ under the command of +Captain Fitz-Roy. This, in all probability, was beneficial to one of his +temperament--unaccustomed to be greatly restricted by outward +circumstances or conditions, though never flagrantly (or, perhaps, +consciously) going against them. The same applies in a measure to +Wallace, who, on more than one occasion, confessed his tendency to a +feeling of semi-idleness and dislike to any form of enforced physical +exertion; but as every detail, involving constant forethought and +arrangement, as well as the execution, devolved upon himself, the latent +powers of methodical perseverance, which never failed him, no matter +what difficulties barred his way, were called forth. Darwin's estimate +of the "habit of mind" forced upon himself during this period may not +inaptly be applied to both men: "Everything about which I thought or +read was made to bear directly on what I had seen, or was likely to see; +and this habit of mind was continued during the five years of the +voyage. I feel sure that it was this training which enabled me to do +whatever I have done in science." + +It may be further assumed that Darwin was better equipped mentally--from +a scientific point of view--owing to his personal intercourse with +eminent scientific men previous to his assuming this responsible +position. Wallace, on the contrary, had practically little beyond +book-knowledge and such experience as he had been able to gain by +solitary wanderings in the localities in which he had, by circumstances, +been forced to reside. His plan of operations must, therefore, have been +largely modified and adapted as time went on, and as his finances +allowed. To both, therefore, credit is due for the adaptability evinced +under conditions not always congenial or conducive to the pursuits they +had undertaken. + +Although the fact is not definitely stated by Wallace, it may readily be +inferred that the idea of making this the starting-point of a new life +was clearly in his mind; while Darwin simply accepted the opportunity +when it came, and was only brought to a consciousness of its full +meaning and bearing on his future career whilst studying the geological +aspect of Santiago when "the line of white rock revealed a new and +important fact," namely, that there had been afterwards subsidence round +the craters, which had since been in action and had poured forth lava. +"It then," he says, "first dawned on me that I might perhaps write a +book on the geology of the various countries visited, and this made me +thrill with delight. That was a memorable hour to me; and how distinctly +I can call to mind the low cliff of lava, beneath which I rested, with +the sun glaring hot, a few strange desert plants growing near, and with +living corals in the tidal pools at my feet!"[11] + +Another point of comparison lies in the fact that at no time did the +study of man or human nature, from the metaphysical and psychological +point of view, appeal to Darwin as it did to Wallace; and this being so, +the similarity between the impression made on them individually by their +first contact with primitive human beings is of some interest. + +Wallace's words have already been quoted; here are Darwin's: "Nothing is +more certain to create astonishment than the first sight in his native +haunt of a barbarian, of man in his lowest and most savage state. One +asks: 'Could our progenitors have been men like these--men whose very +signs and expressions are less intelligible to us than those of the +domesticated animals; men who do not possess the instinct of those +animals, nor yet appear to boast of human reason, or at least of arts +consequent on that reason?' I do not believe it is possible to describe +or paint the difference between a savage and civilised man. It is the +difference between a wild and tame animal."[12] + +The last words suggest the seed-thought eventually to be enlarged in +"The Descent of Man," and there is also perhaps a subtle suggestion of +the points in which Wallace differed from Darwin when the time came for +them to discuss this important section of the theory of Evolution. It +needed, however, the further eight years spent by Wallace in the Malay +Archipelago to bring about a much wider knowledge of nature-science +before he was prepared in any way to assume the position of exponent of +theories not seriously thought of previously in the scientific world. + +In the autumn of 1853, on the completion of his "Travels on the Amazon +and Rio Negro," Wallace paid his first visit to Switzerland, on a +walking tour in company with his friend George Silk. On his return, and +during the winter months, he was constant in his attendance at the +meetings of the Entomological and Zoological Societies. It was at one of +these evening gatherings that he first met Huxley, and he also had a +vague recollection of once meeting and speaking to Darwin at the British +Museum. Had it not been for his extreme shyness of disposition, and +(according to his own estimation) "lack of conversational powers," he +would doubtless have become far more widely known, and have enjoyed the +friendship of not a few of the eminent men who shared his interests, +during this interval before starting on his journey to Singapore. + +It was due to his close study of the Insect and Bird Departments of the +British Museum that he decided on Singapore as a new starting-point for +his natural history collections. As the region was generally healthy, +and no part of it (with the exception of the Island of Java) had been +explored, it offered unlimited attractions for his special work. But as +the journey out would be an expensive one, he was advised to lay his +plans before Sir Roderick Murchison, then President of the Royal +Geographical Society, and it was through his kindly interest and +personal application to the Government that a passage was provided in +one of the P. and O. boats going to Singapore. He left early in 1854. +Arrived at Singapore, an entirely new world opened up before him. New +peoples and customs thronged on all hands, a medley of nationalities +such as can only be seen in the East, where, even to-day, and though +forming part of one large community, each section preserves its native +dress, customs and religious habits. After spending some time at +Singapore he moved from place to place, but finally decided upon making +Ternate his head-quarters, as he discovered a comfortable bungalow, not +too large, and adaptable in every way as a place in which to collect and +prepare his specimens between the many excursions to other parts of the +Archipelago. The name is now indelibly associated with that particular +visit which ended after a trying journey in an attack of intermittent +fever and general prostration, during which he first conceived the idea +which has made Ternate famous in the history of natural science. + +[Illustration: A.R. WALLACE Singapore, 1862] + +One or two points in the following letters recall certain contrasts +similar to those already drawn between Darwin's impression of places and +people and those made on the mind of Wallace by practically the same +conditions. A typical instance is found in their estimate of the life +and work of the missionaries whom they met and from whom they received +the warmest hospitality. Their experience included both Protestant and +Roman Catholic, and from Darwin's account the former appeared to him to +have the more civilising effect on the people, not only from a +religious but also from the economic and industrial points of view. + +In the "Journal" (p. 419) we find a detailed account of a visit to the +missionary settlement at Waimate, New Zealand. After describing the +familiar English appearance of the whole surroundings, he adds: "All +this is very surprising when it is considered that five years ago +nothing but the fern flourished here. Moreover, native workmanship, +taught by these missionaries, has effected this change--the lesson of +the missionary is the enchanter's wand. The house had been built, the +windows framed, the fields ploughed, and even the trees grafted, by the +New Zealander. When I looked at the whole scene it was admirable. It was +not that England was brought vividly before my mind; ... nor was it the +triumphant feeling at seeing what Englishmen could effect; but rather +the high hopes thus inspired for the future progress of this fine +island." + +No such feeling was inspired by the conditions surrounding the Roman +Catholic missionaries whom he met from time to time. In an earlier part +of the "Journal" he records an evening spent with one living in a lonely +place in South America who, "coming from Santiago, had contrived to +surround himself with some few comforts. Being a man of some little +education, he bitterly complained of the total want of society. With no +particular zeal for religion, no business or pursuit, how completely +must this man's life be wasted." + +In complete opposition to these views, passages occur in the following +letters which show that Wallace thought more highly of the Roman +Catholic than of the Protestant missionaries. In one place, speaking of +the former, he says: "Most are Frenchmen ... well-educated men who give +up their lives for the good of the people they live among, I think +Catholics and Protestants are equally wrong, but as missionaries I think +Catholics are the best, and I would gladly see none others rather than +have, as in New Zealand, sects of native Dissenters more rancorous +against each other than in England. The unity of the Catholics is their +strength, and an unmarried clergy can do as missionaries what married +men never can undertake." + +As a sidelight on these contradictory estimates of the same work, it +should be borne in mind that Darwin had but recently given up the idea +of becoming a clergyman, and doubtless retained some of the instinctive +regard for sincere Christian Protestantism (whether represented by the +Church of England or by Nonconformists), while Wallace had long since +relinquished all doctrinal ideas on religion and all belief in the +beneficial effect produced by forms of worship on the individual. + +Among the regions Wallace visited was Sarawak. Of one of his sojourns +here some interesting reminiscences have been sent to me by Mr. L.V. +Helmes. He says: + + It was in 1854 that Wallace came to Sarawak. I was there then, + sent by a private firm, which later became the Borneo Company, to + open up, by mining, manufacture and trade, the resources of the + country, and amongst these enterprises was coal-mining on the + west. Wallace came in search of new specimens of animal and + especially insect life. The clearing of ancient forests at these + mines offered a naturalist great opportunities, and I gave Wallace + an introduction to our engineer in charge there. His collections + of beetles and butterflies there were phenomenal; but the district + was also the special home of the great ape, the orang-utan, or + meias, as the natives called them, of which he obtained so many + valuable specimens. Many notes must at that time have passed + between us, for I took much interest in his work. We had put up a + temporary hut for him at the mines, and on my occasional visits + there I saw him and his young assistant, Charles Allen, at work, + admired his beautiful collections, and gave my help in forwarding + them. + + But it was mainly in social intercourse that we met, when Wallace, + in intervals of his labours, came to Ku-ching, and was the Rajah's + guest. Then occurred those interesting discussions at social + gatherings to which he refers in a letter to me in 1909, when he + wrote: "I was pleased to receive your letter, with reminiscences + of old times. I often recall those pleasant evenings with Rajah + Brooke and our little circle, but since the old Rajah's death I + have not met any of the party." + + Wallace was in Sarawak at the happy period in the country's + history. It was beginning to emerge from barbarism. The Borneo + Company was just formed, and the seed of the country's future + prosperity was sown. Wallace, therefore, found us all sanguine and + cheerful; yet we were on the brink of a disaster which brought + many sorrows in its train. But the misfortunes of the Chinese + revolt had not yet cast their shadows before them. The Rajah's + white guests round his hospitable table; the Malay chiefs and + office-holders, who made evening calls from curiosity or to pay + their respects; Dyaks squatting in dusky groups in corners of the + hall, with petitions to make or advice to seek from their white + ruler--such would be the gathering of which Wallace would form a + part. No suspicion or foreboding would trouble the company; yet + within a few months that hall would be given to the flames of an + enemy's torch, and the Rajah himself and many of those who formed + that company would be fugitives in the jungle.... + + The Malay Archipelago, in the unregenerated days when Wallace + roamed the forests, and sailed the Straits in native boats and + canoes, was full of danger to wanderers of the white race. Anarchy + prevailed in many parts; usurping nobles enslaved the people in + their houses; and piratical fleets scoured the sea, capturing and + enslaving yearly thousands of peaceful traders, women and + children. The writer was himself in 1862 besieged in a Bornean + river by a pirate fleet, which was eventually destroyed by a + Sarawak Government steamer with the following result of the fight: + 190 pirates and 140 captives were killed or drowned, and 250 of + the latter were liberated and sent to their homes; showing how + formidable these pirates were. But Wallace, absorbed in his + scientific pursuits, minded not these dangers, nor the hardships + of any kind which a roving life in untrodden jungles and feverish + swamps brings. + + When Wallace left Sarawak after his fifteen months' residence in + the country, he left his young assistant, Charles Allen, there. He + entered my service, and remained some time after the formation of + the Borneo Company. Later, he again joined Wallace, and then went + to New Guinea, doing valuable collecting and exploring work. He + finally settled in Singapore, where I met him in 1899. He had + married and was doing well; but died not long after my interview + with him. He had come to the East with Wallace as a lad of 16, and + had been his faithful companion and assistant during years of + arduous work.--L.V.H. + +The eight years spent by Wallace in this almost unknown part of the +world were times of strenuous mental and physical exertion, resulting in +the gathering together of an enormous amount of matter for future +scientific investigation, but counterbalanced unfortunately by more or +less continuous ill-health--which at times made the effort of clear +reasoning and close application to scientific pursuits extremely +difficult. + +An indication of the unwearying application with which he went about his +task is seen in the fact that during this period he collected 125,660 +specimens of natural history, travelled about 14,000 miles within the +Archipelago, and made sixty or seventy journeys, "each involving some +preparation and loss of time," so that "not more than six years were +really occupied in collecting." + +A faint idea of this long and solitary sojourn in lonely places is +given in a letter to his old friend Bates, dated December 24th, 1860, in +which he says: "Many thanks for your long and interesting letter. I have +myself suffered much in the same way as you describe, and I think more +severely. The kind of _tędium vitę_ you mention I also occasionally +experience here. I impute it to a too monotonous existence." And again +when he begs his friend to write, as he is "half froze for news." + +As already stated, Wallace, at no time during these wanderings, had any +escort or protection, having to rely entirely upon his own tact and +patience, combined with firmness, in his dealings with the natives. On +one occasion he was taken ill, and had to remain six weeks with none but +native Papuans around him, and he became so attached to them that when +saying good-bye it was with the full intention of returning amongst them +at a later period. In another place he speaks of sleeping under cover of +an open palm-leaf hut as calmly as under the protection of the +Metropolitan Police! + +Up to that time, also, he was the only Englishman who had actually seen +the beautiful "birds of paradise in their native forests," this success +being achieved after "five voyages to different parts of the district +they inhabit, each occupying in its preparation and execution the larger +part of a year." And then only five species out of a possible fourteen +were procured. His enthusiasm as a naturalist and collector knew no +bounds, butterflies especially calling into play all his feelings of joy +and satisfaction. Describing his first sight of the _Ornithoptera +croesus_, he says that the blood rushed to his head and he felt much +more like fainting than he had done when in apprehension of immediate +death; a similar sensation being experienced when he came across another +large bird-winged butterfly, _Ornithoptera poseidon_. + +"It is one thing," he says, "to see such beauty in a cabinet, and quite +another to feel it struggling between one's fingers, and to gaze upon +its fresh and living beauty, a bright-green gem shining out amid the +silent gloom of a dark and tangled forest. The village of Dobbo held +that evening at least one contented man." + +These thrills of joy may be considered as some compensation for such +experiences as those contained in his graphic account of a single +journey in a "prau," or native boat. "My first crew," he wrote, "ran +away; two men were lost for a month on a desert island; we were ten +times aground on coral reefs; we lost four anchors; our sails were +devoured by rats; the small boat was lost astern; we were thirty-eight +days on the voyage home which should have taken twelve; we were many +times short of food and water; we had no compass-lamp owing to there not +being a drop of oil in Waigiou when we left; and to crown it all, during +the whole of our voyage, occupying in all seventy-eight days (all in +what was supposed to be the favourable season), we had not one single +day of fair wind." + +The scientific discoveries arising out of these eight years of laborious +work and physical hardship were first--with the exception of the +memorable Essay on Natural Selection--included in his books on the Malay +Archipelago, the Geographical Distribution of Animals, Island Life, and +Australasia, besides a number of papers contributed to various +scientific journals. + +A bare catalogue of the places visited and explored includes Sumatra, +Java, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, Timor, New Guinea, the Aru and Ké +Islands. Comparing this list with that given by Darwin at the close of +the "Journal," we find that though in some respects the ground covered +by the two men was similar, it never actually overlapped. The countries +and islands visited by the _Beagle_ came in the following order: Cape de +Verde Islands, St. Paul's Rocks, Fernando Noronha, South America +(including the Galapagos Archipelago, the Falkland Isles, and Tierra del +Fuego), Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, Keeling Island, +Maldive coral atolls, Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension. Brazil was +revisited for a short time, and the _Beagle_ touched at the Cape de +Verde Islands and the Azores on the homeward voyage. + +The very nature of this voyage did not permit Darwin to give unlimited +time to the study of any particular spot or locality; but his accurate +observation of every detail, together with his carefully kept journal, +afforded ample scope and foundation for future contemplation. To +Wallace, the outstanding result may be summed up in the fact that he +discovered that the Malay Archipelago is divided into a western group of +islands, which in their zoological affinities are Asiatic, and an +eastern, which are Australian. The Oriental Borneo and Bali are +respectively divided from the Australian Celebes and Lombok by a narrow +belt of sea known as "Wallace's line," on the opposite side of which the +indigenous mammalia are as widely divergent as in any two parts of the +world. + +To both men Darwin's estimate of the influence of travel may aptly apply +in the sense that from a geographical point of view "the map of the +world ceases to be a blank ... each part assumes its proper dimensions," +continents are no longer considered islands, nor islands as mere specks. + +Wallace's homeward journey was not so eventful as the previous one had +been, except for the unsuccessful efforts to bring back several species +of live birds, which, with the exception of his birds of paradise, died +on the way. On reaching London in the spring of 1862, he again made his +home with his married sister, Mrs. Sims (who was living in Westbourne +Grove). In a large empty room at the top of the house he found himself +surrounded with packing-cases which he had not seen for five or six +years, and which, together with his recent collections, absorbed his +time and interest for the first few weeks. Later, he settled down to his +literary work, and, with the exception of one or two visits to the +Continent and America, spent the remainder of his life in England--a +life full of activity, the results of which still permeate scientific +research. + + + + +PART I (_Continued_) + + + + +II.--Early Letters + +[1854--62] + + +Of the few letters which have been preserved relating to this period, a +number have already been published in "My Life," and need not be +reprinted here. But in some cases portions of these letters have been +given because they bring out aspects of Wallace's character which are +not revealed elsewhere. The various omissions which have been made in +other letters refer either to unimportant personal matters or to +technical scientific details. The first of the letters was written +during Wallace's voyage to the Malay Archipelago. + + * * * * * + +TO G. SILK + + +_Steamer "Bengal," Red Sea. March 26, [1854]._ + +My dear George,-- ... Of all the eventful days of my life my first in +Alexandria was the most striking. Imagine my feelings when, coming out +of the hotel (whither I had been conveyed in an omnibus) for the purpose +of taking a quiet stroll through the city, I found myself in the midst +of a vast crowd of donkeys and their drivers, all thoroughly determined +to appropriate my person to their own use and interest, without in the +least consulting my inclinations. In vain with rapid strides and waving +arms I endeavoured to clear a way and move forward; arms and legs were +seized upon, and even the Christian coat-tails were not sacred from the +profane Mahometans. One would hold together two donkeys by their tails +while I was struggling between them, and another, forcing together their +heads, would thus hope to compel me to mount upon one or both of them; +and one fellow more impudent than the rest I laid flat upon the ground, +and sending the donkey staggering after him, I escaped a moment midst +hideous yells and most unearthly cries. I now beckoned to a fellow more +sensible-looking than the rest, and told him that I wished to walk and +would take him for a guide, and hoped now to be at rest; but vain +thought! I was in the hands of the Philistines, and getting us up +against a wall, they formed an impenetrable phalanx of men and brutes +thoroughly determined that I should only get away from the spot on the +legs of a donkey. Bethinking myself now that donkey-riding was a +national institution, and seeing a fat Yankee (very like my Paris +friend) mounted, being like myself hopeless of any other means of +escape, I seized upon a bridle in hopes that I should then be left in +peace. But this was the signal for a more furious onset, for, seeing +that I would at length ride, each one was determined that he alone +should profit by the transaction, and a dozen animals were forced +suddenly upon me and a dozen hands tried to lift me upon their +respective beasts. But now my patience was exhausted, so, keeping firm +hold of the bridle I had first taken with one hand, I hit right and left +with the other, and calling upon my guide to do the same, we succeeded +in clearing a little space around us. Now then behold your friend +mounted upon a jackass in the streets of Alexandria, a boy behind +holding by his tail and whipping him up, Charles (who had been lost +sight of in the crowd) upon another, and my guide upon a third, and off +we go among a crowd of Jews and Greeks, Turks and Arabs, and veiled +women and yelling donkey-boys to see the city. We saw the bazaars and +the slave market, where I was again nearly pulled to pieces for +"backsheesh" (money), the mosques with their elegant minarets, and then +the Pasha's new palace, the interior of which is most gorgeous. + +We have seen lots of Turkish soldiers walking in comfortable +irregularity; and, after feeling ourselves to be dreadful guys for two +hours, returned to the hotel whence we were to start for the canal +boats. You may think this account is exaggerated, but it is not; the +pertinacity, vigour and screams of the Alexandrian donkey-drivers no +description can do justice to....--Yours sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_Singapore, April 30, 1854_. + +My dear Mother,--We arrived here safe on the 20th of this month, having +had very fine weather all the voyage. On shore I was obliged to go to a +hotel, which was very expensive, so I tried to get out into the country +as soon as I could, which, however, I did not manage in less than a +week, when I at last got permission to stay with a French Roman Catholic +missionary who lives about eight miles out of the town and close to the +jungle. The greater part of the inhabitants of Singapore are Chinese, +many of whom are very rich, and all the villages about are almost +entirely of Chinese, who cultivate pepper and gambir. Some of the +English merchants here have splendid country houses. I dined with one to +whom I brought an introduction. His house was most elegant, and full of +magnificent Chinese and Japanese furniture. We are now at the Mission of +Bukit Tima. The missionary speaks English, Malay and Chinese, as well as +French, and is a very pleasant man. He has built a very pretty church +here, and has about 300 Chinese converts. Having only been here four +days, I cannot tell much about my collections yet. Insects, however, +are plentiful.... + +Charles gets on pretty well in health, and catches a few insects; but he +is very untidy, as you may imagine by his clothes being all torn to +pieces by the time we arrived here. He will no doubt improve and will +soon be useful. + +Malay is the universal language, in which all business is carried on. It +is easy, and I am beginning to pick up a little, but when we go to +Malacca shall learn it most, as there they speak nothing else. + +I am very unfortunate with my watch. I dropped it on board and broke the +balance-spring, and have now sent it home to Mr. Matthews to repair, as +I cannot trust anyone here to do it.... + +Love to Fanny and Thomas,--I remain your affectionate son, + +ALFRED B. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_Bukit Tama, Singapore. May 28, 1854._ + +My dear Mother,--I send you a few lines through G. Silk as I thought you +would like to hear from me. I am very comfortable here living with a +Roman Catholic missionary.... I send by this mail a small box of insects +for Mr. Stevens--I think a very valuable one--and I hope it will go +safely. I expected a letter from you by the last mail, but received only +two _Athenoeums_ of March 18 and 25.... + +The forest here is very similar to that of South America. Palms are very +numerous, but they are generally small and horridly spiny. There are +none of the large and majestic species so abundant on the Amazon. I am +so busy with insects now that I have no time for anything else, I send +now about a thousand beetles to Mr. Stevens, and I have as many other +insects still on hand which will form part of my next and principal +consignment. Singapore is very rich in beetles, and before I leave I +think I shall have a most beautiful collection. + +[Illustration: A.R. WALLACE'S MOTHER] + +I will tell you how my day is now occupied. Get up at half-past five. +Bath and coffee. Sit down to arrange and put away my insects of the day +before, and set them safe out to dry. Charles mending nets, filling +pincushions, and getting ready for the day. Breakfast at eight. Out to +the jungle at nine. We have to walk up a steep hill to get to it, and +always arrive dripping with perspiration. Then we wander about till two +or three, generally returning with about 50 or 60 beetles, some very +rare and beautiful. Bathe, change clothes, and sit down to kill and pin +insects. Charles ditto with flies, bugs and wasps; I do not trust him +yet with beetles. Dinner at four. Then to work again till six. Coffee. +Read. If very numerous, work at insects till eight or nine. Then to bed. + +Adieu, with love to all.--Your affectionate son, + +ALFRED E. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_In the Jungle near Malacca. July, 1854._ + +My dear Mother,--As this letter may be delayed getting to Singapore I +write at once, having an opportunity of sending to Malacca to-morrow. We +have been here a week, living in a Chinese house or shed, which reminds +me remarkably of my old Rio Negro habitation. I have now for the first +time brought my "rede" into use, and find it very comfortable. + +We came from Singapore in a small schooner with about fifty Chinese, +Hindoos and Portuguese passengers, and were two days on the voyage, +with nothing but rice and curry to eat, not having made any provision, +it being our first experience of these country vessels. Malacca is an +old Dutch city, but the Portuguese have left the strongest mark of their +possession in the common language of the place being still theirs. I +have now two Portuguese servants, a cook and a hunter, and find myself +thus almost brought back again to Brazil by the similarity of language, +the people, and the jungle life. In Malacca we stayed only two days, +being anxious to get into the country as soon as possible. I stayed with +a Roman Catholic missionary; there are several here, each devoted to a +particular part of the population, Portuguese, Chinese and wild Malays +of the jungle. The gentleman we were with is building a large church, of +which he is architect himself, and superintends the laying of every +brick and the cutting of every piece of timber. Money enough could not +be raised here, so he took a voyage _round the world!_ and in the United +States, California, and India got subscriptions sufficient to complete +it. + +It is a curious and not very creditable thing that in the English +colonies of Singapore and Malacca there is not a single Protestant +missionary; while the conversion, education and physical and moral +improvement of the inhabitants (non-European) is entirely left to these +French missionaries, who without the slightest assistance from our +Government devote their lives to the Christianising and civilising of +the varied populations which we rule over. + +Here the birds are abundant and most beautiful, more so than on the +Amazon, and I think I shall soon form a most beautiful collection. They +are, however, almost all common, and so are of little value except that +I hope they will be better specimens than usually come to England. My +guns are both very good, but I find powder and shot in Singapore +cheaper than in London, so I need not have troubled myself to take any. +So far both I and Charles have enjoyed excellent health. He can now +shoot pretty well, and is so fond of it that I can hardly get him to do +anything else. He will soon be very useful, if I can cure him of his +incorrigible carelessness. At present I cannot trust him to do the +smallest thing without watching that he does it properly, so that I +might generally as well do it myself. I shall remain here probably two +months, and then return to Singapore to prepare for a voyage to Cambodia +or somewhere else, so do not be alarmed if you do not hear from me +regularly. Love to all.--Your affectionate son, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_Singapore. September 30, 1854._ + +My dear Mother,--I last wrote to you from Malacca in July. I have now +just returned to Singapore after two months' hard work. At Malacca I had +a pretty strong touch of fever with the old Rio Negro symptoms, but the +Government doctor made me take a great quantity of quinine every day for +a week together and so killed it, and in less than a fortnight I was +quite well and off to the jungle again. I see now how to treat the +fever, and shall commence at once when the symptoms again appear. I +never took half enough quinine in America to cure me. Malacca is a +pretty place, and I worked very hard. Insects are not very abundant +there, still by perseverance I got a good number and many rare ones. Of +birds, too, I made a good collection. I went to the celebrated Mount +Ophir and ascended to the top. The walk was terrible--thirty miles +through jungle, a succession of mud holes. My boots did good service. We +lived there a week at the foot of the mountain, in a little hut built +by our men, and I got some fine new butterflies there and hundreds of +other new and rare insects. We had only rice and a little fish and tea, +but came home quite well. The height of the mountain is about 4,000 +feet.... Elephants and rhinoceroses, as well as tigers, are abundant +there, but we had our usual bad luck in not seeing any of them. + +On returning to Malacca I found the accumulations of two or three posts, +a dozen letters and fifty newspapers.... + +I am glad to be safe in Singapore with my collections, as from here they +can be insured. I have now a fortnight's work to arrange, examine, and +pack them, and then in four months hence there will be some work for Mr. +Stevens. + +Sir James Brooke is here. I have called on him. He received me most +cordially, and offered me every assistance at Sarawak. I shall go there +next, as the missionary does not go to Cambodia for some months. +Besides, I shall have some pleasant society at Sarawak, and shall get on +in Malay, which is very easy, but I have had no practice--though still I +can ask for most common things. My books and instruments arrived in +beautiful condition. They looked as if they had been packed up but a +day. Not so the unfortunate eatables....--I remain your affectionate +son, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO G. SILK + + +_Singapore. October 15, 1854._ + +Dear G.,--To-morrow I sail for Sarawak. Sir J. Brooke has given me a +letter to his nephew, Capt. Brooke, to make me at home till he arrives, +which may be a month, perhaps. I look forward with much interest to see +what he has done and how he governs. I look forward to spending a very +pleasant time at Sarawak.... + +Sir W. Hooker's remarks are encouraging, but I cannot afford to collect +plants. I have to work for a living, and plants would not pay unless I +collect nothing else, which I cannot do, being too much interested in +zoology. I should like a botanical companion like Mr. Spruce very much. +We are anxiously expecting accounts of the taking of Sebastopol. + +I am much obliged to Latham for quoting me, and hope to see it soon. +That ought to make my name a little known. I have not your talent at +making acquaintances, and find Singapore very dull. I have not found a +single companion. I long for you to walk about with and observe the +queer things in the streets of Singapore. The Chinamen and their ways +are inexhaustibly amusing. My revolver is too heavy for daily use. I +wish I had had a small one.--Yours sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO AN UNKNOWN CORRESPONDENT[13] + + +_Si Munjon Coal Works, Borneo. May, 1855._ + +One of the principal reasons which induced me to come here was that it +is the country of those most strange and interesting animals, the +orang-utans, or "mias" of the Dyaks. In the Sarawak district, though +scarce twenty miles distant, they are quite unknown, there being some +boundary line in this short space which, obeying the inexplicable laws +of distribution, they never pass. The Dyaks distinguish three different +kinds, which are known in Europe by skulls or skeletons only, much +confusion still existing in their synonymy, and the external characters +of the adult animals being almost or quite unknown. I have already been +fortunate enough to shoot two young animals of two of the species, +which were easily distinguishable from each other, and I hope by staying +here some time to get adult specimens of all the species, and also to +obtain much valuable information as to their habits. The jungle here is +exceedingly monotonous; palms are scarce and flowers almost wanting, +except some species of dwarf gingerwort. It is high on the trees that +flowers are alone to be found.... Oak trees are rather plentiful, as I +have already found three species with red, brown, and black acorns. This +is confirmatory of Dr. Hooker's statement that, contrary to the +generally received opinion, oaks are equally characteristic of a +tropical as of a temperate climate. I must make an exception to the +scarcity of flowers, however, tall slender trees occurring not +unfrequently, whose stems are flower-bearing. One is a magnificent +object, 12 or 15 ft. of the stem being almost hidden by rich +orange-coloured flowers, which in the gloomy forest have, as I have +before remarked of tropical insects under similar circumstances, an +almost magical effect of brilliancy. Not less beautiful is another tree +similarly clothed with spikes of pink and white berries. + +The only striking features of the animal world are the hornbills, which +are very abundant and take the place of the toucans of Brazil, though I +believe they have no real affinity with them; and the immense flights of +fruit-eating bats which frequently pass over us. They extend as far as +the eye can reach, and continue passing for hours. By counting and +estimation I calculated that at least 30,000 passed one evening while we +could see them, and they continued on some time after dark. The species +is probably the _Pteropus edulis_; its expanded wings are near 5 ft. +across, and it flies with great ease and rapidity. Fruit seems so scarce +in these jungles that it is a mystery where they find enough to supply +such vast multitudes. + +Our mode of life here is very simple--rather too much so, as we have a +continual struggle to get enough to eat. The Sarawak market is to a +great extent supplied with rice, fowls, and sweet potatoes from this +river, yet I have been obliged to send to Sarawak to purchase these very +articles. The reason is that the Dyaks are almost all in debt to the +Malay traders, and will therefore not sell anything, fearful of not +having sufficient to satisfy their creditors. They have now just got in +their rice harvest, and though it is not a very abundant one there is no +immediate pressure of hunger to induce them to earn anything by hunting +or snaring birds, etc. This also prevents them from being very +industrious in seeking for the "mias," though I have offered a high +price for full-grown animals. The old men here relate with pride how +many heads they have taken in their youth, and though they all +acknowledge the goodness of the present Rajah's government, yet they +think that if they could still take a few heads they would have better +harvests. The more I see of uncivilised people, the better I think of +human nature on the whole, and the essential differences between +so-called civilised and savage man seem to disappear. Here are we, two +Europeans surrounded by a population of Chinese, Malays, and Dyaks. The +Chinese are generally considered, and with some truth, to be thieves, +liars, and careless of human life, and these Chinese are coolies of the +very lowest and least educated class. The Malays are invariably +characterised as treacherous and bloodthirsty, and the Dyaks have only +recently ceased to think head-taking an absolute necessity. We are two +days' journey from Sarawak, where, though the Government is European, +yet it only exists by the consent and support of the native population. +Now I can safely say that in any part of Europe, if the same facilities +for crime and disturbance existed, things would not go on so smoothly +as they do here. We sleep with open doors and go about constantly +unarmed; one or two petty robberies and a little private fighting have +taken place among the Chinese, but the great proportion of them are +quiet, honest, decent sort of men. They did not at first like the +strictness and punctuality with which the English manager kept them to +their work, and two or three ringleaders tried to get up a strike for +short hours and higher wages, but Mr. G.'s energy and decision soon +stopped this by sending off the ringleaders at once, and summoning all +the Dyaks and Malays in the neighbourhood to his assistance in case of +any resistance being attempted. It was very gratifying to see how +rapidly they came up at his summons, and this display of power did much +good, for since then everything has gone on smoothly. Preparations are +now making for building a "joss house," a sure sign that the Chinese +have settled to the work, and giving every promise of success in an +undertaking which must have a vast influence on the progress of commerce +and civilisation of Borneo and the surrounding countries. India, +Australia, and every country with which they have communication must +also be incalculably benefited by an abundant supply of good coal within +two days' steam of Singapore. Let us wish success, then, to the Si +Munjon Coal Works!--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS + + +_Sadong River Borneo]. June 25, 1855._ + +My dear Fanny,-- ... I am now obliged to keep fowls and pigs, or we +should get nothing to eat. I have three pigs now and a China boy to +attend to them, who also assists in skinning "orang-utans," which he and +Charles are doing at this moment. I have also planted some onions and +pumpkins, which were above ground in three days and are growing +vigorously. I have been practising salting pork, and find I can make +excellent pickled pork here, which I thought was impossible, as everyone +I have seen try has failed. It is because they leave it to servants, who +will not take the necessary trouble. I do it myself. I shall therefore +always keep pigs in the future. I find there will not be time for +another box round the Cape, so must have a small parcel overland. I +should much like my _lasts_, but nothing else, unless some canvas shoes +are made. + +If the young man my mother and Mr. Stevens mentioned comes, he can bring +them. I shall write to Mr. Stevens about the terms on which I can take +him. I am, however, rather shy about it, having hitherto had no one to +suit me. As you seem to know him, I suppose he comes to see you +sometimes. Let me know what you think of him. Do not tell me merely that +he is "a very nice young man." Of course he is. So is Charles a very +nice boy, but I could not be troubled with another like him for any +consideration whatever. I have written to Mr. Stevens to let me know his +character, as regards _neatness_ and _perseverance_ in doing anything he +is set about. From you I should like to know whether he is quiet or +boisterous, forward or shy, talkative or silent, sensible or frivolous, +delicate or strong. Ask him whether he can live on rice and salt fish +for a week on an occasion--whether he can do without wine or beer, and +sometimes without tea, coffee or sugar--whether he can sleep on a +board--whether he likes the hottest weather in England--whether he is +too delicate to skin a stinking animal--whether he can walk twenty miles +a day--whether he can work, for there is sometimes as hard work in +collecting as in anything. Can he draw (not copy)? Can he speak French? +Does he write a good hand? Can he make anything? Can he saw a piece of +board straight? (Charles cannot, and every bit of carpenter work I have +to do myself.) Ask him to make you anything--a little card box, a +wooden peg or bottle-stopper, and see if he makes them neat, straight +and square. Charles never does anything the one or the other. Charles +has now been with me more than a year, and every day some such +conversation as this ensues: "Charles, look at these butterflies that +you set out yesterday." "Yes, sir." "Look at that one--is it set out +evenly?" "No, sir." "Put it right then, and all the others that want +it." In five minutes he brings me the box to look at. "Have you put them +all right?" "Yes, sir." "There's one with the wings uneven, there's +another with the body on one side, then another with the pin crooked. +Put them all right this time." It most frequently happens that they have +to go back a third time. Then all is right. If he puts up a bird, the +head is on one side, there is a great lump of cotton on one side of the +neck like a wen, the feet are twisted soles uppermost, or something +else. In everything it is the same, what ought to be straight is always +put crooked. This after twelve months' constant practice and constant +teaching! And not the slightest sign of improvement. I believe he never +will improve. Day after day I have to look over everything he does and +tell him of the same faults. Another with a similar incapacity would +drive me mad. He never, too, by any chance, puts anything away after +him. When done with, everything is thrown on the floor. Every other day +an hour is lost looking for knife, scissors, pliers, hammer, pins, or +something he has mislaid. Yet out of doors he does very well--he +collects insects well, and if I could get a neat, orderly person in the +house I would keep him almost entirely at out-of-door work and at +skinning, which he does also well, but cannot put into shape....--Your +affectionate brother, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_Sarawak. Christmas Day, 1855._ + +My dear Mother,--You will see I am spending a second Christmas Day with +the Rajah.... I have lived a month with the Dyaks and have been a +journey about sixty miles into the interior. I have been very much +pleased with the Dyaks. They are a very kind, simple and hospitable +people, and I do not wonder at the great interest Sir J. Brooke takes in +them. They are more communicative and lively than the American Indians, +and it is therefore more agreeable to live with them. In moral character +they are far superior to either Malays or Chinese, for though +head-taking has been a custom among them it is only as a trophy of war. +In their own villages crimes are very rare. Ever since Sir J. has been +here, more than twelve years, in a large population there has been but +one case of murder in a Dyak tribe, and that one was committed by a +stranger who had been adopted into the tribe. One wet day I got a piece +of string to show them how to play "scratch cradle," and was quite +astonished to find that they knew it better than I did and could make +all sorts of new figures I had never seen. They were also very clever +with tricks with string on their fingers, which seemed to be a favourite +amusement. Many of the distant tribes think the Rajah cannot be a man. +They ask all sorts of curious questions about him, whether he is not as +old as the mountains, whether he cannot bring the dead to life, and I +have no doubt for many years after his death he will be looked upon as a +deity and expected to come back again. I have now seen a good deal of +Sir James, and the more I see of him the more I admire him. With the +highest talents for government he combines the greatest goodness of +heart and gentleness of manner. At the same time he has such confidence +and determination, that he has put down with the greatest ease some +conspiracies of one or two Malay chiefs against him. It is a unique case +in the history of the world, for a European gentleman to rule over two +conflicting races of semi-savages with their own consent, without any +means of coercion, and depending solely upon them for protection and +support, and at the same time to introduce the benefits of civilisation +and check all crime and semi-barbarous practices. Under his government, +"running amuck," so frequent in all other Malay countries, has never +taken place, and with a population of 30,000 Malays, all of whom carry +their "creese" and revenge an insult by a stab, murders do not occur +more than once in five or six years. + +The people are never taxed but with their own consent, and Sir J.'s +private fortune has been spent in the government and improvement of the +country; yet this is the man who has been accused of injuring other +parties for his own private interests, and of wholesale murder and +butchery to secure his government!...--Your ever affectionate son, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS + + +_Singapore.. February 20, 1856._ + +My dear Fanny,-- ... I have now left Sarawak, where I began to feel +quite at home, and may perhaps never return to it again; but I shall +always look back with pleasure to my residence there and to my +acquaintance with Sir James Brooke, who is a gentleman and a nobleman in +the noblest sense of both words.... + +Charles has left me. He has stayed with the Bishop of Sarawak, who wants +teachers and is going to try to educate him for one. I offered to take +him on with me, paying him a fair price for all the insects, etc., he +collected, but he preferred to stay. I hardly know whether to be glad +or sorry he has left. It saves me a great deal of trouble and annoyance, +and I feel it quite a relief to be without him. On the other hand, it is +a considerable loss for me, as he had just begun to be valuable in +collecting. I must now try and teach a China boy to collect and pin +insects. My collections in Borneo have been very good, but some of them +will, I fear, be injured by the long voyages of the ships. I have +collected upwards of 25,000 insects, besides birds, shells, quadrupeds, +and plants. The day I arrived here a vessel sailed for Macassar, and I +fear I shall not have another chance for two months unless I go a +roundabout way, and perhaps not then, so I have hardly made up my mind +what to do,--Your affectionate brother, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, THOMAS SIMS + + +_Singapore. [Probably about March, 1856.]_ + +Dear Thomas,-- ... You and Fanny talk of my coming back for a trifling +sore as if I was within an omnibus ride of Conduit St. I am now +perfectly well, and only waiting to go eastward. The far east is to me +what the far west is to the Americans. They both meet in California, +where I hope to arrive some day. I quite enjoy being a few days at +Singapore now. The scene is at once so familiar and strange. The +half-naked Chinese coolies, the neat shopkeepers, the clean, fat, old, +long-tailed merchants, all as busy and full of business as any +Londoners. Then the handsome Klings, who always ask double what they +take, and with whom it is most amusing to bargain. The crowd of boatmen +at the ferry, a dozer begging and disputing for a farthing fare, the +Americans, the Malays, and the Portuguese make up a scene doubly +interesting to me now that I know something about them and can talk to +them in the general language of the place. The streets of Singapore on a +fine day are as crowded and busy as Tottenham Court Road, and from the +variety of nations and occupations far more interesting. I am more +convinced than ever that no one can appreciate a new country in a short +visit. After two years in the country I only now begin to understand +Singapore and to marvel at the life and bustle, the varied occupations, +and strange population, on a spot which so short a time ago was an +uninhabited jungle....--Yours affectionately, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS + + +_Singapore. April 21, 1856._ + +My dear Fanny,--I believe I wrote to you last mail, and have now little +to say except that I am still a prisoner in Singapore and unable to get +away to my land of promise, Macassar, with whose celebrated oil you are +doubtless acquainted. I have been spending three weeks with my old +friend the French missionary, going daily into the jungle, and fasting +on Fridays on omelet and vegetables, a most wholesome custom which I +think the Protestants were wrong to leave off. I have been reading Huc's +travels in China in French, and talking with a French missionary just +arrived from Tonquin. I have thus obtained a great deal of information +about these countries and about the extent of the Catholic missions in +them, which is astonishing. How is it that they do their work so much +more thoroughly than the Protestant missionaries? In Cochin China, +Tonquin, and China, where all Christian missionaries are obliged to live +in secret and are subject to persecution, expulsion, and often death, +yet every province, even those farthest in the interior of China, have +their regular establishment of missionaries constantly kept up by fresh +supplies who are taught the languages of the countries they are going to +at Penang or Singapore. In China there are near a million Catholics, in +Tonquin and Cochin China more than half a million! One secret of their +success is the cheapness of their establishments. A missionary is +allowed about £30 a year, on which he lives, in whatever country he may +be. This has two good effects. A large number of missionaries can be +employed with limited funds, and the people of the countries in which +they reside, seeing they live in poverty and with none of the luxuries +of life, are convinced they are sincere. Most are Frenchmen, and those I +have seen or heard of are well-educated men, who give up their lives to +the good of the people they live among. No wonder they make converts, +among the lower orders principally. For it must be a great comfort to +these poor people to have a man among them to whom they can go in any +trouble or distress, whose sole object is to comfort and advise them, +who visits them in sickness, who relieves them in want, and whom they +see living in daily danger of persecution and death only for their +benefit. + +You will think they have converted me, but in point of doctrine I think +Catholics and Protestants are equally wrong. As missionaries I think +Catholics are best, and I would gladly see none others, rather than +have, as in New Zealand, sects of native Dissenters more rancorous +against each other than in England. The unity of the Catholics is their +strength, and an unmarried clergy can do as missionaries what married +men can never undertake. I have written on this subject because I have +nothing else to write about. Love to Thomas and Edward.--Believe me, +dear Fanny, your ever affectionate brother, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS + + +_Macassar. December 10, 1856._ + +My dear Fanny,--I have received yours of September, and my mother's of +October, and as I am now going out of reach of letters for six months I +must send you a few lines to let you know that I am well and in good +spirits, though rather disappointed with the celebrated Macassar.... For +the last fortnight, since I came in from the country, I have been living +here rather luxuriously, getting good rich cow's milk to my tea and +coffee, very good bread and excellent Dutch butter (3s. a lb.). The +bread here is raised with toddy just as it is fermenting, and it imparts +a peculiar sweet taste to the bread which is very nice. At last, too, +there is some fruit here. The mangoes have just come in, and they are +certainly magnificent. The flavour is something between a peach and a +melon, with the slightest possible flavour of turpentine, and very +juicy. They say they are unwholesome, and it is a good thing for me I am +going away now. When I come back there will be not one to be had....--I +remain, dear Fanny, your ever affectionate brother, + +A.R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +H.W. BATES TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Tunantins, Upper Amazon. November 19, 1856._ + +Dear Wallace,-- ... I received about six months ago a copy of your paper +in the _Annals_ on "The Laws which have Governed the Introduction of New +Species." I was startled at first to see you already ripe for the +enunciation of the theory. You can imagine with what interest I read and +studied it, and I must say that it is perfectly well done. The idea is +like truth itself, so simple and obvious that those who read and +understand it will be struck by its simplicity; and yet it is perfectly +original. The reasoning is close and clear, and although so brief an +essay, it is quite complete, embraces the whole difficulty, and +anticipates and annihilates all objections. + +Few men will be in a condition to comprehend and appreciate the paper, +but it will infallibly create for you a high and sound reputation. The +theory I quite assent to, and, you know, was conceived by me also, but I +profess that I could not have propounded it with so much force and +completeness. + +Many details I could supply, in fact a great deal remains to be done to +illustrate and confirm the theory: a new method of investigating and +propounding zoology and botany inductively is necessitated, and new +libraries will have to be written; in part of this task I hope to be a +labourer for many happy and profitable years. What a noble subject would +be that of a monograph of a group of beings peculiar to one region but +offering different species in each province of it--tracing the laws +which connect together the modifications of forms and colour with the +_local_ circumstances of a province or station--tracing as far as +possible the actual _affiliation_ of the species. + +Two of such groups occur to me at once, in entomology, in Heliconiidę +and Erotylidę of South America; the latter I think more interesting than +the former for one reason--the species are more local, having feebler +means of locomotion than the Heliconiidę....--Yours very truly, + +HENRY WALTER BATES. + + * * * * * + +TO H.W. BATES + + +_Amboyna. January 4, 1858._ + +My dear Bates,--My delay of six months in answering your very +interesting and most acceptable letter dated an ideal absurdity put +forth when such a simple hypothesis will explain _all the facts_. + +I have been much gratified by a letter from Darwin, in which he says +that he agrees with "almost every word" of my paper. He is now preparing +for publication his great work on species and varieties, for which he +has been collecting information twenty years. He may save me the trouble +of writing the second part of my hypothesis by proving that there is no +difference in nature between the origin of species and varieties, or he +may give me trouble by arriving at another conclusion, but at all events +his facts will be given for me to work upon. Your collections and my own +will furnish most valuable material to illustrate and prove the +universal applicability of the hypothesis. The connection between the +succession of affinities and the geographical distribution of a group, +worked out species by species, has never yet been shown as we shall be +able to show it. In this Archipelago there are two distinct faunas +rigidly circumscribed, which differ as much as those of South America +and Africa, and more than those of Europe and North America: yet there +is nothing on the map or on the face of the islands to mark their +limits. The boundary line often passes between islands closer than +others in the same group. I believe the western part to be a separated +portion of continental Asia, the eastern the fragmentary prolongation of +a former Pacific continent. In mammalia and birds the distinction is +marked by genera, families, and even orders confined to one region; in +_insects_ by a number of genera and little groups of peculiar species, +the _families_ of insects having generally a universal distribution. + + * * * * * + + +_Ternate, January 25, 1858._ + +I have not done much here yet, having been much occupied in getting a +house repaired and put in order. This island is a volcano with a sloping +spur on which the town is situated. About ten miles to the east is the +coast of the large Island of Gilolo, perhaps the most perfect +entomological _terra incognita_ now to be found. I am not aware that a +single insect has ever been collected there, and cannot find it given as +the locality of any insects in my catalogues or descriptions. In about a +week I go for a month collecting there, and then return to prepare for a +voyage to New Guinea. I think I shall stay in this place two or three +years, as it is the centre of a most interesting and almost unknown +region. Every house here was destroyed in 1840 by an earthquake during +an eruption of the volcano.... + +What great political events have passed since we left England together! +And the most eventful for England, and perhaps the most glorious, is the +present mutiny in India, which has proved British courage and pluck as +much as did the famed battles of Balaclava and Inker-man. I believe that +both India and England will gain in the end by the fearful ordeal. When +do you mean returning for good? If you go to the Andes you will, I +think, be disappointed, at least in the number of species, especially of +Coleoptera. My experience here is that the low grounds are much the most +productive, though the mountains generally produce a few striking and +brilliant species....--Yours sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO F. BATES + + +_Ternate. March 2, 1858._ + +My dear Mr. Bates,--When I received your very acceptable letter (a month +ago) I had just written one to your brother, which I thought I could not +do better than send to you to forward to him, as I shall thereby be able +to confine myself solely to the group you are studying and to other +matters touched upon in your letter. I had heard from Mr. Stevens some +time ago that you had begun collecting exotic Geodephaga, but were +confining yourself to one or two illustrations of each genus. I was +sure, however, that you would soon find this unsatisfactory. Nature must +be studied in detail, and it is the wonderful variety of the species of +a group, their complicated relations and their endless modification of +form, size and colours, which constitute the pre-eminent charm of the +entomologist's study. It is with the greatest satisfaction, too, I hail +your accession to the very limited number of collectors and students of +exotic insects, and sincerely hope you may be sufficiently favoured by +fortune to enable you to form an extensive collection and to devote the +necessary time to its study and ultimately to the preparation of a +complete and useful work. Though I cannot but be pleased that you are +able to do so, I am certainly surprised to find that you indulge in the +expensive luxury of from three to seven specimens of a species. I should +have thought that in such a very extensive group you would have found +one or, at most, a pair quite sufficient. I fancy very few collectors of +exotic insects do more than this, except where they can obtain +additional specimens by gift or by exchange. Your remarks on my +collections are very interesting to me, especially as I have kept +descriptions with many outline figures of my Malacca and Sarawak +Geodephaga, so that with one or two exceptions I can recognise and +perfectly remember every species you mention.... + +Now with regard to your request for notes of habits, etc. I shall be +most willing to comply with it to some extent, first informing you that +I look forward to undertaking on my return to England a "Coleoptera +Malayana," to contain descriptions of the known species of the whole +Archipelago, with an essay on their geographical distribution, and an +account of the habits of the genera and species from my own +observations. Of course, therefore, I do not wish any part of my notes +to be published, as this will be a distinctive feature of the work, so +little being known of the habits, stations and modes of collecting +exotic Coleoptera, ... + +You appear to consider the state of entomological literature flourishing +and satisfactory: to _me_ it seems quite the contrary. The number of +unfinished works and of others with false titles is disgraceful to +science.... + +I think ... on the whole we may say that the Archipelago is _very rich_, +and will bear a comparison even with the richest part of South America. +In the country between Ega and Peru there is work for fifty collectors +for fifty years. There are hundreds and thousands of Andean valleys +every one of which would bear exploring. Here it is the same with +islands. I could spend twenty years here were life long enough, but feel +I cannot stand it, away from home and books and collections and +comforts, more than four or five, and then I shall have work to do for +the rest of my life. What would be the use of accumulating materials +which one could not have time to work up? I trust your brother may give +us a grand and complete work on the Coleoptera of the Amazon Valley, if +not of all South America....--Yours faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_October 6, 1858._ + +My dear Mother,-- ... I have just returned from a short trip, and am now +about to start on a longer one, but to a place where there are some +soldiers, a doctor and engineer who speak English, so if it is good for +collecting I shall stay there some months. It is Batchian, an island on +the south-west side of Gilolo, about three or four days' sail from +Ternate. I am now quite recovered from my New Guinea voyage and am in +good health. + +I have received letters from Mr. Darwin and Dr. Hooker, two of the most +eminent naturalists in England, which has highly gratified me. I sent +Mr. Darwin an essay on a subject on which he is now writing a great +work. He showed it to Dr. Hooker and Sir C. Lyell, who thought so highly +of it that they immediately read it before the Linnean Society. This +assures me the acquaintance and assistance of these eminent men on my +return home. + +Mr. Stevens also tells me of the great success of the Aru collection, of +which £1,000 worth has actually been sold. This makes me hope I may soon +realise enough to live upon and carry out my long cherished plans of a +country life in old England. + +If I had sent the large and handsome shells from Aru, which are what you +expected to see, they would not have paid expenses, whereas the cigar +box of small ones has sold for £50. You must not think I shall always do +so well as at Aru; perhaps never again, because no other collections +will have the novelty, all the neighbouring countries producing birds +and insects very similar, and many even the very same. Still, if I have +health I fear not to do very well. I feel little inclined now to go to +California; as soon as I have finished my exploration of this region I +shall be glad to return home as quickly and cheaply as possible. It +will certainly be by way of the Cape or by second class overland. May I +meet you, dear old Mother, and all my other relatives and friends, in +good health. Perhaps John and his trio will have had the start of me.... + + * * * * * + +TO H.W. BATES + + +_Ceram, November 25, 1859._ + +Dear Bates,--Allow me to congratulate you on your safe arrival home with +all your treasures; a good fortune which I trust is this time[14] +reserved for me. I hope you will write to me and tell me your projects. +Stevens hinted at your undertaking a "Fauna of the Amazon Valley." It +would be a noble work, but one requiring years of labour, as of course +you would wish to incorporate all existing materials and would have to +spend months in Berlin and Milan and Paris to study the collections of +Spix, Natterer, Oscolati, Castituan and others, as well as most of the +chief private collections of Europe. I hope you may undertake it and +bring it to a glorious conclusion. I have long been contemplating such a +work for this Archipelago, but am convinced that the plan must be very +limited to be capable of completion....--I remain, dear Bates, yours +very sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO H.W. BATES + + +_Ternate. December 24, 1860._ + +Dear Bates,--Many thanks for your long and interesting letter. I have +myself suffered much in the same way as you describe, and I think more +severely. The kind of _tędium vitę_ you mention I also occasionally +experience here. I impute it to a too monotonous existence. + +I know not how or to whom to express fully my admiration of Darwin's +book. To him it would seem flattery, to others self-praise; but I do +honestly believe that with however much patience I had worked up and +experimented on the subject, I could never have _approached_ the +completeness of his book--its vast accumulation of evidence, its +overwhelming argument, and its admirable tone and spirit. I really feel +thankful that it has not been left to me to give the theory to the +public. Mr. Darwin has created a new science and a new philosophy, and I +believe that never has such a complete illustration of a new branch of +human knowledge been due to the labours and researches of a single man. +Never have such vast masses of widely scattered and hitherto utterly +disconnected facts been combined into a system, and brought to bear upon +the establishment of such a grand and new and simple philosophy!...--In +haste, yours faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, THOMAS SIMS + + +_Delli, Timor. March 15, 1861_[15] + +My dear Thomas,--I will now try and write you a few lines in reply to +your last three letters, which I have not before had time and +inclination to do. First, about your _one-eyed_ and _two-eyed_ theory of +art, etc. etc. I do not altogether agree with you. We do not see _all +objects_ wider with two eyes than with one. A spherical or curved object +we do see so, because our right and left eye each see a portion of the +surface not seen by the other, but for that very reason the portion seen +perfectly with both eyes is _less_ than with one. Thus [_see_ diagram on +next page] we only see from A to A with both our eyes, the two side +portions Ab Ab being seen with but one eye, and therefore (when we are +using both eyes) being seen obscurely. But if we look at a flat object, +whether square or oblique to the line of vision, we see it of exactly +the same size with two eyes as with one because the one eye can see no +part of it that the other does not see also. But in painting I believe +that this difference of proportion, where it does exist, is far too +small to be _given_ by any artist and also too small to affect the +picture if given. + +[Illustration] + +Again, I entirely deny that by _any means_ the exact effect of a +landscape with objects at various distances from the eye can be given on +a fiat surface; and moreover that the monocular clear outlined view is +quite as true and good on the whole as the binocular hazy outlined view, +and for this reason: we cannot and do not see clearly or look at two +objects at once, if at different distances from us. In a real view our +eyes are directed successively at every object, which we then see +clearly and with distinct outlines, everything else--nearer and +farther--being indistinct; but being able to change the focal angle of +our two eyes and their angle of direction with great rapidity, we are +enabled to glance rapidly at each object in succession and thus obtain a +general and detailed view of the whole. A house, a tree, a spire, the +leaves of a shrub in the foreground, are each seen (while we direct our +eyes to them) with perfect definition and sharpness of outline. Now a +monocular photo gives the clearness of outline and accuracy of +definition, and thus represents every individual part of a landscape +just as we see it when looking at that part. Now I maintain that this is +_right_, because no painting can represent an object both distinct and +indistinct. The only question is, Shall a painting show us objects as we +see them when looking at them, or as we see them when looking at +_something else_ near them? The only approach painters can make to this +varying effect of binocular vision, and what they often do, is to give +the most important and main feature of their painting _distinct_ as we +should see it when looking at it in nature, while all around has a +subdued tone and haziness of outline like that produced by seeing the +real objects when our vision is not absolutely directed to them. But +then if, as in nature, when you turn your gaze to one of these objects +in order to see it clearly, you cannot do so, this is a defect. Again, I +believe that we actually see in a good photograph better than in nature, +because the best camera lenses are more perfectly adjusted than our +eyes, and give objects at varying distances with better definition. Thus +in a picture we see at the same time near and distinct objects easily +and clearly, which in reality we cannot do. If we could do so, everyone +must acknowledge that our vision would be so much the more perfect and +our appreciation of the beauties of nature more intense and complete; +and in so far as a good landscape painting gives us this power it is +better than nature itself; and I think this may account for that +excessive and entrancing beauty of a good landscape or of a good +panorama. You will think these ideas horribly heterodox, but if we all +thought alike there would be nothing to write about and nothing to +learn. I quite agree with you, however, as to artists using both eyes to +paint and to see their paintings, but I think you quite mistake the +theory of looking through the "catalogue"; it is not because the picture +can be seen better with one eye, but because its effect can be better +seen when all lateral objects are hidden--the catalogue does this. A +double tube would be better, but that cannot be extemporised so easily. +Have you ever tried a stereograph taken with the camera only the +distance apart of the eyes? That must give _nature_. When the angle is +greater the views in the stereoscope show us, not nature, but a perfect +reduced model of nature seen nearer the eye. + +It is curious that you should put Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites as +_opposed_ and representing _binocular_ and _monocular_ painting when +Turner himself praises up the Pre-Raphaelites and calls Holman Hunt the +greatest living painter!!... + +Now for Mr. Darwin's book. You quite misunderstand Mr. D.'s statement in +the preface and his sentiments. I have, of course, been in +correspondence with him since I first sent him my little essay. His +conduct has been most liberal and disinterested. I think anyone who +reads the Linnean Society papers and his book will see it. I _do_ back +him up in his whole round of conclusions and look upon him as the +_Newton of Natural History_. + +You begin by criticising the _title_. Now, though I consider the title +admirable, I believe it is not Mr. Darwin's but the Publisher's, as you +are no doubt aware that publishers _will_ have a taking title, and +authors must and do give way to them. Mr. D. gave me a different title +before the book came out. Again, you misquote and misunderstand Huxley, +who is a complete convert. Prof. Asa Gray and Dr. Hooker, the two first +botanists of Europe and America, are converts. And Lyell, the first +geologist living, who has all his life written against such conclusions +as Darwin arrives at, is a convert and is about to declare or already +has declared his conversion--a noble and almost unique example of a man +yielding to conviction on a subject which he has taught as a master all +his life, and confessing that he has all his life been wrong. + +It is clear that you have not yet sufficiently read the book to enable +you to criticise it. It is a book in which every page and almost every +line has a bearing on the main argument, and it is very difficult to +bear in mind such a variety of facts, arguments and indications as are +brought forward. It was only on the _fifth_ perusal that I fully +appreciated the whole strength of the work, and as I had been long +before familiar with the same subjects I cannot but think that persons +less familiar with them cannot have any clear idea of the accumulated +argument by a single perusal. + +Your objections, so far as I can see anything definite in them, are so +fully and clearly anticipated and answered in the book itself that it is +perfectly useless my saying anything about them. It seems to me, +however, as clear as daylight that the principle of Natural Selection +_must_ act in nature. It is almost as necessary a truth as any of +mathematics. Next, the effects produced by this action _cannot be +limited._ It cannot be shown that there _is_ any limit to them in +nature. Again, the millions of facts in the numerical relations of +organic beings, their geographical distribution, their relations of +affinity, the modification of their parts and organs, the phenomena of +intercrossing, embryology and morphology--all are in accordance with his +theory, and almost all are necessary results from it; while on the other +theory they are all isolated facts having no connection with each other +and as utterly inexplicable and confusing as fossils are on the theory +that they are special creations and are not the remains of animals that +have once lived. It is the vast _chaos_ of facts, which are explicable +and fall into beautiful order on the one theory, which are inexplicable +and remain a chaos on the other, which I think must ultimately force +Darwin's views on any and every reflecting mind. Isolated difficulties +and objections are nothing against this vast cumulative argument. The +human mind cannot go on for ever accumulating facts which remain +unconnected and without any mutual bearing and bound together by no law. +The evidence for the production of the organic world by the simple laws +of inheritance is exactly of the same nature as that for the production +of the present surface of the earth--hills and valleys, plains, rocks, +strata, volcanoes, and all their fossil remains--by the slow and natural +action of natural causes now in operation. The mind that will ultimately +reject Darwin must (to be consistent) reject Lyell also. The same +arguments of apparent stability which are thought to disprove that +organic species can change will also disprove any change in the +inorganic world, and you must believe with your forefathers that each +hill and each river, each inland lake and continent, were created as +they stand, with their various strata and their various fossils--all +appearances and arguments to the contrary notwithstanding. I can only +recommend you to read again Darwin's account of the horse family and its +comparison with pigeons; and if that does not convince and stagger you, +then you are unconvertible. I do not expect Mr. Darwin's larger work +will add anything to the general strength of his argument. It will +consist chiefly of the details (often numerical) and experiments and +calculations of which he has already given the summaries and results. It +will therefore be more confusing and less interesting to the general +reader. It will prove to scientific men the accuracy of his details, and +point out the sources of his information, but as not one in a thousand +readers will ever test these details and references the smaller work +will remain for general purposes the best.... + +I see that the Great Exhibition for 1862 seems determined on. If so it +will be a great inducement to me to cut short the period of my +banishment and get home in time to see it. I assure you I now feel at +times very great longings for the peace and quiet of home--very much +weariness of this troublesome, wearisome, wandering life. I have lost +some of that elasticity and freshness which made the overcoming of +difficulties a pleasure, and the country and people are now too familiar +to me to retain any of the charms of novelty which gild over so much +that is really monotonous and disagreeable. My health, too, gives way, +and I cannot now put up so well with fatigue and privations as at first. +All these causes will induce me to come home as soon as possible, and I +think I may promise, if no accident happens, to come back to dear and +beautiful England in the summer of next year. C. Allen will stay a year +longer and complete the work which I shall not be able to do. + +I have been pretty comfortable here, having for two months had the +society of Mr. Geach, a Cornish mining engineer who has been looking for +copper here. He is a very intelligent and pleasant fellow, but has now +left. Another Englishman, Capt. Hart, is a resident here. He has a +little house on the foot of the hills two miles out of town; I have a +cottage (which was Mr. Geach's) a quarter of a mile farther. He is what +you may call a _speculative_ man: he reads a good deal, knows a little +and wants to know more, and is fond of speculating on the most abstruse +and unattainable points of science and philosophy. You would be +astonished at the number of men among the captains and traders of these +parts who have more than an average amount of literary and scientific +taste; whereas among the naval and military officers and various +Government officials very few have any such taste, but find their only +amusements in card-playing and dissipation. Some of the most +intelligent and best informed Dutchmen I have met with are trading +captains and merchants. + +This country much resembles Australia in its physical features, and is +very barren compared with most of the other islands.... It is very +rugged and mountainous, having no true forests, but a scanty vegetation +of gum trees with a few thickets in moist places. It is consequently +very poor in insects, and in fact will hardly pay my expenses; but +having once come here I may as well give it a fair trial. Birds are +tolerably abundant, but with few exceptions very dull coloured. I really +believe the whole series of birds of the tropical island of Timor are +less beautiful and bright-coloured than those of Great Britain. In the +mountains potatoes, cabbages and wheat are grown in abundance, and so we +get excellent pure bread made by Chinamen in Delli. Fowls, sheep, pigs +and onions are also always to be had, so that it is the easiest country +to live in I have yet met with, as in most other places one is always +doubtful whether a dinner can be obtained. I have been a trip to the +hills and stayed ten days in the clouds, but it was very wet, being the +wrong season.... + +Having now paid you off my literary debts, I trust you will give me +credit again for some long letters on things in general. Address now to +care of Hamilton, Gray and Co., Singapore, and with love and +remembrances to all friends, I remain, my dear Thomas, yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.-- ... Will you, next time you visit my mother, make me a little +plan of her cottage, showing the rooms and their dimensions, so that I +may see if there will be room enough for me on my return? I shall want a +good-sized room for my collections, and when I can decide exactly on my +return it would be as well to get a little larger house beforehand if +necessary. Please do not forget this.--Yours, A.R.W. + +P.S.--Write by next mail, as circumstances have occurred which make it +possible I may return home this year.--A.R.W. + +P.S.--You allude in your last letter to a subject I never touch upon +because I know we cannot agree upon it. However, I will now say a few +words, that you may know my opinions, and if you wish to convert me to +your way of thinking, take more vigorous measures to effect it. You +intimate that the happiness to be enjoyed in a future state will depend +upon, and be a reward for, our belief in certain doctrines which you +believe to constitute the essence of true religion. You must think, +therefore, that belief is _voluntary_ and also that it is _meritorious_. +But I think that a little consideration will show you that belief is +quite independent of our will, and our common expressions show it. We +say, "I wish I could believe him innocent, but the evidence is too clear +"; or, "Whatever people may say, I can never believe he can do such a +mean action." Now, suppose in any similar case the evidence on both +sides leads you to a certain belief or disbelief, and then a reward is +offered you for changing your opinion. Can you really change your +opinion and belief, for the hope of reward or the fear of punishment? +Will you not say, "As the matter stands I can't change my belief. You +must give me proofs that I am wrong or show that the evidence I have +heard is false, and then I may change my belief "? It may be that you do +get more and do change your belief. But this change is not voluntary on +your part. It depends upon the force of evidence upon your individual +mind, and the evidence remaining the same and your mental faculties +remaining unimpaired--you cannot believe otherwise any more than you can +fly. + +Belief, then, is not voluntary. How, then, can it be meritorious? When +a jury try a case, all hear the same evidence, but nine say "Guilty" and +three "Not guilty," according to the honest belief of each. Are either +of these more worthy of reward on that account than the others? +Certainly you will say No! But suppose beforehand they all know or +suspect that those who say "Not guilty" will be punished and the rest +rewarded: what is likely to be the result? Why, perhaps six will say +"Guilty" honestly believing it, and glad they can with a clear +conscience escape punishment; three will say "Not guilty" boldly, and +rather bear the punishment than be false or dishonest; the other three, +fearful of being convinced against their will, will carefully stop their +ears while the witnesses for the defence are being examined, and delude +themselves with the idea they give an honest verdict because they have +heard only one side of the evidence. If any out of the dozen deserve +punishment, you will surely agree with me it is these. Belief or +disbelief is therefore not meritorious, and when founded on an unfair +balance of evidence is blameable. + +Now to apply the principles to my own case. In my early youth I heard, +as ninety-nine-hundredths of the world do, only the evidence on one +side, and became impressed with a veneration for religion which has left +some traces even to this day. I have since heard and read much on both +sides, and pondered much upon the matter in all its bearings. I spent, +as you know, a year and a half in a clergyman's family and heard almost +every Tuesday the very best, most earnest and most impressive preacher +it has ever been my fortune to meet with, but it produced no effect +whatever on my mind. I have since wandered among men of many races and +many religions. I have studied man, and nature in all its aspects, and I +have sought after truth. In my solitude I have pondered much on the +incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and death. I think I +have fairly heard and fairly weighed the evidence on both sides, and I +remain an _utter disbeliever_ in almost all that you consider the most +sacred truths. I will pass over as utterly contemptible the oft-repeated +accusation that sceptics shut out evidence because they will not be +governed by the morality of Christianity. You I know will not believe +that in my case, and _I_ know its falsehood as a general rule. I only +ask, Do you think I can change the self-formed convictions of +twenty-five years, and could you think such a change would have anything +in it to merit _reward_ from _justice_? I am thankful I can see much to +admire in all religions. To the mass of mankind religion of some kind is +a necessity. But whether there be a God and whatever be His nature; +whether we have an immortal soul or not, or whatever may be our state +after death, I can have no fear of having to suffer for the study of +nature and the search for truth, or believe that those will be better +off in a future state who have lived in the belief of doctrines +inculcated from childhood, and which are to them rather a matter of +blind faith than intelligent conviction.--A.R.W. + +This for yourself; show the _letter only_ to my mother. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_Sourabaya, Java. July 20, 1861._ + +My dear Mother,--I am, as you will see, now commencing my retreat +westwards, and have left the wild and savage Moluccas and New Guinea for +Java, the Garden of the East, and probably without any exception the +finest island in the world. My plans are to visit the interior and +collect till November, and then work my way to Singapore so as to return +home and arrive in the spring. Travelling here will be a much pleasanter +business than in any other country I have visited, as there are good +roads, regular posting stages, and regular inns or lodging-houses all +over the interior, and I shall no more be obliged to carry about with me +that miscellaneous lot of household furniture--bed, blankets, pots, +kettles and frying pan, plates, dishes and wash-basin, coffee-pots and +coffee, tea, sugar and butter, salt, pickles, rice, bread and wine, +pepper and curry powder, and half a hundred more odds and ends, the +constant looking after which, packing and repacking, calculating and +contriving, have been the standing plague of my life for the last seven +years. You will better understand this when I tell you that I have made +in that time about eighty movements, averaging one a month, at every one +of which all of these articles have had to be rearranged and repacked by +myself according to the length of the trip, besides a constant personal +supervision to prevent waste or destruction of stores in places where it +is impossible to supply them. + +Fanny wrote me last month to know about how I should like to live on my +return. Of course, my dear mother, I should not think of living anywhere +but with you, after such a long absence, if you feel yourself equal to +housekeeping for us both; and I have always understood that your cottage +would be large enough. The accommodation I should require is, besides a +small bedroom, one large room, or a small one if there is, besides, a +kind of lumber room where I could keep my cases and do rough and dirty +work. I expect soon from Thomas a sketch-plan of your cottage, by which +I can at once tell if it will do. If not, I must leave you and Fanny to +arrange as you like about a new residence. I should prefer being a +little way out of town in a quiet neighbourhood and with a garden, but +near an omnibus route, and if necessary I could lodge at any time for a +week in London. This, I think, will be better and much cheaper than +living close to town, and rents anywhere in the West End are sure now to +rise owing to the approaching Great Exhibition. I must of course study +economy, as the little money I have made will not be all got in for a +year or two after my return.... + +You must remember to write to me by the middle of November mail, as that +is probably the last letter I can receive from you. + +I send the letter to Fanny, who will most likely call on you and talk +over matters. I am a little confused arriving in a new place with a +great deal to do and living in a noisy hotel, so different to my usual +solitary life, so that I cannot well collect my ideas to write any more, +but must remain, my dear mother, your ever affectionate son, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS + + +_In the Mountains of Java. October 10, 1861._ + +My dear Fanny,--I have just received your second letter in praise of +your new house. As I have said my say about it in my last, I shall now +send you a few lines on other subjects. + +I have been staying here a fortnight 4,000 feet above the sea in a fine +cool climate, but it is unfortunately dreadfully wet and cloudy. I have +just returned from a three days' excursion to one of the great Java +volcanoes 10,000 feet high. I slept two nights in a house 7,500 feet +above the sea. It was bitterly cold at night, as the hut was merely of +plaited bamboo, like a sieve, so that the wind came in on all sides. I +had flannel jackets and blankets and still was cold, and my poor men, +with nothing but their usual thin cotton clothes, passed miserable +nights lying on a mat on the ground round the fire which could only warm +one side at a time. The highest peak is an extinct volcano with the +crater nearly filled up, forming merely a saucer on the top, in which +is a good house built by the Government for the old Dutch naturalists +who surveyed and explored the mountain. There are a lot of strawberries +planted there, which do very well, but there were not many ripe. The +common weeds and plants of the top were very like English ones, such as +buttercups, sow-thistle, plantain, wormwood, chickweed, charlock, St. +John's wort, violets and many others, all closely allied to our common +plants of those names, but of distinct species. There was also a +honey-suckle, and a tall and very pretty kind of cowslip. None of these +are found in the low tropical lands, and most of them only on the tops +of these high mountains. Mr. Darwin supposed them to have come there +during a glacial or very cold period, when they could have spread over +the tropics and, as the heat increased, gradually rose up the mountains. +They were, as you may imagine, most interesting to me, and I am very +glad that I have ascended _one_ lofty mountain in the tropics, though I +had miserable wet weather and had no view, owing to constant clouds and +mist. + +I also visited a semi-active volcano close by continually sending out +steam with a noise like a blast-furnace--quite enough to give me a +conception of all other descriptions of volcanoes. + +The lower parts of the mountains of Java, from 3,000 to 6,000 feet, have +the most beautiful tropical vegetation I have ever seen. Abundance of +splendid tree ferns, some 50 ft. high, and some hundreds of varieties of +other ferns, beautiful-leaved plants as begonias, melastomas, and many +others, and more flowers than are generally seen in the tropics. In +fact, this region exhibits all the beauty the tropics can produce, but +still I consider and will always maintain that our own meadows and woods +and mountains are more beautiful. Our own weeds and wayside flowers are +far prettier and more varied than those of the tropics. It is only the +great leaves and the curious-looking plants, and the deep gloom of the +forests and the mass of tangled vegetation that astonish and delight +Europeans, and it is certainly grand and interesting and in a certain +sense beautiful, but not the calm, sweet, warm beauty of our own fields, +and there is none of the brightness of our own flowers; a field of +buttercups, a hill of gorse or of heather, a bank of foxgloves and a +hedge of wild roses and purple vetches surpass in _beauty_ anything I +have ever seen in the tropics. This is a favourite subject with me, but +I cannot go into it now. + +Send the accompanying note to Mr. Stevens immediately. You will see what +I say to him about my collections here. Java is the richest of all the +islands in birds, but they are as well known as those of Europe, and it +is almost impossible to get a new one. However, I am adding fine +specimens to my collection, which will be altogether the finest known of +the birds of the Archipelago, except perhaps that of the Leyden Museum, +who have had naturalists collecting for them in all the chief islands +for many years with unlimited means. + +Give my kind love to mother, to whom I will write next time.--Your +affectionate brother, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO G. SILK[16] + + +_Singapore. January 20, 1862._ + +My dear George,-- ... On the question of marriage we probably differ +much. I believe a good wife to be the greatest blessing a man can enjoy, +and the only road to happiness, but the qualifications I should look for +are probably not such as would satisfy you. My opinions have changed +much on this point: I now look at intellectual companionship as quite a +secondary matter, and should my good stars ever send me an affectionate, +good-tempered and domestic wife, I shall care not one iota for +accomplishments or even for education. + +I cannot write more now. I do not yet know how long I shall be here, +perhaps a month. Then ho! for England!--In haste, yours most +affectionately, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + + + +PART II + + + + +I.--The Discovery of Natural Selection + + "There are not many joys in human life equal to the joy of the + sudden birth of a generalisation, illuminating the mind after a + long period of patient research. What has seemed for years so + chaotic, so contradictory, and so problematic takes at once its + proper position within an harmonious whole. Out of the wild + confusion of facts and from behind the fog of + guesses--contradicted almost as soon as they are born--a stately + picture makes its appearance, like an Alpine chain suddenly + emerging in all its grandeur from the mists which concealed it the + moment before, glittering under the rays of the sun in all its + simplicity and variety, in all its mightiness and beauty. And when + the generalisation is put to a test, by applying it to hundreds of + separate facts which seemed to be hopelessly contradictory the + moment before, each of them assumes its due position, increasing + the impressiveness of the picture, accentuating some + characteristic outline, or adding an unsuspected detail full of + meaning. The generalisation gains in strength and extent; its + foundations grow in width and solidity; while in the distance, + through the far-off mist on the horizon, the eye detects the + outlines of new and still wider generalisations. He who has once + in his life experienced this joy of scientific creation will never + forget it; he will be longing to renew it; and he cannot but feel + with pain that this sort of happiness is the lot of so few of us, + while so many could also live through it--on a small or on a grand + scale--if scientific methods and leisure were not limited to a + handful of men."--PRINCE KROPOTKIN, "Memoirs of a Revolutionist." + + + + +The social and scientific atmosphere in which Wallace found himself on +his return from his eight years' exile in the Malay Archipelago was +considerably more genial than that which he had enjoyed during his +previous stay in London following his exploration of the Amazon. His +position as one of the leading scientists of the day was already +recognised, dating from the memorable 1st of July, 1858, when the two +Papers, his own and Darwin's, on the theory of Natural Selection had +been read before the Linnean Society. + +During the four years which had elapsed since that date the storm of +criticism had waxed and waned; subsiding for a time only to burst out +afresh from some new quarter where the theory bade fair to jeopardise +some ancient belief in which scientist or theologian had rested with +comparative satisfaction until so rudely disturbed. + +During this period Wallace had been quietly pursuing his researches in +the Malay Archipelago, though not without a keen interest in all that +was taking place at home in so far as this reached him by means of +correspondence and newspaper reports--his only means of keeping in touch +with the world beyond the boundaries of the semi-civilised countries in +which he was then living. + +In order to follow the story of how the conception of the theory of +Natural Selection grew and eventually took definite form in Wallace's +mind, independently of the same development in the mind of Darwin, we +must go back to a much earlier period in his life, and as nearly as +possible link up, the scattered remarks which here and there act as +signposts pointing towards the supreme solution which has made his name +famous for all time. + +In Part I., Section I., many passages occur which clearly reveal his +awakening to the study of nature. A chance remark overheard in +conversation in the quiet street of Hertford touched the hidden spring +of interest in a subject which was to become the one great purpose of +his life. Then his enthusiastic yielding to the simple and natural +attraction which flowers and trees have always exerted upon the +sympathetic observer led step by step to the study of groups and +families, until, on his second sojourn at Neath, and about a year before +his journey to South America with H.W. Bates, we find him deliberately +pondering over the problem which many years later he described by saying +that he "had in fact been bitten by the passion for species and their +description." + +In a letter to Bates dated November 9th, 1847, he concludes by asking, +"Have you read 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,' or is it +out of your line?" and in the next (dated December 28th), in reply to +one from his friend, he continues, "I have a rather more favourable +opinion of the 'Vestiges' than you appear to have, I do not consider it +a hasty generalisation, but rather an ingenious hypothesis strongly +supported by some striking facts and analogies, but which remains to be +proved by more facts and the additional light which more research may +throw upon the problem.... It furnishes a subject for every observer of +nature to attend to; every fact," he observes, "will make either for or +against it, and it thus serves both as an incitement to the collection +of facts, and an object to which they can be applied when collected. +Many eminent writers support the theory of the progressive development +of animals and plants. There is a very philosophical work bearing +directly on the question--Lawrence's 'Lectures on Man'.... The great +object of these 'Lectures' is to illustrate the different races of +mankind, and the manner in which they probably originated, and he +arrives at the conclusion (as also does Prichard in his work on the +'Physical History of Man') that the varieties of the human race have not +been produced by any external causes, but are due to the development of +certain distinctive peculiarities in some individuals which have +thereafter become propagated through an entire race. Now, I should say +that a permanent peculiarity not produced by external causes is a +characteristic of 'species' and not of mere 'variety,' and thus, if the +theory of the 'Vestiges' is accepted, the Negro, the Red Indian, and the +European are distinct species of the genus Homo. + +"An animal which differs from another by some decided and permanent +character, however slight, which difference is undiminished by +propagation and unchanged by climate and external circumstances, is +universally held to be a distinct _species_; while one which is not +regularly transmitted so as to form a distinct race, but is occasionally +reproduced from the parent stock (like albinoes), is generally, if the +difference is not very considerable, classed as a _variety_. But I would +class both these as distinct _species_, and I would only consider those +to be _varieties_ whose differences are produced by external causes, and +which, therefore, are not propagated as distinct races." + +Again, writing about the same period, he adds: "I begin to feel rather +dissatisfied with a mere local collection; little is to be learnt by it. +I should like to take some one family to study thoroughly, principally +with a view to the theory of the origin of species. By that means I am +strongly of opinion that some definite results might be arrived at." And +he further alludes to "my favourite subject--the variations, +arrangements, distribution, etc., of species."[17] + +It is evident that in Bates Wallace found his first real friend and +companion in matters scientific; for in another letter he says: "I quite +envy you, who have friends near you attracted to the same pursuits. I +know not a single person in this little town who studies any one branch +of natural history, so that I am quite alone in this respect." In fact, +except for a little friendly help now and then, as in the case of Mr. +Hayward lending him a copy of Loudon's Encyclopedia of Plants, he had +always pondered over his nature studies without any assistance up to the +time of his meeting Bates at Leicester. + +From the date of the above letter (1847) on to the early part of +1855--nearly eight years later--no reference is found either in his Life +or correspondence to the one absorbing idea towards which all his +reflective powers were being directed. Then, during a quiet time at +Sarawak, the accumulation of thought and observation found expression in +an essay entitled "The Law which has regulated the Introduction of +Species," which appeared in the _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_ +in the following September (1855). + +From November, 1854, the year of his arrival in the East, until January +or February, 1856, Sarawak was the centre from which Wallace made his +explorations inland, including some adventurous excursions on the Sadong +River. During the wet season--or spring--of 1855, while living in a +small house at the foot of the Santubong Mountains (with one Malay boy +who acted as cook and general companion), he tells us how he occupied +his time in looking over his books and pondering "over the problem which +was rarely absent from [his] thoughts." In addition to the knowledge he +had acquired from reading such books as those by Swainson and Humboldt, +also Lucien Bonaparte's "Conspectus," and several catalogues of insects +and reptiles in the British Museum "giving a mass of facts" as to the +distribution of animals over the whole world, and having by his own +efforts accumulated a vast store of information and facts direct from +nature while in South America and since coming out East, he arrived at +the conclusion that this "mass of facts" had never been properly +utilised as an indication of the way in which species had come into +existence. Having no fellow-traveller to whom he could confide these +conclusions, he was almost driven to put his thoughts and ideas on +paper--weighing each argument with studious care and open-eyed +consideration as to its bearing on the whole theory. As the "result +seemed to be of some importance," it was sent, as already mentioned, to +the _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_ as one of the leading +scientific journals in England. + +In the light of future events it is not surprising that Huxley (many +years later), in referring to this "powerful essay," adds: "On reading +it afresh I have been astonished to recollect how small was the +impression it made." + +As this earliest contribution by Wallace to the doctrine of Evolution[18] +is of peculiar historical value, and has not been so fully recognised as +it undoubtedly deserves, and is now almost inaccessible, it will be +useful to indicate in his own words the clear line of argument put forth +by him two years before his second essay with which many readers are +more familiar. He begins: + + Every naturalist who has directed his attention to the subject of + the geographical distribution of animals and plants must have been + interested in the singular facts which it presents. Many of these + facts are quite different from what would have been anticipated, + and have hitherto been considered as highly curious but quite + inexplicable. None of the explanations attempted from the time of + Linnęus are now considered at all satisfactory; none of them have + given a cause sufficient to account for the facts known at the + time, or comprehensive enough to include all the new facts which + have since been and are daily being added. Of late years, however, + a great light has been thrown upon the subject by geological + investigations, which have shown that the present state of the + earth, and the organisms now inhabiting it, are but the last stage + of a long and uninterrupted series of changes which it has + undergone, and consequently, that to endeavour to explain and + account for its present condition without any reference to those + changes (as has frequently been done) must lead to very imperfect + and erroneous conclusions.... The following propositions in + Organic Geography and Geology give the main facts on which the + hypothesis [_see_ p. 96] is founded. + + GEOGRAPHY + + (1) Large groups, such as classes and orders, are generally spread + over the whole earth, while smaller ones, such as families and + genera, are frequently confined to one portion, often to a very + limited district. + + (2) In widely distributed families the genera are often limited in + range; in widely distributed genera, well-marked groups of species + are peculiar to each geographical district. + + (3) When a group is confined to one district and is rich in + species, it is almost invariably the case that the most closely + allied species are found in the same locality or in closely + adjoining localities, and that therefore the natural sequence of + the species by affinity is also geographical. + + (4) In countries of a similar climate, but separated by a wide sea + or lofty mountains, the families, genera and species of the one + are often represented by closely allied families, genera and + species peculiar to the other. + + GEOLOGY + + (5) The distribution of the organic world in time is very similar + to its present distribution in space. + + (6) Most of the larger and some of the smaller groups extend + through several geological periods. + + (7) In each period, however, there are peculiar groups, found + nowhere else, and extending through one or several formations. + + (8) Species of one genus, or genera of one family, occurring in + the same geological time are more closely allied than those + separated in time. + + (9) As generally in geography no species or genus occurs in two + very distant localities without being also found in intermediate + places, so in geology the life of a species or genus has not been + interrupted. In other words, no group or species has come into + existence twice. + + (10) The following law may be deduced from these facts: _Every + species has come into existence coincident both in time and space + with a pre-existing closely allied species_. + + This law agrees with, explains and illustrates all the facts + connected with the following branches of the subject: 1st, the + system of natural affinities; 2nd, the distribution of animals and + plants in space; 3rd, the same in time, including all the + phenomena of representative groups, and those which Prof. Forbes + supposed to manifest polarity; 4th, the phenomena of rudimentary + organs. We will briefly endeavour to show its bearing upon each of + these. + + If [this] law be true, it follows that the natural series of + affinities will also represent the order in which the several + species came into existence, each one having had for its immediate + antetype a clearly allied species existing at the time of its + origin.... If two or more species have been independently formed + on the plan of a common antetype, then the series of affinities + will be compound, and can only be represented by a forked or + many-branched line.... Sometimes the series of affinities can be + well represented for a space by a direct progression from species + to species or from group to group, but it is generally found + impossible so to continue. There constantly occur two or more + modifications of an organ or modifications of two distinct organs, + leading us on to two distinct series of species, which at length + differ so much from each other as to form distinct genera or + families. These are the parallel series or representative groups + of naturalists, and they often occur in different countries, or + are found fossil in different formations.... We thus see how + difficult it is to determine in every case whether a given + relation is an analogy or an affinity, for it is evident that as + we go back along the parallel or divergent series, towards the + common antetype, the analogy which existed between the two groups + becomes an affinity.... Again, if we consider that we have only + the fragments of this vast system, the stems and main branches + being represented by extinct species of which we have no + knowledge, while a vast mass of limbs and boughs and minute twigs + and scattered leaves is what we have to place in order, and + determine the true position each originally occupied with regard + to the others, the whole difficulty of the true Natural System of + classification becomes apparent to us. + + We shall thus find ourselves obliged to reject all those systems + of classification which arrange species or groups in circles, as + well as those which fix a definite number for the division of each + group.... We have ... never been able to find a case in which the + circle has been closed by a direct affinity. In most cases a + palpable analogy has been substituted, in others the affinity is + very obscure or altogether doubtful.... + + If we now consider the geographical distribution of animals and + plants upon the earth, we shall find all the facts beautifully in + accordance with, and readily explained by, the present hypothesis. + A country having species, genera, and whole families peculiar to + it will be the necessary result of its having been isolated for a + long period, sufficient for many series of species to have been + created on the type of pre-existing ones, which, as well as many + of the earlier-formed species, have become extinct, and made the + groups appear isolated.... + + Such phenomena as are exhibited by the Galapagos Islands, which + contain little groups of plants and animals peculiar to + themselves, but most nearly allied to those of South America, have + not hitherto received any, even a conjectural explanation. The + Galapagos are a volcanic group of high antiquity and have probably + never been more closely connected with the continent than they are + at present. + +He then proceeds at some length to explain how the Galapagos must have +been at first "peopled ... by the action of winds and currents," and +that the modified prototypes remaining are the "new species" which have +been "created in each on the plan of the pre-existing ones." This is +followed by a graphic sketch of the general effect of volcanic and +other action as affecting the distribution of species, and the exact +form in which they are found, even fishes giving "evidence of a similar +kind: each great river [having] its peculiar genera, and in more +extensive genera its groups of closely allied species." + +After stating a number of practical examples he continues: + + The question forces itself upon every thinking mind--Why are these + things so? They could not be as they are, had no law regulated + their creation and dispersion. The law here enunciated not merely + explains, but necessitates the facts we see to exist, while the + vast and long-continued geological changes of the earth readily + account for the exceptions and apparent discrepancies that here + and there occur. The writer's object in putting forward his views + in the present imperfect manner is to submit them to the tests of + other minds, and to be made aware of all the facts supposed to be + inconsistent with them. As his hypothesis is one which claims + acceptance solely as explaining and connecting facts which exist + in nature, he expects facts alone to be brought forward to + disprove it, not _a priori_ arguments against its probability. + +He then refers to some of the geological "principles" expounded by Sir +Charles Lyell on the "extinction of species," and follows this up by +saying: + + To discover how the extinct species have from time to time been + replaced by new ones down to the very latest geological period, is + the most difficult, and at the same time the most interesting, + problem in the natural history of the earth. The present inquiry, + which seeks to eliminate from known facts a law which has + determined, to a certain degree, what species could and did appear + at a given epoch, may, it is hoped, be considered as one step in + the right direction towards a complete solution of it.... Admitted + facts seem to show ... a general, but not a detailed + progression.... It is, however, by no means difficult to show + that a real progression in the scale of organisation is perfectly + consistent with all the appearances, and even with apparent + retrogression should such occur. + +Using once more the analogy of a branching tree to illustrate the +natural arrangement of species and their successive creation, he clearly +shows how "apparent retrogression may be in reality a progress, though +an interrupted one"; as "when some monarch of the forest loses a limb, +it may be replaced by a feeble and sickly substitute." As an instance he +mentions the Mollusca, which at an early period had reached a high state +of development of forms and species, while in each succeeding age +modified species and genera replaced the former ones which had become +extinct, and "as we approach the present era but few and small +representatives of the group remain, while the Gasteropods and Bivalves +have acquired an immense preponderance." In the long series of changes +the earth had undergone, the process of peopling it with organic beings +had been continually going on, and whenever any of the higher groups had +become nearly or quite extinct, the lower forms which better resisted +the modified physical conditions served as the antetype on which to +found new races. In this manner alone, it was believed, could the +representative groups of successive periods, and the risings and +fallings in the scale of organisations, be in every case explained. + +Again, attending to a recent article by Prof. Forbes, he points out +certain inaccuracies and how they may be proved to be so; and continues: + + We have no reason for believing that the number of species on the + earth at any former period was much less than at present; at all + events the aquatic portion, with which the geologists have most + acquaintance, was probably often as great or greater. Now we know + that there have been many complete changes of species, new sets of + organisms have many times been introduced in place of old ones + which have become extinct, so that the total amount which have + existed on the earth from the earliest geological period must have + borne about the same proportion to those now living as the whole + human race who have lived and died upon the earth to the + population at the present time.... Records of vast geological + periods are entirely buried beneath the ocean ... beyond our + reach. Most of the gaps in the geological series may thus be + filled up, and vast numbers of unknown and unimaginable animals + which might help to elucidate the affinities of the numerous + isolated groups which are a perpetual puzzle to the zoologist may + be buried there, till future revolutions may raise them in turn + above the water, to afford materials for the study of whatever + race of intelligent beings may then have succeeded us. These + considerations must lead us to the conclusion that our knowledge + of the whole series of the former inhabitants of the earth is + necessarily most imperfect and fragmentary--as much as our + knowledge of the present organic world would be, were we forced to + make our collections and observations only in spots equally + limited in area and in number with those actually laid open for + the collection of fossils.... The hypothesis of Prof. Forbes is + essentially one that assumes to a great extent the _completeness_ + of our knowledge of the _whole series_ of organic beings which + have existed on earth.... The hypothesis put forward in this paper + depends in no degree upon the completeness of our knowledge of the + former condition of the organic world, but takes what facts we + have as fragments of a vast whole, and deduces from them something + of the nature and proportion of that whole which we can never know + in detail.... + + Another important series of facts, quite in accordance with, and + even necessary deductions from, the law now developed, are those + of _rudimentary organs_. That these really do exist, and in most + cases have no special function in the animal economy, is admitted + by the first authorities in comparative anatomy. The minute limbs + hidden beneath the skin in many of the snake-like lizards, the + anal hooks of the boa constrictor, the complete series of jointed + finger-bones in the paddle of the manatee and the whale, are a few + of the most familiar instances. In botany a similar class of facts + has been long recognised. Abortive stamens, rudimentary floral + envelope and undeveloped carpels are of the most frequent + occurrence. To every thoughtful naturalist the question must + arise, What are these for? What have they to do with the great + laws of creation? Do they not teach us something of the system of + nature? If each species has been created independently, and + without any necessary relation with pre-existing species, what do + these rudiments, these apparent imperfections, mean? There must be + a cause for them; they must be the necessary result of some great + natural law. Now, if ... the great law which has regulated the + peopling of the earth with animal and vegetable life is, that + every change shall be gradual; that no new creature shall be + formed widely different from anything before existing; that in + this, as in everything else in nature, there shall be gradation + and harmony--then these rudimentary organs are necessary and are + an essential part of the system of nature. Ere the higher + vertebrates were formed, for instance, many steps were required, + and many organs had to undergo modifications from the rudimental + condition in which only they had as yet existed.... Many more of + these modifications should we behold, and more complete series of + them, had we a view of all the forms which have ceased to live. + The great gaps that exist ... would be softened down by + intermediate groups, and the whole organic world would be seen to + be an unbroken and harmonious system. + +The article, in which we can see a great generalisation struggling to be +born, ends thus: + + It has now been shown, though most briefly and imperfectly, how + the law that "every species has come into existence coincident + both in time and space with a pre-existing closely allied + species," connects together and renders intelligible a vast number + of independent and hitherto unexplained facts. The natural system + of arrangement of organic beings, their geographical distribution, + their geological sequence, the phenomena of representative and + substituted groups in all their modifications, and the most + singular peculiarities of anatomical structure, are all explained + and illustrated by it, in perfect accordance with the vast mass of + facts which the researches of modern naturalists have brought + together, and, it is believed, not materially opposed to any of + them. It also claims a superiority over previous hypotheses, on + the ground that it not merely explains but necessitates what + exists. Granted the law, and many of the most important facts in + nature could not have been otherwise, but are almost as necessary + deductions from it as are the elliptic orbits of the planets from + the law of gravitation. + +Some time after the appearance of this article, Wallace was informed by +his friend and agent, Mr. Stevens, that several naturalists had +expressed regret that he was "theorising," when what "was wanted was to +collect more facts." Apart from this the only recognition which reached +him in his remote solitude was a remark in an approving letter from +Darwin (_see_ p. 129). + +As Wallace wrote nothing further of importance until the second essay +which more fully disclosed his view of the origin of species, we will +now briefly trace the growth of the theory of Natural Selection up to +1858, as it came to Darwin. + +It is well known that during Darwin's voyage in the _Beagle_ he was +deeply impressed by discovering extinct armadillo-like fossil forms in +South America, the home of armadilloes, and by observing the +relationship of the plants and animals of each island in the Galapagos +group to those of the other islands and of South America, the nearest +continent. These facts suggested evolution, and without evolution +appeared to be meaningless. + +Evolution and its motive cause were the problems which "haunted" him for +the next twenty years. The first step towards a possible solution was +the "opening of a notebook for facts in relation to the origin of +species" in 1837, two years before the publication of his Journal. From +the very commencement of his literary and scientific work, a rule +rigidly adhered to was that of interspersing his main line of thought +and research by reading books touching on widely diverging subjects; and +it was thus, no doubt, that during October, 1838, he read "for +amusement" Malthus's "Essay on Population"; not, as he himself affirms, +with any definite idea as to its intimate bearing on the subject so near +his heart. But the immediate result was that the idea of Natural +Selection at once arose in his mind, and, in his own words, he "had a +theory by which to work." + +In May and June, 1842, during a visit to Maer and Shrewsbury, he wrote +his first "pencil sketch of Species theory," but not until two years +later (1844) did he venture to enlarge this to one of 230 folio pages, +"a wonderfully complete presentation of the arguments familiar to us in +the 'Origin.'"[19] + +Already, in addition to the mass of facts collected, Darwin was busy +with some of the experiments which he described in a letter to Sir +Joseph Hooker (in 1855) as affording the latter a "good right to sneer, +for they are so _absurd_, even in _my_ opinion, that I dare not tell +you." While a sentence in another letter (dated 1849) throws a sidelight +on all this preparatory work: "In your letter you wonder what +'ornamental poultry' has to do with barnacles; but do not flatter +yourself that I shall not yet live to finish the barnacles, and then +make a fool of myself on the subject of species, under which head +ornamental poultry are very interesting." + +Somewhere about this time (1842-44), Darwin, referring to the idea of +Natural Selection which arose in his mind after reading Malthus on +"Population" four years earlier, continues: "But at that time I +overlooked one problem of great importance ... the tendency in organic +beings descended from the same stock to diverge in character as they +become modified ... and I can remember the very spot in the road, whilst +in my carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me.... The +solution, as I believe, is that the modified offspring of all dominant +and increasing forms tend to become adapted to many and highly +diversified places in the economy of nature."[20] + +So convinced was he of the truth of his ideas as expressed in the 1844 +MS., that immediately after its completion he wrote the memorable letter +to Mrs. Darwin telling her what he would wish done regarding its +publication in the event of his death. + +It was probably about two years later (1846) that he first confided his +completed work--up to that date--to Sir Joseph Hooker, and later to Sir +Charles Lyell; refraining, however, except in general conversation with +other scientists, from informing anyone of the progress he was making +towards a positive solution of the problem. His attitude of mind and +manner at this period is happily illustrated by Huxley, who, speaking of +his early acquaintance with Darwin, says: "I remember in the course of +my first interview with Darwin expressing my belief in the sharpness of +the line of demarcation between natural groups and in the absence of +transitional forms, with all the confidence of youth and imperfect +knowledge. I was not aware, at that time, that he had then been many +years brooding over the Species question; and the humorous smile which +accompanied his gentle answer, that such was not altogether his view, +long haunted and puzzled me." + +Little did Charles Darwin dream that, only three years after this first +MS. was written (in 1844), a youthful naturalist--known only as a +surveyor at Neath--was deliberately pondering over the same issue, and +writing to his only scientific friend on the subject. As, however, the +different methods of thought by which they arrived at the same +conclusion is so aptly related by Wallace himself, we will leave it for +him to tell the story in its appointed place.[21] + +In 1856, the year following the appearance of Wallace's essay in the +_Annals and Magazine of Natural History_, both Hooker and Lyell urged +Darwin to publish the result of his long and patient research. But he +was still reluctant to do so, not having as yet satisfied himself with +regard to certain conclusions which, he felt, must be stoutly maintained +in face of the enormous amount of criticism which would arise +immediately his theory was launched on the scientific world. And thus +the event was postponed until the memorable year 1858. + +Up to the year 1856 no correspondence had passed between Wallace and +Darwin, so far, at least, as the former could remember, for he says, in +a letter dated Frith Hill, Godalming, December 3, 1887 (written to Mr. +A. Newton): "I had hardly heard of Darwin before going to the East, +except as connected with the voyage of the _Beagle_.... I saw him _once_ +for a few minutes in the British Museum before I sailed. Through +Stevens, my agent, I heard that he wanted curious _varieties_ which he +was studying. I _think_ I wrote about some varieties of ducks I had +sent, and he must have written once to me.... But at that time I had +not the remotest notion that he had already arrived at a definite +theory--still less that it was the same as occurred to me, suddenly, in +Ternate in 1858." It is clear, therefore, that the essay written at +Sarawak formed the first real link with Darwin, although not fully +recognised at the time. In May, 1857, Darwin wrote to Wallace: "I am +much obliged for your letter ... and even still more by your paper in +the _Annals_, a year or more ago. I can plainly see that we have thought +much alike and to a certain extent have come to similar conclusions.... +I agree to almost every word of your paper; and I dare say that you will +agree with me that it is very rare to find oneself agreeing pretty +closely with any theoretical paper." He concludes: "You have my very +sincere and cordial good wishes for success of all kinds, and may all +your theories succeed, except that on Oceanic Islands, on which subject +I will do battle to the death." + +The three years from 1855 to 1858 were for Wallace crowded with hard +work, and perilous voyages by sea and hardships by land. January, 1858, +found him at Amboyna, where, in all probability, he found a pile of +long-delayed correspondence awaiting him, and among this a letter from +Bates referring to the article which had appeared in print September, +1855. In reply he says: "To persons who have not thought much on the +subject I fear my paper on the 'Succession of Species' will not appear +so clear as it does to you. That paper is, of course, merely the +announcement of the theory, not its development. I have prepared the +plan and written portions of a work embracing the whole subject, and +have endeavoured to prove in detail what I have as yet only +indicated.... I have been much gratified by a letter from Darwin, in +which he says that he agrees with 'almost every word' of my paper. He +is now preparing his great work on 'Species and Varieties,' for which he +has been preparing materials for twenty years. He may save me the +trouble of writing more on my hypothesis, by proving that there is no +difference in nature between the origin of species and of varieties; or +he may give me trouble by arriving at another conclusion; but, at all +events, his facts will be given for me to work upon. Your collections +and my own will furnish most valuable material to illustrate and prove +the universal application of the hypothesis. The connection between the +succession of affinities and the geographical distribution of a group, +worked out species by species, has never yet been shown as we shall be +able to show it." + +"This letter proves," writes Wallace,[22] "that at this time I had not +the least idea of the nature of Darwin's proposed work nor of the +definite conclusions he had arrived at, nor had I myself any +expectations of a complete solution of the great problem to which my +paper was merely the prelude. Yet less than two months later that +solution flashed upon me, and to a large extent marked out a different +line of work from that which I had up to this time anticipated.... In +other parts of this letter I refer to the work I hoped to do myself in +describing, cataloguing, and working out the distribution of my insects. +I had in fact been bitten by the passion for species and their +description, and if neither Darwin nor myself had hit upon 'Natural +Selection,' I might have spent the best years of my life in this +comparatively profitless work. But the new ideas swept all this away." + +This letter was finished after his arrival at Ternate, and a few weeks +later he was prostrated by a sharp attack of intermittent fever which +obliged him to take a prolonged rest each day, owing to the exhausting +hot and cold fits which rapidly succeeded one another. + +The little bungalow at Ternate had now come to be regarded as "home" for +it was here that he stored all his treasured collections, besides making +it the goal of all his wanderings in the Archipelago. One can +understand, therefore, that, in spite of the fever, there was a sense of +satisfaction in the feeling that he was surrounded with the trophies of +his arduous labours as a naturalist, and this passion for species and +their descriptions being an ever-present speculation in his mind, his +very surroundings would unconsciously conduce towards the line of +thought which brought to memory the argument of "positive checks" set +forth by Malthus in his "Principles of Population" (read twelve years +earlier) as applied to savage and civilised races. "It then," he says, +"occurred to me that these causes or their equivalents are continually +acting in the case of animals also; and as animals usually breed much +more rapidly than does mankind, the destruction every year from these +causes must be enormous in order to keep down the numbers of each +species, since they evidently do not increase regularly from year to +year, as otherwise the world would have been densely crowded with those +that breed most quickly.... Then it suddenly flashed upon me that this +self-acting process would necessarily _improve the race_, because in +every generation the inferior would inevitably be killed off and the +superior would remain--that is, the _fittest would survive_. Then at +once I seemed to see the whole effect of this, that when changes of land +and sea, or of climate, or of food-supply, or of enemies occurred--and +we know that such changes have always been taking place--and considering +the amount of individual variation that my experience as a collector had +shown me to exist, then it followed that all the changes necessary for +the adaptation of the species to the changing conditions would be +brought about; and as great changes in the environment are always slow, +there would be ample time for the change to be effected by the survival +of the best fitted in every generation. In this way every part of an +animal's organism could be modified as required, and in the very process +of this modification the unmodified would die out, and thus the +_definite_ characters and the clear _isolation_ of each new species +would be explained. The more I thought over it the more I became +convinced that I had at length found the long-sought-for law of nature +that solved the problem of the origin of species. For the next hour I +thought over the deficiencies in the theories of Lamarck and of the +author of the 'Vestiges,' and I saw that my new theory supplemented +these views and obviated every important difficulty. I waited anxiously +for the termination of my fit (of fever) so that I might at once make +notes for a paper on the subject. The same evening I did this pretty +fully, and on the two succeeding evenings wrote it out carefully in +order to send it to Darwin by the next post, which would leave in a day +or two."[23] + +The story of the arrival of this letter at Down, and of the swift +passage of events between the date on which Darwin received it and the +reading of the "joint communications" before the Linnean Society, has +been often told. But few, perhaps, have enjoyed the privilege of reading +the account of this memorable proceeding as related by Sir Joseph Hooker +at the celebration of the event held by the Linnean Society in 1908. + +As, therefore, the correspondence (pp. 127-320) between Wallace and +Darwin during a long series of years conveys many expressions of their +mutual appreciation of each other's work in connection with the origin +of species, it will avoid a possible repetition of these if we take a +long leap forward and give the notable speeches made by Wallace, Sir +Joseph Hooker, Sir E. Ray Lankester, and others at this historical +ceremony, which have not been published except in the _Proceedings_ of +the Society, now out of print. + +The gathering was held on July 1, 1908, at the Institute of Civil +Engineers, Great George Street, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of +the joint communication made by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace +to the Linnean Society, "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; +and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of +Selection." The large gathering included the President, Dr. Dukinfield +H. Scott, distinguished representatives of many scientific Societies and +Universities, the Danish and Swedish Ministers, and a representative +from the German Embassy. Most of the members of Dr. Wallace's and Mr. +Darwin's family were also present.[24] The President opened with some +explanatory observations, and then invited Wallace to come forward in +order to receive the first Darwin-Wallace Medal. In presenting it he +said: + + Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace,--We rejoice that we are so happy as to + have with us to-day the survivor of the two great naturalists + whose crowning work we are here to commemorate. + + Your brilliant work in natural history and geography, and as one + of the founders of the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, + is universally honoured and has often received public recognition, + as in the awards of the Darwin and Royal Medals of the Royal + Society, and of our Medal in 1892. + + To-day, in asking you to accept the first Darwin-Wallace Medal, we + are offering you of your own, for it is you, equally with your + great colleague, who created the occasion we celebrate. + + There is nothing in the history of science more delightful or more + noble than the story of the relations between yourself and Mr. + Darwin, as told in the correspondence now so fully published--the + story of a generous rivalry in which each discoverer strives to + exalt the claims of the other. We know that Mr. Darwin wrote + (April 6th, 1859): "You cannot tell how much I admire your spirit + in the manner in which you have taken all that was done about + publishing our papers. I had actually written a letter to you + stating that I would not publish anything before you had + published." Then came the letters of Hooker and Lyell, leading to + the publication of the joint papers which they communicated. + + You, on your side, always gave the credit to him, and + underestimated your own position as the co-discoverer. I need only + refer to your calling your great exposition of the joint theory + "Darwinism," as the typical example of your generous emphasising + of the claims of your illustrious fellow-worker. + + It was a remarkable and momentous coincidence that both you and he + should have independently arrived at the idea of Natural Selection + after reading Malthus's book, and a most happy inspiration that + you should have selected Mr. Darwin as the naturalist to whom to + communicate your discovery. That theory, in spite of changes in + the scientific fashion of the moment, you have always + unflinchingly maintained, and still uphold as unshaken by all + attacks. + + Like Mr. Darwin, you, if I may say so, are above all a naturalist, + a student and lover of living animals and plants, as shown in + later years by your enthusiasm and success in gardening. It is to + such men, those who have learnt the ways of Nature, as Nature + really is in the open, to whom your doctrine of Natural Selection + specially appeals, and therein lies its great and lasting + strength. + + Finally, you must allow me to allude to the generous interest you + have always shown, and continue to show, in the careers of + younger men who are endeavouring to follow in your steps. + + I ask you, Dr. Wallace, to accept this Medal, struck in your + honour and in that of the great work inaugurated fifty years ago + by Mr. Darwin and yourself. + +Wallace began his reply by thanking the Council of the Society for the +Honour they had done him, and then proceeded: + + Since the death of Darwin, in 1882, I have found myself in the + somewhat unusual position of receiving credit and praise from + popular writers under a complete misapprehension of what my share + in Darwin's work really amounted to. It has been stated (not + unfrequently) in the daily and weekly press, that Darwin and + myself discovered "Natural Selection" simultaneously, while a more + daring few have declared that I was _the first_ to discover it, + and I gave way to Darwin! + + In order to avoid further errors of this kind (which this + Celebration may possibly encourage), I think it will be well to + give the actual facts as simply and clearly as possible. + + The _one fact_ that connects me with Darwin, and which, I am happy + to say, has never been doubted, is that the idea of what is now + termed "natural selection" or "survival of the fittest," together + with its far-reaching consequences, occurred to us + _independently_, and was first jointly announced before this + Society fifty years ago. + + But, what is often forgotten by the Press and the public is, that + the idea occurred to Darwin in 1838, nearly twenty years earlier + than to myself (in February, 1858); and that during the whole of + that twenty years he had been laboriously collecting evidence from + the vast mass of literature of biology, of horticulture, and of + agriculture; as well as himself carrying out ingenious experiments + and original observations, the extent of which is indicated by the + range of subjects discussed in his "Origin of Species," and + especially in that wonderful storehouse of knowledge, his "Animals + and Plants under Domestication," almost the whole materials for + which work had been collected, and to a large extent systematised, + during that twenty years. + + So far back as 1844, at a time when I had hardly thought of any + serious study of nature, Darwin had written an outline of his + views, which he communicated to his friends Sir Charles Lyell and + Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker. The former strongly urged him to + publish an abstract of his theory as soon as possible, lest some + other person might precede him; but he always refused till he had + got together the whole of the materials for his intended great + work. Then, at last, Lyell's prediction was fulfilled, and, + without any apparent warning, my letter, with the enclosed essay, + came upon him, like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky! This + forced him to what he considered a premature publicity, and his + two friends undertook to have our two papers read before this + Society. + + How different from this long study and preparation--this + philosophical caution--this determination not to make known his + fruitful conception till he could back it up by overwhelming + proofs--was my own conduct. + + The idea came to me as it had come to Darwin, in a sudden flash of + insight; it was thought out in a few hours--was written down with + such a sketch of its various applications and developments as + occurred to me at the moment--then copied on thin letter paper and + sent off to Darwin--all within one week. _I_ was then (as often + since) the "young man in a hurry": _he_, the painstaking and + patient student seeking ever the full demonstration of the truth + that he had discovered, rather than to achieve immediate personal + fame. + + Such being the actual facts of the case, I should have had no + cause for complaint if the respective shares of Darwin and myself + in regard to the elucidation of Nature's method of organic + development had been henceforth estimated as being, roughly, + proportional to the time we had each bestowed upon it when it was + thus first given to the world--that is to say, as twenty years is + to one week. For, he had already made it his own. If the + persuasion of his friends had prevailed with him, and he had + published his theory after ten years'--fifteen years'--or even + eighteen years' elaboration of it--_I_ should have had no part in + it whatever, and _he_ would have been at once recognised as the + sole and undisputed discoverer and patient investigator of this + great law of "Natural Selection" in all its far-reaching + consequences. + + It was really a singular piece of good luck that gave to me any + share whatever in the discovery. During the first half of the + nineteenth century (and even earlier) many great biological + thinkers and workers had been pondering over the problem and had + even suggested ingenious but inadequate solutions. Some of these + men were among the greatest intellects of our time, yet, till + Darwin, all had failed; and it was only Darwin's extreme desire to + perfect his work that allowed me to come in, as a very bad second, + in the truly Olympian race in which all philosophical biologists, + from Buffon and Erasmus Darwin to Richard Owen and Robert + Chambers, were more or less actively engaged. + + And this brings me to the very interesting question: Why did so + many of the greatest intellects fail, while Darwin and myself hit + upon the solution of this problem--a solution which this + Celebration proves to have been (and still to be) a satisfying one + to a large number of those best able to form a judgment on its + merits? As I have found what seems to me a good and precise answer + to this question, and one which is of some psychological interest, + I will, with your permission, briefly state what it is. + + On a careful consideration, we find a curious series of + correspondences, both in mind and in environment, which led Darwin + and myself, alone among our contemporaries, to reach identically + the same theory. + + First (and most important, as I believe), in early life both + Darwin and myself became ardent beetle-hunters. Now there is + certainly no group of organisms that so impresses the collector by + the almost infinite number of its specific forms, the endless + modifications of structure, shape, colour, and surface-markings + that distinguish them from each other, and their innumerable + adaptations to diverse environments. These interesting features + are exhibited almost as strikingly in temperate as in tropical + regions, our own comparatively limited island-fauna possessing + more than 3,000 species of this one order of insects. + + Again, both Darwin and myself had what he terms "the mere passion + for collecting," not that of studying the minutię of structure, + either internal or external. I should describe it rather as an + intense interest in the variety of living things--the variety that + catches the eye of the observer even among those which are very + much alike, but which are soon found to differ in several distinct + characters. + + Now it is this superficial and almost child-like interest in the + outward forms of living things which, though often despised as + unscientific, happened to be _the only one_ which would lead us + towards a solution of the problem of species. For Nature herself + distinguishes her species by just such characters--often + exclusively so, always in some degree--very small changes in + outline, or in the proportions of appendages--as give a quite + distinct and recognisable facies to each, often aided by slight + peculiarities in motion or habit; while in a larger number of + cases differences of surface-texture, of colour, or in the details + of the same general scheme of colour-pattern or of shading, give + an unmistakable individuality to closely allied species. + + It is the constant search for and detection of these often + unexpected differences between very similar creatures that gives + such an intellectual charm and fascination to the mere collection + of these insects; and when, as in the case of Darwin and myself, + the collectors were of a speculative turn of mind, they were + constantly led to think upon the "why" and the "how" of all this + wonderful variety in nature--this overwhelming and, at first + sight, purposeless wealth of specific forms among the very + humblest forms of life. + + Then, a little later (and with both of us almost accidentally) we + became travellers, collectors, and observers, in some of the + richest and most interesting portions of the earth; and we thus + had forced upon our attention all the strange phenomena of local + and geographical distribution, with the numerous problems to + which they give rise. Thenceforward our interest in the great + mystery of _how_ species came into existence was intensified, + and--again to use Darwin's expression--"haunted" us. + + Finally, both Darwin and myself, at the critical period when our + minds were freshly stored with a considerable body of personal + observation and reflection bearing upon the problem to be solved, + had our attention directed to the system of _positive checks_ as + expounded by Malthus in his "Principles of Population." The effect + of that was analogous to that of friction upon the specially + prepared match, producing that flash of insight which led us + immediately to the simple but universal law of the "survival of + the fittest," as the long-sought _effective_ cause of the + continuous modification and adaptations of living things. + + It is an unimportant detail that Darwin read this book two years + _after_ his return from his voyage, while I read it _before_ I + went abroad, and it was a sudden recollection of its teachings + that caused the solution to flash upon me. I attach much + importance, however, to the large amount of solitude we both + enjoyed during our travels, which, at the most impressionable + period of our lives, gave us ample time for reflection on the + phenomena we were daily observing. + + This view, of the combination of certain mental faculties and + external conditions that led Darwin and myself to an identical + conception, also serves to explain why none of our precursors or + contemporaries hit upon what is really so very simple a solution + of the great problem. Such evolutionists as Robert Chambers, + Herbert Spencer, and Huxley, though of great intellect, wide + knowledge, and immense power of work, had none of them the special + turn of mind that makes the collector and the species-man; while + they all--as well as the equally great thinker on similar lines, + Sir Charles Lyell--became in early life immersed in different + lines of research which engaged their chief attention. + + Neither did the actual precursors of Darwin in the statement of + the principle--Wells, Matthews and Prichard--possess any adequate + knowledge of the class of facts above referred to, or sufficient + antecedent interest in the problem itself, which were both needed + in order to perceive the application of the principle to the mode + of development of the varied forms of life. + + And now, to recur to my own position, I may be allowed to make a + final remark. I have long since come to see that no one deserves + either praise or blame for the _ideas_ that come to him, but only + for the actions resulting therefrom. Ideas and beliefs are + certainly not voluntary acts. They come to us--we hardly know + _how_ or _whence_, and once they have got possession of us we + cannot reject or change them at will. It is for the common good + that the promulgation of ideas should be free--uninfluenced either + by praise or blame, reward or punishment. + + But the _actions_ which result from our ideas may properly be so + treated, because it is only by patient thought and work that new + ideas, if good and true, become adapted and utilised; while if + untrue, or if not adequately presented to the world, they are + rejected or forgotten. + + I therefore accept the crowning honour you have conferred on me + to-day, not for the happy chance through which I became an + independent originator of the doctrine of "survival of the + fittest," but as a too liberal recognition by you of the moderate + amount of time and work I have given to explain and elucidate the + theory, to point out some novel applications of it, and (I hope I + may add) for my attempts to extend those applications, even in + directions which somewhat diverged from those accepted by my + honoured friend and teacher Charles Darwin. + +Sir Joseph Hooker was now called upon by the President to receive the +Darwin-Wallace Medal. In acknowledging the honour that had been paid +him, he said: + + No thesis or subject was vouchsafed to me by the Council, but, + having gratefully accepted the honour, I was bound to find one for + myself. It soon dawned upon me that the object sought by my + selection might have been that, considering the intimate terms + upon which Mr. Darwin extended to me his friendship, I could from + my memory contribute to the knowledge of some important events in + his career. It having been intimated to me that this was in a + measure true, I have selected as such an event one germane to this + Celebration and also engraven on my memory, namely, the + considerations which determined Mr. Darwin to assent to the course + which Sir Charles Lyell and myself had suggested to him, that of + presenting to the Society, in one communication, his own and Mr. + Wallace's theories on the effect of variation and the struggle for + existence on the evolution of species. + + You have all read Francis Darwin's fascinating work as editor of + his father's "Life and Letters," where you will find (Vol. II., p. + 116) a letter addressed, on the 18th of June, 1858, to Sir Charles + Lyell by Mr. Darwin, who states that he had on that day received a + communication from Mr. Wallace written from the Celebes Islands + requesting that it might be sent to him (Sir Charles). + + In a covering letter Mr. Darwin pointed out that the enclosure + contained a sketch of a theory of Natural Selection as depending + on the struggle for existence so identical with one he himself + entertained and fully described in MS. in 1842 that he never saw a + more striking coincidence: had Mr. Wallace seen his sketch he + could not have made a better short abstract, even his terms + standing "as heads of chapters." He goes on to say that he would + at once write to Mr. Wallace offering to send his MS. to any + journal; and concludes: "So my originality is smashed, though my + book [the forthcoming 'Origin of Species'], if it will have any + value will not be deteriorated, as all know the labour consists in + the application of the theory." + + After writing to Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. Darwin informed me of Mr. + Wallace's letter and its enclosure, in a similar strain, only more + explicitly announcing his resolve to abandon all claim to priority + for his own sketch. I could not but protest against such a course, + no doubt reminding him that I had read it and that Sir Charles + knew its contents some years before the arrival of Mr. Wallace's + letter; and that our withholding our knowledge of its priority + would be unjustifiable. I further suggested the simultaneous + publication of the two, and offered--should he agree to such a + compromise--to write to Mr. Wallace fully informing him of the + motives of the course adopted. + + In answer Mr. Darwin thanked me warmly for my offer to explain all + to Mr. Wallace, and in a later letter he informed me that he was + disposed to look favourably on my suggested compromise, but that + before making up his mind he desired a second opinion as to + whether he could honourably claim priority, and that he proposed + applying to Sir Charles Lyell for this. I need not say that this + was a relief to me, knowing as I did what Sir Charles's answer + must be. + + In Vol. II., pp. 117-18, of the "Life and Letters," Mr. Darwin's + application to Sir Charles Lyell is given, dated June 26th, with a + postscript dated June 27th. In it he requests that the answer + shall be sent to me to be forwarded to himself. I have no + recollection of reading the answer, which is not to be found + either in Darwin's or my own correspondence; it was no doubt + satisfactory. + + Further action was now left in the hands of Sir Charles and + myself, we all agreeing that, whatever action was taken, the + result should be offered for publication to the Linnean Society. + + On June 29th Mr. Darwin wrote to me in acute distress, being + himself very ill, and scarlet fever raging in the family, to which + one infant son had succumbed on the previous day, and a daughter + was ill with diphtheria. He acknowledged the receipt of the letter + from me, adding, "I cannot think now of the subject, but soon + will: you shall hear as soon as I can think"; and on the night of + the same day he writes again, telling me that he is quite + prostrated and can do nothing but send certain papers for which I + had asked as essential for completing the prefatory statement to + the communication to the Linnean Society of Mr. Wallace's + essay.... + + The communications were read, as was the custom in those days, by + the Secretary to the Society. Mr. Darwin himself, owing to his + illness and distress, could not be present. Sir Charles Lyell and + myself said a few words to emphasise the importance of the + subject, but, as recorded in the "Life and Letters" (Vol. II., p. + 126), although intense interest was excited, no discussion took + place: "the subject was too novel, too ominous, for the old school + to enter the lists before armouring." ... + + It must also be noticed that for the detailed history given above + there is no documentary evidence beyond what Francis Darwin has + produced in the "Life and Letters." There are no letters from + Lyell relating to it, not even answers to Mr. Darwin's of the + 18th, 25th, and 26th of June; and Sir Leonard Lyell has at my + request very kindly but vainly searched his uncle's correspondence + for any relating to this subject beyond the two above mentioned. + There are none of my letters to either Lyell or Darwin, nor other + evidence of their having existed beyond the latter's + acknowledgment of the receipt of some of them; and, most + surprising of all, Mr. Wallace's letter and its enclosure have + disappeared. Such is my recollection of this day, the fiftieth + anniversary of which we are now celebrating, and of the fortnight + that immediately preceded it. + + It remains for me to ask your forgiveness for intruding upon your + time and attention with the half-century-old real or fancied + memories of a nonagenarian as contributions to the history of the + most notable event in the annals of Biology that had followed the + appearance in 1735 of the "Systema Naturę" of Linnęus. + +Following Sir J. Hooker, the President, referring to Prof. Haeckel, who +was unable to be present, said that he was "the great apostle of the +Darwin-Wallace theory in Germany ... his enthusiastic and gallant +advocacy [having] chiefly contributed to its success in that country.... +A man of world-wide reputation, the leader on the Continent of the 'Old +Guard' of evolutionary biologists, Prof. Haeckel was one whom the +Linnean Society delighted to honour." Two more German scientists were +honoured with the Medal, namely Prof. August Weismann (who was also +absent), and Prof. Eduard Strasburger, the latter paying a special +tribute to Wallace in saying: "When I was young the investigations and +the thought of Alfred Russel Wallace brought me a great stimulus. +Through his 'Malay Archipelago' a new world of scientific knowledge was +unfolded before me. On this occasion I feel it my duty to proclaim it +with gratitude." The Medal was then presented to Sir Francis Galton, who +delivered a notable speech in responding. The last on this occasion to +receive the Medal was Sir E. Ray Lankester, who, in replying to the +President's graceful speech, referred to the happy relationships which +had existed between the contemporary men of science of his own time, but +with special reference to Darwin and Wallace he said: + + Never was there a more beautiful example of modesty, of unselfish + admiration for another's work, of loyal determination that the + other should receive the full merit of his independent labours and + thoughts, than was shown by Charles Darwin on that occasion.... + + Subsequently, throughout all their arduous work and varied + publications upon the great doctrine which they on that day + unfolded to humanity ... the same complete absence of rivalry + characterised these high-minded Englishmen, even when in some + outcomes of their doctrine they were not in perfect agreement.... + I think I am able to say that great as was the interest excited by + the new doctrine in the scientific world, and wild and angry as + was the opposition to it in some quarters, few, if any, who took + part in the scenes attending the birth and earlier reception of + Darwin's "Origin of Species" had a prevision of the enormous and + all-important influence which that doctrine was destined to + exercise upon every line of human thought.... It is in its + application to the problems of human society that there still + remains an enormous field of work and discovery for the + Darwin-Wallace doctrine. + + In the special branch of study which Wallace himself set + going--the inquiry into the local variations, races, and species + of insects as evidence of descent with modification, and of the + mechanism by which that modification is brought about--there is + still great work in progress, still an abundant field to be + reaped.... Several able observers and experimenters have set + themselves the task of improving, if possible, the theoretical + structure raised by Darwin and Wallace.... But I venture to + express the opinion that they have none of them resulted in any + serious modification of the great doctrine submitted to the + Linnean Society on July 1st, 1858, by Charles Darwin and Alfred + Russel Wallace. Not only do the main lines of the theory of Darwin + and Wallace remain unchanged, but the more it is challenged by new + suggestions and new hypotheses the more brilliantly do the + novelty, the importance, and the permanent value of the work by + those great men, to-day commemorated by us, shine forth as the one + great epoch-making effort of human thought on this subject. + +Sir Francis Darwin and Sir William Thiselton-Dyer spoke on behalf of +Schools which had sent representatives to the meeting; Prof. Lönnberg +and Sir Archibald Geikie on behalf of the Academies and Societies; while +Lord Avebury delivered the concluding address. + +Any summary of this period in the lives of Darwin and Wallace would be +incomplete without some distinct reference to one other name, namely, +that of Herbert Spencer, whom I have linked with them in the +Introduction. + +While we owe to Darwin and Wallace a definite theory of organic +development, it must be remembered that Spencer included this in the +general scheme of Evolution which grew as slowly but surely in his +mind--and as independently as did that of the origin of species in the +minds of Darwin and Wallace. Huxley recalls: "Within the ranks of +biologists, at that time, I met with nobody except Dr. Grant, of +University College, who had a word to say for Evolution--and his +advocacy was not calculated to advance the cause. Outside these ranks, +the only person known to me whose knowledge and capacity compelled +respect, and who was, at the same time, a thorough-going evolutionist, +was Mr. Herbert Spencer.... Many and prolonged were the battles we +fought on this topic.... I took my stand upon two grounds: first, that +up to that time the evidence in favour of transmutation was wholly +insufficient; and, secondly, that no suggestions respecting the causes +of the transmutations assumed ... were in any war adequate to explain +the phenomena. Looking back at the state of knowledge at that time, I +really do not see that any other conclusion was justifiable."[25] + +And Prof. Raphael Meldola, in a lecture on Evolution wherein he compares +the impression left by each of these great founders of that school upon +the current of modern thought, says: "Through all ... his [Spencer's] +writings the underlying idea of development can be traced with +increasing depth and breadth, expanding in 1850 in his 'Social Statics' +to a foreshadowing of the general doctrine of Evolution. In 1852 his +views on organic evolution had become so definite that he gave public +expression to them in that well-known and powerful essay on 'The +Development Hypothesis.' ... In the 'Principles of Psychology,' the +first edition of which was published in 1855, the evolutionary principle +was dominant. By 1858--the year of the announcement of Natural Selection +by Darwin and Wallace--he had conceived the great general scheme and had +sketched out the first draft of the prospectus of the Synthetic +Philosophy, the final and amended syllabus [being] issued in 1860. The +work of Darwin and Spencer from that period, although moving along +independent lines, was directed towards the same end, notwithstanding +the diversity of materials which they made use of and the differences in +their methods of attack; that end was the establishment of Evolution as +a great natural principle or law."[26] + +In this connection it is especially interesting to note how near Spencer +had come to the conception of Natural Selection without grasping its +full significance. In an article on a "Theory of Population" (published +in the _Westminster Review_ for April, 1852) he wrote: "And here, +indeed, without further illustration, it will be seen that premature +death, under all its forms and from all its causes, cannot fail to work +in the same direction. For as those prematurely carried off must, in the +average of cases, be those in whom the power of self-preservation is the +least, it unavoidably follows that those left behind to continue the +race must be those in whom the power of self-preservation is the +greatest--must be the select of their generation. So that whether the +dangers of existence be of the kind produced by excess of fertility, or +of any other kind, it is clear that by the ceaseless exercise of the +faculties needed to contend with them, and by the death of all men who +fail to contend with them successfully, there is ensured a constant +progress towards a higher degree of skill, intelligence, +self-regulation--a better co-ordinance of actions--a more complete +life." + +Up to the period of the publication of the "Origin of Species" and the +first conception of the scheme of the Synthetic Philosophy there had +been no communication between Darwin and Spencer beyond the presentation +by Spencer of a copy of his Essays to Darwin in 1858, which was duly +acknowledged. But by the time the "Origin of Species" had been before +the public for eight years, the Darwinian principle of selection had +become an integral part of the Spencerian mechanism of organic +evolution. Indeed the term "survival of the fittest," approved by both +Darwin and Wallace as an alternative for "natural selection," was, as is +well known, introduced by Spencer. + +Wallace's relations with Spencer, though somewhat controversial at +times, were nevertheless cordial and sympathetic. In "My Life" he tells +of his first visit, and the impression left upon his mind by their +conversation. It occurred somewhere about 1862-3, shortly after he and +Bates had read, and been greatly impressed by, Spencer's "First +Principles." "Our thoughts," he says, "were full of the great unsolved +problem of the origin of life--a problem which Darwin's 'Origin of +Species' left in as much obscurity as ever--and we looked to Spencer as +the one man living who could give us some clue to it. His wonderful +exposition of the fundamental laws and conditions, actions and +interactions of the material universe seemed to penetrate so deeply into +that 'nature of things' after which the early philosophers searched in +vain ... that we hoped he would throw some light on that great problem +of problems.... He was very pleasant, spoke appreciatively of what we +had both done for the practical exposition of evolution, and hoped we +would continue to work at the subject. But when we touched upon the +great problem, and whether he had arrived at even one of the first steps +towards its solution, our hopes were dashed at once. That, he said, was +too fundamental a problem to even think of solving at present. We did +not yet know enough of matter in its essential constitution nor of the +various forces of nature; and all he could say was that everything +pointed to its having been a development out of matter--a phase of that +continuous process of evolution by which the whole universe had been +brought to its present condition. And so we had to wait and work +contentedly at minor problems. And now, after forty years, though +Spencer and Darwin and Weismann have thrown floods of light on the +phenomena of life, its essential nature and its origin remain as great a +mystery as ever. Whatever light we do possess is from a source which +Spencer and Darwin neglected or ignored."[27] + +In his presidential address to the Entomological Society in 1872 Wallace +made some special allusion to Spencer's theory of the origin of +instincts, and on receiving a copy of the address Spencer wrote: "It is +gratifying to me to find that your extended knowledge does not lead you +to scepticism respecting the speculation of mine which you quote, but +rather enables you to cite further facts in justification of it. +Possibly your exposition will lead some of those, in whose lines of +investigation the question lies, to give deliberate attention to it." A +further proof of his confidence was shown by asking Wallace (in 1874) to +look over the proofs of the first six chapters of his "Principles of +Sociology" in order that he might have the benefit of his criticisms +alike as naturalist, anthropologist, and traveller. + +This brief reference to the illustrious group of men to whom we owe the +foundations of this new epoch of evolutionary thought--and not the +foundations only, but also the patient building up of the structure upon +which each one continued to perform his allotted task--and the prefatory +notes and the footnotes attached to the letters will serve to elucidate +the historical correspondence between Darwin and Wallace which follows. + + + + +PART II (_Continued_) + + + + +II.--The Complete Extant Correspondence between Wallace and Darwin + +[1857--81] + + "I hope it is a satisfaction to you to reflect--and very few + things in my life have been more satisfactory to me--that we have + never felt any jealousy towards each other, though in some senses + rivals. I believe I can say this of myself with truth, and I am + absolutely sure that it is true of you."--DARWIN to Wallace. + + "To have thus inspired and retained this friendly feeling, + notwithstanding our many differences of opinion, I feel to be one + of the greatest honours of my life."--WALLACE to Darwin. + + "I think the way he [Wallace] carries on controversy is perfectly + beautiful, and in future histories of science the Wallace-Darwin + episode will form one of the few bright points among rival + claimants."--ERASMUS DARWIN to his niece, Henrietta Darwin, 1871. + + +The first eight letters from Darwin to Wallace were found amongst the +latter's papers, carefully preserved in an envelope on the outside of +which he had written the words reproduced on the next page. Neither +Wallace's part of this correspondence, nor the original MS. of his essay +"On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original +Type," which he sent to Darwin from Ternate, has been discovered. But +these eight letters from Darwin explain themselves and reveal the inner +story of the independent discovery of the theory of Natural Selection. + +With respect to the letters which follow the first eight, both sides of +the correspondence, with few exceptions, have been brought together. +Some of the letters have already appeared in "The Life and Letters of +Charles Darwin" and "More Letters," others in "My Life," by A.R. +Wallace, whilst many have not before been published. + +Some of these letters, in themselves, have little more than ephemeral +interest, and parts of other letters could have been eliminated, from +the point of view of lightening this volume and of economising the +reader's attention. But I decided, with the fullest approval of the +Wallace and Darwin families, that the letters of these illustrious +correspondents should be here presented as a whole, without mutilation. + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF INSCRIPTION BY WALLACE ON THE ENVELOPE IN +WHICH HE KEPT THE FIRST EIGHT LETTERS HE RECEIVED FROM DARWIN.] + +Many of the notes of explanation to the Wallace letters have been +gathered from his own writings, and are mainly in his own words, and in +such cases the reader has the advantage of perusing letters annotated by +their author, while most of the notes to the Darwin letters are by Sir +F. Darwin. + + * * * * * + +LETTER I + +C. DARWIN to A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, May 1, 1857._ + +My dear Sir,--I am much obliged for your letter of Oct. 10th from +Celebes, received a few days ago: in a laborious undertaking, sympathy +is a valuable and real encouragement. By your letter, and even still +more by your paper in the _Annals_,[28] a year or more ago, I can plainly +see that we have thought much alike and to a certain extent have come to +similar conclusions. In regard to the paper in the _Annals_, I agree to +the truth of almost every word of your paper; and I daresay that you +will agree with me that it is very rare to find oneself agreeing pretty +closely with any theoretical paper; for it is lamentable how each man +draws his own different conclusions from the very same fact. This summer +will make the twentieth year (!) since I opened my first note-book on +the question how and in what way do species and varieties differ from +each other. I am now preparing my work for publication, but I find the +subject so very large, that though I have written many chapters, I do +not suppose I shall go to press for two years. + +I have never heard how long you intend staying in the Malay Archipelago; +I wish I might profit by the publication of your Travels there before my +work appears, for no doubt you will reap a large harvest of facts. + +I have acted already in accordance with your advice of keeping domestic +varieties, and those appearing in a state of nature, distinct; but I +have sometimes doubted of the wisdom of this, and therefore I am glad to +be backed by your opinion. I must confess, however, I rather doubt the +truth of the now very prevalent doctrine of all our domestic animals +having descended from several wild stocks; though I do not doubt that it +is so in some cases. I think there is rather better evidence on the +sterility of hybrid animals than you seem to admit: and in regard to +plants, the collection of carefully recorded facts by Kölreuter and +Gaertner (and Herbert) is _enormous_. I most entirely agree with you on +the little effect of "climatic conditions" which one sees referred to +_ad nauseam_ in all books: I suppose some very little effect must be +attributed to such influences, but I fully believe that they are very +slight. It is really _impossible_ to explain my views in the compass of +a letter as to causes and means of variation in a state of nature; but I +have slowly adopted a distinct and tangible idea--whether true or false +others must judge; for the firmest conviction of the truth of a doctrine +by its author seems, alas, not to be the slightest guarantee of truth. + +I have been rather disappointed at my results in the poultry line; but +if you should, after receiving this, stumble on any curious domestic +breed, I should be very glad to have it; but I can plainly see that the +result will not be at all worth the trouble which I have taken. The case +is different with the domestic pigeons; from its study I have learned +much. The Rajah has sent me some of his pigeons and fowls and _cats'_ +skins from the interior of Borneo and from Singapore. Can you tell me +positively that black jaguars or leopards are believed generally or +always to pair with black? I do not think colour of offspring good +evidence. Is the case of parrots fed on fat of fish turning colour +mentioned in your Travels? I remember a case of parrots with (I think) +poison from some toad put into hollow whence primaries had been removed. + +One of the subjects on which I have been experimenting, and which cost +me much trouble, is the means of distribution of all organic beings +found on oceanic islands; and any facts on this subject would be most +gratefully received. + +Land-molluscs are a great perplexity to me. This is a very dull letter, +but I am a good deal out of health, and am writing this, not from my +home, as dated, but from a water-cure establishment. + +With most sincere good wishes for your success in every way, I remain, +my dear Sir, yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +LETTER II + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. December 22, 1867._ + +My dear Sir,--I thank you for your letter of Sept. 27th. I am extremely +glad to hear that you are attending to distribution in accordance with +theoretical ideas. I am a firm believer that without speculation there +is no good and original observation. Few travellers have attended to +such points as you are now at work on; and indeed the whole subject of +distribution of animals is dreadfully behind that of plants. You say +that you have been somewhat surprised at no notice having been taken of +your paper in the _Annals_. I cannot say that I am; for so very few +naturalists care for anything beyond the mere description of species. +But you must not suppose that your paper has not been attended to: two +very good men, Sir C. Lyell, and Mr. E. Blyth at Calcutta, specially +called my attention to it. Though agreeing with you on your conclusions +in the paper, I believe I go much further than you; but it is too long a +subject to enter on my speculative notions. I have not yet seen your +paper on distribution of animals in the Aru Islands: I shall read it +with the _utmost_ interest; for I think that the most interesting +quarter of the whole globe in respect to distribution; and I have long +been very imperfectly trying to collect data from the Malay Archipelago. +I shall be quite prepared to subscribe to your doctrine of subsidence: +indeed from the quite independent evidence of the coral reefs I coloured +my original map in my Coral volumes colours [_sic_] of the Aru Islands +as one of subsidence, but got frightened and left it uncoloured. But I +can see that you are inclined to go _much_ further than I am in regard +to the former connection of oceanic islands with continents. Ever since +poor E. Forbes propounded this doctrine, it has been eagerly followed; +and Hooker elaborately discusses the former connection of all the +Antarctic islands and New Zealand and South America. About a year ago I +discussed the subject much with Lyell and Hooker (for I shall have to +treat of it) and wrote out my arguments in opposition; but you will be +glad to hear that neither Lyell nor Hooker thought much of my arguments; +nevertheless, for once in my life I dare withstand the almost +preternatural sagacity of Lyell. You ask about land-shells on islands +far distant from continents: Madeira has a few identical with those of +Europe, and here the evidence is really good, as some of them are +sub-fossil. In the Pacific islands there are cases of identity, which I +cannot at present persuade myself to account for by introduction through +man's agency; although Dr. Aug. Gould has conclusively shown that many +land-shells have thus been distributed over the Pacific by man's agency. +These cases of introduction are most plaguing. Have you not found it so +in the Malay Archipelago? It has seemed to me, in the lists of mammals +of Timor and other islands, that _several_ in all probability have been +naturalised. + +Since writing before, I have experimented a little on some +land-molluscs, and have found sea-water not quite so deadly as I +anticipated. You ask whether I shall discuss Man: I think I shall avoid +the whole subject, as so surrounded with prejudices, though I fully +admit that it is the highest and most interesting problem for the +naturalist. My work, on which I have now been at work more or less for +twenty years, will _not_ fix or settle anything; but I hope it will aid +by giving a large collection of facts with one definite end. I get on +very slowly, partly from ill-health, partly from being a very slow +worker. I have got about half written; but I do not suppose I shall +publish under a couple of years. I have now been three whole months on +one chapter on hybridism! + +I am astonished to see that you expect to remain out three or four years +more: what a wonderful deal you will have seen; and what an interesting +area, the grand Malay Archipelago and the richest parts of South +America! I infinitely admire and honour your zeal and courage in the +good cause of natural science; and you have my very sincere and cordial +good wishes for success of all kinds; and may all your theories succeed, +except that on oceanic islands, on which subject I will do battle to the +death.--Pray believe me, my dear Sir, yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +LETTER III + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. January 25, 1859._ + +My dear Sir,--I was extremely much pleased at receiving three days ago +your letter to me and that to Dr. Hooker. Permit me to say how heartily +I admire the spirit in which they are written. Though I had absolutely +nothing whatever to do in leading Lyell and Hooker to what they thought +a fair course of action, yet I naturally could not but feel anxious to +hear what your impression would be. I owe indirectly much to you and +them; for I almost think that Lyell would have proved right and I should +never have completed my larger work, for I have found my abstract[29] +hard enough with my poor health; but now, thank God, I am in my last +chapter but one. My abstract will make a small volume of 400 or 500 +pages. Whenever published, I will of course send you a copy, and then +you will see what I mean about the part which I believe selection has +played with domestic productions. It is a very different part, as you +suppose, from that played by "natural selection." + +I sent off, by same address as this note, a copy of the _Journal of the +Linnean Society_, and subsequently I have sent some half-dozen copies of +the Paper. I have many other copies at your disposal; and I sent two to +your friend Dr. Davies (?), author of works on men's skulls. + +I am glad to hear that you have been attending to birds' nests; I have +done so, though almost exclusively under one point of view, viz. to show +that instincts vary, so that selection could work on and improve them. +Few other instincts, so to speak, can be preserved in a museum. + +Many thanks for your offer to look after horses' stripes; if there are +any donkeys', pray add them. + +I am delighted to hear that you have collected bees' combs; when next in +London I will inquire of F. Smith and Mr. Saunders. This is an especial +hobby of mine, and I think I can throw light on the subject. If you can +collect duplicates at no very great expense, I should be glad of +specimens for myself, with some bees of each kind. Young growing and +irregular combs, and those which have not had pupę, are most valuable +for measurements and examination; their edges should be well protected +against abrasion. + +Everyone whom I have seen has thought your paper very well written and +interesting. It puts my extracts (written in 1839, now just twenty years +ago!), which I must say in apology were never for an instant intended +for publication, in the shade. + +You ask about Lyell's frame of mind. I think he is somewhat staggered, +but does not give in, and speaks with horror often to me of what a thing +it would be and what a job it would be for the next edition of the +Principles if he were "perverted." But he is most candid and honest, and +I think will end by being perverted. Dr. Hooker has become almost as +heterodox as you or I--and I look at Hooker as _by far_ the most capable +judge in Europe. + +Most cordially do I wish you health and entire success in all your +pursuits; and God knows, if admirable zeal and energy deserve success, +most amply do you deserve it. I look at my own career as nearly run out; +if I can publish my abstract, and perhaps my greater work on the same +subject, I shall look at my course as done.--Believe me, my dear Sir, +yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +LETTER IV + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. April 6, 1859._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--I this morning received your pleasant and friendly +note of Nov. 30th. The first part of my MS.[30] is in Murray's hands, to +see if he likes to publish it. There is no Preface, but a short +Introduction, which must be read by everyone who reads my book. The +second paragraph in the Introduction[31] I have had copied _verbatim_ +from my foul copy, and you will, I hope, think that I have fairly +noticed your papers in the _Linnean Transactions_.[32] You must remember +that I am now publishing only an Abstract, and I give no references. I +shall of course allude to your paper on Distribution;[33] and I have +added that I know from correspondence that your explanation of your law +is the same as that which I offer. You are right, that I came to the +conclusion that Selection was the principle of change from study of +domesticated productions; and then reading Malthus I saw at once how to +apply this principle. Geographical distribution and geographical +relations of extinct to recent inhabitants of South America first led me +to the subject. Especially the case of the Galapagos Islands. + +I hope to go to press in early part of next month. It will be a small +volume of about 500 pages or so. I will, of course, send you a copy. + +I forget whether I told you that Hooker, who is our best British +botanist, and perhaps the best in the world, is a _full_ convert, and is +now going immediately to publish his confession of faith; and I expect +daily to see the proof-sheets. Huxley is changed and believes in +mutation of species: whether a _convert_ to us, I do not quite know. We +shall live to see all the _younger_ men converts. My neighbour and +excellent naturalist, J. Lubbock, is an enthusiastic convert. I see by +Natural History notices that you are doing great work in the +Archipelago; and most heartily do I sympathise with you. For God's sake +take care of your health. There have been few such noble labourers in +the cause of natural science as you are. Farewell, with every good +wish.--Yours sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + +P.S.--You cannot tell how I admire your spirit, in the manner in which +you have taken all that was done about publishing our papers. I had +actually written a letter to you, stating that I would _not_ publish +anything before you had published. I had not sent that letter to the +post when I received one from Lyell and Hooker, _urging_ me to send some +MS. to them, and allow them to act as they thought fair and honourably +to both of us. I did so. + + * * * * * + +LETTER V + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. August 9, 1859._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--I received your letter and memoir[34] on the 7th, +and will forward it to-morrow to the Linnean Society. But you will be +aware that there is no meeting till beginning of November. Your paper +seems to me _admirable_ in matter, style and reasoning; and I thank you +for allowing me to read it. Had I read it some months ago I should have +profited by it for my forthcoming volume. But my two chapters on this +subject are in type; and though not yet corrected, I am so wearied out +and weak in health that I am fully resolved not to add one word, and +merely improve style. So you will see that my views are nearly the same +with yours, and you may rely on it that not one word shall be altered +owing to my having read your ideas. Are you aware that Mr. W. Earl +published several years ago the view of distribution of animals in the +Malay Archipelago in relation to the depth of the sea between the +islands? I was much struck with this, and have been in habit of noting +all facts on distribution in the Archipelago and elsewhere in this +relation. I have been led to conclude that there has been a good deal of +naturalisation in the different Malay islands, and which I have thought +to certain extent would account for anomalies. Timor has been my +greatest puzzle. What do you say to the peculiar _Felis_ there? I wish +that you had visited Timor: it has been asserted that a fossil mastodon +or elephant's tooth (I forget which) had been found there, which would +be a grand fact. I was aware that Celebes was very peculiar; but the +relation to Africa is quite new to me and marvellous, and almost passes +belief. It is as anomalous as the relation of plants in South-West +Australia to the Cape of Good Hope. + +I differ _wholly_ from you on colonisation of _oceanic_ islands, but you +will have _everyone_ else on your side. I quite agree with respect to +all islands not situated far in ocean. I quite agree on little +occasional internavigation between lands when once pretty well stocked +with inhabitants, but think this does not apply to rising and +ill-stocked islands. + +Are you aware that _annually_ birds are blown to Madeira, to Azores (and +to Bermuda from America). I wish I had given fuller abstract of my +reasons for not believing in Forbes's great continental extensions; but +it is too late, for I will alter nothing. I am worn out, and must have +rest. + +Owen, I do not doubt, will bitterly oppose us; but I regard that very +little, as he is a poor reasoner and deeply considers the good opinion +of the world, especially the aristocratic world. + +Hooker is publishing a grand Introduction to the Flora of Australia, and +goes the whole length. I have seen proofs of about half.--With every +good wish, believe me yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + +Excuse this brief note, but I am far from well. + + * * * * * + +LETTER VI + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Ilkley. November 13, 1859._ + +My dear Sir,--I have told Murray to send you by post (if possible) a +copy of my book, and I hope that you will receive it at nearly the same +time with this note. (N.B.--I have got a bad finger, which makes me +write extra badly.) If you are so inclined, I should very much like to +hear your general impression of the book, as you have thought so +profoundly on the subject and in so nearly the same channel with myself. +I hope there will be some little new to you, but I fear not much. +Remember, it is only an abstract, and very much condensed. God knows +what the public will think. No one has read it, except Lyell, with whom +I have had much correspondence. Hooker thinks him a complete convert, +but he does not seem so in his letters to me. But he is evidently deeply +interested in the subject. I do not think your share in the theory will +be overlooked by the real judges, as Hooker, Lyell, Asa Gray, etc. + +I have heard from Mr. Sclater that your paper on the Malay Archipelago +has been read at the Linnean Society, and that he was _extremely_ much +interested by it. + +I have not seen one naturalist for six or nine months owing to the state +of my health, and therefore I really have no news to tell you. I am +writing this at Ilkley Wells, where I have been with my family for the +last six weeks, and shall stay for some few weeks longer. As yet I have +profited very little. God knows when I shall have strength for my bigger +book. + +I sincerely hope that you keep your health: I suppose that you will be +thinking of returning soon with your magnificent collection and still +grander mental materials. You will be puzzled how to publish. The Royal +Society Fund will be worth your consideration.--With every good wish, +pray believe me yours very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + +I think that I told you before that Hooker is a complete convert. If I +can convert Huxley I shall be content. + + * * * * * + +LETTER VII + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 7, 1860._ + +My dear Wallace,--The addresses which you have sent me are capital, +especially that to the Rajah; and I have dispatched two sets of queries. +I now enclose a copy to you, and should be very glad of any answers; you +must not suppose the P.S. about memory has lately been inserted; please +return these queries, as it is my standard copy. The subject is a +curious one; I fancy I shall make a rather interesting appendix to my +Essay on Man. + +I fully admit the probability of "protective adaptation" having come +into play with female butterflies as well as with female birds. I have a +good many facts which make me believe in sexual selection as applied to +man, but whether I shall convince anyone else is very doubtful.--Dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +LETTER VIII + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. May 18, 1860._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--I received this morning your letter from Amboyna +dated Feb. 16th, containing some remarks and your too high approbation +of my book. Your letter has pleased me very much, and I most completely +agree with you on the parts which are strongest and which are weakest. +The imperfection of the geological record is, as you say, the weakest of +all; but yet I am pleased to find that there are almost more geological +converts than of pursuers of other branches of natural science. I may +mention Lyell, Ramsay, Jukes, Rogers, Keyerling, all good men and true. +Pictet of Geneva is not a convert, but is evidently staggered (as I +think is Bronn of Heidelberg), and he has written a perfectly fair +review in the _Bib. Universelle_ of Geneva. Old Bronn has translated my +book, well done also into German, and his well-known name will give it +circulation. I think geologists are more converted than simple +naturalists because more accustomed to reasoning. + +Before telling you about the progress of opinion on the subject, you +must let me say how I admire the generous manner in which you speak of +my book: most persons would in your position have felt bitter envy and +jealousy. How nobly free you seem to be of this common failing of +mankind. But you speak far too modestly of yourself; you would, if you +had had my leisure, have done the work just as well, perhaps better, +than I have done it. Talking of envy, you never read anything more +envious and spiteful (with numerous misrepresentations) than Owen is in +the _Edinburgh Review_. I must give one instance; he throws doubts and +sneers at my saying that the ovigerous frena of cirripedes have been +converted into branchię, because I have not found them to be branchię; +whereas _he himself_ admits, before I wrote on cirripedes, without the +least hesitation, that their organs are branchię. The attacks have been +heavy and incessant of late. Sedgwick and Prof. Clarke attacked me +savagely at the Cambridge Philosophical Society, but Henslow defended me +well, though not a convert. Phillips has since attacked me in a lecture +at Cambridge; Sir W. Jardine in the _Edinburgh New Philosophical +Journal_, Wollaston in the _Annals of Nat. History_, A. Murray before +the Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, Haughton at the Geological Society of +Dublin, Dawson in the _Canadian Nat. Magazine_, and _many others_. But I +am getting case-hardened, and all these attacks will make me only more +determinedly fight. Agassiz sends me personal civil messages, but +incessantly attacks me; but Asa Gray fights like a hero in defence. +Lyell keeps as firm as a tower, and this autumn will publish on the +Geological History of Man, and will then declare his conversion, which +now is universally known. I hope that you have received Hooker's +splendid essay. So far is bigotry carried that I can name three +botanists who will not even read Hooker's essay!! Here is a curious +thing: a Mr. Pat. Matthews, a Scotchman, published in 1830 a work on +Naval Timber and Arboriculture, and in the appendix to this he gives +_most clearly_ but very briefly in half-dozen paragraphs our view of +Natural Selection. It is a most complete case of anticipation. He +published extracts in the _Gardeners' Chronicle_. I got the book, and +have since published a letter acknowledging that I am fairly +forestalled. Yesterday I heard from Lyell that a German, Dr. +Schaffhausen, has sent him a pamphlet published some years ago, in +which the same view is nearly anticipated, but I have not yet seen this +pamphlet. My brother, who is a very sagacious man, always said, "You +will find that someone will have been before you." I am at work at my +larger work, which I shall publish in separate volumes. But for +ill-health and swarms of letters I get on very, very slowly. I hope that +I shall not have wearied you with these details. + +[Illustration: A.R. WALLACE SOON AFTER HIS RETURN FROM THE EAST] + +With sincere thanks for your letter, and with most deeply-felt wishes +for your success in science and in every way, believe me your sincere +well-wisher, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +Of the letters from Wallace to Darwin which have been preserved, the +earliest is the following: + + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. April 7, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Darwin,--I was much pleased to receive your note this +morning. I have not yet begun work, but hope to be soon busy. As I am +being doctored a little I do not think I shall be able to accept your +kind invitation at present, but trust to be able to do so during the +summer. + +I beg you to accept a wild honeycomb from the island of Timor, not quite +perfect but the best I could get. It is of a small size, but of +characteristic form, and I think will be interesting to you. I was quite +unable to get the honey out of it, so fear you will find it somewhat in +a mess; but no doubt you will know how to clean it. I have told Stevens +to send it to you. + +Hoping your health is now quite restored and with best wishes, I remain, +my dear Mr. Darwin, yours very sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 23, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Darwin,--Many thanks for your most interesting book on the +Orchids. I have read it through most attentively, and have really been +quite as much staggered by the wonderful adaptations you show to exist +in them as by the _Eye_ in animals or any other complicated organs. I +long to get into the country and have a look at some orchids guided by +your new lights, but I have been now for ten days confined to my room +with what is disagreeable though far from dangerous--boils. + +I have been reading several of the Reviews on the "Origin," and it seems +to me that you have assisted those who want to criticise you by your +overstating the difficulties and objections. Several of them quote your +own words as the strongest arguments against you. + +I think you told me Owen wrote the article in the _Quarterly_. This +seems to me hardly credible, as he speaks so much of Owen, quotes him as +such a great authority, and I believe even calls him a profound +philosopher, etc. etc. Would Owen thus speak of himself? + +Trusting your health is good, I remain, my dear Mr. Darwin, yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 24, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--I write one line to thank you for your note and to +say that the Bishop of Oxford[35] wrote the _Quarterly Review_ (paid +£60), aided by Owen. In the _Edinburgh_ Owen no doubt praised himself. +Mr. Maw's Review in the _Zoologist_ is one of the best, and staggered me +in parts, for I did not see the sophistry of parts. I could lend you any +which you might wish to see; but you would soon be tired. Hopkins and +Pictet in France are two of the best. + +I am glad you approve of my little Orchid book; but it has not been +worth, I fear, the ten months it has cost me: it was a hobby-horse, and +so beguiled me. + +I am sorry to hear that you are suffering from boils; I have often had +fearful crops: I hope that the doctors are right in saying that they are +serviceable. + +How puzzled you must be to know what to begin at. You will do grand +work, I do not doubt. + +My health is, and always will be, very poor: I am that miserable animal +a regular valetudinarian.--Yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. August 8, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Darwin,--I sincerely trust that your little boy is by this +time convalescent, and that you are therefore enabled to follow your +favourite investigations with a more tranquil mind. + +I heard a remark the other day which may not perhaps be new to you, but +seemed to me a fact, if true, in your favour. Mr. Ward (I think it was), +a member of the Microscopical Society, mentioned as a fact noticed by +himself with much surprise that "the muscular fibres of the whale were +no larger than those of the bee!"--an excellent indication of community +of origin. + +While looking at the ostriches the other day at the Gardens, it occurred +to me that they were a case of special difficulty, as, inhabiting an +ancient continent, surrounded by numerous enemies, how did their wings +ever become abortive, and if they did so before the birds had attained +their present gigantic size, strength and speed, how could they in the +transition have maintained their existence? I see Westwood in the +_Annals_ brings forward the same case, arguing that the ostriches should +have acquired better wings within the historic period; but as they are +now the swiftest of animals they evidently do not want their wings, +which in their present state may serve some other trifling purpose in +their economy such as fans, or balancers, which may have prevented their +being reduced to such rudiments as in the cassowaries. The difficulty +to me seems to be, how, if they once had flight, could they have lost +it, surrounded by swift and powerful carnivora against whom it must have +been the only defence? + +This probably is all clear to you, but I think it is a point you might +touch upon, as I think the objection will seem a strong one to most +people. + +In a day or two I go to Devonshire for a few weeks and hope to lay in a +stock of health to enable me to stick to work at my collections during +the winter. I begin to find that large collections involve a heavy +amount of manual labour which is not very agreeable. + +Present my compliments to Mrs. and Miss Darwin, and believe me yours +very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_1 Carlton Terrace, Southampton. August 20, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--You will not be surprised that I have been slow in +answering when I tell you that my poor boy[36] became frightfully worse +after you were at Down; and that during our journey to Bournemouth he +had a slight relapse here and my wife took the scarlet fever rather +severely. She is over the crisis. I have had a horrid time of it, and +God only knows when we shall be all safe at home again--half my family +are at Bournemouth. + +I have given a piece of the comb from Timor to a Mr. Woodbury (who is +working at the subject), and he is _extremely_ interested by it (I was +sure the specimen would be valuable) and has requested me to ascertain +whether the bee (_A. testacea_) is domesticated when it makes its combs. +Will you kindly inform me? + +Your remarks on ostriches have interested me, and I have alluded to the +case in the Third Edition. The difficulty does not seem to me so great +as to you. Think of bustards, which inhabit wide open plains, and which +so seldom take flight: a very little increase in size of body would make +them incapable of flight. The idea of ostriches acquiring flight is +worthy of Westwood; think of the food required in these inhabitants of +the desert to work the pectoral muscles! In the rhea the wings seem of +considerable service in the first start and in turning.[37] ... + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. September 30, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Darwin,--Many thanks for the third edition of the "Origin," +which I found here on my return from Devonshire on Saturday. I have not +had time yet to read more than the Historical Sketch, which is very +interesting, and shows that the time had quite come for your book. + +I am now reading Herbert Spencer's "First Principles," which seems to me +a truly great work, which goes to the root of everything. + +I hope you will be well enough to come to Cambridge. + +I remain, my dear Mr. Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 14 [1863?]._ + +My dear Mr. Darwin,--I am very sorry indeed to hear you are still in +weak health. Have you ever tried mountain air? A residence at 2,000 or +3,000 ft. elevation is very invigorating. + +I trust your family are now all in good health, and that you may be +spared any anxiety on that score for some time. If you come to town I +shall hope to have the pleasure of seeing you. + +I am now in much better health, but find sudden changes of weather +affect me very much, bringing on ague and fever fits. I am now working a +little, but having fresh collections still arriving from correspondents +in the East, it is principally the drudgery of cleaning, packing, and +arrangement. + +On the opposite page I give all the information I can about the Timor +fossils, so that you can send it entire to Dr. Falconer. + +With best wishes for the speedy recovery of your health, I remain, my +dear Mr. Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 1, 1864._ + +Dear Wallace,--I am still unable to write otherwise than by dictation. +In a letter received two or three weeks ago from Asa Gray he writes: "I +read lately with gusto Wallace's exposé of the Dublin man on Bee cells, +etc."[38] + +Now though I cannot read at present, I much want to know where this is +published, that I may procure a copy. Further on Asa Gray says (after +speaking of Agassiz's paper on Glaciers in the _Atlantic Magazine_ and +his recent book entitled "Method of Study"): "Pray set Wallace upon +these articles." So Asa Gray seems to think much of your powers of +reviewing, and I mention this as it assuredly is _laudari a laudato_. + +I hope you are hard at work, and if you are inclined to tell me I should +much like to know what you are doing. + +It will be many months, I fear, before I shall do anything. + +Pray believe me yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 2, 1864._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your kind letter. I was afraid to write +because I heard such sad accounts of your health, but I am glad to find +that you can write, and I presume read, by deputy. My little article on +Haughton's paper was published in the _Annals of Natural History_ about +August or September last, I think, but I have not a copy to refer to. I +am sure it does not deserve Asa Gray's praises, for though the matter +may be true enough, the manner I know is very inferior. It was written +hastily, and when I read it in the _Annals_ I was rather ashamed of it, +as I knew so many could have done it so much better. + +I will try and see Agassiz's paper and book. What I have hitherto seen +of his on Glacial subjects seems very good, but in all his Natural +History _theories_, he seems so utterly wrong and so totally blind to +the plainest deduction from facts, and at the same time so vague and +obscure in his language, that it would be a very long and wearisome task +to answer him. + +With regard to work, I am doing but little--I am afraid I have no good +habit of systematic work. I have been gradually getting parts of my +collections in order, but the obscurities of synonymy and descriptions, +the difficulty of examining specimens, and my very limited library, make +it wearisome work. + +I have been lately getting the first groups of my butterflies in order, +and they offer some most interesting facts in variation and +distribution--in variation some very puzzling ones. Though I have very +fine series of specimens, I find in many cases I want more; in fact if I +could have afforded to have all my collections kept till my return I +should, I think, have found it necessary to retain twice as many as I +now have. + +I am at last making a beginning of a small book on my Eastern journey, +which, if I can persevere, I hope to have ready by next Christmas. I am +a very bad hand at writing anything like narrative. I want something to +argue on, and then I find it much easier to go ahead. I rather despair, +therefore, of making so good a book as Bates's, though I think my +subject is better. Like every other traveller, I suppose, I feel +dreadfully the want of copious notes on common everyday objects, sights +and sounds and incidents, which I imagined I could never forget but +which I now find it impossible to recall with any accuracy. + +I have just had a long and most interesting letter from my old companion +Spruce. He says he has had a letter from you about Melastoma, but has +not, he says, for three years seen a single melastomaceous plant! They +are totally absent from the Pacific plains of tropical America, though +so abundant on the Eastern plains. Poor fellow, he seems to be in a +worse state than you are. Life has been a burden to him for three years +owing to lung and heart disease, and rheumatism, brought on by exposure +in high, hot, and cold damp valleys of the Andes. He went down to the +dry climate of the Pacific coast to die more at ease, but the change +improved him, and he thinks to come home, though he is sure he will not +survive the first winter in England. He had never been able to get a +copy of your book, though I am sure no one would have enjoyed or +appreciated it more. + +If you are able to bear reading, will you allow me to take the liberty +of recommending you a book? The fact is I have been so astonished and +delighted with the perusal of Spencer's works that I think it a duty to +society to recommend them to all my friends who I think can appreciate +them. The one I particularly refer to now is "Social Statics," a book +which is by no means hard to read; it is even amusing, and owing to the +wonderful clearness of its style may be read and understood by anyone. I +think, therefore, as it is quite distinct from your special studies at +present, you might consider it as "light literature," and I am pretty +sure it would interest you more than a great deal of what is now +considered very good. I am utterly astonished that so few people seem to +read Spencer, and the utter ignorance there seems to be among +politicians and political economists of the grand views and logical +stability of his works. He appears to me as far ahead of John Stuart +Mill as J.S.M. is of the rest of the world, and, I may add, as Darwin is +of Agassiz. The range of his knowledge is no less than its accuracy. His +nebular hypothesis in the last volume of his essays is the most masterly +astronomical paper I have ever read, and in his forthcoming volume on +Biology he is I understand going to show that there is something else +besides Natural Selection at work in nature. So you must look out for a +"foeman worthy of your steel"! But perhaps all this time you have read +his books. If so, excuse me, and pray give me your opinion of him, as I +have hitherto only met with one man (Huxley) who has read and +appreciated him. + +Allow me to say in conclusion how much I regret that unavoidable +circumstances have caused me to see so little of you since my return +home, and how earnestly I pray for the speedy restoration of your +health.--Yours most sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Malvern Wells. Tuesday, March, 1864._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--Your kindness is neverfailing. I got worse and +worse at home and was sick every day for two months; so came here, when +I suddenly broke down and could do nothing; but I hope I am now very +slowly recovering, but am very weak. + +Sincere thanks about Melastoma: these flowers have baffled me, and I +have caused several friends much useless labour; though, Heaven knows, I +have thrown away time enough on them myself. + +The gorse case is very valuable, and I will quote it, as I presume I +may. + +I was very glad to see in the _Reader_ that you have been giving a +grand paper (as I infer from remarks in discussion) on Geographical +Distribution. + +I am very weak, so will say no more.--Yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +In Vol. I., p. 93, of the "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," Darwin +states the circumstances which led to his writing the "Descent of Man." +He says that his collection of facts, begun in 1837 or 1838, was +continued for many years without any definite idea of publishing on the +subject. The letter to Wallace of May 28, 1864, in reply to the latter's +of May 10, shows that in the period of ill-health and depression about +1864 he despaired of ever being able to do so. + + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 10, 1864._ + +My dear Darwin,--I was very much gratified to hear by your letter of a +month back that you were a little better, and I have since heard +occasionally through Huxley and Lubbock that you are not worse. I +sincerely hope the summer weather and repose may do you real good. + +The Borneo Cave exploration is to go on at present without a +subscription. The new British consul who is going out to Sarawak this +month will undertake to explore some of the caves nearest the town, and +if anything of interest is obtained a good large sum can no doubt be +raised for a thorough exploration of the whole country. Sir J. Brooke +will give every assistance, and will supply men for the preliminary +work. + +I send you now my little contribution to the _theory_ of the origin of +man. I hope you will be able to agree with me. If you are able, I shall +be glad to have your criticisms. + +I was led to the subject by the necessity of explaining the vast mental +and cranial differences between man and the apes combined with such +small structural differences in other parts of the body, and also by an +endeavour to account for the diversity of human races combined with +man's almost perfect stability of form during all historical epochs. + +It has given me a settled opinion on these subjects, if nobody can show +a fallacy in the argument. + +The Anthropologicals did not seem to appreciate it much, but we had a +long discussion which appears almost verbatim in the _Anthropological +Review_.[39] + +As the _Linnean Transactions_ will not be out till the end of the year I +sent a pretty full abstract of the more interesting parts of my +Papilionidę paper[40] to the _Reader_, which, as you say, is a splendid +paper. + +Trusting Mrs. Darwin and all your family are well, and that you are +improving, believe me yours most sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. May 28, 1864._ + +Dear Wallace,--I am so much better that I have just finished a paper for +the Linnean Society; but as I am not yet at all strong I felt much +disinclination to write, and therefore you must forgive me for not +having sooner thanked you for your paper on Man received on the 11th. +But first let me say that I have hardly ever in my life been more struck +by any paper than that on variation, etc. etc., in the _Reader_. I feel +sure that such papers will do more for the spreading of our views on the +modification of species than any separate treatises on the single +subject itself. It is really admirable; but you ought not in the Man +paper to speak of the theory as mine; it is just as much yours as mine. +One correspondent has already noticed to me your "high-minded" conduct +on this head. + +But now for your Man paper, about which I should like to write more than +I can. The great leading idea is quite new to me, viz. that during late +ages the mind will have been modified more than the body; yet I had got +as far as to see with you that the struggle between the races of man +depended entirely on intellectual and _moral_ qualities. The latter part +of the paper I can designate only as grand and most eloquently done. I +have shown your paper to two or three persons who have been here, and +they have been equally struck with it. + +I am not sure that I go with you on all minor points. When reading Sir +G. Grey's account of the constant battles of Australian savages, I +remember thinking that Natural Selection would come in, and likewise +with the Esquimaux, with whom the art of fishing and managing canoes is +said to be hereditary. I rather differ on the rank under the +classificatory point of view which you assign to Man: I do not think any +character simply in excess ought ever to be used for the higher +division. Ants would not be separated from other hymenopterous insects, +however high the instinct of the one and however low the instincts of +the other. + +With respect to the differences of race, a conjecture has occurred to me +that much may be due to the correlation of complexion (and consequently +hair) with constitution. Assume that a dusky individual best escaped +miasma and you will readily see what I mean. I persuaded the +Director-General of the Medical Department of the Army to send printed +forms to the surgeons of all regiments in tropical countries to +ascertain this point, but I daresay I shall never get any returns. +Secondly, I suspect that a sort of sexual selection has been the most +powerful means of changing the races of man. I can show that the +different races have a widely different standard of beauty. Among +savages the most powerful men will have the pick of the women, and they +will generally leave the most descendants. + +I have collected a few notes on Man, but I do not suppose I shall ever +use them. Do you intend to follow out your views, and if so would you +like at some future time to have my few references and notes? + +I am sure I hardly know whether they are of any value, and they are at +present in a state of chaos. + +There is much more that I should like to write but I have not +strength.--Believe me, dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +Our aristocracy is handsomer? (more hideous according to a Chinese or +negro) than the middle classes, from pick of women; but oh what a scheme +is primogeniture for destroying Natural Selection! I fear my letter will +be barely intelligible to you. + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 29 [1864]._ + +My dear Darwin,--You are always so ready to appreciate what others do, +and especially to overestimate my desultory efforts, that I cannot be +surprised at your very kind and flattering remarks on my papers. I am +glad, however, that you have made a few critical observations, and am +only sorry you were not well enough to make more, as that enables me to +say a few words in explanation. + +My great fault is haste. An idea strikes me, I think over it for a few +days, and then write away with such illustrations as occur to me while +going on. I therefore look at the subject almost solely from one point +of view. Thus in my paper on Man[41] I aim solely at showing that brutes +are modified in a _great variety_ of ways by Natural Selection, but that +in _none of these particular_ ways can man be modified, because of the +superiority of his intellect. I therefore no doubt overlook a few +smaller points in which Natural Selection may still act on men and +brutes alike. Colour is one of them, and I have alluded to this in +correlation to constitution in an abstract I have made at Sclater's +request for the _Natural History Review_.[42] At the same time, there is +so much evidence of migrations and displacements of races of man, and so +many cases of peoples of distinct physical characters inhabiting the +same or similar regions, and also of races of uniform physical +characters inhabiting widely dissimilar regions, that the external +characteristics of the chief races of man must I think be older than his +present geographical distribution, and the modifications produced by +correlation to favourable variations of constitution be only a secondary +cause of external modification. + +I hope you may get the returns from the Army. They would be very +interesting, but I do not expect the results would be favourable to your +view. + +With regard to the constant battles of savages leading to selection of +physical superiority, I think it would be very imperfect, and subject to +so many exceptions and irregularities that it could produce no +_definite_ result. For instance, the strongest and bravest men would +lead, and expose themselves most, and would therefore be most subject to +wounds and death. And the physical energy which led to any one tribe +delighting in war might lead to its extermination by inducing quarrels +with all surrounding tribes and leading them to combine against it. +Again, superior cunning, stealth and swiftness of foot, or even better +weapons, would often lead to victory as well as mere physical strength. +Moreover this kind of more or less perpetual war goes on among all +savage peoples. It could lead therefore to no differential characters, +but merely to the keeping up of a certain average standard of bodily and +mental health and vigour. So with selection of variations adapted to +special habits of life, as fishing, paddling, riding, climbing, etc. +etc., in different races: no doubt it must act to some extent, but will +it be ever so rigid as to induce a definite physical modification, and +can we imagine it to have had any part in producing the distinct races +that now exist? + +The sexual selection you allude to will also, I think, have been equally +uncertain in its results. In the very lowest tribes there is rarely much +polygamy, and women are more or less a matter of purchase. There is also +little difference of social condition, and I think it rarely happens +that any healthy and undeformed man remains without wife and children. I +very much doubt the often-repeated assertion that our aristocracy are +more beautiful than the middle classes. I allow that they present +_specimens_ of the highest kind of beauty, but I doubt the average. I +have noticed in country places a greater average amount of good looks +among the middle classes, and besides, we unavoidably combine in our +idea of beauty, intellectual expression and refinement of _manner_, +which often make the less appear the more beautiful. Mere physical +beauty--that is, a healthy and regular development of the body and +features approaching to the _mean_ or _type_ of European man--I believe +is quite as frequent in one class of society as the other, and much more +frequent in rural districts than in cities. + +With regard to the rank of man in zoological classification, I fear I +have not made myself intelligible. I never meant to adopt Owen's or any +other such views, but only to point out that from _one_ point of view he +was right. I hold that a distinct _family_ for man, as Huxley allows, is +all that can possibly be given him zoologically. But at the same time, +if my theory is true--that while the animals which surrounded him have +been undergoing modification in _all_ parts of their bodies to a +_generic_ or even _family_ degree of difference, he has been changing +almost wholly in the brain and head--then, in geological antiquity the +_species_ of man may be as old as many mammalian _families_, and the +origin of the _family_ man may date back to a period when some of the +orders first originated. + +As to the theory of Natural Selection itself, I shall always maintain it +to be actually yours and yours only. You had worked it out in details I +had never thought of, years before I had a ray of light on the subject, +and my paper would never have convinced anybody or been noticed as more +than an ingenious speculation, whereas your book has revolutionised the +study of natural history, and carried away captive the best men of the +present age. All the merit I claim is the having been the means of +inducing _you_ to write and publish at once. + +I may possibly some day go a little more into this subject (of Man), +and, if I do, will accept the kind offer of your notes. I am now, +however, beginning to write the "Narrative of my Travels" which will +occupy me a long time, as I hate writing narrative, and after Bates's +brilliant success rather fear to fail. I shall introduce a few chapters +on geographical distribution and other such topics. + +Sir C. Lyell, while agreeing with my main argument on Man, thinks I am +wrong in wanting to put him back into Miocene times, and thinks I do not +appreciate the immense interval even to the later Pliocene. But I still +maintain my view, which in fact is a logical result of my theory, for if +man originated in later Pliocene times, when almost all mammalia were of +closely allied species to those now living, and many even identical, +then man has _not_ been stationary in bodily structure while animals +have been varying, and my theory will be proved to be all wrong. + +In Murchison's address to the Geographical Society just delivered he +points out Africa, as being the _oldest_ existing land. He says there is +_no_ evidence of its having been ever submerged during the tertiary +epoch. Here, then, is evidently the place to find _early man_. I hope +something good may be found in Borneo, and that then means may be found +to explore the still more promising regions of tropical Africa, for we +can expect nothing of man _very_ early in Europe. + +It has given me great pleasure to find that there are symptoms of +improvement in your health. I hope you will not exert yourself too soon +or write more than is quite agreeable to you. I think I made out every +word of your letter though it was not always easy.--Believe me, my dear +Darwin, yours very sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. June 15, 1864._ + +Dear Wallace,--You must not suppose from my delay that I have not been +much interested by your long letter. I write now merely to thank you, +and just to say that probably you are right on all the points you touch +on except, as I think, about sexual selection, which I will not give up. + +My belief in it, however, is contingent on my general beliefs in sexual +selection. It is an awful stretcher to believe that a peacock's tail was +thus formed; but believing it, I believe in the same principle somewhat +modified applied to man. + +I doubt whether my notes would be of any use to you, and as far as I +remember they are chiefly on sexual selection. + +I am very glad to hear that you are on your Travels. I believe you will +find it a very convenient vehicle for miscellaneous discussion. With +your admirable powers of writing, I cannot doubt that you will make an +excellent book.--Believe me, dear Wallace, yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--A great gun, Flourens, has written a little dull book against me; +which pleases me much, for it is plain that our good work is spreading +in France. He speaks of the _engouement_ about this book, "so full of +empty and presumptuous thoughts." + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 29, 1865._ + +My dear Wallace,--I must ease my mind by saying how much I admire the +two papers you have sent me. + +That on parrots[43] contained most new matter to me, and interested me +_extremely_; that in the _Geographical Journal_[44] strikes me as an +epitome of the whole theory of geographical distribution: the comparison +of Borneo and New Guinea, the relation of the volcanic outbursts and the +required subsidence, and the comparison of the supposed conversion of +the Atlantic into a great archipelago, seemed to me the three best hits. +They are both indeed excellent papers.--Believe me yours very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + +Do try what hard work will do to banish painful thoughts.[45] + +P.S.--During one of the later French voyages, a _wild_ pig was killed +and brought from the Aru Islands to Paris. Am I not right in inferring +that this must have been introduced and run wild? If you have a clear +opinion on this head, may I quote you? + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 31, [1865?]._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your kind letter. I send you now a few +more papers. One on Man is not much in your line. The other three are +bird lists, but in the introductory remarks are a few facts of +distribution that may be of use to you, and as you have them already in +the _Zoological Proceedings_, you can cut these up if you want +"extracts." + +I hope you do not very much want the Aru pig to be a domestic animal run +wild, because I have no doubt myself it was the species peculiar to the +New Guinea fauna (_Sus papuensis_, Less.), a very distinct form. I have +no doubt it is this species, though I did not get it myself there, +because I was told that on a small island near, called there Pulo babi +(Pig Island), was a race of pigs (different from and larger than those +of the large islands) which had originated from the wreck of a large +ship near a century ago. The productions of the Aru Islands closely +resemble those of New Guinea, more than half the species of birds being +identical, as well as about half of the few known mammals. + +I am beginning to work at some semi-mechanical work, drawing up +catalogues of parts of my collection for publication. + +I enclose my "carte." Have you a photograph of yourself of any kind you +can send me? When you come to town next, may I beg the honour of a +sitting for my brother-in-law, Mr. Sims, 73 Westbourne Grove?--Yours +very sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--Your paper on _Lythrum salicaria_[46] is most beautiful. What a +wonderful plant it is! I long to hear your paper on Tendrils and hear +what you have got out of them. My old friend Spruce, a good botanist and +close observer, could probably supply you with some facts on that or +other botanical subjects if you would write to him. He is now at Kew, +but almost as ill as yourself.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 1, 1865._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am much obliged for your photograph, for I have +lately set up a scientific album; and for the papers, which I will read +before long. I enclose my own photo, taken by my son, and I have no +other. + +I fear it will be a long time before I shall be able to sit to a +photographer, otherwise I should be happy to sit to Mr. Sims. + +Thanks for information about the Aru pig, which will make me very +cautious. + +It is a perplexing case, for Nathusius says the skull of the Aru +resembles that of the Chinese breed, and he thinks that _Sus papuensis_ +has been founded on a young skull; D. Blainville stating that an old +skull from New Guinea resembles that of the wild pigs of Malabar, and +these belong to the _S. scrofa_ type, which is different from the +Chinese domestic breed. The latter has not been found in a wild +condition.--Believe me, dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. Sept. 18, 1865._ + +Dear Darwin,--I should have written before to thank you for the copy of +your paper on climbing plants, which I read with great interest; I can +imagine how much pleasure the working out must have given you. I was +afraid you were too ill to make it advisable that you should be bothered +with letters. + +I write now, in hopes you are better, to communicate a curious case of +_variation_ becoming at once _hereditary_, which was brought forward at +the British Association. I send a note of it on the other side, but if +you would like more exact particulars, with names and dates and a +drawing of the bird, I am sure Mr. O'Callaghan would send them to you. + +I hope to hear that you are better, and that your new book is really to +come out next winter.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +NOTE.--Last spring Mr. O'Callaghan was told by a country boy that he had +seen a blackbird with a topknot; on which Mr. O'C. very judiciously told +him to watch it and communicate further with him. After a time the boy +told him he had found a blackbird's nest, and had seen this crested bird +near it and believed he belonged to it. He continued watching the nest +till the young were hatched. After a time he told Mr. O'C. that two of +the young birds seemed as if they would have topknots. He was told to +get one of them as soon as it was fledged. However, he was too late, and +they left the nest, but luckily he found them near and knocked one down +with a stone, which Mr. O'C. had stuffed and exhibited. It has a fine +crest, something like that of a Polish fowl, but _larger_ in proportion +to the bird, and very regular and well formed. The male must have been +almost like the Umbrella bird in miniature, the crest is so large and +expanded.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. September 22, 1865._ + +Dear Wallace,--I am much obliged for your extract; I never heard of such +a case, though such a variation is perhaps the most likely of any to +occur in a state of nature and be inherited, inasmuch as all +domesticated birds present races with a tuft or with reversed feathers +on their heads. I have sometimes thought that the progenitor of the +whole class must have been a crested animal. + +Do you make any progress with your Journal of travels? I am the more +anxious that you should do so as I have lately read with much interest +some papers by you on the ouran-outang, etc., in the _Annals_, of which +I have lately been reading the latter volumes, I have always thought +that Journals of this nature do considerable good by advancing the taste +for natural history; I know in my own case that nothing ever stimulated +my zeal so much as reading Humboldt's Personal Narrative. I have not yet +received the last part of _Linnean Transactions_, but your paper[47] at +present will be rather beyond my strength, for though somewhat better I +can as yet do hardly anything but lie on the sofa and be read aloud to. +By the way, have you read Tylor and Lecky?[48] Both these books have +interested me much. I suppose you have read Lubbock?[49] In the last +chapter there is a note about you in which I most cordially concur.[50] I +see you were at the British Association, but I have heard nothing of it +except what I have picked up in the _Reader_. I have heard a rumour that +the _Reader_ is sold to the Anthropological Society. If you do not +begrudge the trouble of another note (for my sole channel of news +through Hooker is closed by his illness), I should much like to hear +whether the _Reader_ is thus sold. I should be very sorry for it, as the +paper would thus become sectional in its tendency. If you write, tell me +what you are doing yourself. + +The only news which I have about the "Origin" is that Fritz Müller +published a few months ago a remarkable book[51] in its favour, and +secondly that a second French edition is just coming out.--Believe me, +dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regents Park. October 2, 1865._ + +Dear Darwin,--I was just leaving town for a few days when I received +your letter, or should have replied at once. + +The _Reader_ has no doubt changed hands, and I am inclined to think for +the better. It is purchased, I believe, by a gentleman who is a Fellow +of the Anthropological Society, but I see no signs of its being made a +special organ of that Society. The Editor (and, I believe, proprietor) +is a Mr. Bendyshe, the most talented man in the Society, and, judging +from his speaking, which I have often heard, I should say the articles +on "Simeon and Simony," "Metropolitan Sewage," and "France and Mexico," +are his, and these are in my opinion superior to anything that has been +in the _Reader_ for a long time; they have the point and brilliancy +which are wanted to make leading articles readable and popular. The +articles on Mill's Political Economy and on Mazzini are also first-rate. +He has introduced also the plan of having two, and now three, important +articles in each number--one political or social, one literary, and one +scientific. Under the old regime they never had an editor above +mediocrity, except Masson (? Musson); there was a want of unity among +the proprietors as to the aims and objects of the journal; and there was +a want of capital to secure the services of good writers. This seems to +me to be now all changed for the better, and I only hope the rumour of +that _bźte noire_, the Anthropological Society, having anything to do +with it may not cause our best men of science to withdraw their support +and contributions. + +I have read Tylor, and am reading Lecky. I found the former somewhat +disconnected and unsatisfactory from the absence of any definite result +or any decided opinion on most of the matters treated of. + +Lecky I like much, though he is rather tedious and obscure at times. +Most of what he says has been said so much more forcibly by Buckle, +whose work I have read for the second time with increased admiration, +although with a clear view of some of his errors. Nevertheless, his is I +think unapproachably the grandest work of the present century, and the +one most likely to liberalise opinion. Lubbock's book is very good, but +his concluding chapter very weak. Why are men of science so dreadfully +afraid to say what they think and believe? + +In reply to your kind inquiries about myself, I can only say that I am +ashamed of my laziness. I have done nothing lately but write a paper on +Pigeons for the _Ibis_, and am drawing up a Catalogue of my Collection +of Birds. + +As to my "Travels," I cannot bring myself to undertake them yet, and +perhaps never shall, unless I should be fortunate enough to get a wife +who would incite me thereto and assist me therein--which is not likely. + +I am glad to hear that the "Origin" is still working its revolutionary +way on the Continent. Will Müller's book on it be translated? + +I am glad to hear you are a little better. My poor friend Spruce is +still worse than you are, and I fear now will not recover. He wants to +write a book if he gets well enough.--With best wishes, believe me yours +very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 22, 1866._ + +My dear Wallace,--I thank you for your paper on Pigeons,[52] which +interested me, as everything that you write does. Who would ever have +dreamed that monkeys influenced the distribution of pigeons and parrots! +But I have had a still higher satisfaction; for I finished yesterday +your paper in the _Linnean Transactions_.[53] It is admirably done. I +cannot conceive that the most firm believer in Species could read it +without being staggered. Such papers will make many more converts among +naturalists than long-winded books such as I shall write if I have +strength. + +I have been particularly struck with your remarks on dimorphism; but I +cannot quite understand one point (p. 22), and should be grateful for an +explanation, for I want fully to understand you.[54] How can one female +form be selected and the intermediate forms die out, without also the +other extreme form also dying out from not having the advantages of the +first selected form? for, as I understand, both female forms occur on +the same island. I quite agree with your distinction between dimorphic +forms and varieties; but I doubt whether your criterion of dimorphic +forms not producing intermediate offspring will suffice; for I know of +a good many varieties, which must be so called, that will not blend or +intermix, but produce offspring quite like either parent. + +I have been particularly struck with your remarks on geological +distribution in Celebes. It is impossible that anything could be better +put, and [it] would give a cold shudder to the immutable naturalists. + +And now I am going to ask a question which you will not like. How does +your Journal get on? It will be a shame if you do not popularise your +researches. + +My health is so far improved that I am able to work one or two hours a +day.--Believe me, dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. February 4, 1866._ + +My dear Darwin,--I am very glad to hear you are a little better, and +hope we shall soon have the pleasure of seeing your volume on "Variation +under Domestication." I do not see the difficulty you seem to feel about +two or more female forms of one species. The _most common_ or _typical_ +female form must have certain characters or qualities which are +sufficiently advantageous to it to enable it to maintain its existence; +in general, such as vary much from it die out. But occasionally a +variation may occur which has special advantageous characters of its own +(such as mimicking a protected species), and then this variation will +maintain itself by selection. In no less than three of my _polymorphic_ +species of Papilio, one of the female forms mimics the _Polydorus_ +group, which, like the _Ęneas_ group in America, seems to have some +special protection. In two or three other cases one of the female forms +is confined to a restricted locality, to the conditions of which it is +probably specially adapted. In other cases one of the female forms +resembles the male, and perhaps receives a protection from the +abundance of the males, in the crowd of which it is passed over. I think +these considerations render the production of two or three forms of +female very conceivable. The physiological difficulty is to me greater, +of how each of two forms of female produces offspring like the other +female as well as like itself, but no intermediates? + +If you "know varieties that will not blend or intermix, but produce +offspring quite like either parents," is not that the very physiological +test of a species which is wanting for the _complete proof_ of the +origin of species? + +I have by no means given up the idea of writing my Travels, but I think +I shall be able to do it better for the delay, as I can introduce +chapters giving popular sketches of the subjects treated of in my +various papers. + +I hope, if things go as I wish this summer, to begin work at it next +winter. But I feel myself incorrigibly lazy, and have no such system of +collecting and arranging facts or of making the most of my materials as +you and many of our hard-working naturalists possess in +perfection.--With best wishes, believe me, dear Darwin, yours most +sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, S.E. Tuesday, February, 1866._ + +My dear Wallace,--After I had dispatched my last note, the simple +explanation which you give had occurred to me, and seems satisfactory. I +do not think you understand what I mean by the non-blending of certain +varieties. It does not refer to fertility. An instance will explain. I +crossed the Painted Lady and Purple sweet peas, which are very +differently coloured varieties, and got, even out of the same pod, both +varieties perfect, but none intermediate. Something of this kind, I +should think, must occur at first with your butterflies and the three +forms of Lythrum; though these cases are in appearance so wonderful, I +do not know that they are really more so than every female in the world +producing distinct male and female offspring. + +I am heartily glad that you mean to go on preparing your +Journal.--Believe me yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. July 2, 1866._ + +My dear Darwin,--I have been so repeatedly struck by the utter inability +of numbers of intelligent persons to see clearly, or at all, the +self-acting and necessary effects of Natural Selection, that I am led to +conclude that the term itself, and your mode of illustrating it, however +clear and beautiful to many of us, are yet not the best adapted to +impress it on the general naturalist public. The two last cases of this +misunderstanding are (1) the article on "Darwin and his Teachings" in +the last _Quarterly Journal of Science_, which, though very well written +and on the whole appreciative, yet concludes with a charge of something +like blindness, in your not seeing that Natural Selection requires the +constant watching of an intelligent "chooser," like man's selection to +which you so often compare it; and (2) in Janet's recent work on the +"Materialism of the Present Day," reviewed in last Saturday's _Reader_, +by an extract from which I see that he considers your weak point to be +that you do not see that "thought and direction are essential to the +action of Natural Selection." The same objection has been made a score +of times by your chief opponents, and I have heard it as often stated +myself in conversation. Now, I think this arises almost entirely from +your choice of the term Natural Selection, and so constantly comparing +it in its effects to man's selection, and also to your so frequently +personifying nature as "selecting," as "preferring," as "seeking only +the good of the species," etc., etc. To the few this is as clear as +daylight, and beautifully suggestive, but to many it is evidently a +stumbling-block. I wish, therefore, to suggest to you the possibility of +entirely avoiding this source of misconception in your great work (if +not now too late), and also in any future editions of the "Origin," and +I think it may be done without difficulty and very effectually by +adopting Spencer's term (which he generally uses in preference to +Natural Selection), viz. "Survival of the Fittest." This term is the +plain expression of the _fact_; "Natural Selection" is a metaphorical +expression of it, and to a certain degree _indirect_ and _incorrect_, +since, even personifying Nature, she does not so much select special +variations as exterminate the most unfavourable ones. + +Combined with the enormous multiplying powers of all organisms, and the +"struggle for existence," leading to the constant destruction of by far +the largest proportion--facts which no one of your opponents, as far as +I am aware, has denied or misunderstood--"the survival of the fittest," +rather than of those which were less fit, could not possibly be denied +or misunderstood. Neither would it be possible to say that to ensure the +"survival of the fittest" any _intelligent chooser_ was necessary, +whereas when you say "Natural Selection" acts so as to choose those that +are fittest it _is_ misunderstood, and apparently always will be. +Referring to your book, I find such expressions as "Man selects only for +his own good; Nature only for that of the being which she tends." This, +it seems, will always be misunderstood; but if you had said, "Man +selects only for his own good; Nature, by the inevitable survival of the +fittest, only for that of the being she tends," it would have been less +liable to be so. + +I find you use the term Natural Selection in two senses--(1) for the +simple preservation of favourable and rejection of unfavourable +variations, in which case it is equivalent to "survival of the fittest"; +(2) for the _effect or change_ produced by this preservation, as when +you say, "To sum up the circumstances favourable or unfavourable to +natural selection," and, again, "Isolation, also, is an important +element in the process of natural selection": here it is not merely +"survival of the fittest," but _change_ produced by survival of the +fittest, that is meant. On looking over your fourth chapter, I find that +these alterations of terms can be in most cases easily made, while in +some cases the addition of "or survival of the fittest" after "natural +selection" would be best; and in others, less likely to be +misunderstood, the original term might stand alone. + +I could not venture to propose to any other person so great an +alteration of terms, but you, I am sure, will give it an impartial +consideration, and, if you really think the change will produce a better +understanding of your work, will not hesitate to adopt it. It is +evidently also necessary not to personify "nature" too much, though I am +very apt to do it myself, since people will not understand that all such +phrases are metaphors. Natural Selection is, when understood, so +necessary and self-evident a principle that it is a pity it should be in +any way obscured; and it therefore occurs to me that the free use of +"survival of the fittest", which is a compact and accurate definition of +it, would tend much to its being more widely accepted and prevent its +being so much misrepresented and misunderstood. + +There is another objection made by Janet which is also a very common +one. It is that the chances are almost infinite against the particular +kind of variation required being coincident with each change of external +conditions, to enable an animal to become modified by Natural Selection +in harmony with such changed conditions; especially when we consider +that, to have produced the almost infinite modifications of organic +beings, this coincidence must have taken place an almost infinite number +of times. + +Now it seems to me that you have yourself led to this objection being +made by so often stating the case too strongly against yourself. For +example, at the commencement of Chapter IV. you ask if it is "improbable +that useful variations should sometimes occur in the course of thousands +of generations"; and a little further on you say, "unless profitable +variations do occur, natural selection can do nothing." Now, such +expressions have given your opponents the advantage of assuming that +_favourable_ variations are _rare accidents_, or may even for long +periods never occur at all, and thus Janet's argument would appear to +many to have great force. I think it would be better to do away with all +such qualifying expressions, and constantly maintain (what I certainly +believe to be the fact) that _variations of every kind_ are _always +occurring_ in _every part_ of _every species_, and therefore that +favourable variations are _always ready_ when wanted. You have, I am +sure, abundant materials to prove this, and it is, I believe, the grand +fact that renders modification and adaptation to conditions almost +always possible. I would put the burthen of proof on my opponents to +show that any one organ, structure, or faculty does _not vary_, even +during one generation, among all the individuals of a species; and also +to show any _mode or way_ in which any such organ, etc., does not vary. +I would ask them to give any reason for supposing that any organ, etc., +is ever _absolutely identical_ at any _one time in all the individuals_ +of a species, and if not, then it is always varying, and there are +always materials which, from the simple fact that the "fittest survive," +will tend to the modification of the race into harmony with changed +conditions. + +I hope these remarks may be intelligible to you, and that you will be so +kind as to let me know what you think of them. + +I have not heard for some time how you are getting on. I hope you are +still improving in health, and that you will be able now to get on with +your great work, for which so many thousands are looking with +interest.--With best wishes, believe me, my dear Darwin, yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. July 5, [1866]._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been much interested by your letter, which is +as clear as daylight. I fully agree with all that you say on the +advantages of H. Spencer's excellent expression of "the survival of the +fittest." This, however, had not occurred to me till reading your +letter. It is, however, a great objection to this term that it cannot be +used as a substantive governing a verb; and that this is a real +objection I infer from H. Spencer continually using the words "Natural +Selection." + +I formerly thought, probably in an exaggerated degree, that it was a +great advantage to bring into connection natural and artificial +selection; this indeed led me to use a term in common, and I still think +it some advantage. I wish I had received your letter two months ago, for +I would have worked in "the survival," etc., often in the new edition of +the "Origin," which is now almost printed off, and of which I will, of +course, send you a copy. I will use the term in my next book on Domestic +Animals, etc., from which, by the way, I plainly see that you expect +_much_ too much. The term Natural Selection has now been so largely used +abroad and at home that I doubt whether it could be given up, and with +all its faults I should be sorry to see the attempt made. Whether it +will be rejected must now depend on the "survival of the fittest." + +As in time the term must grow intelligible, the objections to its use +will grow weaker and weaker. I doubt whether the use of any term would +have made the subject intelligible to some minds, clear as it is to +others; for do we not see, even to the present day, Malthus on +Population absurdly misunderstood? This reflection about Malthus has +often comforted me when I have been vexed at the misstatement of my +views. + +As for M. Janet,[55] he is a metaphysician, and such gentlemen are so +acute that I think they often misunderstand common folk. Your criticism +on the double sense in which I have used Natural Selection is new to me +and unanswerable; but my blunder has done no harm, for I do not believe +that anyone excepting you has ever observed it. Again, I agree that I +have said too much about "favourable variations," but I am inclined to +think you put the opposite side too strongly; if every part of every +being varied, I do not think we should see the same end or object gained +by such wonderfully diversified means. + +I hope you are enjoying the country and are in good health, and are +working hard at your Malay Archipelago book, for I will always put this +wish in every note I write to you, like some good people always put in a +text. My health keeps much the same, or rather improves, and I am able +to work some hours daily.--With many thanks for your interesting letter, +believe me, my dear Wallace, yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--I suppose you have read the last number of H. Spencer; I have been +struck with astonishment at the prodigality of original thought in it. +But how unfortunate it is that it seems scarcely ever possible to +discriminate between the direct effect of external influences and the +"survival of the fittest." + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. Nov. 19, 1866._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for the fourth edition of the "Origin," which +I am glad to see grows so vigorously at each moult, although it +undergoes no metamorphosis. How curious it is that Dr. Wells should so +clearly have seen the principle of Natural Selection fifty years ago, +and that it should have struck no one that it was a great principle of +universal application in nature! + +We are going to have a discussion on "Mimicry, as producing Abnormal +Sexual Characters," at the Entomological to-night. I have a butterfly +(Diadema) of which the female is metallic blue, the male dusky brown, +contrary to the rule in all other species of the genus, and in almost +all insects; but the explanation is easy--it mimics a metallic +_Euploea_, and so gets a protection perhaps more efficient than its +allies derive from their sombre colours, and which females require much +more than males. I read a paper on this at the British Association. Have +you the report published at Nottingham in a volume by Dr. Robertson? If +so, you can tell me if my paper is printed in full. + +I suppose you have read Agassiz's marvellous theory of the Great +Amazonian glacier, 2,000 miles long! I presume that will be a _little_ +too much, even for you. I have been writing a little popular paper on +"Glacial Theories" for the _Quarterly Journal of Science_ of January +next, in which I stick up for glaciers in North America and icebergs in +the Amazon! + +I was very glad to hear from Lubbock that your health is permanently +improved. I hope therefore you will be able to give us a volume per +annum of your _magnum opus_, with all the facts as you now have them, +leaving additions to come in new editions. + +I am working a little at another family of my butterflies, and find the +usual interesting and puzzling cases of variation, but no such phenomena +as in the Papilionidę.--With best wishes, believe me, my dear Darwin, +yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_6 Queen Anne Street, W. Monday, January, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--I return by this post the _Journal_.[56] Your résumé of +glacier action seems to me very good, and has interested my brother +much, and as the subject is new to him he is a better judge. That is +quite a new and perplexing point which you specify about the freshwater +fishes during the glacial period. + +I have also been very glad to see the article on Lyell, which seems to +me to be done by some good man. + +I forgot to say when with you--but I then indeed did not know so much as +I do now--that the sexual, i.e. _ornamental_, differences in fishes, +which differences are sometimes very great, offer a difficulty in the +wide extension of the view that the female is not brightly coloured on +account of the danger which she would incur in the propagation of the +species. + +I very much enjoyed my long conversation with you; and to-day we return +home, and I to my horrid dull work of correcting proof-sheets.--Believe +me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + +P.S.--I had arranged to go and see your collection on Saturday evening, +but my head suddenly failed after luncheon, and I was forced to lie down +all the rest of the day. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 23, 1867._ + +Dear Wallace,--I much regretted that I was unable to call on you, but +after Monday I was unable even to leave the house. On Monday evening I +called on Bates and put a difficulty before him, which he could not +answer, and, as on some former similar occasion, his first suggestion +was, "You had better ask Wallace." My difficulty is, why are +caterpillars sometimes so beautifully and artistically coloured? Seeing +that many are coloured to escape danger, I can hardly attribute their +bright colour in other cases to mere physical conditions. Bates says the +most gaudy caterpillar he ever saw in Amazonia (of a Sphinx) was +conspicuous at the distance of yards from its black and red colouring +whilst feeding on large green leaves. If anyone objected to male +butterflies having been made beautiful by sexual selection, and asked +why should they not have been made beautiful as well as their +caterpillars, what would you answer? I could not answer, but should +maintain my ground. Will you think over this, and some time, either by +letter or when we meet, tell me what you think? Also, I want to know +whether your _female_ mimetic butterfly is more beautiful and brighter +than the male? + +When next in London I must get you to show me your Kingfishers. + +My health is a dreadful evil; I failed in half my engagements during +this last visit to London.--Believe me, yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +The answer to this letter is missing, but in Vol. II. of "My Life," p. +3, Wallace writes: + + "On reading this letter I almost at once saw what seemed to be a + very easy and probable explanation of the facts. I had then just + been preparing for publication (in the _Westminster Review_) my + rather elaborate paper on 'Mimicry and Protective Colouring,' and + the numerous cases in which specially showy and slow-flying + butterflies were known to have a peculiar odour and taste which + protected them from the attacks of insect-eating birds and other + animals led me at once to suppose that the gaudily coloured + caterpillars must have a similar protection. I had just + ascertained from Mr. Jenner Weir that one of our common white + moths (_Spilosoma menthastri_) would not be eaten by most of the + small birds in his aviary, nor by young turkeys. Now, as a _white_ + moth is as conspicuous in the dusk as a coloured caterpillar in + the daylight, this case seemed to me so much on a par with the + other that I felt almost sure my explanation would turn out + correct. I at once wrote to Mr. Darwin to this effect." + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 26, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--Bates was quite right, you are the man to apply to in +a difficulty. I never heard anything more ingenious than your +suggestion, and I hope you may be able to prove it true. That is a +splendid fact about the white moths; it warms one's very blood to see a +theory thus almost proved to be true.[57] With respect to the beauty of +male butterflies, I must as yet think that it is due to sexual +selection; there is some evidence that dragonflies are attracted by +bright colours; but what leads me to the above belief is so many male +Orthoptera and Cicadas having musical instruments. This being the case, +the analogy of birds makes me believe in sexual selection with respect +to colour in insects. I wish I had strength and time to make some of the +experiments suggested by you; but I thought butterflies would not pair +in confinement; I am sure I have heard of some such difficulty. Many +years ago I had a dragonfly painted with gorgeous colours, but I never +had an opportunity of fairly trying it. + +The reason of my being so much interested just at present about sexual +selection is that I have almost resolved to publish a little essay on +the Origin of Mankind, and I still strongly think (though I failed to +convince you, and this to me is the heaviest blow possible) that sexual +selection has been the main agent in forming the races of man. + +By the way, there is another subject which I shall introduce in my +essay, viz. expression of countenance. Now, do you happen to know by any +odd chance a very good-natured and acute observer in the Malay +Archipelago who, you think, would make a few easy observations for me on +the expression of the Malays when excited by various emotions. For in +this case I would send to such person a list of queries.--I thank you +for your most interesting letters, and remain yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. March 11, 1867._ + +Dear Darwin,--I return your queries, but cannot answer them with any +certainty. For the Malays I should say Yes to 1, 3, 8, 9, 10 and 17, and +No to 12, 13 and 16; but I cannot be _certain_ in any one. But do you +think these things are of much importance? I am inclined to think that +if you could get good direct observations you would find some of them +often differ from tribe to tribe, from island to island, and sometimes +from village to village. Some no doubt may be deep-seated, and would +imply organic differences; but can you tell beforehand which these are? +I presume the Frenchman shrugs his shoulders whether he is of the +Norman, Breton, or Gaulish stock. Would it not be a good thing to send +your List of Queries to some of the Bombay and Calcutta papers? as there +must be numbers of Indian judges and other officers who would be +interested and would send you hosts of replies. The Australian papers +and New Zealand might also publish them, and then you would have a fine +basis to go on. + +Is your essay on Variation in Man to be a supplement to your volume on +Domesticated Animals and Cultivated Plants? I would rather see your +second volume on "The Struggle for Existence, etc.," for I doubt if we +have a sufficiency of fair and accurate facts to do anything with man. +Huxley, I believe, is at work upon it. + +I have been reading Murray's volume on the Geographical Distribution of +Mammals. He has some good ideas here and there, but is quite unable to +understand Natural Selection, and makes a most absurd mess of his +criticism of your views on oceanic islands. + +By the bye, what an interesting volume the whole of your materials on +that subject would, I am sure, make.--Yours very sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--I thank you much for your two notes. The case of Julia +Pastrana[58] is a splendid addition to my other cases of correlated teeth +and hair, and I will add it in correcting the proof of my present +volume. Pray let me hear in course of the summer if you get any evidence +about the gaudy caterpillars. I should much like to give (or quote if +published) this idea of yours, if in any way supported, as suggested by +you. It will, however, be a long time hence, for I can see that sexual +selection is growing into quite a large subject, which I shall introduce +into my essay on Man, supposing that I ever publish it. + +I had intended giving a chapter on Man, inasmuch as many call him (not +_quite_ truly) an eminently _domesticated_ animal; but I found the +subject too large for a chapter. Nor shall I be capable of treating the +subject well, and my sole reason for taking it up is that I am pretty +well convinced that sexual selection has played an important part in the +formation of races, and sexual selection has always been a subject which +has interested me much. + +I have been very glad to see your impression from memory on the +expressions of Malays. I fully agree with you that the subject is in no +way an important one: it is simply a "hobby-horse" with me about +twenty-seven years old; and after thinking that I would write an essay +on Man, it flashed on me that I could work in some "supplemental remarks +on expression." After the horrid, tedious, dull work of my present huge +and, I fear, unreadable book, I thought I would amuse myself with my +hobby-horse. The subject is, I think, more curious and more amenable to +scientific treatment than you seem willing to allow. I want, anyhow, to +upset Sir C. Bell's view, given in his most interesting work, "The +Anatomy of Expression," that certain muscles have been given to man +solely that he may reveal to other men his feelings. I want to try and +show how expressions have arisen. + +That is a good suggestion about newspapers; but my experience tells me +that private applications are generally most fruitful. I will, however, +see if I can get the queries inserted in some Indian paper. I do not +know names or addresses of any other papers. + +I have just ordered, but not yet received, Murray's book: Lindley used +to call him a blunder-headed man. It is very doubtful whether I shall +ever have strength to publish the latter part of my materials. + +My two female amanuenses are busy with friends, and I fear this scrawl +will give you much trouble to read.--With many thanks, yours very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 29, 1867._ + +Dear Wallace,--I have been greatly interested by your letter;[59] but +your view is not new to me. If you will look at p. 240 of the fourth +edition of the "Origin," you will find it very briefly given with two +extremes of the peacock and black grouse. A more general statement is +given at p. 101, or at p. 89 of the first edition, for I have long +entertained this view, though I have never had space to develop it. But +I had not sufficient knowledge to generalise as far as you do about +colouring and nesting. In your paper, perhaps you will just allude to my +scanty remark in the fourth edition, because in my essay upon Man I +intend to discuss the whole subject of sexual selection, explaining, as +I believe it does, much with respect to man. I have collected all my old +notes and partly written my discussion, and it would be flat work for me +to give the leading idea as exclusively from you. But as I am sure from +your greater knowledge of ornithology and entomology that you will write +a much better discussion than I could, your paper will be of great use +to me. Nevertheless, I must discuss the subject fully in my essay on +Man. When we met at the Zoological Society and I asked you about the +sexual differences in kingfishers, I had this subject in view; as I had +when I suggested to Bates the difficulty about gaudy caterpillars which +you have so admirably (as I believe it will prove) explained. I have got +one capital case (genus forgotten) of an [Australian] bird in which the +female has long-tailed plumes and which consequently builds a different +nest from all her allies.[60] With respect to certain female birds being +more brightly coloured than the males, and the latter incubating, I have +gone a little into the subject and cannot say that I am fully satisfied. +I remember mentioning to you the case of Rhynchęa, but its nesting seems +unknown. In some other cases the difference in brightness seemed to me +hardly sufficiently accounted for by the principle of protection. At the +Falkland Islands there is a carrion hawk in which the female (as I +ascertained by dissection) is the brightest coloured, and I doubt +whether protection will here apply; but I wrote several months ago to +the Falklands to make inquiries. The conclusion to which I have been +leaning is that in some of these abnormal cases the colour happened to +vary in the female alone, and was transmitted to females alone, and that +her variations have been selected through the admiration of the male. + +It is a very interesting subject, but I shall not be able to go on with +it for the next five or six months, as I am fully employed in correcting +dull proof-sheets; when I return to the work I shall find it much better +done by you than I could have succeeded in doing. + +With many thanks for your very interesting note, believe me, dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +It is curious how we hit on the same ideas. I have endeavoured to show +in my MS. discussion that nearly the same principles account for young +birds _not_ being gaily coloured in many cases--but this is too complex +a point for a note. + +_Postscript. Down. April 29._ + +My dear Wallace,--On reading over your letter again, and on further +reflection, I do not think (as far as I remember my words) that I +expressed myself _nearly strongly_ enough as to the value and beauty of +your generalisation, viz. that all birds in which the female is +conspicuously or brightly coloured build in holes or under domes. I +thought that this was the explanation in many, perhaps most cases, but +do not think I should ever have extended my view to your generalisation. +Forgive me troubling you with this P.S.--Yours, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 5, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--The offer of your valuable notes is _most_ generous, +but it would vex me to take so much from you, as it is certain that you +could work up the subject very much better than I could. Therefore I +earnestly and without any reservation hope that you will proceed with +your paper, so that I return your notes. + +You seem already to have well investigated the subject. I confess on +receiving your note that I felt rather flat at my recent work being +almost thrown away, but I did not intend to show this feeling. As a +proof how little advance I had made on the subject, I may mention that +though I had been collecting facts on the colouring and other sexual +differences in mammals, your explanation with respect to the females had +not occurred to me. I am surprised at my own stupidity, but I have long +recognised how much clearer and deeper your insight into matters is than +mine. + +I do not know how far you have attended to the laws of inheritance, so +what follows may be obvious to you. I have begun my discussion on sexual +selection by showing that new characters often appear in one sex and are +transmitted to that sex alone, and that from some unknown cause such +characters apparently appear oftener in the male than in the female. +Secondly, characters may be developed and be confined to the male, and +long afterwards be transferred to the female. Thirdly, characters may, +again, arise in either sex and be transmitted to both sexes, either in +an equal or unequal degree. In this latter case I have supposed that the +survival of the fittest has come into play with female birds and kept +the female dull-coloured. With respect to the absence of spurs in female +gallinaceous birds, I presume that they would be in the way during +incubation; at least, I have got the case of a German breed of fowls in +which the hens were spurred, and were found to disturb and break their +eggs much. + +With respect to the females of deer not having horns, I presume it is to +save the loss of organised matter. + +In your note you speak of sexual selection and protection as sufficient +to account for the colouring of all animals; but it seems to me doubtful +how far this will come into play with some of the lower animals, such as +sea anemones, some corals, etc. etc. + +On the other hand, Haeckel has recently well shown that the transparency +and absence of colour in the lower oceanic animals, belonging to the +most different classes, may be well accounted for on the principle of +protection. + +Some time or other I should like much to know where your paper on the +nests of birds has appeared, and I shall be extremely anxious to read +your paper in the _Westminster Review_. + +Your paper on the sexual colouring of birds will, I have no doubt, be +very striking. + +Forgive me, if you can, for a touch of illiberality about your paper, +and believe me yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. July 6, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am very much obliged for your article on Mimicry,[61] +the whole of which I have read with the greatest interest. You certainly +have the art of putting your ideas with remarkable force and clearness; +now that I am slaving over proof-sheets it makes me almost envious. + +I have been particularly glad to read about the birds' nests, and I must +procure the _Intellectual Observer_; but the point which I think struck +me most was about its being of no use to the Heliconias to acquire in a +slight degree a disagreeable taste. What a curious case is that about +the coral snakes. The summary, and indeed the whole, is excellent, and I +have enjoyed it much.--With many thanks, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. Wednesday, [August or September, 1867]._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am very sorry I was out when you called yesterday. I had +just gone to the Zoological Gardens, and I met Sir C. Lyell, who told me +you were in town. + +If you should have time to go to Bayswater, I think you would be pleased +to see the collections which I have displayed there in the form of an +_exhibition_ (though the public will not go to see it). + +If you can go, with any friends, I should like to meet you there if you +can appoint a time. + +I am glad to find you continue in tolerable health.--Believe me yours +very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +What do you think of the Duke of Argyll's criticisms, and the more +pretentious one in the last number of the _North British Review_? + +I have written a little article answering them both, but I do not yet +know where to get it published.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_76-1/2 Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, W. October 1, 1867._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am sorry I was not in town when your note came. I took a +short trip to Scotland after the British Association Meeting, and went +up Ben Lawers. It was very cold and wet, and I could not find a +companion or I should have gone as far as Glen Roy. + +My article on "Creation by Law," in reply to the Duke of Argyll and the +_North British_ reviewer, is in the present month's number of the +_Quarterly Journal of Science_. I cannot send you a copy because they do +not allow separate copies to be printed. + +There is a nice illustration of the _predicted_ Madagascar moth and +_Angręcum sesquipedale_. + +I shall be glad to know whether I have done it satisfactorily to you, +and hope you will not be so very sparing of criticism as you usually +are. + +I hope you are getting on well with your great book. I hear a rumour +that we are to have _one_ vol. of it about Christmas. + +I quite forget whether I told you that I have a little boy, now three +months old, and have named him Herbert Spencer (having had a brother +Herbert). I am now staying chiefly in the country, at Hurstpierpoint, +but come up to town once a month at least. You may address simply, +"Hurstpierpoint, Sussex." + +Hoping your health is tolerable and that all your family are well, +believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. October 12 and 13, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--I ordered the journal a long time ago, but by some +oversight received it only yesterday and read it. You will think my +praise not worth having from being so indiscriminate, but if I am to +speak the truth, I must say I admire every word. + +You have just touched on the points which I particularly wished to see +noticed. I am glad you had the courage to take up _Angręcum_[62] after +the Duke's attack; for I believe the principle in this case may be +widely applied. I like the figure, but I wish the artist had drawn a +better sphinx. + +With respect to beauty, your remarks on hideous objects and on flowers +not being made beautiful except when of practical use to them strike me +as very good. + +On this one point of beauty, I can hardly think that the Duke was quite +candid. I have used in the concluding paragraph of my present book +precisely the same argument as you have, even bringing in the +bulldog,[63] with respect to variations not having been specially +ordained. Your metaphor of the river[64] is new to me, and admirable; +but your other metaphor, in which you compare classification and complex +machines, does not seem to me quite appropriate, though I cannot point +out what seems deficient. The point which seems to me strong is that all +naturalists admit that there is a _natural_ classification, and it is +this which descent explains. I wish you had insisted a little more +against the _North British_[65] reviewer assuming that each variation +which appears is a strongly marked one; though by implication you have +made this _very_, plain. Nothing in your whole article has struck me +more than your view with respect to the limit of fleetness in the +racehorse and other such cases; I shall try and quote you on this head +in the proof of my concluding chapter. I quite missed this explanation, +though in the case of wheat I hit upon something analogous. I am glad +you praise the Duke's book, for I was much struck with it. The part +about flight seemed to me at first very good, but as the wing is +articulated by a ball-and-socket joint, I suspect the Duke would find it +very difficult to give any reason against the belief that the wing +strikes the air more or less obliquely. I have been very glad to see +your article and the drawing of the butterfly in _Science Gossip_. By +the way, I cannot but think that you push protection too far in some +cases, as with the stripes on the tiger. I have also this morning read +an excellent abstract in the _Gardeners' Chronicle_ of your paper on +nests;[66] I was not by any means fully converted by your letter, but I +think now I am so; and I hope it will be published somewhere _in +extenso_. It strikes me as a capital generalisation, and appears to me +even more original than it did at first. + +I have had an excellent and cautious letter from Mr. Geach of Singapore +with some valuable answers on expression, which I owe to you. + +I heartily congratulate you on the birth of "Herbert Spencer," and may +he deserve his name, but I hope he will copy his father's style and not +his namesake's. Pray observe, though I fear I am a month too late, when +tears are first secreted enough to overflow; and write down date. + +I have finished Vol. I. of my book, and I hope the whole will be out by +the end of November; if you have the patience to read it through, which +is very doubtful, you will find, I think, a large accumulation of facts +which will be of service to you in your future papers, and they could +not be put to better use, for you certainly are a master in the noble +art of reasoning. + +Have you changed your house to Westbourne Grove? + +Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +This letter is so badly expressed that it is barely intelligible, but I +am tired with proofs. + +P.S.--Mr. Warington has lately read an excellent and spirited abstract +of the "Origin" before the Victoria Institute, and as this is a most +orthodox body he has gained the name of the devil's advocate. The +discussion which followed during three consecutive meetings is very rich +from the nonsense talked. If you would care to see the number I could +lend it you. + +I forgot to remark how capitally you turn the table on the Duke, when +you make him create the _Angręcum_ and moth by special creation. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. October 22, 1867._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am very glad you approve of my article on "Creation by +Law" as a whole. + +The "machine metaphor" is not mine, but the _North British_ reviewer's. +I merely accept it and show that it is on our side and not against us, +but I do not think it at all a good metaphor to be used as an _argument_ +either way. I did not half develop the argument on the limits of +variation, being myself limited in space; but I feel satisfied that it +is the true answer to the very common and very strong objection, that +"variation has strict limits." The fallacy is the requiring variation in +domesticity to go beyond the limits of the same variation under nature. +It does do so sometimes, however, because the conditions of existence +are so different. I do not think a case can be pointed out in which the +limits of variation under domestication are not up to or beyond those +already marked out in nature, only we generally get in the _species_ an +amount of change which in nature occurs only in the whole range of the +_genus_ or _family_. + +The many cases, however, in which variation has gone far beyond nature +and has not yet stopped are ignored. For instance, no wild pomaceous +fruit is, I believe, so large as our apples, and no doubt they could be +got much larger if flavour, etc., were entirely neglected. + +I may perhaps push "protection" too far sometimes, for it is my hobby +just now, but as the lion and the tiger are, I think, the only two +non-arboreal cats, I think the tiger stripe agreeing so well with its +usual habitat is at least a probable case. + +I am rewriting my article on Birds' Nests for the new _Natural History +Review_. + +I cannot tell you about the first appearance of _tears_, but it is very +early--the first week or two, I think. I can see the _Victoria Institute +Magazine_ at the London Library. + +I shall read your book, _every word_. I hear from Sir C. Lyell that you +come out with a grand new theory at the end, which even the _cautious_ +(!) Huxley is afraid of! Sir C. said he could think of nothing else +since he read it. I long to see it. + +My address is Hurstpierpoint during the winter, and, when in town, +76-1/2 Westbourne Grove. + +I suppose you will now be going on with your book on Sexual Selection +and Man, by way of relaxation! It is a glorious subject, but will +require delicate handling,--Yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_10 Duchess Street, W. February 7, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--I have to thank you for signing the Memorial as to the +East London Museum, and also for your kindness in sending me a copy of +your great book, which I have only just received. I shall take it down +in the country with me next week, and enjoy every line at my leisure. + +Allow me also to congratulate you on the splendid position obtained by +your second son at Cambridge. + +You will perhaps be glad to hear that I have been for some time +hammering away at my Travels, but I fear I shall make a mess of it. I +shall leave most of the Natural History generalisation, etc., for +another work, as if I wait to incorporate all, I may wait for +years.--Hoping you are quite well, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 22, [1868?]._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am hard at work on sexual selection and am driven +half mad by the number of collateral points which require investigation, +such as the relative numbers of the two sexes, and especially on +polygamy. Can you aid me with respect to birds which have strongly +marked secondary sexual characters, such as birds of paradise, +humming-birds, the rupicola or rock-thrush, or any other such cases? +Many gallinaceous birds certainly are polygamous. I suppose that birds +may be known not to be polygamous if they are seen during the whole +breeding season to associate in pairs, or if the male incubates, or aids +in feeding the young. Will you have the kindness to turn this in your +mind? but it is a shame to trouble you now that, as I am _heartily_ glad +to hear, you are at work on your Malayan Travels. I am fearfully puzzled +how far to extend your protective views with respect to the females in +various classes. The more I work, the more important sexual selection +apparently comes out. + +Can butterflies be polygamous?--i.e. will one male impregnate more than +one female? + +Forgive me troubling you, and I daresay I shall have to ask your +forgiveness again, and believe me, my dear Wallace, yours most +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--Baker has had the kindness to set the Entomological Society +discussing the relative numbers of the sexes in insects, and has brought +out some very curious results. + +Is the orang polygamous? But I daresay I shall find that in your papers +in (I think) the _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_. + + * * * * * + +The following group of letters deals with the causes of the sterility of +hybrids (_see_ note in "More Letters," p. 287). Darwin's final view is +given in the "Origin," 6th edit., 1900, p. 384. He acknowledges that it +would be advantageous to two incipient species if, by physiological +isolation due to mutual sterility, they could be kept from blending; but +he continues: "After mature reflection, it seems to me that this could +not have been effected through Natural Selection." And finally he +concludes (p. 386): "But it would be superfluous to discuss this +question in detail; for with plants we have conclusive evidence that the +sterility of crossed species must be due to some principle quite +independent of Natural Selection. Both Gäartner and Kolreuter have +proved that in genera including numerous species a series can be formed +from species which, when crossed, yield fewer and fewer seeds, to +species which never produce a single seed, but yet are affected by the +pollen of certain other species, for the germen swells. It is here +manifestly impossible to select the more sterile individuals, which have +already ceased to yield seeds; so that this acme of sterility, when the +germen alone is affected, cannot have been gained through selection; and +from the laws governing the various grades of sterility being so uniform +throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms, we may infer that the +cause, whatever it may be, is the same or nearly the same in all cases." + +Wallace still adhered to his view (_see_ "Darwinism," 1889, p. 174, +_also_ p. 292 of "More Letters," note 1, and Letter 211, p. 299). The +discussion of 1868 began with a letter from Wallace, written towards the +end of February, giving his opinion on the "Variation of Animals and +Plants"; the discussion on the sterility of hybrids is at p. 185, Vol. +II., 1st edit. + + * * * * * + +(_Second and third sheets of a letter from Wallace, apparently of +February, 1868._) + +I am in the second volume of your book, and I have been astonished at +the immense number of interesting facts you have brought together. I +read the chapter on Pangenesis first, for I could not wait. I can hardly +tell you how much I admire it. It is a positive _comfort_ to me to have +any feasible explanation of a difficulty that has always been haunting +me, and I shall never be able to give it up till a better one supplies +its place, and that I think hardly possible. You have now fairly beaten +Spencer on his own ground, for he really offered no solution of the +difficulties of the problem. The incomprehensible minuteness and vast +numbers of the physiological germs or atoms (Which themselves must be +compounded of numbers of Spencer's physiological units) is the only +difficulty, but that is only on a par with the difficulties in all +conceptions of matter, space, motion, force, etc. As I understood +Spencer, his physiological units were identical throughout each species, +but slightly different in each different species; but no attempt was +made to show how the identical form of the parent or ancestors came to +be built up of such units. + +The only parts I have yet met with where I somewhat differ from your +views are in the chapter on the Causes of Variability, in which I think +several of your arguments are unsound: but this is too long a subject to +go into now. + +Also, I do not see your objection to _sterility_ between allied species +having been aided by Natural Selection. It appears to me that, given a +differentiation of a species into two forms, each of which was adapted +to a special sphere of existence, every slight degree of sterility would +be a positive advantage, not to the _individuals_ who were sterile, but +to _each form_. If you work it out, and suppose the two incipient +species A, B to be divided into two groups, one of which contains those +which are fertile when the two are crossed, the other being slightly +sterile, you will find that the latter will certainly supplant the +former in the struggle for existence, remembering that you have shown +that in such a cross the offspring would be _more vigorous_ than the +pure breed, and would therefore certainly soon supplant them, and as +these would not be so well adapted to any special sphere of existence as +the pure species A and B, they would certainly in their turn give way to +A and B. + +I am sure all naturalists will be disgusted at the malicious and +ignorant article in the _Athenęum_. It is a disgrace to the paper, and I +hope someone will publicly express the general opinion of it. We can +expect no good reviews of your book till the quarterlies or best +monthlies come out.... I shall be anxious to see how Pangenesis is +received.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 27, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--You cannot well imagine how much I have been pleased +by what you say about Pangenesis. None of my friends will speak out, +except, to a certain extent, Sir H. Holland,[67] who found it very tough +reading, but admits that some view "closely akin to it" will have to be +admitted. Hooker, as far as I understand him, which I hardly do at +present, seems to think that the hypothesis is little more than saying +that organisms have such and such potentialities. What you say exactly +and fully expresses my feeling, viz. that it is a relief to have some +feasible explanation of the various facts, which can be given up as soon +as any better hypothesis is found. It has certainly been an immense +relief to my mind; for I have been stumbling over the subject for years, +dimly seeing that some relation existed between the various classes of +facts. I now hear from H. Spencer that his views quoted in my footnote +refer to something quite distinct, as you seem to have perceived. + +I shall be very glad to hear, at some future day, your criticisms on the +causes of variability. + +Indeed, I feel sure that I am right about sterility and Natural +Selection. Two of my grown-up children who are acute reasoners have two +or three times at intervals tried to prove me wrong, and when your +letter came they had another try, but ended by coming back to my side. I +do not quite understand your case, and we think that a word or two is +misplaced. I wish some time you would consider the case under the +following point of view. If sterility is caused or accumulated through +Natural Selection, then, as every degree exists up to absolute +barrenness, Natural Selection must have the power of increasing it. Now +take two species, A and B, and assume that they are (by any means) +half-sterile, i.e. produce half the full number of offspring. Now try +and make (by Natural Selection) A and B absolutely sterile when crossed, +and you will find how difficult it is. I grant, indeed it is certain, +that the degree of sterility of the individuals of A and B will vary, +but any such extra-sterile individuals of, we will say, A, if they +should hereafter breed with other individuals of A, will bequeath no +advantage to their progeny, by which these families will tend to +increase in number over other families of A, which are not more sterile +when crossed with B. But I do not know that I have made this any clearer +than in the chapter in my book. It is a most difficult bit of reasoning, +which I have gone over and over again on paper with diagrams. + +I shall be intensely curious to see your article in the _Journal of +Travel_. + +Many thanks for such answers as you could give. From what you say I +should have inferred that birds of paradise were probably polygamous. +But after all, perhaps it is not so important as I thought. I have been +going through the whole animal kingdom in reference to sexual selection, +and I have just got to the beginning of Lepidoptera, i.e. to end of +insects, and shall then pass on to Vertebrata. But my ladies next week +are going (ill-luck to it) to take me nolens-volens to London for a +whole month. + +I suspect Owen wrote the article in the _Athenęum_, but I have been told +that it is Berthold Seeman. The writer despises and hates me. + +Hearty thanks for your letter--you have indeed pleased me, for I had +given up the great god Pan as a stillborn deity. I wish you could be +induced to make it clear with your admirable powers of elucidation in +one of the scientific journals. + +I think we almost entirely agree about sexual selection, as I now follow +you to large extent about protection to females, having always believed +that colour was often transmitted to both sexes; but I do not go quite +so far about protection.--Always yours most sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. March 1, 1868._ + +My dear Darwin,--I beg to enclose what appears to me a demonstration, +_on your own principles_, that Natural Selection _could_ produce +_sterility of hybrids_. + +If it does not convince you I shall be glad if you will point out where +the fallacy lies. I have taken the two cases of a slight sterility +overcoming a perfect fertility, and of a perfect sterility overcoming a +partial fertility--the beginning and end of the process. You admit that +variations in fertility and sterility occur, and I think you will also +admit that if I demonstrate that a considerable amount of sterility +would be advantageous to a variety, that is sufficient proof that the +slightest variation in that direction would be useful also, and would go +on accumulating. + +Sir C. Lyell spoke to me as if he greatly admired pangenesis. I am very +glad H. Spencer at once acknowledges that his view was something quite +distinct from yours. Although, as you know, I am a great admirer of his, +I feel how completely his view failed to go to the root of the matter, +as yours does. His explained nothing, though he was evidently struggling +hard to find an explanation. Yours, as far as I can see, explains +everything in _growth and reproduction_, though of course the mystery of +_life_ and _consciousness_ remains as great as ever. + +Parts of the chapter on Pangenesis I found hard reading, and have not +quite mastered yet, and there are also throughout the discussions in +Vol. II. many bits of hard reading on minute points which we, who have +not worked experimentally at cultivation and crossing as you have done, +can hardly see the importance of, or their bearing on the general +question. + +If I am asked, I may perhaps write an article on the book for some +periodical, and if so shall do what I can to make pangenesis +appreciated. + +I suppose Mrs. Darwin thinks you _must_ have a holiday, after the +enormous labour of bringing out such a book as that. I am sorry I am not +now staying in town. I shall, however, be up for two days on Thursday, +and shall hope to see you at the Linnean, where Mr. Trimen has a paper +on some of his wonderful South African mimetic butterflies. + +I hope this will reach you before you leave.--Believe me yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. March 8, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am very sorry your letter came back here while I was +going to town, or I should have been very pleased to have seen you. + +Trimen's paper at the Linnean was a very good one, but the only +opponents were Andrew Murray and B. Seeman. The former talked utter +nonsense about the "harmony of nature" produced by "polarisation," alike +in "rocks, plants and animals," etc. etc. etc. And Seeman objected that +there was mimicry among plants, and that our theory would not explain +it. + +Lubbock answered them both in his best manner. + +Pray take your rest, and put my last notes by till you return to Down, +or let your son discover the fallacies in them. + +Would you like to see the specimens of pupę of butterflies whose colours +have changed in accordance with the colour of the surrounding objects? +They are very curious, and Mr. T.W. Wood, who bred them, would, I am +sure, be delighted to bring them to show you. His address is 89 Stanhope +Street, Hampstead Road, N.W.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + +Darwin had already written a short note to Wallace expressing a general +dissent from his views. + + * * * * * + +_4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 17, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--Many thanks about Pieridę. I have no photographs up +here, but will remember to send one from Down. Should you care to have a +large one, of treble or quadruple common size, I will with pleasure send +you one under glass cover, to any address you like in London, either now +or hereafter. I grieve to say we shall not be here on April 2nd, as we +return home on the 31st. In summer I hope that Mrs. Wallace and +yourself will pay us a visit at Down, soon after you return to London; +for I am sure you will allow me the freedom of an invalid. + +My paper to-morrow at the Linnean Society is simply to prove, alas! that +primrose and cowslip are as good species as any in the world, and that +there is no trustworthy evidence of one producing the other. The only +interesting point is the frequency of the production of natural hybrids, +i.e. oxlips, and the existence of one kind of oxlip which constitutes a +third good and distinct species. I do not suppose that I shall be able +to attend the Linnean Society to-morrow. + +I have been working hard in collecting facts on sexual selection every +morning in London, and have done a good deal; but the subject grows more +and more complex, and in many respects more difficult and doubtful. I +have had grand success this morning in tracing gradational steps by +which the peacock tail has been developed: I quite feel as if I had seen +a long line of its progenitors. + +I do not feel that I shall grapple with the sterility argument till my +return home; I have tried once or twice and it has made my stomach feel +as if it had been placed in a vice. Your paper has driven three of my +children half-mad--one sat up to twelve o'clock over it. My second son, +the mathematician, thinks that you have omitted one almost inevitable +deduction which apparently would modify the result. He has written out +what he thinks, but I have not tried fully to understand him. I suppose +that you do not care enough about the subject to like to see what he has +written? + +I hope your book progresses. + +I am intensely anxious to see your paper in _Murray's Journal_.--My dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. March 19, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--I should very much value a _large_ photograph of you, and +also a carte for my album, though it is too bad to ask you for both, as +you must have so many applicants. + +I am sorry I shall not see you in town, but shall look forward with +pleasure to paying you a visit in the summer. + +I am sorry about the Primulas, but I feel sure some such equally good +case will some day be discovered, for it seems impossible to understand +how all natural species whatever should have acquired sterility. Closely +allied forms from adjacent islands would, I should think, offer the best +chance of finding good species fertile _inter se_; since even if Natural +Selection induces sterility I do not see how it could affect them, or +why they should _always_ be sterile, and varieties _never_. + +I am glad you have got good materials on sexual selection. It is no +doubt a difficult subject. One difficulty to me is, that I do not see +how the constant _minute_ variations, which are sufficient for Natural +Selection to work with, could be _sexually_ selected. We seem to require +a series of bold and abrupt variations. How can we imagine that an inch +in the tail of a peacock, or a quarter of an inch in that of the bird of +paradise, would be noticed and preferred by the female? + +Pray let me see what your son says about the sterility selection +question. I am deeply interested in all that concerns the powers of +Natural Selection, but, though I admit there are a few things it cannot +do, I do not yet believe sterility to be one of them. + +In case your son has turned his attention to mathematical physics, will +you ask him to look at the enclosed question, which I have vainly +attempted to get an answer to?--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 19-24, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have sent your query to Cambridge to my son. He +ought to answer it, for he got his place of Second Wrangler chiefly by +solving very difficult problems. I enclose his remarks on two of your +paragraphs: I should like them returned some time, for I have not +studied them, and let me have your impression. + +I have told E. Edwards to send one of my large photographs to you +addressed to 76-1/2 Westbourne Grove, not to be forwarded. When at home +I will send my carte. + +The sterility is a most [? puzzling] problem. I can see so far, but I am +hardly willing to admit all your assumptions, and even if they were all +admitted, the process is so complex and the sterility (as you remark in +your note) so universal, even with species inhabiting quite distinct +countries (as I remarked in my chapter), together with the frequency of +a difference in reciprocal unions, that I cannot persuade myself that it +has been gained by Natural Selection, any more than the difficulty of +grafting distinct genera and the impossibility of grafting distinct +families. You will allow, I suppose, that the capacity of grafting has +not been directly acquired through Natural Selection. + +I think that you will be pleased with the second volume or part of +Lyell's Principles, just out. + +In regard to sexual selection. A girl sees a handsome man, and without +observing whether his nose or whiskers are the tenth of an inch longer +or shorter than in some other man, admires his appearance and says she +will marry him. So, I suppose, with the pea-hen; and the tail has been +increased in length merely by, on the whole, presenting a more gorgeous +appearance. Jenner Weir, however, has given me some facts showing that +birds apparently admire details of plumage.--Yours most sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. March 24, [1868?]._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for the photo, which I shall get when I go to +town. + +I return your son's notes with my notes on them. + +Without going into any details, is not this a strong general argument?-- + +1. A species varies occasionally in two directions, but owing to their +free intercrossing they (the variations) never increase. + +2. A change of conditions occurs which threatens the existence of the +species, but the _two varieties_ are adapted to the changing conditions, +and, if accumulated, will form two new _species adapted to the new +conditions_. + +3. Free crossing, however, renders this impossible, and so the species +is in danger of extinction. + +4. If _sterility_ could be induced, then the pure races would increase +more rapidly and replace the old species. + +5. It is admitted that _partial sterility_ between _varieties_ does +occasionally occur. It is admitted the _degree_ of this sterility +_varies_. Is it not probable that Natural Selection can accumulate these +variations and thus save the species? + +If Natural Selection can _not_ do this, how do species ever arise, +except when a variety is isolated? + +Closely allied species in distinct countries being sterile is no +difficulty, for either they diverged from a common ancestor in contact, +and Natural Selection increased the sterility, or they were isolated, +and have varied since, in which case they have been for ages influenced +by distinct conditions which may well produce sterility. + +If the difficulty of _grafting_ was as great as the difficulty of +_crossing_, and as _regular_, I admit it would be a most serious +objection. But it is not. I believe many distinct species can be grafted +while others less distinct cannot. The regularity with which natural +species are sterile together, even when _very much alike_, I think is an +argument in favour of the sterility having been generally produced by +Natural Selection for the good of the species. + +The other difficulty, of unequal sterility of reciprocal crosses, seems +none to me; for it is a step to more complete sterility, and as such +would be useful and would be increased by selection. + +I have read Sir C. Lyell's second volume with great pleasure. He is, as +usual, very cautious, and hardly ever expresses a positive opinion, but +the general effect of the whole book is very strong, as the argument is +all on our side. + +I am in hopes it will bring in a new set of converts to Natural +Selection, and will at all events lead to a fresh ventilation of the +subject.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 27, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--My son has failed in your problem, and says that it is +"excessively difficult": he says you will find something about it in +Thomson and Tait, "Natural Philosophy" (art. 649). He has, however, sent +the solution, if the plate rested on a square rim, but he supposes this +will not answer your purpose; nevertheless, I have forwarded it by this +same post. It seems that the rim being round makes the problem much more +difficult. + +I enclose my photograph, which I have received from Down. I sent your +answer to George on his objection to your argument on sterility, but +have not yet heard from him. I dread beginning to think over this +fearful problem, which I believe beats the plate on the circular rim; +but I will sometime. I foresee, however, that there are so many doubtful +points that we shall never agree. As far as a glance serves it seems to +me, perhaps falsely, that you sometimes argue that hybrids have an +advantage from greater vigour, and sometimes a disadvantage from not +being so well fitted to their conditions. Heaven protect my stomach +whenever I attempt following your argument!--Yours most sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. April 6, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been considering the terrible problem. Let me +first say that no man could have more earnestly wished for the success +of Natural Selection in regard to sterility than I did, and when I +considered a general statement (as in your last note) I always felt sure +it could be worked out, but always failed in detail, the cause being, as +I believe, that Natural Selection cannot effect what is not good for the +individual, including in this term a social community. It would take a +volume to discuss all the points; and nothing is so humiliating to me as +to agree with a man like you (or Hooker) on the premises and disagree +about the result. + +I agree with my son's argument and not with rejoinder. The cause of our +difference, I think, is that I look at the number of offspring as an +important element (all circumstances remaining the same) in keeping up +the average number of individuals within any area. I do not believe that +the amount of food by any means is the sole determining cause of number. +Lessened fertility is equivalent to a new source of destruction. I +believe if in one district a species produce _from any cause_ fewer +young, the deficiency would be supplied from surrounding districts. This +applies to your par. 5. If the species produced fewer young from any +cause in _every_ district, it would become extinct unless its fertility +were augmented through Natural Selection (_see_ H. Spencer). + +I demur to the probability and almost to the possibility of par. 1, as +you start with two forms, within the same area, which are not mutually +sterile, and which yet have supplanted the parent-form (par. 6). I know +of no ghost of a fact supporting belief that disinclination to cross +accompanies sterility. It cannot hold with plants, or the lower fixed +aquatic animals. I saw clearly what an immense aid this would be, but +gave it up. Disinclination to cross seems to have been independently +acquired, probably by Natural Selection; and I do not see why it would +not have sufficed to have prevented incipient species from blending to +have simply increased sexual disinclination to cross. + +Par. 11: I demur to a certain extent to amount of sterility and +structural dissimilarity necessarily going together, except indirectly +and by no means strictly. Look at the case of pigeons, fowls, and +cabbages. + +I overlooked the advantage of the half-sterility of reciprocal crosses; +yet, perhaps from novelty, I do not feel inclined to admit the +probability of Natural Selection having done its work so clearly. + +I will not discuss the second case of utter sterility; but your +assumptions in par. 13 seem to me much too complicated. I cannot believe +so universal an attribute as utter sterility between remote species was +acquired in so complex a manner. I do not agree with your rejoinder on +grafting; I fully admit that it is not so closely restricted as +crossing; but this does not seem to me to weaken the case as one of +analogy. The incapacity of grafting is likewise an invariable attribute +of plants sufficiently remote from each other, and sometimes of plants +pretty closely allied. + +The difficulty of increasing the sterility, through Natural Selection, +of two already sterile species seems to me best brought home by +considering an actual case. The cowslip and primrose are moderately +sterile, yet occasionally produce hybrids: now these hybrids, two or +three or a dozen in a whole parish, occupy ground which _might_ have +been occupied by either pure species, and no doubt the latter suffer to +this small extent. But can you conceive that any individual plants of +the primrose and cowslip, which happened to be mutually rather more +sterile (i.e. which when crossed yielded a few less seeds) than usual, +would profit to such a degree as to increase in number to the ultimate +exclusion of the present primrose and cowslip? I cannot. + +My son, I am sorry to say, cannot see the full force of your rejoinder +in regard to the second head of continually augmented sterility. You +speak in this rejoinder, and in par. 5, of all the individuals becoming +in some slight degree sterile in certain districts; if you were to admit +that by continued exposure to these same conditions the sterility would +inevitably increase, there would be no need of Natural Selection. But I +suspect that the sterility is not caused so much by any particular +conditions, as by long habituation to conditions of any kind. To speak +according to pangenesis, the gemmules of hybrids are not injured, for +hybrids propagate freely by buds; but their reproductive organs are +somehow affected, so that they cannot accumulate the proper gemmules, in +nearly the same manner as the reproductive organs of a pure species +become affected when exposed to unnatural conditions. + +This is a very ill-expressed and ill-written letter. Do not answer it, +unless the spirit urges you. Life is too short for so long a discussion. +We shall, I _greatly_ fear, never agree.--My dear Wallace, most +sincerely yours, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. [?] April 8, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am sorry you should have given yourself the trouble to +answer my ideas on Sterility. If you are not convinced, I have little +doubt but that I am wrong; and in fact I was only _half convinced_ by my +own arguments, and I now think there is about an even chance that +Natural Selection may or not be able to accumulate sterility. If my +first proposition is modified to _the existence of a species and a +variety in the same area_, it will do just as well for my argument. Such +certainly do exist. They are fertile together, and yet each maintains +itself tolerably distinct. How can this be, if there is no +disinclination to crossing? My belief certainly is that number of +offspring is not so important an element in keeping up population of a +species as supply of food and other favourable conditions, because the +numbers of a species constantly vary greatly in different parts of its +area, whereas the average number of offspring is not a very variable +element. + +However, I will say no more but leave the problem as insoluble, only +fearing that it will become a formidable weapon in the hands of the +enemies of Natural Selection. + +While writing a few pages on the northern alpine forms of plants on the +Java mountains I wanted a few cases to refer to like Teneriffe, where +there are no _northern_ forms, and scarcely any alpine. I expected the +volcanoes of Hawaii would be a good case, and asked Dr. Seeman about +them. It seems a man has lately published a list of Hawaiian plants, and +the mountains swarm with European alpine genera and some species![68] Is +not this most extraordinary and a puzzler? They are, I believe, truly +oceanic islands in the absence of mammals and the extreme poverty of +birds and insects, and they are within the tropics. Will not that be a +hard nut for you when you come to treat in detail on geographical +distribution? + +I enclose Seeman's note, which please return when you have copied the +list, if of any use to you. + +Many thanks for your carte, which I think very good. The large one had +not arrived when I was in town last week. + +Sir C. Lyell's chapter on Oceanic Islands I think very good.--Believe +me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 9, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--You allude in your note to several points which I +should much enjoy discussing with you did time and strength permit. I +know Dr. Seeman is a good botanist, but I most strongly advise you to +show the list to Hooker before you make use of the materials in print. +Hooker seems much overworked, and is now gone a tour, but I suppose you +will be in town before very long, and could see him. The list is quite +unintelligible to me; it is not pretended that the same species exist in +the Sandwich Islands and Arctic regions; and as far as the genera are +concerned, I know that in almost every one of them species inhabit such +countries as Florida, North Africa, New Holland, etc. Therefore these, +genera seem to me almost mundane, and their presence in the Sandwich +Islands will not, as I suspect in my ignorance, show any relation to the +Arctic regions. The Sandwich Islands, though I have never considered +them much, have long been a sore perplexity to me: they are eminently +oceanic in position and productions; they have long been separated from +each other; and there are only slight signs of subsidence in the islets +to the westward. I remember, however, speculating that there must have +been some immigration during the glacial period from North America or +Japan; but I cannot remember what my grounds were. Some of the plants, I +think, show an affinity with Australia. I am very glad that you like +Lyell's chapter on Oceanic Islands, for I thought it one of the best in +the part which I have read. If you do not receive the big photo of me in +due time, let me hear.--Yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +The following refers to Wallace's article, "A Theory of Birds' Nests," +in Andrew Murray's _Journal of Travel_, i. 73. He here treats in fuller +detail the view already published in the _Westminster Review_ for July, +1867, p. 38. The rule which Wallace believes, with very few exceptions, +to hold good is, "that when both sexes are of strikingly gay and +conspicuous colours, the nest is ... such as to conceal the sitting +bird; while, whenever there is a striking contrast of colours, the male +being gay and conspicuous, the female dull and obscure, the nest is open +and the sitting bird exposed to view." At this time Wallace allowed +considerably more influence to _sexual_ selection (in combination with +the need of protection) than in his later writings. See his letter to +Darwin of July 23, 1877 (p. 298), which fixes the period at which the +change in his views occurred. He finally rejected Darwin's theory that +colours "have been developed by the preference of the females, the more +ornamented males becoming the parents of each successive generation." +(_See_ "Darwinism," 1889, p. 285.) + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 15, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been deeply interested by your admirable +article on Birds' Nests. I am delighted to see that we really differ +very little--not more than two men almost always will. You do not lay +much or any stress on new characters spontaneously appearing in one sex +(generally the male) and being transmitted exclusively, or more commonly +only in excess, to that sex. I, on the other hand, formerly paid far too +little attention to protection. I had only a glimpse of the truth. But +even now I do not go quite as far as you. I cannot avoid thinking rather +more than you do about the exceptions in nesting to the rule, especially +the partial exceptions, i.e. when there is some little difference +between the sexes in species which build concealed nests. I am now quite +satisfied about the incubating males; there is so little difference in +conspicuousness between the sexes. I wish with all my heart I could go +the whole length with you. You seem to think that such birds probably +select the most beautiful females: I must feel some doubt on this head, +for I can find no evidence of it. Though I am writing so carping a note, +I admire the article _thoroughly_. + +And now I want to ask a question. When female butterflies are more +brilliant than their males, you believe that they have in most cases, or +in all cases, been rendered brilliant so as to mimic some other species +and thus escape danger. But can you account for the males not having +been rendered equally brilliant and equally protected? Although it may +be most for the welfare of the species that the female should be +protected, yet it would be some advantage, certainly no disadvantage, +for the unfortunate male to enjoy an equal immunity from danger. For my +part, I should say that the female alone had happened to vary in the +right manner, and that the beneficial variations had been transmitted to +the same sex alone. Believing in this, I can see no improbability (but +from analogy of domestic animals a strong probability): the variations +leading to beauty must _often_ have occurred in the males alone, and +been transmitted to that sex alone. Thus I should account in many cases +for the greater beauty of the male over the female, without the need of +the protective principle. I should be grateful for an answer on this +point. + +I hope that your Eastern book progresses well.--My dear Wallace, yours +sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +Sir Clifford Allbutt's view, referred to in the following letter, +probably had reference to the fact that the sperm-cell goes, or is +carried, to the germ-cell, never vice versa. In this letter Darwin gives +the reason for the "law" referred to. Wallace has been good enough to +supply the following note (May 27, 1902): "It was at this time that my +paper on 'Protective Resemblance' first appeared in the _Westminster +Review_, in which I adduced the greater, or, rather, the more +continuous, importance of the female (in the lower animals) for the +race, and my 'Theory of Birds' Nests' (_Journal of Travel and Natural +History_, No. 2), in which I applied this to the usually dull colours of +female butterflies and birds. It is to these articles, as well as to my +letters, that Darwin chiefly refers." + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 30, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--Your letter, like so many previous ones, has +interested me much. Dr. Allbutt's view occurred to me some time ago, and +I have written a short discussion on it. It is, I think, a remarkable +law, to which I have found no exception. The foundation lies in the fact +that in many cases the eggs or seeds require nourishment and protection +by the mother-form for some time after impregnation. Hence the +spermatozoa and antherozoids travel in the lower aquatic animals and +plants to the female, and pollen is borne to the female organ. As +organisms rise in the scale it seems natural that the male should carry +the spermatozoa to the females in his own body. As the male is the +searcher he has received and gained more eager passions than the female; +and, very differently from you, I look at this as _one_ great difficulty +in believing that the males select the more attractive females; as far +as I can discover they are always ready to seize on any female, and +sometimes on many females. Nothing would please me more than to find +evidence of males selecting the more attractive females [? _in +pigeons_[69]]: I have for months been trying to persuade myself of this. +There is the case of man in favour of this belief, and I know in hybrid +[_lizards'_[69]] unions of males preferring particular females, but alas! +not guided by colour. Perhaps I may get more evidence as I wade through +my twenty years' mass of notes. + +I am not shaken about the female protected butterflies: I will grant +(only for argument) that the life of the male is of _very_ little value; +I will grant that the males do not vary; yet why has not the protective +beauty of the female been transferred by inheritance to the male? The +beauty would be a gain to the male, as far as we can see, as a +protection; and I cannot believe that it would be repulsive to the +female as she became beautiful. But we shall never convince each other. +I sometimes marvel how truth progresses, so difficult is it for one man +to convince another unless his mind is vacant. Nevertheless, I myself to +a certain extent contradict my own remark; for I believe _far more_ in +the importance of protection than I did before reading your articles. + +I do not think you lay nearly stress enough in your articles on what you +admit in your letter, viz. "there seems to be some production of +vividness ... of colour in the male independent of protection." This I +am making a chief point; and have come to your conclusion so far that I +believe that intense colouring in the female sex is often checked by +being dangerous. + +That is an excellent remark of yours about no known case of the male +_alone_ assuming protective colours; but in the cases in which +protection has been gained by dull colours, I presume that sexual +selection would interfere with the male losing his beauty. If the male +alone had acquired beauty as a protection, it would be most readily +overlooked, as males are so often more beautiful than their females. +Moreover, I grant that the loss of the male is somewhat less precious +and thus there would be less rigorous selection with the male, so he +would be less likely to be made beautiful through Natural Selection for +protection. (This does not apply to sexual selection, for the greater +the excess of males and the less precious their lives, so much the +better for sexual selection.) But it seems to me a good argument, and +very good if it could be thoroughly established.--Yours most sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + +I do not know whether you will care to read this scrawl. + +P.S.--I heard yesterday that my photograph had been sent to your London +address--Westbourne Grove. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 5, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am afraid I have caused you a great deal of trouble +in writing to me at such length. I am glad to say that I agree almost +entirely with your summary, except that I should put sexual selection as +an equal or perhaps as even a more important agent in giving colour than +natural selection for protection. As I get on in my work I hope to get +clearer and more decided ideas. Working up from the bottom of the scale +I have as yet only got to fishes. What I rather object to in your +articles is that I do not think anyone would infer from them that you +place sexual selection even as high as No. 4 in your summary. It was +very natural that you should give only a line to sexual selection in +the summary to the _Westminster Review_, but the result at first to my +mind was that you attributed hardly anything to its power. In your +penultimate note you say: "In the great mass of cases in which there is +_great_ differentiation of colour between the sexes, I believe it is due +_almost wholly_ to the need of protection to the female." Now, looking +to the whole animal kingdom I can at present by no means admit this +view; but pray do not suppose that because I differ to a certain extent, +I do not thoroughly admire your several papers and your admirable +generalisation on birds' nests. With respect to this latter point, +however, although following you, I suspect that I shall ultimately look +at the whole case from a rather different point of view. + +You ask what I think about the gay-coloured females of Pieris:[70] I +believe I quite follow you in believing that the colours are wholly due +to mimicry; and I further believe that the male is not brilliant from +not having received through inheritance colour from the female, and from +not himself having varied; in short, that he has not been influenced by +Selection. + +I can make no answer with respect to the elephants. With respect to the +female reindeer, I have hitherto looked at the horns simply as the +consequence of inheritance _not_ having been limited by sex. + +Your idea about colour being concentrated in the smaller males seems +good, and I presume that you will not object to my giving it as your +suggestion.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, with many thanks, yours very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +Wallace's more recent views on the question of Natural Selection and +Sterility may be found in a note written by him in 1899: "When writing +my 'Darwinism' and coming again to the consideration of the problem of +the effect of Natural Selection in accumulating variations in the amount +of sterility between varieties or incipient species, twenty years later, +I became more convinced than I was when discussing with Darwin, of the +substantial accuracy of my argument. Recently a correspondent who is +both a naturalist and a mathematician has pointed out to me a slight +error in my calculation at p, 183 (which does not, however, materially +affect the result) disproving the physiological selection of the late +Dr. Romanes, but he can see no fallacy in my argument as to the power of +Natural Selection to increase sterility between incipient species, nor, +so far as I am aware, has anyone shown such fallacy to exist. + +"On the other points on which I differed from Mr. Darwin in the +foregoing discussion--the effect of high fertility on population of a +species, etc.--I still hold the views I then expressed, but it would be +out of place to attempt to justify them here."--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. August 16, [1868?]._ + +Dear Darwin,--I ought to have written before to thank you for the copies +of your paper on "Primula" and on "Cross Unions of Dimorphic Plants, +etc." The latter is particularly interesting, and the conclusion most +important; but I think it makes the difficulty of _how_ these forms, +with their varying degrees of sterility, originated, greater than ever. +If Natural Selection could not accumulate varying degrees of sterility +for the plant's benefit, then how did sterility ever come to be +associated with _one cross_ of a trimorphic plant rather than another? +The difficulty seems to be increased by the consideration that the +advantage of a cross with a _distinct individual_ is gained just as well +by illegitimate as by legitimate unions. By what means, then, did +illegitimate unions ever become sterile? It would seem a far simpler way +for each plant's pollen to have acquired a prepotency on another +individual's stigma over that of the same individual, without the +extraordinary complication of three differences of structure and +eighteen different unions with varying degrees of sterility! + +However, the fact remains an excellent answer to the statement that +sterility of hybrids proves the absolute distinctness of the parents. + +I have been reading with great pleasure Mr. Bentham's last admirable +address,[71] in which he so well replies to the gross misstatements of +the _Athenęum_; and also says a word in favour of pangenesis. I think we +may now congratulate you on having made a valuable convert, whose +opinions on the subject, coming so late and being evidently so well +considered, will have much weight. + +I am going to Norwich on Tuesday to hear Dr. Hooker, who I hope will +boldly promulgate "Darwinianism" in his address. Shall we have the +pleasure of seeing you there? + +I am engaged in negotiations about my book. + +Hoping you are well and getting on with your next volumes, believe me +yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Freshwater, Isle of Wight. August 19, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--Thanks for your note. I did sometimes think of going +to Norwich, for I should have very much liked it, but it has been quite +out of the question. We have been here for five weeks for a change, and +it has done me some little good; but I have been forced to live the life +of a drone, and for a month before leaving home I was unable to do +anything and had to stop all work. + +We return to Down to-morrow. + +Hooker has been here for two or three days, so that I have had much +talk about his Address. I am glad that you will be there. + +It is real good news that your book is so advanced that you are +negotiating about its publication. + +With respect to dimorphic plants: it is a great puzzle, but I _fancy_ I +partially see my way--too long for a letter and too speculative for +publication. The groundwork of the acquirement of such peculiar +fertility (for what you say about any other distinct individual being, +as it would appear, sufficient, is very true) rests on the stamens and +pistil having varied first in relative length, _as actually occurs_ +irrespective of dimorphism, and the peculiar kind of fertility +characteristic of dimorphic and the trimorphic plants having been +_secondarily_ acquired. Pangenesis makes _very_ few converts: G.H. Lewes +is one. + +I had become, before my nine weeks' horrid interruption of all work, +extremely interested in sexual selection and was making fair progress. +In truth, it has vexed me much to find that the further I get on, the +more I differ from you about the females being dull-coloured for +protection. I can now hardly express myself as strongly even as in the +"Origin." This has _much decreased_ the pleasure of my work. + +In the course of September, if I can get at all stronger, I hope to get +Mr. J. Jenner Weir (who has been _wonderfully_ kind in giving me +information) to pay me a visit, and I will then write for the chance of +your being able to come and, I hope, bring with you Mrs. Wallace. If I +could get several of you together, it would be less dull for you, for of +late I have found it impossible to talk with any human being for more +than half an hour, except on extraordinarily good days.--Believe me, my +dear Wallace, ever yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent. August 30, [1868?]._ + +Dear Darwin,--I was very sorry to hear you had been so unwell again, and +hope you will not exert yourself to write me such long letters. +Darwinianism was in the ascendant at Norwich (I hope you do not dislike +the word, for we really _must_ use it), and I think it rather disgusted +some of the parsons, joined with the amount of _advice_ they received +from Hooker and Huxley. The worst of it is that there are no opponents +left who know anything of natural history, so that there are none of the +good discussions we used to have. G.H. Lewes seems to me to be making a +great mistake in the _Fortnightly_, advocating _many distinct_ origins +for different groups, and even, if I understand him, distinct origins +for some allied groups, just as the anthropologists do who make the red +man descend from the orang, the black man from the chimpanzee--or rather +the Malay and orang one ancestor, the negro and chimpanzee another. Vogt +told me that the Germans are all becoming converted by your last book. + +I am certainly surprised that you should find so much evidence against +protection having checked the acquirement of bright colour in females; +but I console myself by presumptuously hoping that I can explain your +facts, unless they are derived from the very groups on which I chiefly +rest--birds and insects. There is nothing _necessarily_ requiring +protection in females; it is a matter of habits. There are groups in +which both sexes require protection in an exactly equal degree, and +others (I think) in which the male requires most protection, and I feel +the greatest confidence that these will ultimately support my view, +although I do _not_ yet know the facts they may afford. + +Hoping you are in better health, believe me, dear Darwin, yours +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. September 5, [1868?]._ + +Dear Darwin,--It will give me great pleasure to accept your kind +invitation for next Saturday and Sunday, and my wife would very much +like to come too, and will if possible. Unfortunately, there is a new +servant coming that very day, and there is a baby at the mischievous age +of a year and a quarter to be left in somebody's care; but I daresay it +will be managed somehow. + +I will drop a line on Friday to say if we are coming the time you +mention.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + +_Friday_. + +My dear Darwin,--My wife has arranged to accompany me to-morrow, and we +hope to be at Orpington Station at 5.44, as mentioned by you.--Very +truly yours, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. September 16, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--The beetles have arrived, and cordial thanks: I never +saw such wonderful creatures in my life. I was thinking of something +quite different. I shall wait till my son Frank returns, before soaking +and examining them. I long to steal the box, but return it by this post, +like a too honest man. + +I am so much pleased about the male musk Callichroma; for by odd chance +I told Frank a week ago that next spring he must collect at Cambridge +lots of Cerambyx moschatus, for as sure as life he would find the odour +sexual! + +You will be pleased to hear that I am undergoing severe distress about +protection and sexual selection: this morning I oscillated with joy +towards you; this evening I have swung back to the old position, out of +which I fear I shall never get. + +I did most thoroughly enjoy my talk with you three gentlemen, and +especially with you, and to my great surprise it has not knocked me up. +Pray give my kindest remembrances to Mrs. Wallace, and if my wife were +at home she would cordially join in this.--Yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +I have had this morning a capital letter from Walsh of Illinois; but +details too long to give. + + * * * * * + +Among Wallace's papers was found the following draft of a letter of his +to Darwin: + + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. September 18, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--The more I think of your views as to the colours of +females, the more difficulty I find in accepting them, and as you are +now working at the subject I hope it will not interrupt you to hear +"counsel on the other side." + +I have a "general" and a "special" argument to submit. + +1. Female birds and insects are generally exposed to more danger than +the male, and in the case of insects their existence is necessary for a +longer period. + +2. They therefore require in some way or other a special balance of +protection. + +3. Now, if the male and female were distinct species, with different +habits and organisations, you would, I think, at once admit that a +difference of colour serving to make that one less conspicuous which +evidently required more protection than the other had been acquired by +Natural Selection. + +4. But you admit that variations appearing in one sex are transmitted +(often) to that sex only: there is therefore nothing to prevent Natural +Selection acting on the two sexes as if they were two species. + +5. Your objection that the same protection would to a certain extent be +useful to the male, seems to me utterly unsound, and directly opposed to +your own doctrine so convincingly urged in the "Origin," "_that Natural +Selection never can improve an animal beyond its needs_." So that +admitting abundant variation of colour in the male, it is impossible +that he can be brought by Natural Selection to resemble the female +(unless _her_ variations are always transmitted to _him_), because the +_difference_ of their colours is to balance the _difference_ in their +organisations and habits, and Natural Selection cannot give to the male +_more_ than is needed to effect that balance. + +6. The fact that in almost all protected groups the females perfectly +resemble the males shows, I think, a tendency to transference of colour +from one sex to the other when this tendency is not injurious. + +Or perhaps the _protection_ is acquired because this tendency exists. I +admit therefore in the case of concealed nests they [habits] may have +been acquired for protection. + +Now for the special case. + +7. In the very weak-flying Leptalis both sexes mimic Heliconidę. + +8. In the much more powerful Papilio, Pieris, and Diadema it is +generally the _female only_ that mimics Danaida. + +9. In these cases the females often acquire more bright and varied +colours than the male. Sometimes, as in _Pieris pyrrha_, conspicuously +so. + +10. No single case is known of a male Papilio, Pieris, Diadema (or any +other insect?) _alone_ mimicking a Danais, etc. + +11. But colour is more frequent in males, and _variations_ always seem +ready for purposes of sexual or other selection. + +12. The fair inference seems to be that given in proposition 5 of the +general argument, viz. that _each species_ and _each sex_ can only be +modified by selection just as far as is absolutely necessary, not a step +farther. A male, being by structure and habits less exposed to danger +and less requiring protection than the female, cannot have more +protection given to it by Natural Selection, but a female must have some +extra protection to balance the greater danger, and she rapidly acquires +it in one way or another. + +13. An objection derived from cases like male fish, which seem to +require protection, yet having brighter colours, seems to me of no more +weight than is that of the existence of many white and unprotected +species of Leptalis to Bates's theory of mimicry, that only one or two +species of butterflies perfectly resemble leaves, or that the instincts +or habits or colours that seem essential to the preservation of one +animal are often totally absent in an allied species. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. September 23, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am very much obliged for all your trouble in writing +me your long letter, which I will keep by me and ponder over. To answer +it would require at least 200 folio pages! If you could see how often I +have rewritten some pages, you would know how anxious I am to arrive as +near as I can to the truth. We differ, I think, chiefly from fixing our +minds perhaps too closely on different points, on which we agree: I lay +great stress on what I know takes place under domestication: I think we +start with different fundamental notions on inheritance. I find it most +difficult, but not, I think, impossible, to see how, for instance, a few +red feathers appearing on the head of a male bird, and which _are at +first transmitted to both sexes_, could come to be transmitted to males +alone;[72] but I have no difficulty in making the whole head red if the +few red feathers in the male from the first tended to be sexually +transmitted. I am quite willing to admit that the female may have been +modified, either at the same time or subsequently, for protection, by +the accumulation of variations limited in their transmission to the +female sex. I owe to your writings the consideration of this latter +point. But I cannot yet persuade myself that females _alone_ have often +been modified for protection. Should you grudge the trouble briefly to +tell me whether you believe that the plainer head and less bright +_colours_ of [female symbol][73] chaffinch, the less red on the head and +less clean colours of [female symbol] goldfinch, the much less red on +breast of [female symbol] bullfinch, the paler crest of goldencrest +wren, etc., have been acquired by them for protection? I cannot think +so; any more than I can that the considerable differences between +[female symbol] and [male symbol] house-sparrow, or much greater +brightness of [male symbol] _Parus cęruleus_ (both of which build under +cover) than of [female symbol] Parus are related to protection. I even +misdoubt much whether the less blackness of blackbird is for protection. + +Again, can you give me reason for believing that the merest differences +between female pheasants, the female _Gallus bankiva_, the female of +black grouse, the pea-hen, female partridge, have all special reference +to protection under slightly different conditions? I of course admit +that they are all protected by dull colours, derived, as I think, from +some dull-ground progenitor; and I account partly for their difference +by partial transference of colour from the male, and by other means too +long to specify; but I earnestly wish to see reason to believe that each +is specially adapted for concealment to its environment. + +I grieve to differ from you, and it actually terrifies me, and makes me +constantly distrust myself. + +I fear we shall never quite understand each other. I value the cases of +bright-coloured, incubating male fishes--and brilliant female +butterflies, solely as showing that one sex may be made brilliant +without any necessary transference of beauty to the other sex; for in +these cases I cannot suppose that beauty in the other sex was checked by +selection. + +I fear this letter will trouble you to read it. A very short answer +about your belief in regard to the [female symbol] finches and +Gallinaceę would suffice.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, S.W. September 27, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--Your view seems to be that variations occurring in one sex +are transmitted either to that sex exclusively or to both sexes equally, +or more rarely partially transferred. But we have every gradation of +sexual colours from total dissimilarity to perfect identity. If this is +explained solely by the laws of inheritance, then the colours of one or +other sex will be always (in relation to their environment) a _matter of +chance_. I cannot think this. I think Selection more powerful than laws +of inheritance, of which it makes use, as shown by cases of two, three +or four forms of female butterflies, all of which have, I have little +doubt, been specialised for protection. + +To answer your first question is most difficult, if not impossible, +because we have no sufficient evidence in _individual cases of slight +sexual difference_, to determine whether the male alone has acquired his +superior brightness by sexual selection, or the female been made duller +by need of protection, or whether the two causes have acted. Many of the +sexual differences of existing species may be inherited differences from +parent forms who existed under different conditions and had greater or +less need of protection. + +I think I admitted before the general tendency (probably) of males to +acquire brighter tints. Yet this cannot be universal, for many female +birds and quadrupeds have equally bright tints. + +I think the case of [female symbol] _Pieris pyrrha_ proves that females +alone can be greatly modified for protection. + +To your second question I can reply more decidedly. I do think the +females of the Gallmaceę you mention have been modified or been +prevented from acquiring the brighter plumage of the male by need of +protection. I know that the _Gallus bankiva_ frequents drier and more +open situations than the pea-hen of Java, which is found among grassy +and leafy vegetation corresponding with the colours of the two. So the +Argus pheasant, [male symbol] and [female symbol], are, I feel sure, +protected by their tints corresponding to the dead leaves of the lofty +forest in which they dwell, and the female of the gorgeous fire-back +pheasant, _Lophura viellottii_, is of a very similar _rich brown +colour_. I do not, however, at all think the question can be settled by +individual cases, but only by large masses of facts. + +The colours of the mass of female birds seem to me strictly analogous to +the colours of both sexes of snipes, woodcocks, plovers, etc., which are +undoubtedly protective. + +Now, supposing, on your view, that the colours of a male bird become +more and more brilliant by sexual selection, and a good deal of that +colour is transmitted to the female till it becomes positively injurious +to her during incubation and the race is in danger of extinction, do you +not think that all the females who had acquired less of the male's +bright colours or who themselves varied in a protective direction would +be preserved, and that thus a good protective colouring would be +acquired? If you admit that this could occur, and can show no good +reason why it should not often occur, then we no longer differ, for this +is the main point of my view. + +Have you ever thought of the red wax-tips of the Bombycilla beautifully +imitating the red fructification of lichens used in the nest, and +therefore the females have it too? Yet this is a very sexual-looking +character. + +We begin printing this week.--Yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--Pray don't distress yourself on this subject. It will all come +right in the end, and after all it is only an episode in your great +work.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. October 4, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--I should have answered your letter before, but have been +very busy reading over my MSS. the last time before going to press, +drawing maps, etc. etc. + +Your first question cannot be answered, because we have not, in +_individual cases_ of _slight sexual_ difference, sufficient evidence to +determine how much of that difference is due to sexual selection acting +on the male, how much to natural selection (protective) acting on the +female, or how much of the difference may be due to inherited +differences from ancestors who lived under different conditions. On your +second question I can give an opinion. I do think the females of the +Gallinaceę you mention have been either _modified_; or _prevented from +acquiring much of the brighter plumage of the males_, by the need of +protection. I know that _Gallus bankiva_ frequents drier and more open +situations than _Pavo muticus_, which in Java is found among grassy and +leafy vegetation corresponding with the colours of the two females. So +the Argus pheasants, male and female, are, I feel sure, protected by +their tints corresponding to dead leaves of the dry lofty forests in +which they dwell; and the female of the gorgeous fire-back pheasant, +_Lophura viellottii_, is of a very similar rich brown colour. + +These and many other colours of female birds seem to me exactly +analogous to the colours of _both sexes_ in such groups as the snipes, +woodcocks, plovers, ptarmigan, desert birds, Arctic animals, greenbirds. + +[The second page of this letter has been torn off. This letter and that +of September 27 appear both to answer the same letter from Darwin. The +last page of this or of another letter was placed with it in the +portfolio of letters; it is now given.] + +I am sorry to find that our difference of opinion on this point is a +source of anxiety to you. + +Pray do not let it be so. The truth will come out at last, and our +difference may be the means of setting others to work who may set us +both right. + +After all, this question is only an episode (though an important one) in +the great question of the origin of species, and whether you or I are +right will not at all affect the main doctrine--that is one comfort. + +I hope you will publish your treatise on Sexual Selection as a separate +book as soon as possible, and then while you are going on with your +other work, there will no doubt be found someone to battle with me over +your facts, on this hard problem. + +With best wishes and kind regards to Mrs. Darwin and all your family, +believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. October 6, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--Your letter is very valuable to me, and in every way +very kind. I will not inflict a long answer, but only answer your +queries. There are breeds (viz. Hamburgh) in which both sexes differ +much from each other and from both sexes of _G. bankiva_; and both sexes +are kept constant by selection. + +The comb of Spanish [male symbol] has been ordered to be upright and +that of Spanish [female symbol] to lop over, and this has been effected. +There are sub-breeds of game fowl, with [female symbol]s very distinct +and [male symbol]s almost identical; but this apparently is the result +of spontaneous variation without special selection. + +I am very glad to hear of the case of [female symbol] birds of paradise. + +I have never in the least doubted the possibility of modifying female +birds _alone_ for protection; and I have long believed it for +butterflies: I have wanted only evidence for the females alone of birds +having had their colours modified for protection. But then I believe +that the variations by which a female bird or butterfly could get or has +got protective colouring have probably from the first been variations +limited in their transmission to the female sex; and so with the +variations of the male, where the male is more beautiful than the +female, I believe the variations were sexually limited in their +transmission to the males. I am delighted to hear that you have been +hard at work on your MS.--Yours most sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 20, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--It will give me very great pleasure if you will allow me +to dedicate my little book of Malayan Travels to you, although it will +be far too small and unpretending a work to be worthy of that honour. +Still, I have done what I can to make it a vehicle for communicating a +taste for the higher branches of Natural History, and I know that you +will judge it only too favourably. We are in the middle of the second +volume, and if the printers will get on, shall be out next month. + +Have you seen in the last number of the _Quarterly Journal of Science_ +the excellent remarks on _Fraser's_ article on Natural Selection failing +as to Man? In one page it gets to the heart of the question, and I have +written to the editor to ask who the author is. + +My friend Spruce's paper on Palms is to be read to-morrow evening at the +Linnean. He tells me it contains a discovery which he calls "alteration +of function." He found a clump of Geonema all of which were females, and +the next year the same clump were all males! He has found other facts +analogous to this, and I have no doubt the subject is one that will +interest you. + +Hoping you are pretty well and are getting on steadily with your next +volumes, and with kind regards to Mrs. Darwin and all your circle, +believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--Have you seen the admirable article in the _Guardian_ (!) on +Lyell's "Principles"? It is most excellent and liberal. It is written by +the Rev. Geo. Buckle, of Tiverton Vicarage, Bath, whom I met at Norwich +and found a thoroughly scientific and liberal parson. Perhaps you have +heard that I have undertaken to write an article for the _Quarterly_ (!) +on the same subject, to make up for that on "Modern Geology" last year +not mentioning Sir C. Lyell. + +Really, what with the Tories passing Radical Reform Bills and the Church +periodicals advocating Darwinianism, the millennium must be at +hand.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 22, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--Your intended dedication pleases me much and I look at +it as a _great_ honour, and this is nothing more than the truth. I am +glad to hear, for Lyell's sake and on general grounds, that you are +going to write in the _Quarterly_. Some little time ago I was actually +wishing that you wrote in the _Quarterly_, as I knew that you +occasionally contributed to periodicals, and I thought that your +articles would thus be more widely read. + +Thank you for telling me about the _Guardian_, which I will borrow from +Lyell. I did note the article in the _Quarterly Journal of Science_ and +put it aside to read again with the articles in _Fraser_ and the +_Spectator_. + +I have been interrupted in my regular work in preparing a new edition[74] +of the "Origin," which has cost me much labour, and which I hope I have +considerably improved in two or three important points. I always thought +individual differences more important than single variations, but now I +have come to the conclusion that they are of paramount importance, and +in this I believe I agree with you. Fleeming Jenkin's arguments have +convinced me.[75] + +I heartily congratulate you on your new book being so nearly +finished.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 30, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--Will you tell me _where_ are Fleeming Jenkin's arguments +on the importance of single variation? Because I at present hold most +strongly the contrary opinion, that it is the individual differences or +_general variability_ of species that enables them to become modified +and adapted to new conditions. + +Variations or "sports" may be important in modifying an animal in one +direction, as in colour for instance, but how it can possibly work in +changes requiring co-ordination of many parts, as in Orchids for +example, I cannot conceive. And as all the more important structural +modifications of animals and plants imply much co-ordination, it appears +to me that the chances are millions to one against _individual +variations_ ever coinciding so as to render the required modification +possible. However, let me read first what has convinced you. + +You may tell Mrs. Darwin that I have now a daughter. + +Give my kind regards to her and all your family.--Very truly yours, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 2, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I must have expressed myself atrociously; I meant to +say exactly the reverse of what you have understood. F. Jenkin argued in +the _North British Review_[76] against single variations ever being +perpetuated, and has convinced me, though not in quite so broad a manner +as here put. I always thought individual differences more important, but +I was blind and thought that single variations might be preserved much +oftener than I now see is possible or probable. I mentioned this in my +former note merely because I believed that you had come to similar +conclusions, and I like much to be in accord with you. I believe I was +mainly deceived by single variations offering such simple illustrations, +as when man selects. + +We heartily congratulate you on the birth of your little +daughter.--Yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 5, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I was delighted at receiving your book[77] this +morning. The whole appearance and the illustrations with which it [is] +so profusely ornamented are quite beautiful. Blessings on you and your +publisher for having the pages cut and gilded. + +As for the dedication, putting quite aside how far I deserve what you +say, it seems to me decidedly the best expressed dedication which I have +ever met. + +The reading will probably last me a month, for I dare not have it read +aloud, as I know that it will set me thinking. + +I see that many points will interest me greatly. When I have finished, +if I have anything particular to say, I will write again. Accept my +cordial thanks. The dedication is a thing for my children's children to +be proud of.--Yours most sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. March 10, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--Thanks for your kind note. I could not persuade Mr. +Macmillan to cut more than twenty-five copies for my own friends, and he +even seemed to think this a sign of most strange and barbarous taste. + +Mr. Weir's paper on the kinds of larvę, etc., eaten or rejected by +insectivorous birds was read at the last meeting of the Entomological +Society and was most interesting and satisfactory. His observations and +experiments, so far as they have yet gone, confirm in _every instance_ +my hypothetical explanation of the colours of caterpillars. He finds +that all nocturnal-feeding obscure-coloured caterpillars, all _green_ +and _brown_ and _mimicking_ caterpillars, are greedily eaten by almost +every insectivorous bird. On the other hand, every gaily coloured, +spotted or banded species, which never conceal themselves, and all spiny +and hairy kinds, are _invariably rejected_, either without or after +trial. He has also come to the curious and rather unexpected conclusion, +that hairy and spiny caterpillars are not protected by their hairs, but +by their nauseous taste, the hairs being merely an external mark of +their uneatableness, like the gay colours of others. He deduces this +from two kinds of facts: (1) that very young caterpillars before the +hairs are developed are equally rejected, and (2) that in many cases the +smooth pupę and even the perfect insects of the same species are equally +rejected. + +His facts, it is true, are at present not very numerous, but they all +point one way. They seem to me to lend an immense support to my view of +the great importance of protection in determining colour, for it has not +only prevented the eatable species from ever acquiring bright colours, +spots, or markings injurious to them, but it has also conferred on all +the nauseous species distinguishing marks to render their uneatableness +more protective to them than it would otherwise be. When you have read +my book I shall be glad of any hints for corrections if it comes to +another edition. I was horrified myself by coming accidentally on +several verbal inelegancies after all my trouble in correcting, and I +have no doubt there are many more important errors.--Believe me, dear +Darwin, yours very truly, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 22, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have finished your book.[78] It seems to me +excellent, and at the same time most pleasant to read. That you ever +returned alive is wonderful after all your risks from illness and sea +voyages, especially that most interesting one to Waigiou and back. Of +all the impressions which I have received from your book, the strongest +is that your perseverance in the cause of science was heroic. Your +descriptions of catching the splendid butterflies have made me quite +envious, and at the same time have made me feel almost young again, so +vividly have they brought before my mind old days when I collected, +though I never made such captures as yours. Certainly collecting is the +best sport in the world. I shall be astonished if your book has not a +great success; and your splendid generalisations on geographical +distribution, with which I am familiar from your papers, will be new to +most of your readers. I think I enjoyed most the Timor case, as it is +best demonstrated; but perhaps Celebes is really the most valuable. I +should prefer looking at the whole Asiatic continent as having formerly +been more African in its fauna, than admitting the former existence of a +continent across the Indian Ocean. Decaisne's paper on the flora of +Timor, in which he points out its close relation to that of the +Mascarene Islands, supports your view. On the other hand, I might +advance the giraffes, etc., in the Sewalik deposits. How I wish someone +would collect the plants of Banca! The puzzle of Java, Sumatra and +Borneo is like the three geese and foxes: I have a wish to extend +Malacca through Banca to part of Java and thus make three parallel +peninsulas, but I cannot get the geese and foxes across the river. + +Many parts of your book have interested me much: I always wished to +hear an independent judgment about the Rajah Brooke, and now I have been +delighted with your splendid eulogium on him. + +With respect to the fewness and inconspicuousness of the flowers in the +tropics, may it not be accounted for by the hosts of insects, so that +there is no need for the flowers to be conspicuous? As, according to +Humboldt, fewer plants are social in the tropical than in the temperate +regions, the flowers in the former would not make so great a show. + +In your note you speak of observing some inelegancies of style. I notice +none. All is as clear as daylight. I have detected two or three errata. + +In Vol. I. you write lond_i_acus: is this not an error? + +Vol. II., p. 236: for _western_ side of Aru read _eastern_. + +Page 315: Do you not mean the horns of the moose? For the elk has not +palmated horns. + +I have only one criticism of a general nature, and I am not sure that +other geologists would agree with me: you repeatedly speak as if the +pouring out of lava, etc., from volcanoes actually caused the subsidence +of an adjoining area. I quite agree that areas undergoing opposite +movements are somehow connected; but volcanic outbursts must, I think, +be looked at as mere accidents in the swelling tip of a great dome or +surface of _plutonic_ rocks; and there seems no more reason to conclude +that such swelling or elevation in mass is the cause of the subsidence +than that the subsidence is the cause of the elevation; which latter +view is indeed held by some geologists, I have regretted to find so +little about the habits of the many animals which you have seen. + +In Vol. II., p. 399, I wish I could see the connection between +variations having been first or long ago selected, and their appearance +at an earlier age in birds of paradise than the variations which have +subsequently arisen and been selected. In fact, I do not understand your +explanation of the curious order of development of the ornaments of +these birds. + +Will you please to tell me whether you are sure that the female +Casuarius (Vol. II., p. 150) sits on her eggs as well as the male?--for, +if I am not mistaken, Bartlett told me that the male alone, who is less +brightly coloured about the neck, sits on the eggs. In Vol. II., p. 255, +you speak of male savages ornamenting themselves more than the women, of +which I have heard before; now, have you any notion whether they do this +to please themselves, or to excite the admiration of their fellow-men, +or to please the women, or, as is perhaps probable, from all three +motives? + +Finally, let me congratulate you heartily on having written so excellent +a book, full of thought on all sorts of subjects. Once again, let me +thank you for the very great honour which you have done me by your +dedication.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +Vol. II., p. 455: When in New Zealand I thought the inhabitants a mixed +race, with the type of Tahiti preponderating over some darker race with +more frizzled hair; and now that the stone instruments [have] revealed +the existence of ancient inhabitants, is it not probable that these +islands were inhabited by true Papuans? Judging from descriptions the +pure Tahitans must differ much from your Papuans. + + * * * * * + +The reference in the following letter is to Wallace's review, in the +April number of the _Quarterly_, of Lyell's "Principles of Geology" +(tenth edition), and of the sixth edition of the "Elements of Geology." +Wallace points out that here for the first time Sir C. Lyell gave up his +opposition to Evolution; and this leads Wallace to give a short account +of the views set forth in the "Origin of Species." In this article +Wallace makes a definite statement as to his views on the evolution of +man, which were opposed to those of Darwin. He upholds the view that the +brain of man, as well as the organs of speech, the hand and the external +form, could not have been evolved by Natural Selection (the "child" he +is supposed to "murder "). At p. 391 he writes: "In the brain of the +lowest savages and, as far as we know, of the prehistoric races, we have +an organ ... little inferior in size and complexity to that of the +highest types.... But the mental requirements of the lowest savages, +such as the Australians or the Andaman Islanders, are very little above +those of many animals.... How then was an organ developed far beyond the +needs of its possessor? Natural Selection could only have endowed the +savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape, whereas he +actually possesses one but very little inferior to that of the average +members of our learned societies." + +This passage is marked in Darwin's copy with a triply underlined "No," +and with a shower of notes of exclamation. It was probably the first +occasion on which he realised the extent of this great and striking +divergence in opinion between himself and his colleague. He had, +however, some indication of it in Wallace's paper on Man in the +_Anthropological Review_, 1864, referred to in his letter to Wallace of +May 28, 1864, and again in that of April 14, 1869. + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 27, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I must send a line to thank you, but this note will +require no answer. This very morning after writing I found that "elk" +was used for "moose" in Sweden, but I had been reading lately about elk +and moose in North America. + +As you put the case in your letter, which I think differs somewhat from +your book, I am inclined to agree, and had thought that a feather could +hardly be increased in length until it had first grown to full length, +and therefore it would be increased late in life and transmitted to a +corresponding age. But the Crossoptilon pheasant, and even the common +pheasant, show that the tail feathers can be developed very early. + +Thanks for other facts, which I will reflect on when I go again over my +MS. + +I read all that you said about the Dutch Government with much interest, +but I do not feel I know enough to form any opinion against yours. + +I shall be intensely curious to read the _Quarterly_: I hope you have +not murdered too completely your own and my child. + +I have lately, i.e. in the new edition of the "Origin,"[79] been +moderating my zeal, and attributing much more to mere useless +variability. I did think I would send you the sheet, but I daresay you +would not care to see it, in which I discuss Nägeli's essay on Natural +Selection not affecting characters of no functional importance, and +which yet are of high classificatory importance. + +Hooker is pretty well satisfied with what I have said on this head. It +will be curious if we have hit on similar conclusions. You are about the +last man in England who would deviate a hair's breadth from his +conviction to please any editor in the world.--Yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--After all, I have thought of one question, but if I receive no +answer I shall understand that (as is probable) you have nothing to say. +I have seen it remarked that the men and women of certain tribes differ +a little in shade or tint; but have you ever seen or heard of any +difference in tint between the two sexes which did not appear to follow +from a difference in habits of life? + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 14, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been wonderfully interested by your article,[80] +and I should think Lyell will be much gratified by it. I declare if I +had been editor and had the power of directing you I should have +selected for discussion the very points which you have chosen. I have +often said to younger geologists (for I began in the year 1830) that +they did not know what a revolution Lyell had effected; nevertheless, +your extracts from Cuvier have quite astonished me. + +Though not able really to judge, I am inclined to put more confidence in +Croll than you seem to do; but I have been much struck by many of your +remarks on degradation. + +Thomson's views of the recent age of the world have been for some time +one of my sorest troubles, and so I have been glad to read what you say. +Your exposition of Natural Selection seems to me inimitably good; there +never lived a better expounder than you. + +I was also much pleased at your discussing the difference between our +views and Lamarck's. One sometimes sees the odious expression, "Justice +to myself compels me to say, etc.," but you are the only man I ever +heard of who persistently does himself an injustice and never demands +justice. Indeed, you ought in the review to have alluded to your paper +in the Linnean _Journal_, and I feel sure all our friends will agree in +this, but you cannot "Burke" yourself, however much you may try, as may +be seen in half the articles which appear. + +I was asked but the other day by a German professor for your paper, +which I sent him. Altogether, I look at your article as appearing in the +_Quarterly_ as an immense triumph for our cause. I presume that your +remarks on Man are those to which you alluded in your note. + +If you had not told me I should have thought that they had been added by +someone else. As you expected, I differ grievously from you, and I am +very sorry for it. + +I can see no necessity for calling in an additional and proximate cause +in regard to Man. But the subject is too long for a letter. + +I have been particularly glad to read your discussion, because I am now +writing and thinking much about Man. + +I hope that your Malay book sells well. I was extremely pleased with the +article in the _Q.J. of Science_, inasmuch as it is thoroughly +appreciative of your work. Alas! you will probably agree with what the +writer says about the uses of the bamboo. + +I hear that there is also a good article in the _Saturday Review_, but +have heard nothing more about it.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours +ever sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--I have had a baddish fall, my horse partly rolling over me; but I +am getting rapidly well. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. April 18, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am very glad you think I have done justice to Lyell, and +have also well "exposed" (as a Frenchman would say) Natural Selection. +There is nothing I like better than writing a little account of it, and +trying to make it clear to the meanest capacity. + +The "Croll" question is awfully difficult. I had gone into it more +fully, but the Editor made me cut out eight pages. + +I am very sorry indeed to hear of your accident, but trust you will soon +recover and that it will leave no bad effects. + +I can quite comprehend your feelings with regard to my "unscientific" +opinions as to Man, because a few years back I should myself have +looked at them as equally wild and uncalled for. I shall look with +extreme interest for what you are writing on Man, and shall give full +weight to any explanations you can give of his probable origin. My +opinions on the subject have been modified solely by the consideration +of a series of remarkable phenomena, physical and mental, which I have +now had every opportunity of fully testing, and which demonstrate the +existence of forces and influences not yet recognised by science. This +will, I know, seem to you like some mental hallucination, but as I can +assure you from personal communication with them, that Robert Chambers, +Dr. Norris of Birmingham, the well-known physiologist, and C.F. Varley, +the well-known electrician, who have all investigated the subject for +years, agree with me both as to the facts and as to the main inferences +to be drawn from them, I am in hopes that you will suspend your judgment +for a time till we exhibit some corroborative symptoms of insanity. + +In the meantime I can console you by the assurance that I _don't_ agree +with the _Q.J. of Science_ about bamboo, and that I see no cause to +modify any of my opinions expressed in my article on the "Reign of +Law."--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. June 23, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--Thank you very much for the copy of your fifth edition of +the "Origin." I have not yet read all the additions, but those I have +looked at seem very interesting, though somewhat brief, but I suppose +you are afraid of its great and rapid growth. + +A difficult sexual character seems to me the plumules or battledore +scales on the wings of certain families and genera of butterflies, +almost invariably changing in form with the species and genera in +proportion to other changes, and always constant in each species yet +confined to the males, and so small and mixed up with the other scales +as to produce no effect on the colour or marking of the wings. How could +sexual selection produce them? + +Your correspondent Mr. Geach is now in England, and if you would like to +see him I am sure he would be glad to meet you. He is staying with his +brother (address Guildford), but often comes to town. + +Hoping that you have quite recovered from your accident and that the +_great work_ is progressing, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--You will perhaps be pleased to hear that German, French, and +Danish translations of my "Malay Archipelago" are in progress.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Caerleon, Barmouth, N. Wales. June 25, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--We have been here a fortnight, and shall remain here +till the beginning of August. I can say nothing good about my health, +and I am so weak that I can hardly crawl half a mile from the house; but +I hope I may improve, and anyhow the magnificent view of Cader is +enjoyable. + +I do not know that I have anything to ask Mr. Geach, nor do I suppose I +shall be in London till late in the autumn, but I should be particularly +obliged, if you have any communication with Mr. Geach, if you would +express for me my _sincere_ thanks for his kindness in sending me the +very valuable answers on Expression. I wrote some months ago to him in +answer to his last letter. + +I would ask him to Down, but the fatigue to me of receiving a stranger +is something which to you would be utterly unintelligible. + +I think I have heard of the scales on butterflies; but there are lots +of sexual characters which quite baffle all powers of even conjecture. + +You are quite correct, that I felt forced to make all additions to the +"Origin" as short as possible. + +I am indeed pleased to hear, and fully expected, that your Malay work +would be known throughout Europe. + +Oh dear! what would I not give for a little more strength to get on with +my work.--Ever yours, + +C. DARWIN. + +I wish that you could have told me that your place in the new Museum was +all settled. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. October 20, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--I do not know your son's (Mr. George Darwin's) address at +Cambridge. Will you be so good as to forward him the enclosed note +begging for a little information? + +I was delighted to see the notice in the _Academy_ that you are really +going to bring out your book on Man. I anticipate for it an enormous +sale, and shall read it with intense interest, although I expect to find +in it more to differ from than in any of your other books. Some +reasonable and reasoning opponents are now taking the field. I have been +writing a little notice of Murphy's "Habit and Intelligence," which, +with much that is strange and unintelligible, contains some very acute +criticisms and the statement of a few real difficulties. Another article +just sent me from the _Month_ contains some good criticism. How +incipient organs can be useful is a real difficulty, so is the +independent origin of similar complex organs; but most of his other +points, though well put, are not very formidable. I am trying to begin a +little book on the Distribution of Animals, but I fear I shall not make +much of it from my idleness in collecting facts. + +I shall make it a popular sketch first, and, if it succeeds, gather +materials for enlarging it at a future time. If any suggestion occurs to +you as to the kind of maps that would be best, or on any other essential +point, I should be glad of a hint. I hope your residence in Wales did +you good. I had no idea you were so near Dolgelly till I met your son +there one evening when I was going to leave the next morning. It is a +glorious country, but the time I like is May and June--the foliage is so +glorious. + +Sincerely hoping you are pretty well, and with kind regards to Mrs. +Darwin and the rest of your family, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. October 21, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I forwarded your letter at once to my son George, but +I am nearly sure that he will not be able to tell you anything; I wish +he could for my own sake; but I suspect there are few men in England who +could. Pray send me a copy or tell me where your article on Murphy will +be published. I have just received the _Month_, but have only read half +as yet. I wish I knew who was the author; you ought to know, as he +admires you so much; he has a wonderful deal of knowledge, but his +difficulties have not troubled me much as yet, except the case of the +dipterous larva. My book will not be published for a long time, but +Murray wished to insert some notice of it. Sexual selection has been a +tremendous job. Fate has ordained that almost every point on which we +differ should be crowded into this vol. Have you seen the October number +of the _Revue des deux Mondes?_ It has an article on you, but I have not +yet read it; and another article, not yet read, by a very good man on +the Transformist School. + +I am very glad to hear that you are beginning a book, but do not let it +be "little," on Distribution, etc. I have no hints to give about maps; +the subject would require long and anxious consideration. Before Forbes +published his essay on Distribution and the Glacial Period I wrote out +and had _copied_ an essay on the same subject, which Hooker read. If +this MS. would be of any use to you, _on account of the references_ in +it to papers, etc., I should be very glad to lend it, to be used in any +way; for I foresee that my strength will never last out to come to this +subject. + +I have been pretty well since my return from Wales, though at the time +it did me no good. + +We shall be in London next month, when I shall hope to see you.--My dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. December 4, [1869]._ + +Dear Darwin,--Dr. Adolf Bernhard Meyer, who translated my book into +German, has written to me for permission to translate my original paper +in the _Linnean Proceedings_ with yours, and wants to put my photograph +and yours in it. If you have given him permission to translate the +papers (which I suppose he can do without permission if he pleases), I +write to ask which of your photographs you would wish to represent you +in Germany--the last, or the previous one by Ernest Edwards, which I +think much the best--as if you like I will undertake to order them and +save you any more trouble about it. It is, of course, out of the +question our meeting to be photographed together, as Mr. Meyer coolly +proposes. + +Hoping you are well, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--I have written a paper on Geological Time, which will appear in +_Nature_, and I _think_ I have hit upon a solution of your greatest +difficulties in that matter.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. December 5, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I wrote to Dr. Meyer that the photographs in England +would cost much and that they did not seem to me worth the cost to him, +but that I of course had no sort of objection. I should be greatly +obliged if you would kindly take the trouble to order any one which you +think best: possibly it would be best to wait, unless you feel sure, +till you hear again from Dr. M. I sent him a copy of our joint paper. He +has kindly sent me the translation of your book, which is splendidly got +up, and which I thought I could not better use than by sending it to +Fritz Müller in Brazil, who will appreciate it. + +I liked your reviews on Mr. Murphy very much; they are capitally +written, like everything which is turned out of your workshop. I was +specially glad about the eye. If you agree with me, take some +opportunity of bringing forward the case of perfected greyhound or +racehorse, in proof of the possibility of the selection of many +correlated variations. I have remarks on this head in my last book. + +If you throw light on the want of geological time, may honour, eternal +glory and blessings crowd thick on your head.--Yours most sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +I forgot to say that I wrote to Dr. M. to say that I should not soon be +in London, and that, of all things in the world, I hate most the bother +of sitting for photographs, so I declined with many apologies. I have +recently refused several applications. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 22, 1870._ + +Dear Darwin,--My paper on Geological Time having been in type nearly two +months, and not knowing when it will appear, I have asked for a proof to +send you, Huxley and Lyell. The latter part only contains what I think +is new, and I shall be anxious to hear if it at all helps to get over +your difficulties. + +I have been lately revising and adding to my various papers bearing on +the "Origin of Species," etc., and am going to print them in a volume +immediately, under the title of "Contributions to the Theory of Natural +Selection: A Series of Essays." + +In the last, I put forth my heterodox opinions as to Man, and even +venture to attack the Huxleyan philosophy! + +Hoping you are quite well and are getting on with your Man book, believe +me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--When you have read the proof and done with it, may I beg you to +return it to me?--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. January 26, [1870]._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been very much struck by your whole article +(returned by this post), especially as to rate of denudation, for the +still glaciated surfaces have of late most perplexed me. Also +_especially_ on the lesser mutations of climate during the last 60,000 +years; for I quite think with you no cause so powerful in inducing +specific changes, through the consequent migrations. Your argument would +be somewhat strengthened about organic changes having been formerly more +rapid, if Sir W. Thomson is correct that physical changes were formerly +more violent and abrupt. + +The whole subject is so new and vast that I suppose you hardly expect +anyone to be at once convinced, but that he should keep your view before +his mind and let it ferment. This, I think, everyone will be forced to +do. I have not as yet been able to digest the fundamental notion of the +shortened age of the sun and earth. Your whole paper seems to me +admirably clear and well put. I may remark that Rütimeyer has shown that +several wild mammals in Switzerland since the neolithic period have had +their dentition and, I _think_, general size _slightly_ modified. I +cannot believe that the Isthmus of Panama has been open since the +commencement of the glacial period; for, notwithstanding the fishes, so +few shells, crustaceans, and, according to Agassiz, not one echinoderm +is common to the sides. I am very glad you are going to publish all your +papers on Natural Selection: I am sure you are right, and that they will +do our cause much good. + +But I groan over Man--you write like a metamorphosed (in retrograde +direction) naturalist, and you the author of the best paper that ever +appeared in the _Anthropological Review_! Eheu! Eheu! Eheu!--Your +miserable friend, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. March 31, 1870._ + +My dear Wallace,--Many thanks for the woodcut, which, judging from the +rate at which I crawl on, will hardly be wanted till this time next +year. Whether I shall have it reduced, or beg Mr. Macmillan for a +stereotype, as you said I might, I have not yet decided. + +I heartily congratulate you on your removal being over, and I much more +heartily condole with myself at your having left London, for I shall +thus miss my talks with you which I always greatly enjoy. + +I was excessively pleased at your review of Galton, and I agree to every +word of it. I must add that I have just re-read your article in the +_Anthropological Review_, and _I defy_ you to upset your own +doctrine.--Ever yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. April 20, [1870]._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have just received your book ["Natural +Selection"][81] and read the preface. There never has been passed on me, +or indeed on anyone, a higher eulogium than yours. I wish that I fully +deserved it. Your modesty and candour are very far from new to me. I +hope it is a satisfaction to you to reflect--and very few things in my +life have been more satisfactory to me--that we have never felt any +jealousy towards each other, though in one sense rivals. I believe that +I can say this of myself with truth, and I am absolutely sure that it is +true of you. + +You have been a good Christian to give a list of your additions, for I +want much to read them, and I should hardly have had time just at +present to have gone through all your articles. + +Of course, I shall immediately read those that are new or greatly +altered, and I will endeavour to be as honest as can reasonably be +expected. Your book looks remarkably well got up.--Believe me, my dear +Wallace, to remain yours very cordially, + +CH. DARWIN + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. June 5, 1870._ + +My dear Wallace,--As imitation and protection are your subjects I have +thought that you would like to possess the enclosed curious drawing. The +note tells all I know about it.--Yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN + +P.S.--I read not long ago a German article on the colours of _female_ +birds, and that author leaned rather strongly to your side about +nidification. I forget who the author was, but he seemed to know a good +deal.--C.D. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. July 6, 1870._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for the drawing. I must say, however, the +resemblance to a snake is not very striking, unless to a cobra not found +in America. It is also evident that it is not Mr. Bates's caterpillar, +as that threw the head backwards so as to show the feet above, forming +imitations of keeled scales. + +Claparčde has sent me his critique on my book. You will probably have it +too. His arguments in reply to my heresy seem to me of the weakest. I +hear you have gone to press, and I look forward with fear and trembling +to being crushed under a mountain of facts! + +I hear you were in town the other day. When you are again, I should be +glad to come at any convenient hour and give you a call. + +Hoping your health is improving, and with kind remembrances to Mrs. +Darwin and all your family, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +In "My Life" (Vol. II., p. 7) Wallace wrote: "In the year 1870 Mr. A.W. +Bennett read a paper before Section D of the British Association at +Liverpool entitled 'The Theory of Natural Selection from a Mathematical +Point of View,' and this paper was printed in full in _Nature_ of +November 10, 1870. To this I replied on November 17, and my reply so +pleased Mr. Darwin that he at once wrote to me as follows:" + + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. November 22, 1870._ + +My dear Wallace,--I must ease myself by writing a few words to say how +much I and all others in this house admire your article in _Nature_. You +are certainly an unparalleled master in lucidly stating a case and in +arguing. Nothing ever was better done than your argument about the term +"origin of species," and the consequences about much being gained, even +if we know nothing about precise cause of each variation. By chance I +have given a few words in my first volume, now some time printed off, +about mimetic butterflies, and have touched on two of your points, viz. +on species already widely dissimilar not being made to resemble each +other, and about the variations in Lepidoptera being often well +pronounced. How strange it is that Mr. Bennett or anyone else should +bring in the action of the mind as a leading cause of variation, seeing +the beautiful and complex adaptations and modifications of structure in +plants, which I do not suppose they would say had minds. + +I have finished the first volume, and am half-way through the first +proof of the second volume, of my confounded book, which half kills me +by fatigue, and which I much fear will quite kill me in your good +estimation. + +If you have leisure I should much like a little news of you and your +doings and your family.--Ever yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. November 24, 1870._ + +Dear Darwin,--Your letter gave me very great pleasure. We still agree, I +am sure, on nineteen points out of twenty, and on the twentieth I am not +inconvincible. But then I must be convinced by facts and arguments, not +by high-handed ridicule such as Claparčde's. + +I hope you see the difference between such criticisms as his, and that +in the last number of the _North American Review_, where my last chapter +is really criticised, point by point; and though I think some of it very +weak, I admit that some is very strong, and almost converts me from the +error of my ways. + +As to your new book, I am sure it will not make me think less highly of +you than I do, unless you do, what you have never done yet, ignore +facts and arguments that go against you. + +I am doing nothing just now but writing articles and putting down +anti-Darwinians, being dreadfully ridden upon by a horrid +old-man-of-the-sea, who has agreed to let me have the piece of land I +have set my heart on, and which I have been trying to get of him since +last February, but who will not answer letters, will not sign an +agreement, and keeps me week after week in anxiety, though I have +accepted his own terms unconditionally, one of which is that I pay rent +from last Michaelmas! And now the finest weather for planting is going +by. It is a bit of a wilderness that can be made into a splendid +imitation of a Welsh valley in little, and will enable me to gather +round me all the beauties of the temperate flora which I so much admire, +or I would not put up with the little fellow's ways. The fixing on a +residence for the rest of your life is an important event, and I am not +likely to be in a very settled frame of mind for some time. + +I am answering A. Murray's Geographical Distribution of Coleoptera for +my Entomological Society Presidential Address, and am printing a second +edition of my "Essays," with a few notes and additions. Very glad to see +(by your writing yourself) that you are better, and with kind regards to +all your family, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. January 27, 1871._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your first volume,[82] which I have just +finished reading through with the greatest pleasure and interest, and I +have also to thank you for the great tenderness with which you have +treated me and my heresies. + +On the subject of sexual selection and protection you do not yet +convince me that I am wrong, but I expect your heaviest artillery will +be brought up in your second volume, and I may have to capitulate. You +seem, however, to have somewhat misunderstood my exact meaning, and I do +not think the difference between us is quite so great as you seem to +think it. There are a number of passages in which you argue against the +view that the female has, in any large number of cases, been "specially +modified" for protection, or that _colour_ has _generally_ been obtained +by either sex for purposes of protection. + +But my view is, and I thought I had made it clear, that the female has +(in most cases) been simply prevented from acquiring the gay tints of +the male (even when there was a tendency for her to inherit it) because +it was hurtful; and, that when protection is not needed, gay colours are +so generally acquired by both sexes as to show that inheritance by both +sexes of colour variations is the most usual, when _not prevented from +acting_ by Natural Selection. + +The colour itself may be acquired either by sexual selection or by other +unknown causes. There are, however, difficulties in the very wide +application you give to sexual selection which at present stagger me, +though no one was or is more ready than myself to admit the perfect +truth of the principle or the immense importance and great variety of +its applications. Your chapters on Man are of intense interest, but as +touching my special heresy not as yet altogether convincing, though of +course I fully agree with every word and every argument which goes to +prove the "evolution" or "development" of man out of a lower form. My +only difficulties are as to whether you have accounted for _every_ step +of the development by ascertained laws. Feeling sure that the book will +keep up and increase your high reputation and be immensely successful, +as it deserves to be, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. January 30, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--Your note has given me very great pleasure, chiefly +because I was so anxious not to treat you with the least disrespect, and +it is so difficult to speak fairly when differing from anyone. If I had +offended you, it would have grieved me more than you will readily +believe. Secondly, I am greatly pleased to hear that Vol. I. interests +you; I have got so sick of the whole subject that I felt in utter doubt +about the value of any part. I intended when speaking of the female not +having been specially modified for protection to include the prevention +of characters acquired by the [male symbol] being transmitted to the +[female symbol]; but I now see it would have been better to have said +"specially acted on," or some such term. Possibly my intention may be +clearer in Vol. II. Let me say that my conclusions are chiefly founded +on a consideration of all animals taken in a body, bearing in mind how +common the rules of sexual differences appear to be in all classes. The +first copy of the chapter on Lepidoptera agreed pretty closely with you. +I then worked on, came back to Lepidoptera, and thought myself compelled +to alter it, finished sexual selection, and for the last time went over +Lepidoptera, and again I felt forced to alter it. + +I hope to God there will be nothing disagreeable to you in Vol. II., and +that I have spoken fairly of your views. I feel the more fearful on this +head, because I have just read (but not with sufficient care) Mivart's +book,[83] and I feel _absolutely certain_ that he meant to be fair (but +he was stimulated by theological fervour); yet I do not think he has +been quite fair: he gives in one place only half of one of my sentences, +ignores in many places all that I have said on effects of use, speaks of +my dogmatic assertion, "of false belief," whereas the end of paragraph +seems to me to render the sentence by no means dogmatic or arrogant; +etc. etc. I have since its publication received some quite charming +letters from him. + +What an ardent (and most justly) admirer he is of you. His work, I do +not doubt, will have a most potent influence versus Natural Selection. +The pendulum will now swing against us. The part which, I think, will +have most influence is when he gives whole series of cases, like that of +whalebone, in which we cannot explain the gradational steps; but such +cases have no weight on my mind--if a few fish were extinct, who on +earth would have ventured even to conjecture that lung had originated in +swim-bladder? In such a case as Thylacines, I think he was bound to say +that the resemblance of the jaw to that of the dog is superficial; the +number and correspondence and development of teeth being widely +different. I think, again, when speaking of the necessity of altering a +number of characters together, he ought to have thought of man having +power by selection to modify simultaneously or almost simultaneously +many points, as in making a greyhound or racehorse--as enlarged upon in +my "Domestic Animals." + +Mivart is savage or contemptuous about my "moral sense," and so probably +will you be. I am extremely pleased that he agrees with my position, _as +far as animal nature is concerned_, of man in the series; or, if +anything, thinks I have erred in making him too distinct. + +Forgive me for scribbling at such length. + +You have put me quite in good spirits, I did so dread having been +unintentionally unfair towards your views. I hope earnestly the second +volume will escape as well. I care now very little what others say. As +for our not quite agreeing, really in such complex subjects it is almost +impossible for two men who arrive independently at their conclusions to +agree fully--it would be unnatural for them to do so.--Yours ever very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. March 11, 1871._ + +Dear Darwin,--I need not say that I read your second volume with, if +possible, a greater interest than the first, as so many topics of +special interest to me are treated of. You will not be surprised to find +that you have not convinced me on the "female protection" question, but +you _will_ be surprised to hear that I do not despair of convincing you. +I have been writing, as you are aware, a review for the _Academy_, which +I tried to refuse doing, but the Editor used as an argument the +statement that you wished me to do so. It is not an easy job fairly to +summarise such a book, but I hope I have succeeded tolerably. When I got +to discussion, I felt more at home, but I most sincerely trust that I +may not have let pass any word that may seem to you in the least too +strong. + +You have not written a word about me that I could wish altered, but as I +know you wish me to be candid with you, I will mention that you have +quoted one passage in a note (p. 376, Vol. II.) which seems to me a +caricature of anything I have written. + +Now let me ask you to rejoice with me, for I have got my chalk pit, and +am hard at work engineering a road up its precipitous slopes. I hope you +may be able to come and see me there some day, as it is an easy ride +from London, and I shall be anxious to know if it is equal to the pit in +the wilds of Kent Mrs. Darwin mentioned when I lunched with you. Should +your gardener in the autumn have any thinnings out of almost any kind +of hardy plants they would be welcome, as I have near four acres of +ground in which I want to substitute ornamental plants for weeds. + +With best wishes, and hoping you may have health and strength to go on +with your great work, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +My review will appear next Wednesday. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. March 16, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have just read your grand review.[84] It is in every +way as kindly expressed towards myself as it is excellent in matter. The +Lyells have been here, and Sir C. remarked that no one wrote such good +scientific reviews as you, and, as Miss Buckley added, you delight in +picking out all that is good, though very far from blind to the bad. In +all this I most entirely agree. I shall always consider your review as a +great honour, and however much my book may hereafter be abused, as no +doubt it will be, your review will console me, notwithstanding that we +differ so greatly. + +I will keep your objections to my views in my mind, but I fear that the +latter are almost stereotyped in my mind, I thought for long weeks about +the inheritance and selection difficulty, and covered quires of paper +with notes, in trying to get out of it, but could not, though clearly +seeing that it would be a great relief if I could. I will confine myself +to two or three remarks. I have been much impressed with what you urge +against colour[85] in the case of insects having been acquired through +sexual selection. I always saw that the evidence was very weak; but I +still think, if it be admitted that the musical instruments of insects +have been gained through sexual selection, that there is not the least +improbability in colour having been thus gained. Your argument with +respect to the denudation of mankind, and also to insects, that taste on +the part of one sex would have to remain nearly the same during many +generations, in order that sexual selection should produce any effect, I +agree to, and I think this argument would be sound if used by one who +denied that, for instance, the plumes of birds of paradise had been so +gained. + +I believe that you admit this, and if so I do not see how your argument +applies in other cases. I have recognised for some short time that I +have made a great omission in not having discussed, as far as I could, +the acquisition of taste, its inherited nature, and its permanence +within pretty close limits for long periods. + +One other point and I have done: I see by p. 179 of your review that I +must have expressed myself very badly to have led you to think that I +consider the prehensile organs of males as affording evidence of the +females exerting a choice. I have never thought so, and if you chance to +remember the passage (but do not hunt for it), pray point it out to me. + +I am extremely sorry that I gave the note from Mr. Stebbing; I thought +myself bound to notice his suggestion of beauty as a cause of +denudation, and thus I was led on to give his argument. I altered the +final passage which seemed to me offensive, and I had misgivings about +the first part. + +I heartily wish I had yielded to these misgivings. I will omit in any +future edition the latter half of the note. + +I have heard from Miss Buckley that you have got possession of your +chalk pit, and I congratulate you on the tedious delay being over. I +fear all our bushes are so large that there is nothing which we are at +all likely to grub up. + +Years ago we threw away loads of things. I should very much like to see +your house and grounds; but I fear the journey would be too long. Going +even to Kew knocks me up, and I have almost ceased trying to do so. + +Once again let me thank you warmly for your admirable review.--My dear +Wallace, yours ever very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + +What an excellent address you gave about Madeira, but I wish you had +alluded to Lyell's discussion on land shells, etc.--not that he has said +a word on the subject. The whole address quite delighted me. I hear Mr. +Crotch[86] disputed some of your facts about the wingless insects, but he +is a _crotchety_ man. As far as I remember, I did not venture to ask Mr. +Appleton to get you to review me, but only said, in answer to an +inquiry, that you would undoubtedly be the best, or one of the very few +men who could do so effectively. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. March 24, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--Very many thanks for the new edition of your Essays. +Honour and glory to you for giving list of additions. It is grand as +showing that our subject flourishes, your book coming to a new edition +so soon. My book also sells immensely; the edition will, I believe, be +6,500 copies. I am tired with writing, for the load of letters which I +receive is enough to make a man cry, yet some few are curious and +valuable. I got one to-day from a doctor on the hair on backs of young +weakly children, which afterwards falls off. Also on hairy idiots. But I +am tired to death, so farewell. + +Thanks for your last letter. + +There is a very striking second article on my book in the _Pall Mall_. +The articles in the _Spectator_[87] have also interested me much.--Again +farewell. + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. May 14, 1871._ + +Dear Darwin,--Have you read that very remarkable book "The Fuel of the +Sun"? If not, get it. It solves the great problem of the almost +unlimited duration of the sun's heat in what appears to me a most +satisfactory manner. I recommended it to Sir C. Lyell, and he tells me +that Grove spoke very highly of it to him. It has been somewhat ignored +by the critics because it is by a new man with a perfectly original +hypothesis, founded on a vast accumulation of physical and chemical +facts; but not being encumbered with any mathematical shibboleths, they +have evidently been afraid that anything so intelligible could not be +sound. The manner in which everything in physical astronomy is explained +is almost as marvellous as the powers of Natural Selection in the same +way, and naturally excites a suspicion that the respective authors are +pushing their theories "a little too far." + +If you read it, get Proctor's book on the Sun at the same time, and +refer to his coloured plates of the protuberances, corona, etc., which +marvellously correspond with what Matthieu Williams's theory requires. +The author is a practical chemist engaged in iron manufacture, and it is +from furnace chemistry that he has been led to the subject. I think it +the most original, most thoughtful and most carefully-worked-out theory +that has appeared for a long time, and it does not say much for the +critics that, as far as I know, its great merits have not been properly +recognised. + +I have been so fully occupied with road-making, well-digging, garden- +and house-planning, planting, etc., that I have given up all other work. + +Do you not admire our friend Miss Buckley's admirable article in +_Macmillan_? It seems to me the best and most original that has been +written on your book. + +Hoping you are well, and are not working too hard, I remain yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 9, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--I send by this post a review by Chauncey Wright, as I +much want your opinion of it, as soon as you can send it. I consider you +an incomparably better critic than I am. The article, though not very +clearly written, and poor in parts for want of knowledge, seems to me +admirable. + +Mivart's book is producing a great effect against Natural Selection, and +more especially against me. Therefore, if you think the article even +somewhat good, I will write and get permission to publish it as a +shilling pamphlet, together with the MS. addition (enclosed), for which +there was not room at the end of the review. I do not suppose I should +lose more than £20 or £30. + +I am now at work at a new and cheap edition of the "Origin," and shall +answer several points in Mivart's book and introduce a new chapter for +this purpose; but I treat the subject so much more concretely, and I +daresay less philosophically, than Wright, that we shall not interfere +with each other. You will think me a bigot when I say, after studying +Mivart, I was never before in my life so convinced of the _general_ +(i.e. not in detail) truth of the views in the "Origin." I grieve to see +the omission of the words by Mivart, detected by Wright.[88] I complained +to M. that in two cases he quotes only the commencement of sentences by +me and thus modifies my meaning; but I never supposed he would have +omitted words. There are other cases of what I consider unfair +treatment. I conclude with sorrow that though he means to be honourable, +he is so bigoted that he cannot act fairly. + +I was glad to see your letter in _Nature_, though I think you were a +little hard on the silly and presumptuous man. + +I hope that your house and grounds are progressing well, and that you +are in all ways flourishing. + +I have been rather seedy, but a few days in London did me much good; and +my dear good wife is going to take me somewhere, _nolens volens_, at the +end of this month. + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Holly Home, Barking, E. July 12, 1871._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to read at my +leisure the very talented article of Mr. C. Wright. His criticism of +Mivart, though very severe, is, I think, in most cases sound; but I find +the larger part of the article so heavy and much of the language and +argument so very obscure, that I very much doubt the utility of printing +it separately. I do not think the readers of Mivart could ever read it +in that form, and I am sure your own answer to Mivart's arguments will +be so much more clear and to the point, that the other will be +unnecessary. You might extract certain portions in your own chapter, +such as the very ingenious suggestion as to the possible origin of +mammary glands, as well as the possible use of the rattle of the +rattlesnake, etc. + +I cannot see the force of Mivart's objection to the theory of production +of the long neck of the giraffe (suggested in my first Essay), and which +C. Wright seems to admit, while his "watch-tower" theory seems to me +more difficult and unlikely as a means of origin. The argument, "Why +haven't other allied animals been modified in the same way?" seems to me +the weakest of the weak. I must say also I do not see any great reason +to complain of the "words" left out by Mivart, as they do not seem to me +materially to affect the meaning. Your expression, "and tends to depart +in a slight degree," I think hardly grammatical; a _tendency_ to depart +cannot very well be said to be in a slight degree; a _departure_ can, +but a tendency must be either a _slight tendency_ or a _strong +tendency_; the degree to which the departure may reach must depend on +favourable or unfavourable causes in addition to the tendency itself. +Mivart's words, "and tending to depart from the parental type," seem to +me quite unobjectionable as a paraphrase of yours, because the "tending" +is kept in; and your own view undoubtedly is that the tendency may lead +to an ultimate departure to any extent. Mivart's error is to suppose +that your words favour the view of _sudden departures_, and I do not see +that the expression he uses really favours his view a bit more than if +he had quoted your exact words. The expression of yours he relies upon +is evidently "the whole organism seeming to have become plastic," and he +argues, no doubt erroneously, that having so become "plastic," any +amount or a larger amount of sudden variation in some direction is +likely. + +Mivart's greatest error, the confounding "individual variations" with +"minute or imperceptible variations," is well exposed by C. Wright, and +that part I should like to see reprinted; but I always thought you laid +too much stress on the slowness of the action of Natural Selection owing +to the smallness and rarity of favourable variations. In your chapter on +Natural Selection the expressions, "extremely slight modifications," +"every variation even the slightest," "every grade of constitutional +difference," occur, and these have led to errors such as Mivart's, I say +all this because I feel sure that Mivart would be the last to +intentionally misrepresent you, and he has told me that he was sorry the +word "infinitesimal," as applied to variations used by Natural +Selection, got into his book, and that he would alter it, as no doubt he +has done, in his second edition. + +Some of Mivart's strongest points--the eye and ear, for instance--are +unnoticed in the review. You will, of course, reply to these. His +statement of the "missing link" argument is also forcible, and has, I +have no doubt, much weight with the public. As to all his minor +arguments, I feel with you that they leave Natural Selection stronger +than ever, while the two or three main arguments do leave a lingering +doubt in my mind of some fundamental organic law of development of which +we have as yet no notion. + +Pray do not attach any weight to my opinions as to the review. It is +very clever, but the writer seems a little like those critics who know +an author's or an artist's meaning better than they do themselves. + +My house is now in the hands of a contractor, but I am wall-building, +etc., and very busy.--With best wishes, believe me, dear Darwin, yours +very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 12, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--Very many thanks. As soon as I read your letter I +determined, not to print the paper, notwithstanding my eldest daughter, +who is a very good critic, thought it so interesting as to be worth +reprinting. Then my wife came in, and said, "I do not much care about +these things and shall therefore be a good judge whether it is very +dull." So I will leave my decision open for a day or two. Your letter +has been, and will be, of use to me in other ways: thus I had quite +forgotten that you had taken up the case of the giraffe in your first +memoir, and I must look to this. I feel very doubtful how far I shall +succeed in answering Mivart; it is so difficult to answer objections to +doubtful points and make the discussion readable. I shall make only a +selection. The worst of it is that I cannot possibly hunt through all my +references for isolated points; it would take me three weeks of +intolerably hard work. I wish I had your power of arguing clearly. At +present I feel sick of everything, and if I could occupy my time and +forget my daily discomforts or little miseries, I would never publish +another word. But I shall cheer up, I daresay, soon, being only just got +over a bad attack. Farewell. God knows why I bother you about myself. + +I can say nothing more about missing links than what I have said. I +should rely much on pre-Silurian times; but then comes Sir W. Thomson +like an odious spectre. Farewell.--Yours most sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +I was grieved to see in the _Daily News_ that the madman about the flat +earth has been threatening your life. What an odious trouble this must +have been to you. + +P.S.--There is a most cutting review of me in the _Quarterly_:[89] I have +only read a few pages. The skill and style make me think of Mivart. I +shall soon be viewed as the most despicable of men. This _Quarterly_ +review tempts me to republish Ch. Wright, even if not read by anyone, +just to show that someone will say a word against Mivart, and that his +(i.e. Mivart's) remarks ought not to be swallowed without some +reflection. + +I quite agree with what you say that Mivart fully intends to be +honourable; but he seems to me to have the mind of a most able lawyer +retained to plead against us, and especially against me. God knows +whether my strength and spirit will last out to write a chapter versus +Mivart and others; I do so hate controversy, and feel I should do it so +badly. + +P.S.--I have now finished the review: there can be no doubt it is by +Mivart, and wonderfully clever. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. July 16, 1871._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am very sorry you are so unwell, and that you allow +criticisms to worry you so. Remember the noble army of converts you have +made! and the host of the most talented men living who support you +wholly. What do you think of putting C. Wright's article as an appendix +to the new edition of the "Origin"? That would get it read, and obviate +my chief objection, that the people who read Mivart and the "Origin" +will very few of them buy a separate pamphlet to read. Pamphlets are +such nuisances. I don't think Mivart could have written the _Quarterly_ +article, but I will look at it and shall, I think, be able to tell. Pray +keep your spirits up. I am so distracted by building troubles that I can +write nothing, and I shall not, till I get settled in my new house, +some time next spring, I hope.--With best wishes, believe me yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Haredene, Albury, Guildford. August 1, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--Your kind and sympathetic letter pleased me greatly +and did me good, but as you are so busy I did not answer it. I write now +because I have just received a very remarkable letter from Fritz Müller +(with butterflies' wings gummed on paper as illustrations) on mimicry, +etc. I think it is well worth your reading, but I will not send it, +unless I receive a 1/2d. card to this effect. He puts the difficulty of +first start in imitation excellently, and gives wonderful proof of +closeness of the imitation. He hints a curious addition to the theory in +relation to sexual selection, which you will think madly hypothetical: +it occurred to me in a very different class of cases, but I was afraid +to publish it. It would aid the theory of imitative protection, _when +the colours are bright_. He seems much pleased with your caterpillar +theory. I wish the letter could be published, but without coloured +illustrations [it] would, I fear, be unintelligible. + +I have not yet made up my mind about Wright's review; I shall stop till +I hear from him. Your suggestion would make the "Origin," already too +large, still more bulky. + +By the way, did Mr. Youmans, of the United States, apply to you to write +a popular sketch of Natural Selection? I told him you would do it +immeasurably better than anyone in the world. My head keeps very rocky +and wretched, but I am better,--Ever yours most truly, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. March 3, 1872._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your new edition of the "Origin," which I +have been too busy to acknowledge before. I think your answer to Mivart +on the initial stages of modification ample and complete, and the +comparison of whale and duck most beautiful. I always saw the fallacy of +these objections, of course. The eye and ear objection you have not so +satisfactorily answered, and to me the difficulty exists of how _three +times over_ an organ of sight was developed with the apparatus even +approximately identical. Why should not, in one case out of the three, +the heat rays or the chemical rays have been utilised for the same +purpose, in which case no translucent media would have been required, +and yet vision might have been just as perfect? The fact that the eyes +of insects and molluscs are transparent to us shows that the very same +limited portion of the rays of the spectrum is utilised for vision by +them as by us. + +The chances seem to me immense against that having occurred through +"fortuitous variation," as Mivart puts it. + +I see still further difficulties on this point but cannot go into them +now. Many thanks for your kind invitation. I will try and call some day, +but I am now very busy trying to make my house habitable by Lady Day, +when I _must_ be in it.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 27, 1872._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have just read with infinite satisfaction your +crushing article in _Nature_.[90] I have been the more glad to see it, as +I have not seen the book itself: I did not order it, as I felt sure +from Dr. B.'s former book that he could write nothing of value. But +assuredly I did not suppose that anyone would have written such a mass +of inaccuracies and rubbish. How rich is everything which he says and +quotes from Herbert Spencer! + +By the way, I suppose that you read H. Spencer's answer to Martineau: it +struck me as quite wonderfully good, and I felt even more strongly +inclined than before to bow in reverence before him. Nothing has amused +me more in your review than Dr. B.'s extraordinary presumption in +deciding that such men as Lyell, Owen, H. Spencer, Mivart, Gaudry, etc. +etc., are all wrong. I daresay it would be very delightful to feel such +overwhelming confidence in oneself. + +I have had a poor time of it of late, rarely having an hour of comfort, +except when asleep or immersed in work; and then when that is over I +feel dead with fatigue. I am now correcting my little book on +Expression; but it will not be published till November, when of course a +copy will be sent to you. I shall now try whether I can occupy myself +without writing anything more on so difficult a subject as Evolution. + +I hope you are now comfortably settled in your new house, and have more +leisure than you have had for some time. I have looked out in the papers +for any notice about the curatorship of the new Museum, but have seen +nothing. If anything is decided in your favour, I _beg_ you to inform +me.--My dear Wallace, very truly yours, + +C. DARWIN. + +How grandly the public has taken up Hooker's case. + + * * * * * + +_Down. August 3, [1872]._ + +My dear Wallace,--I hate controversy, chiefly perhaps because I do it +badly; but as Dr. Bree accuses you of "blundering," I have thought +myself bound to send the enclosed letter[91] to _Nature_, that is, if +you in the least desire it. In this case please post it. If you do not +_at all_ wish it, I should rather prefer not sending it, and in this +case please tear it up. And I beg you to do the same, if you intend +answering Dr. Bree yourself, as you will do it incomparably better than +I should. Also please tear it up if you don't like the letter.--My dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. August 4, 1872._ + +Dear Darwin,--I have sent your letter to _Nature_, as I think it will +settle that question far better than anything I can say. Many thanks for +it. I have not seen Dr. Bree's letter yet, as I get _Nature_ here very +irregularly, but as I was very careful to mention none but _real errors_ +in Dr. Bree's book, I do not imagine there will be any necessity for my +taking any notice of it. It was really entertaining to have such a book +to review, the errors and misconceptions were so inexplicable and the +self-sufficiency of the man so amazing. Yet there is some excellent +writing in the book, and to a half-informed person it has all the +appearance of being a most valuable and authoritative work. + +I am now reviewing a much more important book and one that, if I mistake +not, will really compel you sooner or later to modify some of your +views, though it will not at all affect the main doctrine of Natural +Selection as applied to the higher animals. I allude, of course, to +Bastian's "Beginnings of Life," which you have no doubt got. It is hard +reading, but intensely interesting. I am a thorough convert to his main +results, and it seems to me that nothing more important has appeared +since your "Origin." It is a pity he is so awfully voluminous and +discursive. When you have thoroughly digested it I shall be glad to know +what you are disposed to think. My first notice of it will I think +appear in _Nature_ next week, but I have been hurried for it, and it is +not so well written an article as I could wish. + +I sincerely hope your health is improving.--Believe me yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--I fear Lubbock's motion is being pushed off to the end of the +Session, and Hooker's case will not be fairly considered. I hope the +matter will _not_ be allowed to drop.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. August 28, 1872._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have at last finished the gigantic job of reading +Dr. Bastian's book, and have been deeply interested in it. You wished to +hear my impression, but it is not worth sending. + +He seems to me an extremely able man, as indeed I thought when I read +his first essay. His general argument in favour of archebiosis[92] is +wonderfully strong; though I cannot think much of some few of his +arguments. The result is that I am bewildered and astonished by his +statements, but am not convinced; though on the whole it seems to me +probable that archebiosis is true. I am not convinced partly I think +owing to the deductive cast of much of his reasoning; and I know not +why, but I never feel convinced by deduction, even in the case of H. +Spencer's writings. If Dr. B.'s book had been turned upside down, and he +had begun with the various cases of heterogenesis, and then gone on to +organic and afterwards to saline solutions, and had then given his +general arguments, I should have been, I believe, much more influenced. +I suspect, however, that my chief difficulty is the effect of old +convictions being stereotyped on my brain. I must have more evidence +that germs or the minutest fragments of the lowest forms are always +killed by 212° of Fahr. Perhaps the mere reiteration of the statements +given by Dr. B. by other men whose judgment I respect and who have +worked long on the lower organisms would suffice to convince me. Here is +a fine confession of intellectual weakness; but what an inexplicable +frame of mind is that of belief. + +As for Rotifers and Tardigrades being spontaneously generated, my mind +can no more digest such statements, whether true or false, than my +stomach can digest a lump of lead. + +Dr. B. is always comparing archebiosis as well as growth to +crystallisation; but on this view a Rotifer or Tardigrade is adapted to +its humble conditions of life by a happy accident; and this I cannot +believe. That observations of the above nature may easily be altogether +wrong is well shown by Dr. B. having declared to Huxley that he had +watched the entire development of a leaf of Sphagnum. He must have +worked with very impure materials in some cases, as plenty of organisms +appeared in a saline solution not containing an atom of nitrogen. + +I wholly disagree with Dr. B. about many points in his latter chapters. +Thus the frequency of generalised forms in the older strata seems to me +clearly to indicate the common descent with divergence of more recent +forms. + +Notwithstanding all his sneers, I do not strike my colours as yet about +pangenesis. I should like to live to see archebiosis proved true, for it +would be a discovery of transcendent importance; or if false I should +like to see it disproved, and the facts otherwise explained; but I shall +not live to see all this. If ever proved, Dr. B. will have taken a +prominent part in the work. How grand is the onward rush of science; it +is enough to console us for the many errors which we have committed and +for our efforts being overlaid and forgotten in the mass of new facts +and new views which are daily turning up. + +This is all I have to say about Dr. B.'s book, and it certainly has not +been worth saying. Nevertheless, reward me whenever you can by giving me +any news about your appointment to the Bethnal Green Museum.--My dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. August 31, 1872._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your long and interesting letter about +Bastian's book, though I almost regret that my asking you for your +opinion should have led you to give yourself so much trouble. I quite +understand your frame of mind, and think it quite a natural and proper +one. You had hard work to hammer your views into people's heads at +first, and if Bastian's theory is true he will have still harder work, +because the facts he appeals to are themselves so difficult to +establish. Are not you mistaken about the Sphagnum? As I remember it, +Huxley detected a fragment of Sphagnum leaf _in the same solution in +which a fungoid growth had been developed_. Bastian mistook the Sphagnum +also for a vegetable growth, and on account of this ignorance of the +character of Sphagnum, and its presence in the solution, Huxley rejected +somewhat contemptuously (and I think very illogically) all Bastian's +observations. Again, as to the saline solution without nitrogen, would +not the air supply what was required? + +I quite agree that the book would have gained force by rearrangement in +the way you suggest, but perhaps he thought it necessary to begin with a +general argument in order to induce people to examine his new collection +of facts, I am impressed _most_ by the agreement of so many observers, +some of whom struggle to explain away their own facts. What a +wonderfully ingenious and suggestive paper that is by Galton on "Blood +Relationship." It helps to render intelligible many of the +eccentricities of heredity, atavism, etc. + +Sir Charles Lyell was good enough to write to Lord Ripon and Mr. Cole[93] +about me and the Bethnal Green Museum, and the answer he got was that at +present no appointment of a director is contemplated. I suppose they see +no way of making it a Natural History Museum, and it will have to be +kept going by Loan Collections of miscellaneous works of art, in which +case, of course, the South Kensington people will manage it. It is a +considerable disappointment to me, as I had almost calculated on getting +something there. + +With best wishes for your good health and happiness, believe me, dear +Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--I have just been reading Howorth's paper in the _Journal of the +Anthropological Institute_. How perverse it is. He throughout confounds +"fertility" with "increase of population," which seems to me to be the +main cause of his errors. His elaborate accumulation of facts in other +papers in _Nature_, on "Subsidence and Elevation of Land," I believe to +be equally full of error, and utterly untrustworthy as a whole.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 2, 1872._ + +My dear Wallace,--I write a line to say that I understood--but I may of +course have been mistaken--from Huxley that Bastian distinctly stated +that he had watched the development of the scale of Sphagnum: I was +astonished, as I knew the appearance of Sphagnum under a high power, and +asked a second time; but I repeat that I may have been mistaken. Busk +told me that Sharpey had noticed the appearance of numerous Infusoria in +one of the solutions not containing any nitrogen; and I do not suppose +that any physiologist would admit the possibility of Infusoria absorbing +nitrogen gas. Possibly I ought not to have mentioned statements made in +private conversation, so please do not repeat them. + +I quite agree about the extreme importance of such men as Cohn +[illegible] and Carter having observed apparent cases of heterogenesis. +At present I should prefer any mad hypothesis, such as that every +disintegrated molecule of the lowest forms can reproduce the +parent-form, and that the molecules are universally distributed, and +that they do not lose their vital power until heated to such a +temperature that they decompose like dead organic particles. + +I am extremely grieved to hear about the Museum: it is a great +misfortune.--Yours most sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + +I have taken up old botanical work and have given up all theories. + +I quite agree about Howorth's paper: he wrote to me and I told him that +we differed so widely it was of no use our discussing any point. + +As for Galton's paper, I have never yet been able to fully digest it: as +far as I have, it has not cleared my ideas, and has only aided in +bringing more prominently forward the large proportion of the latent +characters. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. October 20, 1872._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have thought that you would perhaps like to see +enclosed specimen and extract from letter (translated from the German by +my son) from Dr. W. Marshall, Zoological Assistant to Schlegel at +Leyden. Neither the specimen nor extract need be returned; and you need +not acknowledge the receipt. The resemblance is not so close, now that +the fragments are gummed on card, as I at first thought. Your review of +Houzeau was very good: I skimmed through the whole gigantic book, but +you managed to pick out the plums much better than I did for myself. You +are a born critic. What an _admirable_ number that was of _Nature_. + +I am writing this at Sevenoaks, where we have taken a house for three +weeks and have one more week to stay. We came here that I may get a +little rest, of which I stood in much need.--Ever yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +With respect to what you say about certain instincts of ants having been +acquired by experience or sense, have you kept in mind that the neuters +have no progeny? I wish I knew whether the fertile females, or queens, +do the same work (viz. placing the eggs in warm places, etc.) as the +neuters do afterwards; if so the case would be comparatively simple; but +I believe this is not the case, and I am driven to selection of varying +pre-existing instincts. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 15, 1872._ + +Dear Darwin,--I should have written earlier to thank you for your +book,[94] but was hoping to be able to read more of it before doing so. +I have not, however, found time to get beyond the first three chapters, +but that is quite sufficient to show me how exceedingly interesting you +have made the subject, and how completely and admirably you have worked +it out. I expect it will be one of the most popular of your works. I +have just been asked to write a review of it for the _Quarterly Journal +of Science_, for which purpose I shall be in duty bound to seek out some +deficiencies, however minute, so as to give my notice some flavour of +criticism. + +The cuts and photos are admirable, and my little boy and girl seized it +at once to look at the naughty babies. + +With best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--I will take this opportunity of asking you if you know of any book +that will give me a complete catalogue of vertebrate fossils with some +indication of their affinities.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 13, 1873._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have read your review with much interest, and I +thank you sincerely for the very kind spirit in which it is written. I +cannot say that I am convinced by your criticisms.[95] If you have ever +actually observed a kitten sucking and pounding with extended toes its +mother, and then seen the same kitten when a _little older_ doing the +same thing on a soft shawl, and ultimately an old cat (as I have seen), +and do not admit that it is identically the same action, I am +astonished. + +With respect to the decapitated frog,[96] I have always heard of Pflüger +as a most trustworthy observer. If, indeed, anyone knows a frog's habits +so well as to say that it never rubs off a bit of leaf or other object, +which may stick to its thigh, in the same manner as it did the acid, +your objection would be valid. Some of Flourens' experiments, in which +he removed the cerebral hemisphere from a pigeon, indicate that acts +_apparently_ performed consciously can be done without consciousness--I +presume through the force of habit; in which case it would appear that +intellectual power is not brought into play. Several persons have made +such suggestions and objections as yours about the hands being held up +in astonishment:[97] if there was any straining of the muscles, as with +protruded arms under fright, I would agree: as it is I must keep to my +old opinion, and I daresay you will say that I am an obstinate old +blockhead.--My dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +The book has sold wonderfully; 9,000 copies have now been printed. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. Wednesday morning, [November, 1873]._ + +Dear Darwin,--Yours just received. Pray act exactly as if nothing had +been said to me on the subject. I do not particularly _wish_ for the +work,[98] as, besides being as you say, tedious work, it involves a +considerable amount of responsibility. Still, I am prepared to do any +literary work of the kind, as I told Bates some time ago, and that is +the reason he wrote to me about it. I certainly think, however, that it +would be in many ways more satisfactory to you if your son did it, and I +therefore hope he may undertake it. + +Should he, however, for any reasons, be unable, I am at your service as +a _dernier ressort_. + +In case my meaning is not quite clear, I will _not do it_ unless your +son has the offer and declines it.--Believe me, dear Darwin, yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED B. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 18, 1873._ + +Dear Darwin,--I quite understand what you require, and would undertake +to do it to the best of my ability. Of course in such work I should not +think of offering criticisms of matter. + +I do not think I could form any idea of how long it would take by seeing +the MSS., as it would all depend upon the amount of revision and +working-in required. I have helped Sir C. Lyell with his last three or +four editions in a somewhat similar though different way, and for him I +have kept an account simply of the hours I was employed in any way for +him, and he paid me 5/- an hour; but (of course this is confidential) I +do not think this quite enough for the class of work. I should propose +for your work 7/- an hour as a fair remuneration, and I would put down +each day the hours I worked at it. + +No doubt you will get it done for very much less by any literary man +accustomed to regular literary work and nothing else, and perhaps better +done, so do not in the least scruple in saying you decide on employing +the gentleman you had in view if you prefer it. + +If you send it to me could you let me have _all_ your MSS. copied out, +as it adds considerably to the time required if there is any difficulty +in deciphering the writing, which in yours (as you are no doubt aware) +there often is. + +My hasty note to Bates was not intended to be shown you or anyone. I +thought he had heard of it from Murray, and that the arrangement was to +be made by Murray.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--I have been delighted with H. Spencer's "Study of Sociology." Some +of the passages in the latter part are _grand_. You have perhaps seen +that I am dipping into politics myself occasionally.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenkam, Kent. November 19, 1873._ + +Dear Wallace,--I thank you for your extremely kind letter, and I am +sorry that I troubled you with that of yesterday. My wife thinks that my +son George would be so much pleased at undertaking the work for me, that +I will write to him, and so probably shall have no occasion to trouble +you. If on still further reflection, and after looking over my notes, I +think that my son could not do the work, I will write again and +_gratefully_ accept your proposal. But if you do not hear, you will +understand that I can manage the affair myself. I never in my lifetime +regretted an interruption so much as this new edition of the "Descent." +I am deeply immersed in some work on physiological points with plants. + +I fully agree with what you say about H. Spencer's "Sociology"; I do not +believe there is a man in Europe at all his equal in talents. I did not +know that you had been writing on politics, except so far as your letter +on the coal question, which interested me much and struck me as a +capital letter. + +I must again thank you for your letter, and remain, dear Wallace, yours +very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +I hope to Heaven that politics will not replace natural science. + +I know too well how atrociously bad my handwriting is. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. December 6, 1874._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your kindness in sending me a copy of your +new edition of the "Descent." I see you have made a whole host of +additions and corrections which I shall have great pleasure in reading +over as soon as I have got rid of my horrid book on Geographical +Distribution, which is almost driving me mad with the amount of drudgery +required and the often unsatisfactory nature of the result. However, I +must finish with it soon, or all the part first done will have to be +done over again, every new book, either as a monograph, or a +classification, putting everything wrong (for me). + +Hoping you are in good health and able to go on with your favourite +work, I remain yours very sincerely, + +ALFRED B. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. July 21, 1875._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your kindness in sending me a copy of your +new book.[99] Being very busy I have only had time to dip into it yet. +The account of Utricularia is most marvellous, and quite new to me. I'm +rather surprised that you do not make any remarks on the origin of these +extraordinary contrivances for capturing insects. Did you think they +were too obvious? I daresay there is no difficulty, but I feel sure they +will be seized on as inexplicable by Natural Selection, and your silence +on the point will be held to show that you consider them so! The +contrivance in Utricularia and Dionęa, and in fact in Drosera too, seems +fully as great and complex as in Orchids, but there is not the same +motive force. Fertilisation and cross-fertilisation are important ends +enough to lead to _any_ modification, but can we suppose mere +nourishment to be so important, seeing that it is so easily and almost +universally obtained by extrusion of roots and leaves? Here are plants +which lose their roots and leaves to acquire the same results by +infinitely complex modes! What a wonderful and long-continued series of +variations must have led up to the perfect "trap" in Utricularia, while +at any stage of the process the same end might have been gained by a +little more development of roots and leaves, as in 9,999 plants out of +10,000! + +Is this an imaginary difficulty, or do you mean to deal with it in +future editions of the "Origin"?--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 7, 1875._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your beautiful little volume on "Climbing +Plants," which forms a most interesting companion to your "Orchids" and +"Insectivorous Plants." I am sorry to see that you have not this time +given us the luxury of cut edges. + +I am in the midst of printing and proof-sheets, which are wearisome in +the extreme from the mass of names and statistics I have been obliged to +introduce, and which will, I fear, make my book insufferably dull to all +but zoological specialists. + +My trust is in my pictures and maps to catch the public. + +Hoping yourself and all your family are quite well, believe me yours +very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. June 5, 1876._ + +My dear Wallace,--I must have the pleasure of expressing to you my +unbounded admiration of your book,[100] though I have read only to page +184--my object having been to do as little as possible while resting. I +feel sure that you have laid a broad and safe foundation for all future +work on Distribution. How interesting it will be to see hereafter plants +treated in strict relation to your views; and then all insects, +pulmonate molluscs, and fresh-water fishes, in greater detail than I +suppose you have given to these lower animals. The point which has +interested me most, but I do not say the most valuable point, is your +protest against sinking imaginary continents in a quite reckless manner, +as was started by Forbes, followed, alas, by Hooker, and caricatured by +Wollaston and Murray. By the way, the main impression which the latter +author has left on my mind is his utter want of all scientific judgment. +I have lifted up my voice against the above view with no avail, but I +have no doubt that you will succeed, owing to your new arguments and the +coloured chart. Of a special value, as it seems to me, is the conclusion +that we must determine the areas chiefly by the nature of the mammals. +When I worked many years ago on this subject, I doubted much whether the +now-called Palearctic and Nearctic regions ought to be separated; and I +determined if I made another region that it should be Madagascar. I have +therefore been able to appreciate the value of your evidence on these +points. What progress Palęontology has made during the last 20 years! +But if it advances at the same rate in the future, our views on the +migration and birthplace of the various groups will, I fear, be greatly +altered. I cannot feel quite easy about the Glacial period and the +extinction of large mammals, but I much hope that you are right. I think +you will have to modify your belief about the difficulty of dispersal of +land molluscs; I was interrupted when beginning to experimentise on the +just-hatched young adhering to the feet of ground-roosting birds. I +differ on one other point, viz. in the belief that there must have +existed a Tertiary Antarctic continent, from which various forms +radiated to the southern extremities of our present continents. But I +could go on scribbling for ever. You have written, as I believe, a grand +and memorable work, which will last for years as the foundation for all +future treatises on Geographical Distribution,--My dear Wallace, yours +very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + +P.S.--You have paid me the highest conceivable compliment by what you +say of your work in relation to my chapters on Distribution in the +"Origin," and I heartily thank you for it. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. June 7, 1876._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your very kind letter. So few people will +read my book at all regularly, that a criticism from one who does so +will be very welcome. + +If, as I suppose, it is only to p. 184 of Vol. I. that you have read, +you cannot yet quite see my conclusions on the points you refer to (land +molluscs and Antarctic continent). My own conclusions fluctuated during +the progress of the book, and I have, I know, occasionally used +expressions (the relics of earlier ideas) which are not quite consistent +with what I say further on. I am positively against any Southern +continent as _uniting_ South America with Australia or New Zealand, as +you will see at Vol. I., pp. 398-403 and 459-466. My general conclusions +as to Distribution of Land Mollusca[101] are at Vol. II., pp. 522-529. +When you have read these passages and looked at the general facts which +lead to them, I shall be glad to hear if you still differ from me. + +Though, of course, _present results_ as to origin and migrations of +genera of mammals will have to be modified owing to new discoveries, I +cannot help thinking that much will remain unaffected, because in all +geographical and geological discoveries the great outlines are soon +reached; the details alone remain to be modified. I also think much of +the geological evidence is now so accordant with, and explanatory of, +geographical distribution that it is prima facie correct in outline. +Nevertheless, such vast masses of new facts will come out in the next +few years that I quite dread the labour of incorporating them in a new +edition. + +Now for a little personal matter. For two years I have made up my mind +to leave this place--mainly for two reasons: drought and wind prevent +the satisfactory growth of all delicate plants; and I cannot stand being +unable to attend evening meetings and being obliged to refuse every +invitation in London. But I was obliged to stay till I had got it into +decent order to attract a customer. At last it is so, and I am offering +it for sale, and as soon as it is disposed of I intend to try the +neighbourhood of Dorking, whence there are late trains from Cannon +Street and Charing Cross. + +I see your post-mark was Dorking, so I suppose you have been staying +there. Is it not a lovely country? I hope your health is improved, and +when, quite at your leisure, you have waded through my book, I trust +you will again let me have a few lines of friendly criticism and +advice.--Yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham. June 17, 1876._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have now finished the whole of Vol. I., with the +same interest and admiration as before; and I am convinced that my +judgment was right and that it is a memorable book, the basis of all +future work on the subject. I have nothing particular to say, but +perhaps you would like to hear my impressions on two or three points. +Nothing has struck me more than the admirable and convincing manner in +which you treat Java. To allude to a very trifling point, it is capital +about the unadorned head of the Argus pheasant.[102] How plain a thing is, +when it is once pointed out! What a wonderful case is that of Celebes! I +am glad that you have slightly modified your views with respect to +Africa,[103] and this leads me to say that I cannot swallow the so-called +continent of Lemuria, i.e. the direct connection of Africa and +Ceylon![104] The facts do not seem to me many and strong enough to justify +so immense a change of level. Moreover, Mauritius and the other islands +appear to me oceanic in character. But do not suppose that I place my +judgment on this subject on a level with yours. A wonderfully good paper +was published about a year ago on India in the _Geological Journal_--I +_think_ by Blandford.[105] Ramsay agreed with me that it was one of the +best published for a long time. The author shows that India has been a +continent with enormous fresh-water lakes from the Permian period to the +present day. If I remember right he believes in a former connection with +South Africa. + +I am sure that I read, some 20 to 30 years ago, in a French journal, an +account of teeth of mastodon found in Timor; but the statement may have +been an error. + +With respect to what you say about the colonising of New Zealand, I +somewhere have an account of a frog frozen in the ice of a Swiss +glacier, and which revived when thawed. I may add that there is an +Indian toad which can resist salt water and haunts the seaside. Nothing +ever astonished me more than the case of the Galaxias; but it does not +seem known whether it may not be a migratory fish like the salmon. It +seems to me that you complicate rather too much the successive +colonisations with New Zealand. I should prefer believing that the +Galaxias was a species, like the Emys of the Sewalik Hills, which has +long retained the same form. Your remarks on the insects and flowers of +New Zealand have greatly interested me; but aromatic leaves I have +always looked at as a protection against their being eaten by insects or +other animals; and as insects are there rare, such protection would not +be much needed. I have written more than I intended, and I must again +say how profoundly your book has interested me. + +Now let me turn to a very different subject. I have only just heard of +and procured your two articles in the _Academy_. I thank you most +cordially for your generous defence of me against Mr. Mivart. In the +"Origin" I did not discuss the derivation of any one species; but that I +might not be accused of concealing my opinion I went out of my way and +inserted a sentence which seemed to me (and still so seems) to declare +plainly my belief. This was quoted in my "Descent of Man." Therefore it +is very unjust, not to say dishonest, of Mr. Mivart to accuse me of base +fraudulent concealment; I care little about myself; but Mr. Mivart, in +an article in the _Quarterly Review_ (which I _know_ was written by +him), accused my son George of encouraging profligacy, and this without +the least foundation.[106] I can assert this positively, as I laid +George's article and the _Quarterly Review_ before Hooker, Huxley and +others, and all agreed that the accusation was a deliberate +falsification. Huxley wrote to him on the subject and has almost or +quite cut him in consequence; and so would Hooker, but he was advised +not to do so as President of the Royal Society. Well, he has gained his +object in giving me pain, and, good God, to think of the flattering, +almost fawning speeches which he has made to me! I wrote, of course, to +him to say that I would never speak to him again. I ought, however, to +be contented, as he is the one man who has ever, as far as I know, +treated me basely. + +Forgive me for writing at such length, and believe me yours very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--I am very sorry that you have given up sexual selection. I am not +at all shaken, and stick to my colours like a true Briton. When I think +about the unadorned head of the Argus pheasant, I might exclaim, _Et tu, +Brute!_ + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham. June 25, 1876._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been able to read rather more quickly of late +and have finished your book. I have not much to say. Your careful +account of the temperate parts of South America interested me much, and +all the more from knowing something of the country. I like also much the +general remarks towards the end of the volume on the land molluscs. Now +for a few criticisms. + +P. 122:[107] I am surprised at your saying that "during the whole Tertiary +period North America was zoologically far more strongly contrasted with +South America than it is now." But we know hardly anything of the latter +except during the Pliocene period, and then the mastodon, horse, several +great Dentata, etc. etc., were common to the North and South. If you are +right I erred greatly in my Journal, where I insisted on the former +close connection between the two. + +P. 252, and elsewhere: I agree thoroughly with the general principle +that a great area with many competing forms is necessary for much and +high development; but do you not extend this principle too far--I should +say much too far, considering how often several species of the same +genus have been developed on very small islands? + +P. 265: You say that the Sittidę extend to Madagascar, but there is no +number in the tabular heading.[108] + +P. 359: Rhinochetus is entered in the tabular heading under No. 3 of the +_Neotropical_ sub-regions.[109] + +Reviewers think it necessary to find some fault, and if I were to review +you, the sole point which I should blame is your not giving very +numerous references. These would save whoever follows you great labour. +Occasionally I wished myself to know the authority for certain +statements, and whether you or somebody else had originated certain +subordinate views. Take the case of a man who had collected largely on +some island, for instance St. Helena, and who wished to work out the +geographical relations of his collection; he would, I think, feel very +blank at not finding in your work precise references to all that had +been written on St. Helena. I hope you will not think me a confoundedly +disagreeable fellow. + +I may mention a capital essay which I received a few mouths ago from +Axel Blytt[110] on the distribution of the plants of Scandinavia; showing +the high probability of there having been secular periods alternately +wet and dry; and of the important part which they have played in +distribution. + +I wrote to Forel, who is always at work on ants, and told him of your +views about the dispersal of the blind Coleoptera, and asked him to +observe. + +I spoke to Hooker about your book, and feel sure that he would like +nothing better than to consider the distribution of plants in relation +to your views; but he seemed to doubt whether he should ever have time. + +And now I have done my jottings, and once again congratulate you on +having brought out so grand a work. I have been a little disappointed at +the review in _Nature_[111]--My dear Wallace, yours sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Rose Hill, Dorking. July 23, 1876._ + +My dear Darwin,--I should have replied sooner to your last kind and +interesting letters, but they reached me in the midst of my packing +previous to removal here, and I have only just now got my books and +papers in a get-at-able state. + +And first, many thanks for your close observation in detecting the two +absurd mistakes in the tabular headings. + +As to the former greater distinction of the North and South American +faunas, I think I am right. The Edentata, being proved (as I hold) to +have been mere temporary migrants into North America in the +post-Pliocene epoch, form no part of its Tertiary fauna. Yet in South +America they were so enormously developed in the Pliocene epoch that we +know, if there is any such thing as Evolution, etc., that strange +ancestral forms must have preceded them in Miocene times. + +Mastodon, on the other hand, represented by one or two species only, +appears to have been a late immigrant into South America from the North. + +The immense development of Ungulates (in varied families, genera, and +species) in North America during the whole Tertiary epoch is, however, +the great feature, which assimilates it to Europe and contrasts it with +South America. True camels, hosts of hog-like animals, true +rhinoceroses, and hosts of ancestral horses, all bring North America +much nearer to the Old World than it is now. Even the horse, represented +in all South America by Equus only, was probably a temporary immigrant +from the North. + +As to extending too far the principle (yours) of the necessity of +comparatively large areas for the development of varied faunas, I may +have done so, but I think not. There is, I think, every probability that +most islands, etc., where a varied fauna now exists have been once more +extensive, e.g. New Zealand, Madagascar. Where there is no such evidence +(e.g. Galapagos), the fauna is _very restricted_. + +Lastly as to want of references; I confess the justice of your +criticism. But I am dreadfully unsystematic. It is my first large work +involving much of the labour of others. I began with the intention of +writing a comparatively short sketch, enlarged it, and added to it, bit +by bit; remodelled the tables, the headings, and almost everything else, +more than once, and got my materials into such confusion that it is a +wonder it has not turned out far more crooked and confused than it is. +I, no doubt, ought to have given references; but in many cases I found +the information so small and scattered, and so much had to be combined +and condensed from conflicting authorities, that I hardly knew how to +refer to them or where to leave off. Had I referred to all authors +consulted for every fact, I should have greatly increased the bulk of +the book, while a large portion of the references would be valueless in +a few years owing to later and better authorities. My experience of +referring to references has generally been most unsatisfactory. One +finds, nine times out of ten, the fact is stated, and nothing more; or +a reference to some third work not at hand! + +I wish I could get into the habit of giving chapter and verse for every +fact and extract, but I am too lazy and generally in a hurry, having to +consult books against time when in London for a day. + +However, I will try and do something to mend this matter should I have +to prepare another edition. + +I return you Forel's letter. It does not advance the question much, +neither do I think it likely that even the complete observation he +thinks necessary would be of much use; because it may well be that the +ova or larvę or imagos of the beetles are not carried systematically by +the ants, but only occasionally owing to some exceptional circumstances. +This might produce a great effect in distribution, yet be so rare as +never to come under observation. + +Several of your remarks in previous letters I shall carefully consider. +I know that, compared with the extent of the subject, my book is in many +parts crude and ill-considered; but I thought, and still think, it +better to make _some generalisations_ wherever possible, as I am not at +all afraid of having to alter my views in many points of detail. I was +so overwhelmed with zoological details that I never went through the +Geological Society's _Journal_ as I ought to have done, and as I mean to +do before writing more on the subject. + +With best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Rose Hill, Dorking. December 13, 1876._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your new book on "Crossing Plants," +which I have read with much interest. I hardly expected, however, that +there would have been so many doubtful and exceptional cases. I fancy +that the results would have come out better had you always taken +weights instead of heights; and that would have obviated the objection +that will, I daresay, be made, that _height_ proves nothing, because a +tall plant may be weaker, less bulky and less vigorous than a shorter +one. Of course no one who knows you or who takes a _general_ view of +your results will say this, but I daresay it will be said. I am afraid +this book will not do much or anything to get rid of the one great +objection, that the physiological characteristic of species, the +infertility of hybrids, has not yet been produced. Have you ever tried +experiments with plants (if any can be found) which for several +centuries have been grown under very different conditions, as for +instance potatoes on the high Andes and in Ireland? If any approach to +sterility occurred in mongrels between these it would be a grand step. +The most curious point you have brought out seems to me the slight +superiority of self-fertilisation over fertilisation with another flower +of the same plant, and the most important result, that difference of +constitution is the essence of the benefit of cross-fertilisation. All +you now want is to find the neutral point where the benefit is at its +maximum, any greater difference being prejudicial. + +Hoping you may yet demonstrate this, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Rose Hill, Dorking. January 17, 1877._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your valuable new edition of the +"Orchids," which I see contains a great deal of new matter of the +greatest interest. I am amazed at your continuous work, but I suppose, +after all these years of it, it is impossible for you to remain idle. I, +on the contrary, am very idle, and feel inclined to do nothing but +stroll about this beautiful country, and read all kinds of miscellaneous +literature. + +I have asked my friend Mr. Mott to send you the last of his remarkable +papers--on Haeckel. But the part I hope you will read with as much +interest as I have done is that on the deposits of Carbon, and the part +it has played and must be playing in geological changes. He seems to +have got the idea from some German book, but it seems to me very +important, and I wonder it never occurred to Sir Charges Lyell. If the +calculations as to the quantity of undecomposed carbon deposited are +anything approaching to correctness, the results must be important. + +Hoping you are in pretty good health, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Rose Hill, Dorking. July 23, 1877._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your admirable volume on "The Forms of +Flowers." It would be impertinence of me to say anything in praise of +it, except that I have read the chapters on "Illegitimate Offspring of +Heterostyled Plants" and on "Cleistogamic Flowers" with great interest. + +I am almost afraid to tell you that in going over the subject of the +Colours of Animals, etc., for a small volume of essays, etc., I am +preparing, I have come to conclusions directly opposed to _voluntary +sexual selection_, and believe that I can explain (in a general way) +_all_ the phenomena of sexual ornaments and colours by laws of +development aided by simple Natural Selection. + +I hope you admire as I do Mr. Belt's remarkable series of papers in +support of his terrific "oceanic glacier river-damming" hypothesis. In +awful grandeur it beats everything "glacial" yet out, and it certainly +explains a wonderful lot of hard facts. The last one, on the "Glacial +Period in the Southern Hemisphere," in the _Quarterly Journal of +Science_, is particularly fine, and I see he has just read a paper at +the Geological Society. It seems to me supported by quite as much +evidence as Ramsay's "Lakes"; but Ramsay, I understand, will have none +of it--as yet.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. August 31, 1877._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am very much obliged to you for sending your +article, which is very interesting and appears to me as clearly written +as it can be. You will not be surprised that I differ altogether from +you about sexual colours. That the tail of the peacock and his elaborate +display of it should be due merely to the vigour, activity, and vitality +of the male is to me as utterly incredible as my views are to you. +Mantegazza published a few years ago in Italy a somewhat similar view. I +cannot help doubting about recognition through colour; our horses, dogs, +fowls, and pigeons seem to know their own species, however differently +the individuals may be coloured. I wonder whether you attribute the +odoriferous and sound-producing organs, when confined to the males, to +their greater vigour, etc.? I could say a good deal in opposition to +you, but my arguments would have no weight in your eyes, and I do not +intend to write for the public anything on this or any other difficult +subject. By the way, I doubt whether the term voluntary in relation to +sexual selection ought to be employed: when a man is fascinated by a +pretty girl it can hardly be called voluntary, and I suppose that female +animals are charmed or excited in nearly the same manner by the gaudy +males. + +Three essays have been published lately in Germany which would interest +you: one by Weismann, who shows that the coloured stripes on the +caterpillars of Sphinx are beautifully protective: and birds were +frightened away from their feeding-place by a caterpillar with large +eye-like spots on the broad anterior segments of the body. Fritz Müller +has well discussed the first steps of mimicry with butterflies, and +comes to nearly or quite the same conclusion as you, but supports it by +additional arguments. + +Fritz Müller also has lately shown that the males alone of certain +butterflies have odoriferous glands on their wings (distinct from those +which secrete matter disgusting to birds), and where these glands are +placed the scales assume a different shape, making little tufts. + +Farewell: I hope that you find Dorking a pleasant place? I was staying +lately at Abinger Hall, and wished to come over to see you, but driving +tires me so much that my courage failed.--Yours very sincerely, + +CHAS. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Madeira Villa, Madeira Road, Ventnor, Isle of Wight. September 3, +1877._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your letter. Of course I did not expect +my paper to have any effect on your opinions. You have looked at all the +facts so long from your special point of view that it would require +conclusive arguments to influence you, and these, from the complex +nature of the question, are probably not to be had. We must, I think, +leave the case in the hands of others, and I am in hopes that my paper +may call sufficient attention to the subject to induce some of the great +school of Darwinians to take the question up and work it out thoroughly. +You have brought such a mass of facts to support your view, and have +argued it so fully, that I hardly think it necessary for you to do more. +Truth will prevail, as you as well as I wish it to do. I will only make +one or two remarks. The word "voluntary" was inserted in _my proofs +only_, in order to distinguish clearly between the two radically +distinct kinds of "sexual selection." Perhaps "conscious" would be a +better word, to which I think you will not object, and I will alter it +when I republish. I lay no stress on the word "voluntary." + +Sound- and scent-producing organs in males are surely due to "natural" +or "automatic" as opposed to "conscious" selection. If there were +gradations in the sounds produced, from mere noises, up to elaborate +music--the case would be analogous to that of "colours" and "ornament." +Being, however, comparatively simple, Natural Selection, owing to their +use as a guide, seems sufficient. The louder sound, heard at a greater +distance, would attract or be heard by more females, or it may attract +other males and lead to combats _for_ the females, but this would not +imply _choice_ in the sense of rejecting a male whose stridulation was a +trifle less loud than another's, which is the essence of the theory as +applied by you to colour and ornament. But greater general vigour would +almost certainly lead to greater volume or persistence of sound, and so +the same view will apply to both cases on my theory. + +Thanks for the references you give me. My ignorance of German prevents +me supporting my views by the mass of observations continually being +made abroad, so I can only advance my own ideas for what they are worth. + +I like Dorking much, but can find no house to suit me, so fear I shall +have to move again. + +With best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 5, [1877]._ + +My dear Wallace,--"Conscious" seems to me much better than "voluntary." +Conscious action, I presume, comes into play when two males fight for a +female; but I do not know whether you admit that, for instance, the +spur of the cock is due to sexual selection. + +I am quite willing to admit that the sounds and vocal organs of some +males are used only for challenging, but I doubt whether this applies to +the musical notes of Hylobates or to the howling (I judge chiefly from +Rengger) of the American monkeys. No account that I have seen of the +stridulation of male insects shows that it is a challenge. All those who +have attended to birds consider their song as a charm to the females and +not as a challenge. As the males in most cases search for the females I +do not see how their odoriferous organs will aid them in finding the +females. But it is foolish in me to go on writing, for I believe I have +said most of this in my book: anyhow, I well remember thinking over it. +The "belling" of male stags, if I remember rightly, is a challenge, and +so I daresay is the roaring of the lion during the breeding season. + +I will just add in reference to your former letter that I fully admit +that with birds the fighting of the males co-operates with their charms; +and I remember quoting Bartlett that gaudy colouring in the males is +almost invariably concomitant with pugnacity. But, thank Heaven, what +little more I can do in science will be confined to observation on +simple points. However much I may have blundered, I have done my best, +and that is my constant comfort.--Most truly yours, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. September 14, 1878._ + +Dear Darwin,--An appointment is soon to be made of someone to have the +superintendence of Epping Forest under the new Act, and as it is a post +which of all others I should like I am trying very hard to get up +interest enough to secure it. + +One of the means is the enclosed memorial, which has been already signed +by Sir J. Hooker and Sir J. Lubbock, and to which I feel sure you will +add your name, which I expect has weight "even in the City." + +In want of anything better to do I have been grinding away at a book on +the Geography of Australia for Stanford for the last six months. + +Hoping you are in good health, and with my best compliments to Mrs. +Darwin and the rest of your family, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 16, 1878._ + +My dear Wallace,--I return the paper signed, and most heartily wish that +you may be successful, not only for your own sake, but for that of +Natural Science, as you would then have more time for new researches. + +I keep moderately well, but always feel half-dead, yet manage to work +away on vegetable physiology, as I think that I should die outright if I +had nothing to do.--Believe me yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN + + * * * * * + +_Walron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. September 23, 1878._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your signature and good wishes. I have +some hopes of success, but am rather doubtful of the Committee of the +Corporation who will have the management, for they have just decided +after a great struggle in the Court of Common Council that it is to be a +rotatory Committee, every member of the Council (of whom there are 200) +coming on it in succession if they please. They evidently look upon it +as a Committee which will have great opportunities of excursions, +picnics, and dinners, at the expense of the Corporation, while the +improvement of the Forest will be quite a secondary matter. + +I am very glad to hear you are tolerably well. It is all I can say of +myself.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 5, 1880._ + +My dear Wallace,--As this note requires no sort of answer, you must +allow me to express my lively admiration of your paper in the +_Nineteenth Century_.[112] You certainly are a master in the difficult art +of clear exposition. It is impossible to urge too often that the +selection from a single varying individual or of a single varying organ +will not suffice. You have worked in capitally Allen's admirable +researches. As usual, you delight to honour me more than I deserve. When +I have written about the extreme slowness of Natural Selection (in which +I hope I may be wrong), I have chiefly had in my mind the effects of +intercrossing. I subscribe to almost everything you say excepting the +last short sentence. + +And now let me add how grieved I was to hear that the City of London did +not elect you for the Epping office, but I suppose it was too much to +hope that such a body of men should make a good selection. I wish you +could obtain some quiet post and thus have leisure for moderate +scientific work. I have nothing to tell you about myself; I see few +persons, for conversation fatigues me much; but I daily do some work in +experiments on plants, and hope thus to continue to the end of my days. + +With all good wishes, believe me yours very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + +P.S.--Have you seen Mr. Farrer's article in the last _Fortnightly_? It +reminded me of an article on bequests by you some years ago which +interested and almost converted me. + + * * * * * + +_Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. January 9, 1880._ + +My dear Darwin,--It is a great pleasure to receive a letter from you +sometimes--especially when we do not differ very much. I am, of course, +much pleased and gratified that you like my article. I wrote it chiefly +because I thought there was something a little fresh still to say on the +subject, and also because I wished to define precisely my present +position, which people continually misunderstand. The main part of the +article forms part of a chapter of a book I have now almost finished on +my favourite subject of "Geographical Distribution." It will form a sort +of supplement to my former work, and will, I trust, be more readable and +popular. I go pretty fully into the laws of variation and dispersal; the +exact character of specific and generic areas, and their causes; the +growth, dispersal and extinction of species and groups, illustrated by +maps, etc.; changes of geography and of climate as affecting dispersal, +with a full discussion of the Glacial theory, adopting Croll's views +(part of this has been published as a separate article in the _Quarterly +Review_ of last July, and has been highly approved by Croll and Geikie); +a discussion of the theory of permanent continents and oceans, which I +see you were the first to adopt, but which geologists, I am sorry to +say, quite ignore. All this is preliminary. Then follows a series of +chapters on the different kinds of islands, continental and oceanic, +with a pretty full discussion of the characters, affinities, and origin +of their fauna and flora in typical cases. Among these I am myself quite +pleased with my chapters on New Zealand, as I believe I have fully +explained and accounted for _all_ the main peculiarities of the New +Zealand and Australian floras. I call the book "Island Life," etc. etc., +and I think it will be interesting. + +Thanks for your regrets and kind wishes anent Epping. It was a +disappointment, as I had good friends on the Committee and therefore had +too much hope. I may just mention that I am thinking of making some +application through friends for some post in the new Josiah Mason +College of Science at Birmingham, as Registrar or Curator and Librarian, +etc. The Trustees have advertised for Professors to begin next October. +Should you happen to know any of the Trustees, or have any influential +friends in Birmingham, perhaps you could help me. + +I think this book will be my last, as I have pretty well said all I have +to say in it, and I have never taken to experiment as you have. But I +want some easy occupation for my declining years, with not too much +confinement or desk-work, which I cannot stand. You see I had some +reason for writing to you; but do not you trouble to write again unless +you have something to communicate. + +With best wishes, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +I have not seen the _Fortnightly_ yet, but will do so. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. October 11, 1880._ + +My dear Darwin,--I hope you will have received a copy of my last book, +"Island Life," as I shall be very glad of your opinion on certain points +in it. The first five chapters you need not read, as they contain +nothing fresh to you, but are necessary to make the work complete in +itself. The next five chapters, however (VII. to X.), I think, will +interest you. As I _think_, in Chapters VIII. and IX. I have found the +true explanation of geological climates, and on this I shall be very +glad of your candid opinion, as it is the very foundation-stone of the +book. The rest will not contain much that is fresh to you, except the +three chapters on New Zealand. Sir Joseph Hooker thinks my theory of +the Australian and New Zealand floras a decided advance on anything that +has been done before. + +In connection with this, the chapter on the Azores should be read. + +Chap. XVI. on the British Fauna may also interest you. + +I mention these points merely that you may not trouble yourself to read +the whole book, unless you like. + +Hoping that you are well, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. November 3, 1880._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have now read your book,[113] and it has interested me +deeply. It is quite excellent, and seems to me the best book which you +have ever published; but this may be merely because I have read it last. +As I went on, I made a few notes,[114] chiefly when I differed strongly +from you; but God knows whether they are worth your reading. You will be +disappointed with many of them; but they will show that I had the will, +though I did not know the way, to do what you wanted. + +I have said nothing on the infinitely many passages and views which I +admired and which were new to me. My notes are badly expressed; but I +thought that you would excuse my taking any pains with my style. I wish +that my confounded handwriting was better. + +I had a note the other day from Hooker, and I can see that he is _much_ +pleased with the Dedication. + +With all good wishes, believe me yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +In two or three weeks you will receive a book from me; if you care to +know what it is about, read the paragraph in Introduction about new +terms and then the last chapter, and you will know whole contents of +book. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. November 8, 1880._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your kind remarks and notes on my book. +Several of the latter will be of use to me if I have to prepare a second +edition, which I am not so sure of as you seem to be. + +1. In your remark as to the doubtfulness of paucity of fossils being due +to coldness of water, I think you overlook that I am speaking _only_ of +waters in the latitude of the Alps, in Miocene and Eocene times, when +icebergs and glaciers temporarily descended into an otherwise warm sea; +my theory being that there was no glacial epoch at that time, but merely +a local and temporary descent of the snow-line and glaciers owing to +high excentricity and winter in _aphelion_. + +2. I cannot see the difficulty about the cessation of the glacial +period. Between the Miocene and the Pleistocene periods geographical +changes occurred which rendered a true glacial period possible with +high excentricity. When the high excentricity passed away the glacial +epoch also passed away in the Temperate zone; but it persists in the +Arctic zone, where during the Miocene there were mild climates, and this +is due to the persistence of the changed geographical conditions. The +present Arctic climate is itself a comparatively new and abnormal state +of things due to geographical modification. As to "epoch" and "period," +I use them as synonyms to avoid repeating the same word. + +3. Rate of deposit and geological time: there no doubt I may have gone +to an extreme, but my "twenty-eight million years" may be anything under +100 millions, as I state. There is an enormous difference between _mean_ +and _maximum_ denudation and deposition. In the case of the great faults +the upheaval along a given line would itself facilitate the denudation +(whether subaerial or marine) of the upheaved portion at a rate perhaps +a hundred times faster than plains and plateaux. So, local subsidence +might itself lead to very rapid deposition. Suppose a portion of the +Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the Mississippi were to subside for a +few thousand years, it might receive the greater part of the sediment +from the whole Mississippi valley, and thus form strata at a very rapid +rate. + +4. You quote the Pampas thistles, etc., against my statement of the +importance of preoccupation. But I am referring especially to St. +Helena, and to plants naturally introduced from the adjacent continents. +Surely, if a certain number of African plants reached the island and +became modified into a complete adaptation to its climatic conditions, +they would hardly be expelled by other African plants arriving +subsequently. They might be so conceivably, but it does not seem +probable. The cases of the Pampas, New Zealand, Tahiti, etc., are very +different, where highly developed _aggressive_ plants have been +artificially introduced. Under nature it is these very aggressive +species that would first reach any island in their vicinity, and, being +adapted to the island and colonising it thoroughly, would then hold +their own against other plants from the _same_ country, mostly less +aggressive in character. I have not explained this so fully as I should +have done in the book. Your criticism is therefore useful. + +My Chap. XXIII. is no doubt very speculative, and I cannot wonder at +your hesitating at accepting my views. To me, however, your theory of +hosts of existing species migrating over the tropical lowlands from the +North Temperate to the South Temperate zone appears more speculative and +more improbable. For, where could the rich lowland _equatorial_ flora +have existed during a period of general refrigeration sufficient for +this? and what became of the wonderfully rich Cape flora which, if the +temperature of Tropical Africa had been so recently lowered, would +certainly have spread northwards and on the return of the heat could +hardly have been driven back into the sharply defined and _very +restricted area_ in which it now exists? + +As to the migration of plants from mountain to mountain not being so +probable as to remote islands, I think that is fully counterbalanced by +two considerations: + +(a) The area and abundance of the mountain stations along such a range +as the Andes are immensely greater than those of the islands in the +North Atlantic, for example. + +(b) The temporary occupation of mountain stations by migrating plants +(which I think I have shown to be probable) renders _time_ a much more +important element in increasing the number and variety of the plants so +dispersed than in the case of islands, where the flora soon acquires a +fixed and endemic character, and where the number of species is +necessarily limited. + +No doubt, direct evidence of seeds being carried great distances through +the air is wanted, but, I am afraid, can hardly be obtained. Yet I feel +the greatest confidence that they _are_ so carried. Take for instance +the two peculiar orchids of the Azores (Habinaria species): what other +mode of transit is conceivable? The whole subject is one of great +difficulty, but I hope my chapter may call attention to a hitherto +neglected factor in the distribution of plants. + +Your references to the Mauritius literature are very interesting, and +will be useful to me; and again thanking you for your valuable remarks, +believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. November 21, 1880._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your new book containing your wonderful +series of experiments and observations on the movements of plants. I +have read the introduction and conclusion, which shows me the importance +of the research as indicating the common basis of the infinitely varied +habits and mode of growth of plants. The whole subject becomes thus much +simplified, though the nature of the basic vitality which leads to such +wonderful results remains as mysterious as ever.--Yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 1, 1881._ + +My dear Darwin,--I have been intending to write to you for some weeks to +call your attention to what seems to me a striking confirmation (or at +all events a support) of my views of the land migration of plants from +mountain to mountain. In _Nature_ of Dec. 9th, p. 126, Mr. Baker, of +Kew, describes a number of the alpine plants of Madagascar as being +_identical species_ with some found on the mountains of Abyssinia, the +Cameroons, and other African mountains. Now, if there is one thing more +clear than another it is that Madagascar has been separated from Africa +since the Miocene (probably the early Miocene) epoch. These plants must +therefore have reached the island either _since_ then, in which case +they certainly must have passed through the air for long distances, or +at the time of the union. But the Miocene and Eocene periods were +certainly warm, and these alpine plants could hardly have migrated over +tropical forest lands, while it is very improbable that if they had been +isolated at so remote a period, exposed to such distinct climatal and +organic environments as in Madagascar and Abyssinia, they would have in +both places retained their specific characters unchanged. The +presumption is, therefore, that they are comparatively _recent_ +immigrants, and if so must have passed across the sea from mountain to +mountain, for the richness and speciality of the Madagascar forest +vegetation render it certain that no recent glacial epoch has seriously +affected that island. + +Hoping that you are in good health, and wishing you the compliments of +the season, I remain yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 2, 1881._ + +My dear Wallace,--The case which you give is a very striking one, and I +had overlooked it in _Nature._[115] But I remain as great a heretic as +ever. Any supposition seems to me more probable than that the seeds of +plants should have been blown from the mountains of Abyssinia or other +central mountains of Africa to the mountains of Madagascar. It seems to +me almost infinitely more probable that Madagascar extended far to the +south during the Glacial period, and that the southern hemisphere was, +according to Croll, then more temperate; and that the whole of Africa +was then peopled with some temperate forms, which crossed chiefly by +agency of birds and sea-currents; and some few by the wind from the +shores of Africa to Madagascar, subsequently ascending to the mountains. + +How lamentable it is that two men should take such widely different +views, with the same facts before them; but this seems to be almost +regularly our case, and much do I regret it. + +I am fairly well, but always feel half dead with fatigue. I heard but an +indifferent account of your health some time ago, but trust that you are +now somewhat stronger.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 7, 1881._ + +My dear Wallace,--You know from Miss Buckley that, with her assistance, +I drew up a memorial to Mr. Gladstone with respect to your services to +science. The memorial was corrected by Huxley, who has aided me in every +possible way. It was signed by twelve good men, and you would have been +gratified if you had seen how strongly they expressed themselves on your +claims. + +The Duke of Argyll, to whom I sent the memorial, wrote a private note to +Mr. Gladstone. The memorial was sent in only on January 5th, and I have +just received a note in Mr. Gladstone's own handwriting, in which he +says: "I lose no time in apprising you that although the Fund is +moderate and at present poor, I shall recommend Mr. Wallace for a +pension of £200 a year." I will keep this note carefully, as, if the +present Government were to go out, I do not doubt that it would be +binding on the next Government. + +I hope that it will give you some satisfaction to see that not only +every scientific man to whom I applied, but that also our Government +appreciated your lifelong scientific labour.--Believe me, my dear +Wallace, yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +I should expect that there will be some delay before you receive an +official announcement. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 8, 1881._ + +My dear Darwin,--I need not say how very grateful I am to you for your +constant kindness, and especially for the trouble you have taken in +recommending me to Mr. Gladstone. It is also, of course, very gratifying +to hear that so many eminent men have so good an opinion of the little +scientific work I have done, for I myself feel it to be very little in +comparison with that of many others. + +The amount you say Mr. Gladstone proposes to recommend is considerably +more than I expected would be given, and it will relieve me from a great +deal of the anxieties under which I have laboured for several years. +To-day is my fifty-eighth birthday, and it is a happy omen that your +letter should have arrived this morning. + +I presume after I receive the official communication will be the proper +time to thank the persons who have signed the memorial in my favour. I +do not know whether it is the proper etiquette to write a private letter +of thanks to Mr. Gladstone, or only a general official one. Whenever I +hear anything from the Government I will let you know. + +Again thanking you for your kindness, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 10, 1881._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am heartily glad that you are pleased about the +memorial. + +I do not feel that my opinion is worth much on the point which you +mention. A relation who is in a Government office and whose judgment, I +think, may be fully trusted, felt sure that if you received an official +announcement without any private note, it ought to be answered +officially, but if the case were mine, I would express whatever I +thought and felt in an official document. His reason was that Gladstone +gives or recommends the pension on public grounds alone. + +If the case were mine I would not write to signers of the memorial, +because I believe that they acted like so many jurymen in a claim +against the Government. Nevertheless, if I met any of them or was +writing to them on any other subject, I should take the opportunity of +expressing my feelings. I think you might with propriety write to +Huxley, as he entered so heartily into the scheme and aided in the most +important manner in many ways. + +Sir J. Lubbock called here yesterday and Mr. F. Balfour came here with +one of my sons, and it would have pleased you to see how unfeignedly +delighted they were at my news of the success of the memorial. + +I wrote also to tell the Duke of Argyll of the success, and he in answer +expressed very sincere pleasure.--My dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 29, 1881._ + +My dear Darwin,--Yours just received was very welcome, and the delay in +its reaching me is of no importance whatever, as, having seen the +announcement of the Queen's approval of the pension, of course I felt it +was safe. The antedating of the first payment is a very liberal and +thoughtful act; but I do not think it is any way exceptional as regards +myself. I am informed it is the custom because, as no payment is made +after the death of the person, if the first payment were delayed the +proposed recipient might die before the half-year (or quarter-day) and +thus receive nothing at all. + +I suppose you sent the right address to Mr. Seymour. I have not yet +heard from him, but I daresay I shall during the next week. + +As I am assured both by Miss Buckley and by Prof. Huxley that it is to +you that I owe in the first place this great kindness, and that you have +also taken an _immense_ amount of trouble to bring it to so successful +issue, I must again return you my best thanks, and assure you that there +is no one living to whose kindness in such a matter I could feel myself +indebted with so much pleasure and satisfaction.--Believe me, dear +Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 9._ + +My dear Wallace,--Dr. G. Krefft has sent me the enclosed from Sydney. A +nurseryman saw a caterpillar feeding on a plant and covered the whole +up, but, when he searched for the cocoon [pupa], was long before he +could find it, so good was its imitation, in colour and form, of the +leaf to which it was attached. + +I hope that the world goes well with you. Do not trouble yourself by +acknowledging this.--Ever yours, + +CH. DARWIN. + + +Accompanying this letter, which has been published in "Darwin and Modern +Science" (1909), was a photograph of the chrysalis (_Papilio sarpedon +choredon_) attached to a leaf of its food-plant. Many butterfly pupę +are known to have the power of individual adjustment to the colours of +the particular food-plant or other normal environment; and it is +probable that the Australian _Papilio_ referred to by Darwin possesses +this power. + + * * * * * + +_Nutwood Cottage, Frith Hill, Godalming, July 9, 1881._ + +My dear Darwin,--I am just doing, what I have rarely if ever done +before--reading a book through a second time immediately after the first +perusal. I do not think I have ever been so attracted by a book, with +perhaps the exception of your "Origin of Species" and Spencer's "First +Principles" and "Social Statics." I wish therefore to call your +attention to it, in case you care about books on social and political +subjects, but here there is also an elaborate discussion of Malthus's +"Principles of Population," to which both you and I have acknowledged +ourselves indebted. The present writer, Mr. George, while admitting the +main principle as self-evident and as actually operating in the case of +animals and plants, denies that it ever has operated or can operate in +the case of man, still less that it has any bearing whatever on the vast +social and political questions which have been supported by a reference +to it. He illustrates and supports his views with a wealth of +illustrative facts and a cogency of argument which I have rarely seen +equalled, while his style is equal to that of Buckle, and thus his book +is delightful reading. The title of the book is "Progress and Poverty." +It has gone through six editions in America, and is now published in +England by Kegan Paul. It is devoted mainly to a brilliant discussion +and refutation of some of the most widely accepted maxims of political +economy, such as the relation of wages and capital, the nature of rent +and interest, the laws of distribution, etc., but all treated as parts +of the main problem as stated in the title-page, "An Enquiry into the +Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of +Wealth." It is the most startling novel and original book of the last +twenty years, and if I mistake not will in the future rank as making an +advance in political and social science equal to that made by Adam Smith +a century ago. + +I am here settled in my little cottage engaged in the occupation I most +enjoy--making a garden, and admiring the infinite variety and beauty of +vegetable life. I am out of doors all day and hardly read anything. As +the long evenings come on I shall get on with my book on the "Land +Question," in which I have found a powerful ally in Mr. George. + +Hoping you are well, believe me, yours most faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +The following is the last letter Wallace received from Darwin, who died +on Wednesday, April 19, 1882, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. + + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 12, 1881._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been heartily glad to get your note and hear +some news of you. I will certainly order "Progress and Poverty," for the +subject is a most interesting one. But I read many years ago some books +on political economy, and they produced a disastrous effect on my mind, +viz. utterly to distrust my own judgment on the subject and to doubt +much everyone else's judgment! So I feel pretty sure that Mr. George's +book will only make my mind worse confounded than it is at present. I, +also, have just finished a book which has interested me greatly, but +whether it would interest anyone else I know not: it is "The Creed of +Science," by W. Graham, A.M. Who and what he is I know not, but he +discusses many great subjects, such as the existence of God, +immortality, the moral sense, the progress of society, etc. I think some +of his propositions rest on very uncertain foundations, and I could get +no clear idea of his notions about God. Notwithstanding this and other +blemishes, the book has interested me _extremely_. Perhaps I have been +to some extent deluded, as he manifestly ranks too high what I have +done. + +I am delighted to hear that you spend so much time out of doors and in +your garden; for with your wonderful power of observation you will see +much which no one else has seen. From Newman's old book (I forget the +title) about the country near Godalming, it must be charming. + +We have just returned home after spending five weeks on Ullswater: the +scenery is quite charming; but I cannot walk, and everything tires me, +even seeing scenery, talking with anyone or reading much. What I shall +do with my few remaining years of life I can hardly tell. I have +everything to make me happy and contented, but life has become very +wearisome to me. I heard lately from Miss Buckley in relation to Lyell's +Life, and she mentioned that you were thinking of Switzerland, which I +should think and hope you will enjoy much. + +I see that you are going to write on the most difficult political +question, the Land. Something ought to be done--but what is to rule? I +hope that you will [not] turn renegade to natural history; but I suppose +that politics are very tempting. + +With all good wishes for yourself and family, believe me, my dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +Wallace's last letter to Darwin was written in October, 1881: + + +_Nutwood Cottage, Frith Hill, Godalming. October 18, 1881._ + +My dear Darwin,--I have delayed writing to thank you for your book on +Worms till I had been able to read it, which I have now done with great +pleasure and profit, since it has cleared up many obscure points as to +the apparent sinking or burying of objects on the surface and the +universal covering up of old buildings. I have hitherto looked upon them +chiefly from the gardener's point of view--as a nuisance, but I shall +tolerate their presence in the view of their utility and importance. A +friend here to whom I am going to lend your book tells me that an +agriculturist who had been in West Australia, near Swan River, told him +many years ago of the hopelessness of farming there, illustrating the +poverty and dryness of the soil by saying, "There are no worms in the +ground." + +I do not see that you refer to the formation of leaf-mould by the mere +decay of leaves, etc. In favourable places many inches or even feet of +this is formed--I presume without the agency of worms. If so, would it +not take part in the formation of all mould? and also the decay of the +roots of grasses and of all annual plants, or do you suppose that _all_ +these are devoured by worms? In reading the book I have not noticed a +single erratum. + +I enclose you a copy of two letters to the _Mark Lane Express_, written +at the request of the editor, and which will show you the direction in +which I am now working, and in which I hope to do a little +good.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "While at Hertford I lived altogether in five different houses, and +in three of these the Silk family lived next door to us, which involved +not only each family having to move about the same time, but also that +two houses adjoining each other should have been vacant together, and +that they should have been of the size required by each, which after the +first was not the same, the Silk family being much the larger."--"My +Life," i. 32. + +[2] "My Life," i. 191-2. + +[3] "My Life," i. 108-111. + +[4] Darwin makes a similar comment: "I was very successful in +collecting, and invented two new methods ... and thus I got some very +rare species. No poet ever felt more delighted at seeing his first poem +published than I did at seeing, in Stephens' 'Illustrations of British +Insects,' the magic words, 'captured by C. Darwin, Esq.'"--Darwin's +Autobiography, in the one-volume "Life," p. 20. + +[5] "My Life," i. 194-5. + +[6] There is no record in his autobiography as to the exact date when he +first became acquainted with Lyell's work, though several times +reference is made to it. + +[7] "Travels on the Amazon," p. 277. + +[8] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," pp. 11-12. + +[9] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," p. 534. + +[10] It is interesting to note that the careers of Sir Joseph Hooker, +Charles Darwin, H.W. Bates, Alfred Russel Wallace and T.H. Huxley were +all determined by voyages or journeys of exploration. + +[11] "Life of Charles Darwin" (one-volume Edit.), p. 29. + +[12] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," p. 535. + +[13] This letter may have been written for publication. + +[14] A reference to the loss of his earlier collection (p. 29). + +[15] The original of this letter is in the possession of the Trustees of +the British Museum. + +[16] For the other part of this letter see "My Life," i. 379. + +[17] "My early letters to Bates suffice to show that the great problem +of the origin of species was already distinctly formulated in my mind; +that I was not satisfied with the more or less vague solutions at that +time offered; that I believed the conception of evolution through +natural law so clearly formulated in the 'Vestiges' to be, so far as it +went, a true one; and that I firmly believed that a full and careful +study of the facts of nature would ultimately lead to a solution of the +mystery."--"My Life," i. 254-7. + +[18] "On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of +Species."--_Ann. and Mag. of Natural History_, 2nd Series, 1855, xvi. +184. + +[19] "Life of Charles Darwin" (one-vol. Edit.), p. 171. + +[20] "Life of Charles Darwin," (one-vol. Edit.), p. 40, + +[21] _See post_, p. 112. + +[22] "My Life," i. 359. + +[23] "My Life," i. 361-3. + +[24] It will be remembered, that Darwin died in April, 1882, twenty-six +years previously. + +[25] "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," ii. 188. + +[26] "The Herbert Spencer Lecture," delivered at the Museum, December 8, +1910. (Clarendon Press, Oxford.) + +[27] "My Life," ii. 23-4. + +[28] "On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New +Species."--_Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist._, 1855. The law is thus stated +by Wallace: "Every species has come into existence coincident both in +time and space with a pre-existing closely-allied species." + +[29] "The Origin of Species." + +[30] "The Origin of Species." + +[31] First Edit., 1859, pp. 1, 2. + +[32] "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties and on the +Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection." By +C. Darwin and A.R. Wallace. Communicated by Sir C. Lyell and J.D. +Hooker. _Journ. Linn. Soc._, 1859, iii. 45. Read July 1st, 1858. + +[33] "On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New Species." +_Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist._, 1855, xvi. 184. + +[34] This seems to refer to Wallace's paper on "The Zoological Geography +of the Malay Archipelago," _Journ. Linn. Soc._, 1860. + +[35] Dr. Samuel Wilberforce. + +[36] Now Major Leonard Darwin. + +[37] The last sheet of the letter is missing. + +[38] Wallace's paper was entitled "Remarks on the Rev. S. Haughton's +Paper on the Bee's Cells and on the Origin of Species." Prof. Haughton's +paper appeared in the _Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist._, 1863, xi. 415. +Wallace's was published in the same journal. + +[39] For March, 1864. + +[40] _Reader_, April 16, 1864. An abstract of Wallace's paper "On the +Phenomena of Variation and Geographical Distribution, as illustrated by +the Papilionidę of the Malayan Region," _Linn. Soc. Trans._, xxv. + +[41] _Anthropolog. Rev._, 1864. + +[42] _Nat. Hist. Rev._, 1864, p. 328. + +[43] "Read June, 1864."--A.R.W. + +[44] "June 8, 1864."--A.R.W. + +[45] "Referring to my broken engagement."--A.R.W. + +[46] Paper on the three forms of Lythrum. + +[47] Probably the one on the Distribution of Malayan Butterflies, _Linn. +Soc. Trans._, xxv. + +[48] E.B. Tylor's "Early History of Mankind," and Lecky's "Rationalism." + +[49] "Prehistoric Times." + +[50] The note speaks of the "characteristic unselfishness" with which +Wallace ascribed the theory of Natural Selection to Darwin. + +[51] "Für Darwin." + +[52] "On the Pigeons of the Malay Archipelago," _Ibis_, October, 1865. +Wallace points out (p. 366) that "the most striking superabundance of +pigeons, as well as of parrots, is confined to the Australo-Malayan +sub-regions in which ... the forest-haunting and fruit-eating mammals, +such as monkeys and squirrels, are totally absent." He points out also +that monkeys are "exceedingly destructive to eggs and young +birds."--Note, "More Letters," i. 265. + +[53] "The Geographical Distribution and Variability of the Malayan +Papilionidę," _Linn. Soc. Trans._, xxv. + +[54] The passage referred to in this letter as needing farther +explanation is the following: "The last six cases of mimicry are +especially instructive, because they seem to indicate one of the +processes by which dimorphic forms have been produced. When, as in these +cases, one sex differs much from the other, and varies greatly itself, +it may be that individual variations will occasionally occur, having a +distant resemblance to groups which are the objects of mimicry, and +which it is therefore advantageous to resemble. Such a variety will have +a better chance of preservation; the individuals possessing it will be +multiplied; and their accidental likeness to the favoured group will be +rendered permanent by hereditary transmission, and each successive +variation which increases the resemblance being preserved, and all +variation departing from the favoured type having less chance of +preservation, there will in time result those singular cases of two or +more isolated and fixed forms bound together by that intimate +relationship which constitutes them the sexes of a single species. The +reason why the females are more subject to this kind of modification +than the males is probably that their slower flight when laden with +eggs, and their exposure to attack while in the act of depositing their +eggs upon leaves, render it especially advantageous for them to have +additional protection. This they at once obtain by acquiring a +resemblance to other species which, from whatever cause, enjoy a +comparative immunity from persecution." + +[55] This no doubt refers to Janet's "Matérialisme Contemporain." + +[56] _Quarterly Journal of Science_, January 7, 1867. "Ice Marks in +North Wales," by A.R. Wallace. + +[57] I.e., the suggestion that conspicuous caterpillars or perfect +insects (e.g. white butterflies) which are distasteful to birds are +protected by being easily recognised and avoided. + +[58] A bearded woman having an irregular double set of teeth. See +"Animals and Plants," ii. 328. + +[59] The letter to which this is a reply is missing. It evidently refers +to Wallace's belief in the paramount importance of protection in the +evolution of colour. _See also_ Darwin's letter of February 26, 1867. + +[60] _Menura superba._ See "The Descent of Man" (1901), p. 687. +Rhynchęa, mentioned on p. 184, is discussed in the "Descent," p. 727. +The female is more brightly coloured than the male and has a convoluted +trachea, elsewhere a masculine character. There seems some reason to +suppose that "the male undertakes the duty of incubation." + +[61] _Westminster Review_, July, 1867. + +[62] _Angręcum sesquipedale_, a Madagascar orchid, with a whip-like +nectary, 11 to 12 in. in length, which, according to Darwin +("Fertilisation of Orchids," 2nd Edit., p. 163), is adapted to the +visits of a moth with a proboscis of corresponding length. He points out +that there is no difficulty in believing in the existence of such a moth +as F. Müller had described (_Nature_, 1873, p. 223), a Brazilian +sphinx-moth with a trunk 10 to 11 in. in length. Moreover, Forbes had +given evidence to show that such an insect does exist in Madagascar +(_Nature_, 1873, p. 121). The case of _Angręcum_ was put forward by the +Duke of Argyll as being necessarily due to the personal contrivance of +the Deity. Mr. Wallace shows (p. 476, _Quarterly Journal of Science_, +1867) that both proboscis and nectary might be increased in length by +means of Natural Selection. It may be added that Hermann Müller has +shown good grounds for believing that mutual specialisation of this kind +is beneficial both to insect and to plant. + +[63] "Variation of Animals and Plants," 1st Edit., ii. 431. "Did He +cause the frame and mental qualities of the dog to vary in order that a +breed might be formed of indomitable ferocity, with jaws fitted to pin +down the bull for man's brutal sport?" + +[64] _See_ Wallace, _Quarterly Journ. of Sci._, 1867, pp. 477-8. He +imagined an observer examining a great river system, and finding +everywhere adaptations which reveal the design of the Creator. "He would +see special adaptations to the wants of man in the broad, quiet, +navigable rivers, through fertile alluvial plains, that would support a +large population, while the rocky streams and mountain torrents were +confined to those sterile regions suitable for a small population of +shepherds and herdsmen." + +[65] At p. 485 Wallace deals with Fleeming Jenkin's review in the _North +British Review_, 1867. The review strives to show that there are strict +limitations to variation, since the most rigorous and long-continued +selection does not indefinitely increase such a quality as the fleetness +of a racehorse. On this Wallace remarks that the argument "fails to meet +the real question," which is not whether indefinite change is possible, +but "whether such differences as do occur in nature could have been +produced by the accumulation of variations by selection." + +[66] Abstract of a paper on "Birds' Nests and Plumage," read before the +British Association. See _Gard. Chron._, 1867, p. 1047. + +[67] Sir Henry Holland, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., a writer on Mental +Physiology and other scientific subjects (b. 1788, d. 1873). + +[68] "This turns out to be inaccurate, or greatly exaggerated. There are +no true alpines, and the European genera are comparatively few. _See_ my +'Island Life,' p. 323."--A.R.W. + +[69] "In pigeons" and "lizards" inserted by A.R.W. + +[70] See _Westminster Review_, July, 1867, p. 37. + +[71] _Proc. Linn. Soc._, 1867-8, p. 57. + +[72] It is not enough that females should be produced from the males +with red feathers, which should be destitute of red feathers; but these +females must have a _latent tendency_ to produce such feathers, +otherwise they would cause deterioration in the red head-feathers of +their male offspring. Such latent tendency would be shown by their +producing the red feathers when old or diseased in their ovaria. + +[73] The symbols [male symbol], [female symbol] stand for male and +female respectively. + +[74] The fifth. + +[75] Explained in letter of February 2, 1869. _See_ p. 234. + +[76] June, 1867. + +[77] "Malay Archipelago." + +[78] "Malay Archipelago." + +[79] The fifth edition, pp. 150-7. + +[80] In the _Quarterly Review_, April, 1869. + +[81] Inserted by A.R.W. + +[82] "The Descent of Man." + +[83] "The Genesis of Species," by St. G. Mivart. 1871. + +[84] In the _Academy_, March 15, 1871. + +[85] "Mr. Wallace says that the pairing of butterflies is probably +determined by the fact that one male is stronger-winged or more +pertinacious than the rest, rather than by the choice of the females. He +quotes the case of caterpillars which are brightly coloured and yet +sexless. Mr. Wallace also makes the good criticism that 'The Descent of +Man' consists of two books mixed together."--"Life and Letters of +Charles Darwin," iii. 137. + +[86] G. Crotch was a well-known coleopterist and official in the +University Library at Cambridge. + +[87] _Spectator_, March 11 and 18, 1871. "With regard to the evolution +of conscience the reviewer thinks that Mr. Darwin comes much nearer to +the 'kernel of the psychological problem' than many of his predecessors. +The second article contains a good discussion of the bearing of the +book on the question of design, and concludes by finding in it a +vindication of Theism more wonderful than that in Paley's 'Natural +Theology.'"--"Life and Letters," iii. 138. + +[88] _North American Review_, Vol. 113, pp. 83, 84. Chauncey Wright +points out that the words omitted are "essential to the point on which +he [Mr. Mivart] cites Mr. Darwin's authority." It should be mentioned +that the passage from which words are omitted is not given within +inverted commas by Mr. Mivart.--_See_ "Life and Letters of Charles +Darwin," iii. 144. + +[89] July, 1871. + +[90] A review of Dr. Bree's book, "An Exposition of Fallacies in the +Hypotheses of Mr. Darwin."--_Nature_, July 25, 1872. + +[91] "Bree on Darwinism," _Nature_, Aug. 8, 1872. The letter is as +follows: "Permit me to state--though the statement is almost +superfluous--that Mr. Wallace, in his review of Dr. Bree's work, gives +with perfect correctness what I intended to express, and what I believe +was expressed clearly, with respect to the probable position of man in +the early part of his pedigree. As I have not seen Dr. Bree's recent +work, and as his letter is unintelligible to me, I cannot even +conjecture how he has so completely mistaken my meaning; but, perhaps, +no one who has read Mr. Wallace's article, or who has read a work +formerly published by Dr. Bree on the same subject as his recent one, +will be surprised at any amount of misunderstanding on his +part.--CHARLES DARWIN, Aug. 3." _See_ "Life and Letters of Charles +Darwin," iii. 167. + +[92] That is to say, spontaneous generation. For the distinction between +archebiosis and heterogenesis, _see_ Bastian, Chap. VI. _See also_ "Life +and Letters of Charles Darwin," iii. 168. + +[93] Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B. (1808-80). + +[94] "Expression of the Emotions." + +[95] _Quarterly Journal of Science_, January, 1873, p. 116: "I can +hardly believe that when a cat, lying on a shawl or other soft material, +pats or pounds it with its feet, or sometimes sucks a piece of it, it is +the persistence of the habit of pressing the mammary glands and sucking +during kittenhood." Wallace goes on to say that infantine habits are +generally completely lost in adult life, and that it seems unlikely that +they should persist in a few isolated instances. + +[96] Wallace speaks of "a readiness to accept the most marvellous +conclusions or interpretations of physiologists on what seem very +insufficient grounds," and he goes on to assert that the frog experiment +is either incorrectly recorded, or else that it "demonstrates volition, +and not reflex action." + +[97] The raising of the hands in surprise is explained ("Expression of +the Emotions," 1st Edit., p. 287) on the doctrine of antithesis as being +the opposite of listlessness. Mr. Wallace's view (given in the second +edition of "Expression of the Emotions," p. 300) is that the gesture is +appropriate to sudden defence or to the giving of aid to another person. + +[98] At this time Darwin, while very busy with other work, had to +prepare a second edition of "The Descent of Man," and it is probable +that he or the publishers suggested that Wallace should make the +necessary corrections.--EDITOR. + +[99] "Insectivorous Plants." + +[100] "The Geographical Distribution of Animals." 1876. + +[101] Wallace points out that "hardly a small island on the globe but +has some land shell peculiar to it," and he goes so far as to say that +probably air-breathing mollusca have been chiefly distributed by air- or +water-carriage, rather than by voluntary dispersal on the land. _See_ +"More Letters," II. 14. + +[102] _See_ "The Descent of Man," 1st Edit., pp. 90 and 143, for +drawings of the Argus pheasant and its markings. The ocelli on the wing +feathers were favourite objects of Darwin's, and sometimes formed the +subject of the little lectures which on rare occasions he would give to +a visitor interested in Natural History. In Wallace's book, the meaning +of the ocelli comes in by the way, in the explanation of Plate IX., "A +Malayan Forest with some of its Peculiar Birds." The case is a +"remarkable confirmation of Mr. Darwin's views, that gaily coloured +plumes are developed in the male bird for the purpose of attractive +display." + +[103] "Geographical Distribution of Animals," i. 286-7. + +[104] "Geographical Distribution," i. 76. The name Lemuria was proposed +by Mr. Sclater for an imaginary submerged continent extending from +Madagascar to Ceylon and Sumatra. Wallace points out that if we confine +ourselves to facts Lemuria is reduced to Madagascar, which he makes a +subdivision of the Ethiopian Region. + +[105] H.F. Blandford, "On the Age and Correlations of the Plant-bearing +Series of India and the Former Existence of an Indo-Oceanic Continent" +(_Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc_., 1875, xxxi. 519). + +[106] In the _Contemporary Review_ for August, 1873, Mr. George Darwin +wrote an article "On Beneficial Restrictions to Liberty of Marriage." In +the July number of the _Quarterly Review_, 1874, p. 70, in an article +entitled "Primitive Man--Tylor and Lubbock," Mr. Mivart thus referred to +Mr. Darwin's article: "Elsewhere (pp. 424-5) Mr. George Darwin speaks +(1) in an approving strain of the most oppressive laws and of the +encouragement of vice to check population. (2) There is no sexual +criminality of Pagan days that might not be defended on the principles +advocated by the school to which this writer belongs." In the _Quarterly +Review_ for October, 1874, p. 587, appeared a letter from Mr. George +Darwin "absolutely denying" charge No. 1, and with respect to charge No. +2 he wrote: "I deny that there is any thought or word in my essay which +could in any way lend itself to the support of the nameless crimes here +referred to." To the letter was appended a note from Mr. Mivart, in +which he said: "Nothing would have been further from our intention than +to tax Mr. Darwin personally (as he seems to have supposed) with the +advocacy of laws or acts which he saw to be oppressive or vicious. We, +therefore, most willingly accept his disclaimer, and are glad to find +that he does not, in fact, apprehend the full tendency of the doctrines +which he has helped to propagate. Nevertheless, we cannot allow that we +have enunciated a single proposition which is either 'false' or +'groundless.' ... But when a writer, according to his own confession, +comes before the public 'to attack the institution of marriage' ... he +must expect searching criticism; and, without implying that Mr. Darwin +has in 'thought' or 'word' approved of anything which he wishes to +disclaim, we must still maintain that the doctrines which he advocates +are most dangerous and pernicious."--EDITOR. + +[107] The pages refer to Vol. II. of Wallace's "Geographical +Distribution." + +[108] The number (4) was erroneously omitted.--A.R.W. + +[109] An error: should have been the Australian.--A.R.W. + +[110] Axel Blytt, "Essay on the Immigration of the Norwegian Flora." +Christiania, 1876. + +[111] June 22, 1876, p. 165 _et seq._ + +[112] "The Origin of Species and Genera." + +[113] "Island Life." + +[114] In "My Life" (ii. 12-13) Wallace writes; "With this came seven +foolscap pages of notes, many giving facts from his extensive reading +which I had not seen. There were also a good many doubts and suggestions +on the very difficult questions in the discussion of the causes of the +glacial epochs. Chapter XXIII., discussing the Arctic element in South +Temperate floras, was the part he most objected to, saying, 'This is +rather too speculative for my old noddle. I must think that you overrate +the importance of new surfaces on mountains and dispersal from mountain +to mountain. I still believe in alpine plants having lived on the +lowlands and in the southern tropical regions having been cooled during +glacial periods, and thus only can I understand character of floras on +the isolated African mountains. It appears to me that you are not +justified in arguing from dispersal to oceanic islands to mountains. Not +only in latter cases currents of sea are absent, but what is there to +make birds fly direct from one alpine summit to another? There is left +only storms of wind, and if it is probable or possible that seeds may +thus be carried for great distances, I do not believe that there is at +present any evidence of their being thus carried more than a few miles.' +This is the most connected piece of criticism in the notes, and I +therefore give it verbatim." + +[115] "_Nature_, December 9, 1880. The substance of this article by Mr. +Baker, of Kew, is given in 'More Letters,' vol. iii. 25, in a +footnote."--"My Life," ii. 13. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and +Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2), by James Marchant + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE: *** + +***** This file should be named 15997-8.txt or 15997-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/9/9/15997/ + +Produced by Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State +University Libraries., Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Josephine +Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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} +caption.tei-castgroup-head { caption-side: right; width: 50%; text-align: left; + vertical-align: middle; padding-left: 2em; } +*.tei-roledesc { font-style: italic } +*.tei-set { font-style: italic } + +table.rules { border-collapse: collapse; } + +table.rules caption, +table.rules th, +table.rules td { border: 1px solid black; } + +th.tei { padding: 0em 1em } +td.tei { padding: 0em 1em } + +img.tei-formula { vertical-align: middle; } + +span.tei-pb {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; } +</style> + +<title>The Project Gutenberg EBook of Alfred Russel Wallace - Letters and Reminiscences - Volume I by James Marchant</title> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and +Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2), by James Marchant + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2) + +Author: James Marchant + +Release Date: June 7, 2005 [EBook #15997] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE: *** + + + + +Produced by Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State +University Libraries., Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Josephine +Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tei tei-text"> +<div class="tei tei-front"> +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<h1 class="tei tei-head">Alfred Russel Wallace - Letters and Reminiscences</h1> +<p class="tei tei-p">By</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">James Marchant</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">With Two Photogravures and Eight Half-tone Plates</span><br /> +IN TWO VOLUMES<br /> +Volume I</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD<br /> +London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne<br /> +1916</p> +</div> + +<hr class="page" /> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">To the Memory of</p> + +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">ANNIE WALLACE</p> +</div> + +<hr class="page" /> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p"><a name="frontispiece" id="frontispiece" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +<img src="images/image01.png" alt="Alfred R. Wallace" class="tei tei-figure" /></p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">Alfred R. Wallace</p> +</div> + +<hr class="page" /> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_1" id="toc_1"></a> +<h1 class="tei tei-head">PREFACE</h1> + + +<p class="tei tei-p">These two volumes consist of a selection from several +thousands of letters entrusted to me by the Wallace family +and dating from the dawn of Darwinism to the second +decade of the twentieth century, supplemented by such +biographical particulars and comments as are required for +the elucidation of the correspondence and for giving movement +and continuity to the whole.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The wealth and variety of Wallace's own correspondence, +excluding the large collection of letters which he received +from many eminent men and women, and the necessity for +somewhat lengthy introductions and many annotations, have +expanded the work to two (there was, indeed, enough good +material to make four) volumes. The family has given me +unstinted confidence in using or rejecting letters and reminiscences, +and although I have consulted scientific and +literary friends, I alone must be blamed for sins of omission +or commission. Nothing has been suppressed in the +unpublished letters, or in any of the letters which appear +in these volumes, because there was anything to hide. +Everything Wallace wrote, all his private letters, could +be published to the world. His life was an open bookā"no +weakness, no contempt, dispraise, or blame, nothing +but well and fair."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The profoundly interesting and now historic correspondence +between Darwin and Wallace, part of which +has already appeared in the "Life and Letters of Charles +Darwin" and "More Letters," and part in Wallace's autobiography, +entitled "My Life," is here published, with new +additions, for the first time as a whole, so that the reader +now has before him the necessary material to form a true +estimate of the origin and growth of the theory of Natural +Selection, and of the personal relationships of its noble co-discoverers.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My warmest thanks are offered to Sir Francis Darwin +for permission to use his father's letters, for his annotations, +and for rendering help in checking the typescript of +the Darwin letters; to Mr. John Murray, C.V.O., for permission +to use letters and notes from the "Life and Letters +of Charles Darwin" and from "More Letters"; to +Messrs. Chapman and Hall for their great generosity in +allowing the free use of letters and material in Wallace's +"My Life"; to Prof. E.B. Poulton, Prof. Sir W.F. +Barrett, Sir Wm. Thiselton-Dyer, Dr. Henry Forbes, and +others for letters and reminiscences; and to Prof. Poulton +for reading the proofs and for valuable suggestions. An +intimate chapter on Wallace's Home Life has been contributed +by his son and daughter, Mr. W.G. Wallace and +Miss Violet Wallace.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">J.M.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">March,</span> 1916.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="page" /> + +<div id="toc" class="tei tei-div"><a name="toc_2" id="toc_2"></a><h1 class="tei tei-head">Contents</h1><ul class="toc"> +<li style="margin: 0em 0em;"><a href="#toc_1">PREFACE</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 0em;"><a href="#toc_2">Contents</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 0em;"><a href="#toc_3">LIST OF PLATES IN VOLUME I</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 0em;"><a href="#toc_4">INTRODUCTION</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 0em;"><a href="#toc_5">PART I</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 2em;"><a href="#toc_6">Wallace and Darwin - Early Years</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 2em;"><a href="#toc_7">Early Letters</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_8">TO G. SILK</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_9">TO HIS MOTHER</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_10">TO HIS MOTHER</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_11">TO HIS MOTHER</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_12">TO HIS MOTHER</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_13">TO G. SILK</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_14">TO AN UNKNOWN CORRESPONDENT</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_15">TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_16">TO HIS MOTHER</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_17">TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_18">TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, THOMAS SIMS</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_19">TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_20">TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_21">H.W. BATES TO A.R. WALLACE</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_22">TO H.W. BATES</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_23">Unknown Correspondent</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_24">TO F. BATES</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_25">TO HIS MOTHER</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_26">TO H.W. BATES</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_27">TO H.W. BATES</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_28">TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, THOMAS SIMS</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_29">TO HIS MOTHER</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_30">TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_31">TO G. SILK</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 0em;"><a href="#toc_32">PART II</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 2em;"><a href="#toc_33">The Discovery of Natural Selection</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 2em;"><a href="#toc_34">The Complete Extant Correspondence between Wallace and Darwin</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_35">LETTER I - C. DARWIN to A.R. WALLACE</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_36">LETTER II - C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_37">LETTER III - C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_38">LETTER IV - C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_39">LETTER V - C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_40">LETTER VI - C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_41">LETTER VII - C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_42">LETTER VIII - C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_43">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 23, 1862.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_44">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 24, 1862.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_45">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. August 8, 1862.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_46">1 Carlton Terrace, Southampton. August 20, 1862.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_47">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. September 30, 1862.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_48">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 14 [1863?].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_49">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 1, 1864.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_50">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 2, 1864.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_51">Malvern Wells. Tuesday, March, 1864.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_52">Down, Bromley, Kent. May 28, 1864.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_53">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 29 [1864].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_54">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. June 15, 1864.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_55">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 29, 1865.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_56">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 31, [1865?].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_57">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 1, 1865.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_58">9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. Sept. 18, 1865.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_59">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. September 22, 1865.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_60">9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regents Park. October 2, 1865.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_61">9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. February 4, 1866.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_62">Down, Bromley, S.E. Tuesday, February, 1866.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_63">Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. July 2, 1866.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_64">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. July 5, [1866].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_65">9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. Nov. 19, 1866.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_66">6 Queen Anne Street, W. Monday, January, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_67">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 23, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_68">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 26, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_69">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. March 11, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_70">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_71">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 29, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_72">Postscript. Down. April 29.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_73">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 5, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_74">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. July 6, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_75">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. Wednesday, [August or September, 1867].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_76">76-1/2 Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, W. October 1, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_77">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. October 12 and 13, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_78">Hurstpierpoint. October 22, 1867.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_79">10 Duchess Street, W. February 7, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_80">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 22, [1868?].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_81">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 27, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_82">Hurstpierpoint. March 1, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_83">Hurstpierpoint. March 8, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_84">4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 17, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_85">Hurstpierpoint. March 19, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_86">4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 19-24, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_87">Hurstpierpoint. March 24, [1868?].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_88">4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 27, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_89">Down, Bromley, Kent. April 6, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_90">Hurstpierpoint. [?] April 8, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_91">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 9, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_92">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 5, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_93">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. August 16, [1868?],</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_94">Freshwater, Isle of Wight. August 19, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_95">9 St. Mark's Crescent. August 30, [1868?].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_96">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. September 5, [1868?].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_97">Friday.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_98">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. September 16, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_99">Down, Bromley, Kent. September 23, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_100">9 St. Mark's Crescent, S.W. September 27, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_101">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. October 4, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_102">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. October 6, 1868.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_103">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 20, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_104">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 22, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_105">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 30, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_106">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 2, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_107">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 5, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_108">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. March 10, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_109">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 22, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_110">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 14, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_111">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. April 18, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_112">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. June 23, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_113">Caerleon, Barmouth, N. Wales. June 25, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_114">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. October 20, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_115">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. October 21, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_116">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. December 4, [1869].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_117">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. December 5, 1869.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_118">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 22, 1870.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_119">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. January 26, [1870].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_120">Down, Beckenham, Kent. March 31, 1870.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_121">Down, Beckenham, Kent. April 20, [1870].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_122">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. June 5, 1870.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_123">Holly House, Barking, E. July 6, 1870.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_124">Holly House, Barking, E. November 24, 1870.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_125">Holly House, Barking, E. January 27, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_126">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. January 30, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_127">Holly House, Barking, E. March 11, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_128">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. March 16, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_129">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. March 24, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_130">Holly House, Barking, E. May 14, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_131">Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 9, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_132">Holly Home, Barking, E. July 12, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_133">Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 12, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_134">Holly House, Barking, E. July 16, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_135">Haredene, Albury, Guildford. August 1, 1871.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_136">Holly House, Barking, E. March 3, 1872.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_137">Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 27, 1872.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_138">The Dell, Grays, Essex. August 4, 1872.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_139">Down, Beckenham, Kent. August 28, 1872.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_140">The Dell, Grays, Essex. August 31, 1872.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_141">Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 2, 1872.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_142">Down, Beckenham, Kent. October 20, 1872.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_143">The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 15, 1872.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_144">Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 13, 1873.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_145">The Dell, Grays, Essex. Wednesday morning, [November, 1873].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_146">The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 18, 1873.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_147">Down, Beckenkam, Kent. November 19, 1873.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_148">The Dell, Grays, Essex. December 6, 1874.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_149">The Dell, Grays, Essex. July 21, 1875.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_150">The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 7, 1875.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_151">Down, Beckenham, Kent. June 5, 1876.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_152">The Dell, Grays, Essex. June 7, 1876.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_153">Down, Beckenham. June 17, 1876.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_154">Down, Beckenham. June 25, 1876.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_155">Rose Hill, Dorking. July 23, 1876.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_156">Rose Hill, Dorking. December 13, 1876.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_157">Rose Hill, Dorking. January 17, 1877.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_158">Rose Hill, Dorking. July 23, 1877.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_159">Down, Beckenham, Kent. August 31, 1877.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_160">Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 5, [1877].</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_161">Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. September 14, 1878.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_162">Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 16, 1878.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_163">Walron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. September 23, 1878.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_164">Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 5, 1880.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_165">Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. January 9, 1880.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_166">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. October 11, 1880.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_167">Down, Beckenham, Kent. November 3, 1880.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_168">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. November 8, 1880.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_169">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. November 21, 1880.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_170">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 1, 1881.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_171">Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 2, 1881.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_172">Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 7, 1881.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_173">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 8, 1881.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_174">Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 10, 1881.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_175">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 29, 1881.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_176">Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 9.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 4em;"><a href="#toc_177">Nutwood Cottage, Frith Hill, Godalming, July 9, 1881.</a></li> +<li style="margin: 0em 0em;"><a href="#toc_178">Notes</a></li> +</ul></div> + +<hr class="page" /> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_3" id="toc_3"></a> +<h1 class="tei tei-head">LIST OF PLATES IN VOLUME I</h1> + +<p class="tei tei-p"><a href="#frontispiece" class="tei tei-ref">A.R. WALLACE (1912) <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Photogravure Frontispiece</span></a></p> +<p class="tei tei-p"><a href="#image02" class="tei tei-ref">A.R. WALLACE (SINGAPORE, 1862)</a></p> +<p class="tei tei-p"><a href="#image03" class="tei tei-ref">A.R. WALLACE'S MOTHER</a></p> +<p class="tei tei-p"><a href="#image04" class="tei tei-ref">A.R. WALLACE SOON AFTER HIS RETURN FROM THE EAST</a></p> +</div> + +<hr class="page" /> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page001">[pg 001]</span><a name="Pg001" id="Pg001" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<h1 class="tei tei-head">Alfred Russel Wallace</h1> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Letters and Reminiscences</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_4" id="toc_4"></a> +<h1 class="tei tei-head">INTRODUCTION</h1> + + +<p class="tei tei-p">In Westminster Abbey there repose, almost side by side, +by no conscious design yet with deep significance, +the mortal remains of Isaac Newton and of Charles +Darwin. "'The Origin of Species,'" said Wallace, "will +live as long as the 'Principia' of Newton." Near by +are the tombs of Sir John Herschel, Lord Kelvin and Sir +Charles Lyell; and the medallions in memory of Joule, +Darwin, Stokes and Adams have been rearranged so as +to admit similar memorials of Lister, Hooker and Alfred +Russel Wallace. Now that the plan is completed, Darwin +and Wallace are together in this wonderful galaxy of the +great men of science of the nineteenth century. Several +illustrious names are missing from this eminent company; +foremost amongst them being that of Herbert Spencer, the +lofty master of that synthetic philosophy which seemed to his +disciples to have the proportions and qualities of an enduring +monument, and whose incomparable fertility of creative +thought entitled him to share the throne with Darwin. It +was Spencer, Darwin, Wallace, Hooker, Lyell and Huxley +who led that historic movement which garnered the work of +Lamarck and Buffon, and gave new direction to the ceaseless +interrogation of nature to discover the "how" and +the "why" of the august progression of life. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page002">[pg 002]</span><a name="Pg002" id="Pg002" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +Looking over the long list of the departed whose names +are enshrined in our Minster, one has sorrowfully to observe +that contemporary opinion of their place in history and +abiding worth was not infrequently astray; that memory +has, indeed, forgotten their works; and their memorials +might be removed to some cloister without loss of respect +for the dead, perhaps even with the silent approval of +their own day and generation could it awake from its endless +sleep and review the strange and eventful course of +human life since they left "this bank and shoal of time." +But may it not be safely prophesied that of all the names +on the starry scroll of national fame that of Charles Darwin +will, surely, remain unquestioned? And entwined +with his enduring memory, by right of worth and work, +and we know with Darwin's fullest approval, our successors +will discover the name of Alfred Russel Wallace. +Darwin and Wallace were pre-eminent sons of light.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Among the great men of the Victorian age Wallace +occupied a unique position. He was the co-discoverer of +the illuminating theory of Natural Selection; he watched +its struggle for recognition against prejudice, ignorance, +ridicule and misrepresentation; its gradual adoption by +its traditional enemies; and its final supremacy. And he +lived beyond the hour of its signal triumph and witnessed +the further advance into the same field of research of +other patient investigators who are disclosing fresh phases +of the same fundamental laws of development, and are +accumulating a vast array of new facts which tell of still +richer light to come to enlighten every man born into the +world. To have lived through that brilliant period and +into the second decade of the twentieth century; to have +outlived all contemporaries, having been the co-revealer of +the greatest and most far-reaching generalisation in an era +which abounded in fruitful discoveries and in revolutionary +<span class="tei-pb" id="page003">[pg 003]</span><a name="Pg003" id="Pg003" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>advances in the application of science to life, is verily to +have been the chosen of the gods.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Who and what manner of man was Alfred Russel +Wallace? Who were his forbears? How did he obtain his +insight into the closest secrets of nature? What was the +extent of his contributions to our stock of human knowledge? +In which directions did he most influence his +age? What is known of his inner life? These are some +of the questions which most present-day readers and all +future readers into whose hands this book may come +will ask.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As to his descent, his upbringing, his education and his +estimate of his own character and work, we can, with rare +good fortune, refer them to his autobiography, in which he +tells his own story and relates the circumstances which, +combined with his natural disposition, led him to be a +great naturalist and a courageous social reformer; nay +more, his autobiography is also in part a peculiar revelation +of the inner man such as no biography could approach. +We are also able to send inquirers to the biographies and +works of his contemporariesāDarwin, Hooker, Lyell, Huxley +and many others. All this material is already available +to the diligent reader. But there are other sources of information +which the present book disclosesāWallace's home +life, the large collection of his own letters, the reminiscences +of friends, communications which he received from many co-workers +and correspondents which, besides being of interest +in themselves, often cast a sidelight upon his own mind and +work. All these are of peculiar and intimate value to those +who desire to form a complete estimate of Wallace. And it +is to help the reader to achieve this desirable result that the +present work is published.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It may be stated here that Wallace had suggested to the +present writer that he should undertake a new work, to be +<span class="tei-pb" id="page004">[pg 004]</span><a name="Pg004" id="Pg004" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>called "Darwin and Wallace," which was to have been a +comparative study of their literary and scientific writings, +with an estimate of the present position of the theory of +Natural Selection as an adequate explanation of the process +of organic evolution. Wallace had promised to give as much +assistance as possible in selecting the material without +which the task on such a scale would obviously have been +impossible. Alas! soon after the agreement with the +publishers was signed and in the very month that the plan +of the work was to have been shown to Wallace, his hand +was unexpectedly stilled in death; and the book remains +unwritten. But as the names of Darwin and Wallace are +inseparable even by the scythe of time, a slight attempt +is here made, in the first sections of Part I. and Part II., +to take note of their ancestry and the diversities and +similarities in their respective characters and environmentsāsocial +and educational; to mark the chief characteristics +of their literary works and the more salient +conditions and events which led them, independently, to +the idea of Natural Selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Finally, it may be remarked that up to the present time +the unique work and position of Wallace have not been fully +disclosed owing to his great modesty and to the fact that he +outlived all his contemporaries. "I am afraid," wrote Sir +W.T. Thiselton-Dyer to him in one of his letters (1893), +"the splendid modesty of the big men will be a rarer commodity +in the future. No doubt many of the younger ones +know an immense deal; but I doubt if many of them will +ever exhibit the grasp of great principles which we owe to +you and your splendid band of contemporaries." If this +work helps to preserve the records of the influence and +achievements of this illustrious and versatile genius and of +the other eminent men who brought the great conception of +Evolution to light, it will surely have justified its existence. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page005">[pg 005]</span><a name="Pg005" id="Pg005" class="tei tei-anchor"></a></p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-body"> +<hr class="page" /> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_5" id="toc_5"></a> +<h1 class="tei tei-head">PART I</h1> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_6" id="toc_6"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head">I.āWallace and DarwināEarly Years</h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As springs burst forth, now here, now there, on the +mountain side, and find their way together to the +vast ocean, so, at certain periods of history, men +destined to become great are born within a few years of +each other, and in the course of life meet and mingle their +varied gifts of soul and intellect for the ultimate benefit of +mankind. Between the years 1807 and 1825 at least eight +illustrious scientists "saw the light"āSir Charles Lyell, +Sir Joseph Hooker, T.H. Huxley, Herbert Spencer, John +Tyndall, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Louis +Agassiz; whilst amongst statesmen and authors we recall +Bismarck, Gladstone, Lincoln, Tennyson, Longfellow, +Robert and Elizabeth Browning, Ruskin, John Stuart +Blackie and Oliver Wendell Holmesāa wonderful galaxy +of shining names.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The first group is the one with which we are closely +associated in this section, in which we have brought together +the names of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallaceābetween +whose births there was a period of fourteen years, +Darwin being born on the 12th of February, 1809, and +Wallace on the 8th of January, 1823.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In each case we are indebted to an autobiography for an +account of their early life and work, written almost entirely +from memory when at an age which enabled them to take an +unbiased view of the past.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The autobiography of Darwin was written for the +benefit of his family only, when he was 67; while the two +<span class="tei-pb" id="page006">[pg 006]</span><a name="Pg006" id="Pg006" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>large volumes entitled "My Life" were written by Wallace +when he was 82, for the pleasure of reviewing his long +career. These records are characterised by that charming +modesty and simplicity of life and manner which was so +marked a feature of both men.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In the circumstances surrounding their early days there +was very little to indicate the similarity in character +and mental gifts which became so evident in their later +years. A brief outline of the hereditary influences immediately +affecting them will enable us to trace something of +the essential differences as well as the similarities which +marked their scientific and literary attainments.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The earliest records of the Darwin family show that in +1500 an ancestor of that name (though spelt differently) was +a substantial yeoman living on the borders of Lincolnshire +and Yorkshire. In the reign of James I. the post of Yeoman +of the Royal Armoury of Greenwich was granted to William +Darwin, whose son served with the Royalist Army under +Charles I. During the Commonwealth, however, he became +a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, and later the Recorder of the +City of Lincoln.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Passing over a generation, we find that a brother of +Dr. Erasmus Darwin "cultivated botany," and, when far +advanced in years, published a volume entitled "Principia +Botanica," while Erasmus developed into a poet and philosopher. +The eldest son of the latter "inherited a strong +taste for various branches of science ... and at a very +early age collected specimens of all kinds." The youngest +son, Robert Waring, father of Charles Darwin, became a +successful physician, "a man of genial temperament, +strong character, fond of society," and was the possessor +of great psychic power by which he could readily sum up +the characters of others, and even occasionally read their +thoughts. A judicious use of this gift was frequently +<span class="tei-pb" id="page007">[pg 007]</span><a name="Pg007" id="Pg007" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>found to be more efficacious than actual medicine! To the +end of his life Charles Darwin entertained the greatest +affection and reverence for his father, and frequently +spoke of him to his own children.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">From this brief summary of the family history it is easy +to perceive the inherited traits which were combined in the +attractive personality of the great scientist. From his early +forbears came the keen love of sport and outdoor exercise +(to which considerable reference is made in his youth and +early manhood); the close application of the philosopher; +and the natural aptitude for collecting specimens of all +kinds. To his grandfather he was doubtless indebted for +his poetic imagination, which, consciously or unconsciously, +pervaded his thoughts and writings, saving them from the +cold scientific atmosphere which often chills the lay mind. +Lastly, the geniality of his father was strongly evidenced +by his own love of social intercourse, his courtesy and +ready wit, whilst the gentleness of his motherāwho unfortunately +died when he was 7 years oldāleft a delicacy +of feeling which pervaded his character to the very last.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">No such sure mental influences, reaching back through +several generations, can be traced in the records of the +Wallace family, although what is known reveals the source +of the dogged perseverance with which Wallace faced the +immense difficulties met with by all early pioneer travellers, +of that happy diversity of mental interests which +helped to relieve his periods of loneliness and inactivity, +and of that quiet determination to pursue to the utmost +limit every idea which impressed his mind as containing +the germ of a wider and more comprehensive truth than +had yet been generally recognised and accepted.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The innate reticence and shyness of manner which +were noticeable all through his life covered a large-heartedness +even in the most careful observation of facts, and +<span class="tei-pb" id="page008">[pg 008]</span><a name="Pg008" id="Pg008" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>produced a tolerant disposition towards his fellow-men +even when he most disagreed with their views or dogmas. +He was one of those of whom it may be truly said in +hackneyed phrases that he was "born great," whilst +destined to have "greatness thrust upon him" in the +shape of honours which he received with hesitation.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">From his autobiography we gather that his father, +though dimly tracing his descent from the famous Wallace +of Stirling, was born at Hanworth, in Middlesex, +where there appears to have been a small colony of residents +bearing the same name but occupying varied social +positions, from admiral to hotel-keeperāthe grandfather of +Alfred Russel Wallace being known as a victualler. Thomas +Vere Wallace was the only son of this worthy innkeeper; +and, being possessed of somewhat wider ambitions than a +country life offered, was articled to a solicitor in London, +and eventually became an attorney-at-law. On his father's +death he inherited a small private income, and, not being +of an energetic disposition, he preferred to live quietly on +it instead of continuing his practice. His main interests +were somewhat literary and artistic, but without any definite +aim; and this lack of natural energy, mental and physical, +reappeared in most of the nine children subsequently born +to him, including Alfred Russel, who realised that had it +not been for the one definite interest which gradually determined +his course in life (an interest demanding steady +perseverance and concentrated thought as well as physical +enterprise), his career might easily have been much less +useful.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It was undoubtedly from his father that he acquired an +appreciation of good literature, as they were in the habit +of hearing Shakespeare and similar works read aloud round +the fireside on winter nights; whilst from his mother came +artistic and business-like instinctsāseveral of her relatives +<span class="tei-pb" id="page009">[pg 009]</span><a name="Pg009" id="Pg009" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>having been architects of no mean skill, combining with their +art sound business qualities which placed them in positions +of civic authority and brought them the respect due to men +of upright character and good parts.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">During the chequered experiences which followed the +marriage of Thomas Vere Wallace and Mary Ann Greenell +there appears to have been complete mutual affection and +understanding. Although Wallace makes but slight reference +to his mother's character and habits, one may readily +conclude that her disposition and influence were such as +to leave an indelible impression for good on the minds +of her children, amongst her qualities being a talent for +not merely accepting circumstances but in a quiet way +making the most of each experience as it cameāa talent +which we find repeated on many occasions in the life of +her son Alfred.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is a little curious that each of these great scientists +should have been born in a house overlooking a well-known +riverāthe home of the Darwins standing on the +banks of the Severn, at Shrewsbury, and that of the +Wallaces a stone's throw from the waters of the romantic +and beautiful Usk, of Monmouthshire.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With remarkable clearness Dr. Wallace could recall +events and scenes back to the time when he was only 4 +years of age. His first childish experiment occurred about +that time, due to his being greatly impressed by the story +of the "Fox and the Pitcher" in Ćsop's Fables. Finding +a jar standing in the yard outside their house, he +promptly proceeded to pour a small quantity of water into +it, and then added a handful of small stones. The water +not rising to the surface, as it did in the fable, he found a +spade and scraped up a mixture of earth and pebbles which +he added to the stones already in the jar. The result, however, +proving quite unsatisfactory, he gave up the experiment +<span class="tei-pb" id="page010">[pg 010]</span><a name="Pg010" id="Pg010" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in disgust and refused to believe in the truth of the +fable. His restless brain and vivid imagination at this +early period is shown by some dreams which he could +still recall when 82 years of age; whilst the strong impression +left on his mind by certain localities, with all +their graphic detail of form and colour, enabled him to +enjoy over again many of the simple pleasures that made +up his early life in the beautiful grounds of the ancient +castle in which he used to play.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The first great event in his life was the journey undertaken +by ferry-boat and stage-coach from Usk to Hertford, +to which town the family removed when he was 6 years +old, and where they remained for the next eight years, +until he left school.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The morning after their arrival an incident occurred +which left its trace as of a slender golden thread running +throughout the fabric of his long life. Alfred, with child-like +curiosity about his new surroundings, wandered into +the yard behind their house, and presently heard a voice +coming from the other side of the low wall, saying, "Hallo! +who are you?" and saw a boy about his own age peering +over the top. Explanations followed, and soon, by the +aid of two water-butts, the small boys found themselves +sitting side by side on the top of the wall, holding a long +and intimate conversation. Thus began his friendship +with George Silk, and by some curious trend of circumstances +the two families became neighbours on several subsequent +occasions,<a name="noteref_1" id="noteref_1"></a><a href="#note_1"><span class="footnoteref">1</span></a> so that the friendship was maintained +until in due course the boys separated each to his own way +<span class="tei-pb" id="page011">[pg 011]</span><a name="Pg011" id="Pg011" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in lifeāthe one to wander in foreign lands, the other to +occupy a responsible position at home.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">After spending about a year at private schools, Alfred +Wallace was sent with his brother John to Hertford Grammar +School. His recollections of these school days are full +of interest, especially as contrasted with the school life +of to-day. He says: "We went to school even in the +winter at seven in the morning, and three days a week +remained till five in the afternoon; some artificial light +was necessary, and this was effected by the primitive +method of every boy bringing his own candle or candle-ends +with any kind of candlestick he liked. An empty +ink-bottle was often used, or the candle was even stuck +on to the desk with a little of its own grease. So that it +enabled us to learn our lessons or do our sums, no one +seemed to trouble about how we provided the light."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Though never robust in health, he enjoyed all the +usual boyish sports, especially such as appealed to his +imagination and love of adventure. Not far from the +school a natural cave, formed in a chalky slope and +partially concealed by undergrowth, made an excellent +resort for "brigands"; and to this hiding place were +brought potatoes and other provisions which could be +cooked and eaten in primitive fashion, with an air of +secrecy which added to the mystery and attraction of the +boyish adventure.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is curious to note that one destined to become a +great traveller and explorer should have found the study +of geography "a painful subject." But this was, as he +afterwards understood, entirely due to the method of +teaching then, and sometimes now, in vogue, which made +no appeal whatever to the imagination by creating a +mental picture of the peoples and nations, or the varied +wonders and beauties of nature which distinguish one +<span class="tei-pb" id="page012">[pg 012]</span><a name="Pg012" id="Pg012" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>country from another. "No interesting facts were ever +given, no accounts of the country by travellers were ever +read, no good maps ever given us, nothing but the horrid +stream of unintelligible place names to be learnt." The +only subjects in which he considered that he gained some +valuable grounding at school were Latin, arithmetic, and +writing.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This estimate of the value of the grammar-school teaching +is echoed in Darwin's own words when describing his +school days at precisely the same age at Shrewsbury Grammar +School, where, he says, "the school as a means of +education to me was simply a blank." It is therefore +interesting to notice, side by side, as it were, the occupation +which each boy found for himself out of school hours, +and which in both instances proved of immense value in +their respective careers in later life.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Darwin, even at this early age, found his "taste for +natural history, and more especially for collecting," well +developed. "I tried," he says, "to make out the names of +plants, and collected all sorts of things, shells, seals, franks, +coins and minerals. The passion for collecting which leads +a man to be a systematic naturalist ... was very strong +in me, and was clearly innate, as none of my sisters or +brothers ever had this taste."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">He also speaks of himself as having been a very "simple +little fellow" by the manner in which he was either himself +deceived or tried to deceive others in a harmless way. As +an instance of this, he remembered declaring that he could +"produce variously coloured polyanthuses and primroses +by watering them with certain coloured fluids," though he +knew all the time it was untrue. His feeling of tenderness +towards all animals and insects is revealed in the fact that +he could not rememberāexcept on one occasionāever taking +more than one egg out of a bird's nest; and though a keen +<span class="tei-pb" id="page013">[pg 013]</span><a name="Pg013" id="Pg013" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>angler, as soon as he heard that he could kill the worms +with salt and water he never afterwards "spitted a living +worm, though at the expense, probably, of some loss of +success!"</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Nothing thwarted young Darwin's intense joy and +interest in collecting minerals and insects, and in watching +and making notes upon the habits of birds. In +addition to this wholesome outdoor hobby, the tedium of +school lessons was relieved for him by reading Shakespeare, +Byron and Scottāalso a copy of "Wonders of the +World" which belonged to one of the boys, and to which +he always attributed his first desire to travel in remote +countries, little thinking how his dreams would be fulfilled.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Whilst Charles Darwin occupied himself with outdoor +sport and collecting, with a very moderate amount of +reading thrown in at intervals, Wallace, on the contrary, +devoured all the books he could get; and fortunately for +him, his father having been appointed Librarian to the +Hertford Town Library, Alfred had access to all the +books that appealed to his mental appetite; and these, +especially the historical novels, supplemented the lack of +interesting history lessons at school, besides giving him an +insight into many kinds of literature suited to his varied +tastes and temperament. In addition, however, to the +hours spent in reading, he and his brother John found endless +delight in turning the loft of an outhouse adjoining +their yard into a sort of mechanical factory. Here they +contrived, by saving up all their pence (the only pocket-money +that came to them), to make crackers and other +simple fireworks, and to turn old keys into toy cannon, +besides making a large variety of articles for practical +domestic purposes. Thus he cultivated the gift of resourcefulness +and self-reliance on which he had so often to depend +<span class="tei-pb" id="page014">[pg 014]</span><a name="Pg014" id="Pg014" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>when far removed from all civilisation during his travels +on the Amazon and in the Malay Archipelago.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">A somewhat amusing instance of this is found in a letter +to his sister, dated June 25th, 1855, at a time when he +wanted a really capable man for his companion, in place +of the good-natured but incapable boy Charles, whom +he had brought with him from London to teach collecting. +In reply to some remarks by his sister about a young man +who she thought would be suitable, he wrote: "Do not +tell me merely that he is 'a very nice young man.' Of +course he is.... I should like to know whether he can +live on rice and salt fish for a week on occasion.... Can +he sleep on a board?... Can he walk twenty miles a +day? Whether he can work, for there is sometimes as +hard work in collecting as in anything. Can he saw a +piece of wood straight? Ask him to make you anythingāa +little card box, a wooden peg or bottle-stopper, and +see if he makes them neat and square."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In another letter he describes the garden and live stock +he had been able to obtain where he was living; and in +yet another he gives a long list of his domestic woes and +tribulationsāwhich, however, were overcome with the +patience inculcated in early life by his hobbies, and also +by the fact that the family was always more or less in +straitened circumstances, so that the children were taught +to make themselves useful in various ways in order to +assist their mother in the home.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As he grew from childhood into youth, Alfred Wallace's +extreme sensitiveness developed to an almost painful degree. +He grew rapidly, and his unusual height made him still more +shy when forced to occupy any prominent position amongst +boys of his own age. During the latter part of his time +at Hertford Grammar School his father was unable to pay +the usual fees, and it was agreed that Alfred should act +<span class="tei-pb" id="page015">[pg 015]</span><a name="Pg015" id="Pg015" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>as pupil teacher in return for the lessons received. This +arrangement, while acceptable on the one hand, caused +him actual mental and physical pain on the other, as it +increased his consciousness of the disabilities under which +he laboured in contrast with most of the other boys of his +own age.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">At the age of 14 Wallace was taken away from school, +and until something could be definitely decided about his +futureāas up to the present he had no particular bent in +any one directionāhe was sent to London to live with his +brother John, who was then working for a master builder +in the vicinity of Tottenham Court Road. This was in +January, 1837, and it was during the following summer +that he joined his other brother, William, at Barton-on-the-Clay, +Bedfordshire, and began land surveying. In the +meantime, while in London, he had been brought very closely +into contact with the economics and ethics of Robert Owen, +the well-known Socialist; and although very young in years +he was so deeply impressed with the reasonableness and +practical outcome of these theories that, though considerably +modified as time went on, they formed the foundation +for his own writings on Socialism and allied subjects in +after years.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As one of our aims in this section is to suggest an outline +of the contrasting influences governing the early lives +of Wallace and Darwin, it is interesting to note that at +the ages of 14 and 16 respectively, and immediately on +leaving school, they came under the first definite mental +influence which was to shape their future thought and +action. Yet how totally different from Wallace's trials +as a pupil teacher was the removal of Darwin from Dr. +Butler's school at Shrewsbury because "he was doing no +good" there, and his father thought it was "time he +settled down to his medical study in Edinburgh," never +<span class="tei-pb" id="page016">[pg 016]</span><a name="Pg016" id="Pg016" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>heeding the fact that his son had already one passion in +life, apart from "shooting, dogs, and rat-catching," which +stood a very good chance of saving him from becoming the +disgrace to the family that his good father feared. So that +while Wallace was imbibing his first lessons in Socialism +at 14 years of age, Darwin at 16 found himself merely enduring, +with a feeling of disgust, Dr. Duncan's lectures, +which were "something fearful to remember," on materia +medica at eight o'clock on a winter's morning, and, worse +still, Dr. Munro's lectures on human anatomy, which were +"as dull as he was himself." Yet he always deeply regretted +not having been urged to practise dissection, +because of the invaluable aid it would have been to him +as a naturalist.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">By mental instinct, however, Darwin soon found himself +studying marine zoology and other branches of natural +science. This was in a large measure due to his intimacy +with Dr. Grant, who, in a later article on Flustra, made +some allusion to a paper read by Darwin before the Linnean +Society on a small discovery which he had made by +the aid of a "wretched microscope" to the effect that the +so-called ova of Flustra were really larvƦ and had the power +of independent action by means of cilia.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">During his second year in Edinburgh he attended +Jameson's lectures on geology and zoology, but found +them so "incredibly dull" that he determined never to +study the science.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Then came the final move which, all unknowingly, was +to lead Darwin into the pursuit of a science which up to +that time had only been a hobby and not in any sense the +serious profession of his life. But again how wide the +difference between his change from Edinburgh to Cambridge, +and that of Wallace from a month's association +with a working-class Socialistic community in London to +<span class="tei-pb" id="page017">[pg 017]</span><a name="Pg017" id="Pg017" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>land surveying under the simplest rural conditions prevalent +amongst the respectable labouring farmers of BedfordshireāDarwin +to the culture and privileges of a great University +with the object of becoming a clergyman, and Wallace taking +the first road that offered towards earning a living, with no +thought as to the ultimate outcome of this life in the open +and the systematic observation of soils and land formation.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">But the inherent tendencies of Darwin's nature drew +him away from theology to the study of geology, entomology +and botany. The ensuing four years at Cambridge +were very happy ones. While fortunate in being able to +follow his various mental and scientific pursuits with the +freedom which a good social and financial position secured +for him, he found himself by a natural seriousness of manner, +balanced by a cheerful temperament and love of sport, the +friend and companion of men many years his seniors and +holding positions of authority in the world of science. +Amongst these the name of Professor Henslow will always +take precedence. "This friendship," says Darwin, "influenced +my whole career more than any other." Henslow's +extensive knowledge of botany, geology, entomology, +chemistry and mineralogy, added to his sincere and attractive +personality, well-balanced mind and excellent judgment, +formed a strong and effective bias in the direction Darwin +was destined to follow.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Apart, however, from the strong personal influence of +Henslow, Sedgwick and others with whom he came much +in contact, two books which he read at this time aroused +his "burning zeal to add the most humble contribution to +the noble structure of Natural Science"; these were Sir +J. Herschel's "Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy," +and Humboldt's "Personal Narrative." Indeed, so +fascinated was he by the description given of Teneriffe in the +latter that he at once set about a plan whereby he might +<span class="tei-pb" id="page018">[pg 018]</span><a name="Pg018" id="Pg018" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>spend a holiday, with Henslow, in that locality, a holiday +which was, indeed, to form part of his famous voyage.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">By means of his explorations in the neighbourhood of +Cambridge, and one or two visits to North Wales, Darwin's +experimental knowledge of geology and allied sciences +was considerably increased. In his zeal for collecting beetles +he employed a labourer to "scrape the moss off old trees in +winter, and place it in a bag, and likewise to collect the +rubbish at the bottom of the barges in which reeds were +brought from the fens, and thus ... got some very rare +species."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">During the summer vacation of 1831, at the personal +request of Henslow, he accompanied Professor Sedgwick +on a geological tour in North Wales. In order, no doubt, +to give him some independent experience, Sedgwick sent +Darwin on a line parallel with his own, telling him to +bring back specimens of the rocks and to mark the stratification +on a map. In later years Darwin was amazed to +find how much both of them had failed to observe, "yet +these phenomena were so conspicuous that ... a house +burnt down by fire could not tell its story more plainly +than did the valley of Cwm Idwal."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This tour was the introduction to a momentous change +in his life. On returning to Shrewsbury he found a letter +awaiting him which contained the offer of a voyage in +H.M.S. <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span>. But owing to several objections raised by +Dr. Darwin, he wrote and declined the offer; and if it had +not been for the immediate intervention of his uncle, Mr. +Josiah Wedgwood (to whose house he went the following +day to begin the shooting season), who took quite a different +view of the proposition, the "Journal of Researches during +the Voyage of H.M.S. <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span>," by Charles Darwin, would +never have been written.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">At length, however, after much preparation and many +<span class="tei-pb" id="page019">[pg 019]</span><a name="Pg019" id="Pg019" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>delays, the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span> sailed from Plymouth on December 27th, +1831, and five years elapsed before Darwin set foot again on +English soil. The period, therefore, in Darwin's life which +we find covered by his term at Edinburgh and Cambridge, +until at the age of 22 he found himself suddenly launched +on an entirely new experience full of adventure and fresh +association, was spent by Wallace in a somewhat similar +manner in so far as his outward objective in life was more +or less distinct from the pursuits which gradually dawned +upon his horizon, though they were followed as a "thing +apart" and not as an ultimate end.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With Wallace's removal into Bedfordshire an entirely +new life opened up before him. His health, never very +good, rapidly improved; both brain and eye were trained +to practical observations which proved eminently valuable. +His descriptions of the people with whom he came in +contact during these years of country life reveal the +quiet toleration of the faults and foibles of others, +not devoid of the keen sense of humour and justice +which characterised his lifelong attitude towards his +fellow-men.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The many interests of his new life, together with the +use of a pocket sextant, prompted him to make various +experiments for himself. The only sources from which he +could obtain helpful information, however, were some +cheap elementary books on mechanics and optics which he +procured from the Society for the Diffusion of Useful +Knowledge; these he studied and "puzzled over" for +several years. "Having no friends of my own age," he +wrote, "I occupied myself with various pursuits in which +I had begun to take an interest. Having learnt the use +of the sextant in surveying, and my brother having a book +on Nautical Astronomy, I practised a few of the simpler +observations. Among these were determining the meridian +<span class="tei-pb" id="page020">[pg 020]</span><a name="Pg020" id="Pg020" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>by equal altitudes of the sun, and also by the pole-star at +its upper or lower culmination; finding the latitude by the +meridian altitude of the sun, or of some of the principal stars; +and making a rude sundial by erecting a gnomon towards +the pole. For these simple calculations I had Hannay and +Dietrichsen's Almanac, a copious publication which gave all +the important data in the Nautical Almanac, besides much +other interesting matter useful for the astronomical amateur +or the ordinary navigator. I also tried to make a telescope +by purchasing a lens of about 2 ft. focus at an optician's +in Swansea, fixing it in a paper tube and using the eye-piece +of a small opera-glass. With it I was able to observe the +moon and Jupiter's satellites, and some of the larger star-clusters; +but, of course, very imperfectly. Yet it served to +increase my interest in astronomy, and to induce me to study +with some care the various methods of construction of the +more important astronomical instruments; and it also led +me throughout my life to be deeply interested in the grand +onward march of astronomical discovery."<a name="noteref_2" id="noteref_2"></a><a href="#note_2"><span class="footnoteref">2</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">At the same time Wallace became attracted by, and interested +in, the flowers, shrubs and trees growing in that +part of Bedfordshire, and he acquired some elementary knowledge +of zoology. "It was," he writes, "while living at +Barton that I obtained my first information that there was +such a science as geology.... My brother, like most land-surveyors, +was something of a geologist, and he showed me +the fossil oysters of the genus GryphƦa and the Belemnites ... and +several other fossils which were abundant in the +chalk and gravel around Barton.... It was here, too, that +during my solitary rambles I first began to feel the influence +of nature and to wish to know more of the various flowers, +shrubs and trees I daily met with, but of which for the most +part I did not even know the English names. At that time +<span class="tei-pb" id="page021">[pg 021]</span><a name="Pg021" id="Pg021" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>I hardly realised that there was such a science as systematic +botany, that every flower and every meanest and most insignificant +weed had been accurately described and classified, +and that there was any kind of system or order in the endless +variety of plants and animals which I knew existed. This +wish to know the names of wild plants, to be able to speak +... about them, had arisen from a chance remark I had overheard +about a year before. A lady ... whom we knew at +Hertford, was talking to some friends in the street when +I and my father met them ... [and] I heard the lady say, +'We found quite a rarity the other dayāthe Monotropa; it +had not been found here before.' This I pondered over, and +wondered what the Monotropa was. All my father could tell +me was that it was a rare plant; and I thought how nice it +must be to know the names of rare plants when you found +them."<a name="noteref_3" id="noteref_3"></a><a href="#note_3"><span class="footnoteref">3</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">One can picture the tall quiet boy going on these solitary +rambles, his eye becoming gradually quickened to perceive +new forms in nature, contrasting them one with another, +and beginning to ponder over the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">cause</span> which led to the +diverse formation and colouring of leaves apparently of the +same family.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It was in 1841, four years later, that he heard of, and at +once procured, a book published at a shilling by the S.P.C.K. +(the title of which he could not recall in after years), to which +he owed his first scientific glimmerings of the vast study of +botany. The next step was to procure, at much self-sacrifice, +Lindley's "Elements of Botany," published at half a guinea, +which to his immense disappointment he found of very little +use, as it did not deal with British plants! His disappointment +was lessened, however, by the loan from a Mr. Hayward +of London's "Encyclopedia of Plants," and it was with +the help of these two books that he made his first classification +<span class="tei-pb" id="page022">[pg 022]</span><a name="Pg022" id="Pg022" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the specimens which he had collected and carefully +kept during the few preceding years.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">"It must be remembered," he says in "My Life," "that +my ignorance of plants at this time was extreme. I knew +the wild rose, bramble, hawthorn, buttercup, poppy, daisy +and foxglove, and a very few others equally common.... +I knew nothing whatever as to genera and species, nor of +the large number of distinct forms related to each and +grouped into natural orders. My delight, therefore, was +great when I was ... able to identify the charming little +eyebright, the strange-looking cow-wheat and louse-wort, +the handsome mullein and the pretty creeping toad-flax, +and to find that all of them, as well as the lordly foxglove, +formed parts of one great natural order, and that under +all their superficial diversity of form was a similarity of +structure which, when once clearly understood, enabled me +to locate each fresh species with greater ease." This, however, +was not sufficient, and the last step was to form a +herbarium.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">"I soon found," he wrote, "that by merely identifying +the plants I found in my walks I lost much time in gathering +the same species several times, and even then not being +always quite sure that I had found the same plant before. +I therefore began to form a herbarium, collecting good +specimens and drying them carefully between drying papers +and a couple of boards weighted with books or stones.... +I first named the species as nearly as I could do so, and then +laid them out to be pressed and dried. At such times," he +continuesāand I have quoted the passage for the sake of +this revealing confessionā"I experienced the joy which +every discovery of a new form of life gives to the lover of +nature, almost equal to those raptures which I afterwards +felt at every capture of new butterflies on the Amazon, or +at the constant stream of new species of birds, beetles +<span class="tei-pb" id="page023">[pg 023]</span><a name="Pg023" id="Pg023" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and butterflies in Borneo, the Moluccas, and the Aru +Islands."<a name="noteref_4" id="noteref_4"></a><a href="#note_4"><span class="footnoteref">4</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Anything in the shape of gardening papers and catalogues +which came in his way was eagerly read, and to this source +he owed his first interest in the fascinating orchid.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">"A catalogue published by a great nurseryman in Bristol +... contained a number of tropical orchids, of whose wonderful +variety and beauty I had obtained some idea from the +woodcuts in Loudon's 'Encyclopedia.' The first epiphytal +orchid I ever saw was at a flower show in Swansea ... +which caused in me a thrill of enjoyment which no other +plant in the show produced. My interest in this wonderful +order of plants was further enhanced by reading in +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Gardener's Chronicle</span> an article by Dr. Lindley on one +of the London flower shows, where there was a good display +of orchids, in which ... he added, 'and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Dendrobium Devonianum</span>, +too delicate and beautiful for a flower of earth.' This +and other references ... gave them, in my mind, a weird +and mysterious charm ... which, I believe, had its share +in producing that longing for the tropics which a few years +later was satisfied in the equatorial forests of the Amazon."<a name="noteref_5" id="noteref_5"></a><a href="#note_5"><span class="footnoteref">5</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">For a brief period, when there was a lull in the surveying +business and his prospects of continuing in this +profession looked uncertain, he tried watchmaking, and +would probablyāthough not by choiceāhave been apprenticed +to it but for an unexpected circumstance which caused +his master to give up his business. Alfred gladly, when the +occasion offered, returned to his outdoor life, which had +<span class="tei-pb" id="page024">[pg 024]</span><a name="Pg024" id="Pg024" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>begun to make the strongest appeal to him, stronger, perhaps, +than he was really aware.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Early in 1844 another break occurred, due to the sudden +falling off of land surveying as a profitable business. His +brother could no longer afford to keep him as assistant, finding +it indeed difficult to obtain sufficient employment for +himself. As Wallace knew no other trade or profession, +the only course which occurred to his mind as possible +by which to earn a living was to get a post as school +teacher.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">After one or two rather amusing experiences, he eventually +found himself in very congenial surroundings under +the Rev. Abraham Hill, headmaster of the Collegiate School +at Leicester. Here he stayed for a little more than a year, +during which timeāin addition to his school work and a +considerable amount of hard reading on subjects to which +he had not hitherto been able to devote himselfāhe was led +to become greatly interested in phrenology and mesmerism, +and before long found himself something of an expert in +giving mesmeric demonstrations before small audiences. +Phrenology, he believed, proved of much value in determining +his own characteristics, good and bad, and in guiding +him to a wise use of the faculties which made for his +ultimate success; while his introduction to mesmerism had +not a little to do with his becoming interested and finally +convinced of the part played by spiritualistic forces and +agencies in human life.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The most important event, however, during this year +at Leicester was his meeting with H.W. Bates, through +whom he was introduced to the absorbing study of beetles +and butterflies, the link which culminated in their mutual +exploration of the Amazon. It is curious that Wallace +retained no distinct recollection of how or when he met +Bates for the first time, but thought that "he heard +<span class="tei-pb" id="page025">[pg 025]</span><a name="Pg025" id="Pg025" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>him mentioned as an enthusiastic entomologist and met +him at the Library." Bates was at this time employed +by his father, who was a hosiery manufacturer, and he +could therefore only devote his spare time to collecting +beetles in the surrounding neighbourhood. The friendship +brought new interests into both lives, and though +Wallace was obliged a few months later to leave Leicester +and return to his old work of surveying (owing to the +sudden death of his brother William, whose business affairs +were left in an unsatisfactory condition and needed personal +attention), he no longer found in it the satisfaction he had +previously experienced, and his letters to Bates expressed +the desire to strike out on some new line, one which would +satisfy his craving for a definite pursuit in the direction of +natural science.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Somewhere about the autumn of 1847, Bates paid a visit +to Wallace at Neath, and the plan to go to the Amazon which +had been slowly forming itself at length took shape, due to +the perusal of a little book entitled "A Voyage up the River +Amazon," by W.H. Edwards. Further investigations showed +that this would be particularly advantageous, as the district +had only been explored by the German zoologist, von Spix, +and the botanist von Martins, in 1817-20, and subsequently +by Count de Castelnau.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">During this interval we find, in a letter to Bates, the +following allusion to Darwin, which is the first record of +Wallace's high estimate of the man with whom his own +name was to be dramatically associated ten years later. +"I first," he says, "read Darwin's Journal three or four +years ago, and have lately re-read it. As the journal of a +scientific traveller it is second only to Humboldt's Narrative; +as a work of general interest, perhaps superior to it. +He is an ardent admirer and most able supporter of Mr. +Lyell's views. His style of writing I very much admire, so +<span class="tei-pb" id="page026">[pg 026]</span><a name="Pg026" id="Pg026" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>free from all labour, or egotism, yet so full of interest and +original thought."<a name="noteref_6" id="noteref_6"></a><a href="#note_6"><span class="footnoteref">6</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The early part of 1848 was occupied in making arrangements +with Mr. Samuel Stevens, of King Street, Covent +Garden, to act as their agent in disposing of a duplicate +collection of specimens which they proposed sending home; +by this means paying their expenses during the time they +were away, any surplus being invested against their return. +This and other matters being satisfactorily settled, they +eventually sailed from Liverpool on April 20th in a barque +of 192 tons, said to be "a very fast sailer," which proved +to be correct. On arriving at Para about a month later, +they immediately set about finding a house, learning something +of the language, the habits of the people amongst whom +they had come to live, and making short excursions into the +forest before starting on longer and more trying explorations +up country.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Wallace's previous vivid imaginings of what life in the +tropics would mean, so far as the surpassing beauty of nature +was concerned, were not immediately fulfilled. As a starting-point, +however, Para had many advantages. Besides the +pleasant climate, the country for some hundreds of miles +was found to be nearly level at an elevation of about 30 +or 40 ft. above the river; the first distinct rise occurring +some 150 miles up the river Tocantins, south-west of +Para; the whole district was intersected by streams, with +cross channels connecting them, access by this means being +comparatively easy to villages and estates lying farther +inland.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Before making an extensive excursion into the interior, +he spent some time on the larger islands at the mouth of +<span class="tei-pb" id="page027">[pg 027]</span><a name="Pg027" id="Pg027" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the Amazon, on one of which he immediately noticed the +scarcity of trees, while "the abundance of every kind of +animal life crowded into a small space was here very +striking, compared with the sparse manner in which it is +scattered in the virgin forests. It seems to force us to +the conclusion that the luxuriance of tropical vegetation +is not favourable to the production of animal life. The +plains are always more thickly peopled than the forest; +and a temperate zone, as has been pointed out by Mr. +Darwin, seems better adapted to the support of large land +animals than the tropics."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">We have already referred to the fact that at the very +early age of 14 Wallace had imbibed his first ideas of +Socialism, or how the "commonwealth" of a people or +nation was the outcome of cause and effect, largely due to +the form of government, political economy and progressive +commerce best suited to any individual State or country. +The seed took deep root, and during the years spent for +the most part amongst an agricultural people in England +and Wales his interest in these questions had been quickened +by observation and intelligent inquiry. It is no wonder, +therefore, that during the whole of his travels we find +many intimate references to such matters regarding the +locality in which he happened to find himself, but which +can only be noticed in a very casual manner in this section. +For instance, he soon discovered that the climate and soil +round Para conduced to the cultivation of almost every +kind of food, such as cocoa, coffee, sugar, farinha (the +universal bread of the country) from the mandioca plant, +with vegetables and fruits in inexhaustible variety; while +the articles of export included india-rubber, Brazil nuts, +and piassaba (the coarse, stiff fibre of a palm, used for +making brooms for street sweeping), as well as sarsaparilla, +balsam-capivi, and a few other drugs. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page028">[pg 028]</span><a name="Pg028" id="Pg028" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +The utter lack of initiative, or even ordinary interest, in +making the most of the opportunities lying at hand, struck +him again and again as he went from place to place and +was entertained hospitably by hosts of various nationalities; +until at times the impression is conveyed that apart from his +initial interest as a naturalist, a longing seized him to arouse +those who were primarily responsible for these conditions out +of the apathy into which they had fallen, and to make them +realise the larger pleasure which life offers to those who +recognise the opportunities at hand, not only for their own +advancement but also for the benefit of those placed under +their control. All of which we find happily illustrated +during his visit to Sarawak, in the Malay Archipelago.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The whole of these four years was crowded with valuable +experiences of one sort and another. Some of the most toilsome +journeys proved only a disappointment, while others +brought success beyond his most sanguine dreams. At the +end of two years it was agreed between himself and Bates +that they should separate, Wallace doing the northern parts +and tributaries of the Amazon, and Bates the main stream, +which, from the fork of the Rio Negro, is called the Upper +Amazon, or the Solimoes. By this arrangement they were +able to cover more ground, besides devoting themselves to +the special goal of research on which each was bent.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In the meantime, Wallace's younger brother, Herbert, +had come out to join him, and for some time their journeys +were made conjointly; but finding that his brother was +not temperamentally fitted to become a naturalist, it was +decided that he should return to England. Accordingly, they +parted at Barra when Wallace started on his long journey up +the Rio Negro, the duration of which was uncertain; and it +was not until many months after the sad event that he heard +the distressing news that Herbert had died of yellow fever on +the eve of his departure from Para for home. Fortunately, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page029">[pg 029]</span><a name="Pg029" id="Pg029" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Bates was in Para at the time, and did what he could for +the boy until stricken down himself with the same sickness, +from which, however, his stronger constitution enabled him +to recover.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Perhaps the most eventful and memorable journey during +this period was the exploration of the UaupĆ©s River, of which +Wallace wrote nearly sixty years later: "So far as I have +heard, no English traveller has to this day ascended the +UaupĆ©s River so far as I did, and no collector has stayed +at any time at Javita, or has even passed through it."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">From a communication received from the Royal Geographical +Society it appears that the first complete survey +of this river (a compass traverse supplemented by astronomical +observations) was made (1907-8) by Dr. Hamilton +Rice, starting from the side of Colombia, and tracing the +whole course of the river from a point near the source of its +head-stream. The result showed that the general course of +the lower river was much as represented by Wallace, though +considerable corrections were necessary both in latitude and +longitude. "I am assured by authorities on the Rio Negro +region," writes Dr. Scott Keltie to Mr. W.G. Wallace, +under date May 21, 1915, "that your father's work still +holds good."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In May, 1852, Wallace returned to Para, and sailed +for England the following July. The ship took fire at +sea, and all his treasures (not previously sent to England) +were unhappily lost. Ten days and nights were spent in +an open boat before another vessel picked them up, and in +describing this terrible experience he says: "When the +danger appeared past I began to feel the greatness of my +loss. With what pleasure had I looked upon every rare +and curious insect I had added to my collection! How +many times, when almost overcome by the ague, had +I crawled into the forest and been rewarded by some +<span class="tei-pb" id="page030">[pg 030]</span><a name="Pg030" id="Pg030" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>unknown and beautiful species! How many places, which +no European foot but my own had trodden, would have +been recalled to my memory by the rare birds and insects +they had furnished to my collection! How many weary +days and weeks had I passed, upheld only by the fond +hope of bringing home many new and beautiful forms +from these wild regions ... which would prove that I +had not wasted the advantage I had enjoyed, and would +give me occupation and amusement for many years to +come! And now ... I had not one specimen to illustrate +the unknown lands I had trod, or to call back the recollection +of the wild scenes I had beheld! But such regrets +were vain ... and I tried to occupy myself with the state +of things which actually existed."<a name="noteref_7" id="noteref_7"></a><a href="#note_7"><span class="footnoteref">7</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">On reaching London, Wallace took a house in Upper +Albany Street, where his mother and his married sister +(Mrs. Sims), with her husband, a photographer, came to +live with him. The next eighteen months were fully occupied +with sorting and arranging such collections as had +previously reached England; writing his book of travels up +the Amazon and Rio Negro (published in the autumn of +1853), and a little book on the palm trees based on a number +of fine pencil sketches he had preserved in a tin box, the +only thing saved from the wreck.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In summing up the most vivid impressions left on his +mind, apart from purely scientific results, after his four +years in South America, he wrote that the feature which +he could never think of without delight was "the wonderful +variety and exquisite beauty of the butterflies and birds ... ever +new and beautiful, strange and even mysterious," +so that he could "hardly recall them without a thrill of +admiration and wonder." But "the most unexpected +sensation of surprise and delight was my first meeting and +<span class="tei-pb" id="page031">[pg 031]</span><a name="Pg031" id="Pg031" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>living with man in a state of natureāwith absolute uncontaminated +savages!... and the surprise of it was that I +did not expect to be at all so surprised.... These true +wild Indians of the UaupĆ©s ... had nothing that we call +clothes; they had peculiar ornaments, tribal marks, etc.; +they all carried tools or weapons of their own manufacture.... +But more than all, their whole aspect and manner +was differentāthey were all going about their own +work or pleasure, which had nothing to do with white +men or their ways; they walked with the free step of the +independent forest-dweller, and, except the few that were +known to my companion, paid no attention whatever to +us, mere strangers of an alien race! In every detail they +were original and self-sustaining as are the wild animals +of the forest, absolutely independent of civilisation.... +I could not have believed that there would have been so +much difference in the aspect of the same people in their +native state and when living under European supervision. +The true denizen of the Amazonian forest, like the forest +itself, is unique and not to be forgotten."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The foregoing "impressions" recall forcibly those expressed +by Darwin in similar terms at the close of his +"Journal": "Delight ... is a weak term to express the +feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has wandered +by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance of +the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical plants, the +beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the foliage ... +the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with +admiration. A paradoxical mixture of sound and silence +pervades the shady parts of the wood ... yet within the +recesses ... a universal silence appears to reign ... such +a day as this brings with it a deeper pleasure than he (a +naturalist) can ever hope to experience again."<a name="noteref_8" id="noteref_8"></a><a href="#note_8"><span class="footnoteref">8</span></a> And in +<span class="tei-pb" id="page032">[pg 032]</span><a name="Pg032" id="Pg032" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>another place: "Among the scenes which are deeply impressed +on my mind, none can exceed in sublimity the +primeval forests undefaced by the hand of man; ... +temples filled with the various productions of the God of +Nature; ... no one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, +and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath +of his body."<a name="noteref_9" id="noteref_9"></a><a href="#note_9"><span class="footnoteref">9</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In complete contrast to the forest, the bare, treeless, +and uninhabited plains of Patagonia "frequently crossed +before" Darwin's eyes. Why, he could not understand, +except that, being so "boundless," they left "free scope +for the imagination."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As these travels,<a name="noteref_10" id="noteref_10"></a><a href="#note_10"><span class="footnoteref">10</span></a> undertaken at comparatively the same +age, represent the foundation upon which their scientific +work and theories were based during the long years which +followed, a glance at the conditions governing the separate +expeditionsāboth mental and physicalāmay be of some +value. The most obvious difference lies, perhaps, in the +fact that Darwin was free from the thought of having to +"pay his way" by the immediate result of his efforts, and +likewise from all care and anxiety regarding domestic concerns; +the latter being provided for him when on board the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span>, or arranged by those who accompanied him on his +travels overland and by river. The elimination of these +minor cares tended to leave his mind free and open to +absorb and speculate at comparative leisure upon all the +strange phenomena which presented themselves throughout +the long voyage.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">A further point of interest in determining the ultimate +gain or loss lies in the fact that Darwin's private excursions +had to be somewhat subservient to the movements of +<span class="tei-pb" id="page033">[pg 033]</span><a name="Pg033" id="Pg033" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span> under the command of Captain Fitz-Roy. This, +in all probability, was beneficial to one of his temperamentāunaccustomed +to be greatly restricted by outward circumstances +or conditions, though never flagrantly (or, perhaps, +consciously) going against them. The same applies in a +measure to Wallace, who, on more than one occasion, confessed +his tendency to a feeling of semi-idleness and dislike +to any form of enforced physical exertion; but as every +detail, involving constant forethought and arrangement, as +well as the execution, devolved upon himself, the latent +powers of methodical perseverance, which never failed him, +no matter what difficulties barred his way, were called +forth. Darwin's estimate of the "habit of mind" forced +upon himself during this period may not inaptly be applied +to both men: "Everything about which I thought or read +was made to bear directly on what I had seen, or was likely +to see; and this habit of mind was continued during the +five years of the voyage. I feel sure that it was this training +which enabled me to do whatever I have done in science."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It may be further assumed that Darwin was better +equipped mentallyāfrom a scientific point of viewāowing +to his personal intercourse with eminent scientific men +previous to his assuming this responsible position. Wallace, +on the contrary, had practically little beyond book-knowledge +and such experience as he had been able to gain +by solitary wanderings in the localities in which he had, +by circumstances, been forced to reside. His plan of +operations must, therefore, have been largely modified and +adapted as time went on, and as his finances allowed. To +both, therefore, credit is due for the adaptability evinced +under conditions not always congenial or conducive to the +pursuits they had undertaken.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Although the fact is not definitely stated by Wallace, it +may readily be inferred that the idea of making this the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page034">[pg 034]</span><a name="Pg034" id="Pg034" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>starting-point of a new life was clearly in his mind; while +Darwin simply accepted the opportunity when it came, +and was only brought to a consciousness of its full meaning +and bearing on his future career whilst studying the +geological aspect of Santiago when "the line of white +rock revealed a new and important fact," namely, that +there had been afterwards subsidence round the craters, +which had since been in action and had poured forth +lava. "It then," he says, "first dawned on me that I +might perhaps write a book on the geology of the various +countries visited, and this made me thrill with delight. +That was a memorable hour to me; and how distinctly I +can call to mind the low cliff of lava, beneath which I +rested, with the sun glaring hot, a few strange desert +plants growing near, and with living corals in the tidal +pools at my feet!"<a name="noteref_11" id="noteref_11"></a><a href="#note_11"><span class="footnoteref">11</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Another point of comparison lies in the fact that at no +time did the study of man or human nature, from the metaphysical +and psychological point of view, appeal to Darwin +as it did to Wallace; and this being so, the similarity between +the impression made on them individually by their first contact +with primitive human beings is of some interest.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Wallace's words have already been quoted; here are +Darwin's: "Nothing is more certain to create astonishment +than the first sight in his native haunt of a barbarian, +of man in his lowest and most savage state. One +asks: 'Could our progenitors have been men like theseāmen +whose very signs and expressions are less intelligible +to us than those of the domesticated animals; men +who do not possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet +appear to boast of human reason, or at least of arts consequent +on that reason?' I do not believe it is possible +to describe or paint the difference between a savage and +<span class="tei-pb" id="page035">[pg 035]</span><a name="Pg035" id="Pg035" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>civilised man. It is the difference between a wild and +tame animal."<a name="noteref_12" id="noteref_12"></a><a href="#note_12"><span class="footnoteref">12</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The last words suggest the seed-thought eventually +to be enlarged in "The Descent of Man," and there is +also perhaps a subtle suggestion of the points in which +Wallace differed from Darwin when the time came for +them to discuss this important section of the theory of +Evolution. It needed, however, the further eight years +spent by Wallace in the Malay Archipelago to bring about +a much wider knowledge of nature-science before he was +prepared in any way to assume the position of exponent of +theories not seriously thought of previously in the scientific +world.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In the autumn of 1853, on the completion of his +"Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro," Wallace paid +his first visit to Switzerland, on a walking tour in company +with his friend George Silk. On his return, and +during the winter months, he was constant in his attendance +at the meetings of the Entomological and Zoological +Societies. It was at one of these evening gatherings that +he first met Huxley, and he also had a vague recollection +of once meeting and speaking to Darwin at the British +Museum. Had it not been for his extreme shyness of disposition, +and (according to his own estimation) "lack of +conversational powers," he would doubtless have become +far more widely known, and have enjoyed the friendship +of not a few of the eminent men who shared his interests, +during this interval before starting on his journey to +Singapore.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It was due to his close study of the Insect and Bird +Departments of the British Museum that he decided on +Singapore as a new starting-point for his natural history +collections. As the region was generally healthy, and no +<span class="tei-pb" id="page036">[pg 036]</span><a name="Pg036" id="Pg036" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>part of it (with the exception of the Island of Java) +had been explored, it offered unlimited attractions for his +special work. But as the journey out would be an expensive +one, he was advised to lay his plans before Sir +Roderick Murchison, then President of the Royal Geographical +Society, and it was through his kindly interest and +personal application to the Government that a passage was +provided in one of the P. and O. boats going to Singapore. +He left early in 1854. Arrived at Singapore, an entirely +new world opened up before him. New peoples and customs +thronged on all hands, a medley of nationalities such +as can only be seen in the East, where, even to-day, and +though forming part of one large community, each section +preserves its native dress, customs and religious habits. +After spending some time at Singapore he moved from +place to place, but finally decided upon making Ternate +his head-quarters, as he discovered a comfortable bungalow, +not too large, and adaptable in every way as a place +in which to collect and prepare his specimens between the +many excursions to other parts of the Archipelago. The +name is now indelibly associated with that particular +visit which ended after a trying journey in an attack of +intermittent fever and general prostration, during which +he first conceived the idea which has made Ternate famous +in the history of natural science.</p> + +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p"><a name="image02" id="image02" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +<img src="images/image02.png" alt="A.R. WALLACE Singapore, 1862" class="tei tei-figure" /></p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">A.R. WALLACE Singapore, 1862</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">One or two points in the following letters recall certain +contrasts similar to those already drawn between Darwin's +impression of places and people and those made on the mind +of Wallace by practically the same conditions. A typical +instance is found in their estimate of the life and work of +the missionaries whom they met and from whom they received +the warmest hospitality. Their experience included +both Protestant and Roman Catholic, and from Darwin's +account the former appeared to him to have the more +<span class="tei-pb" id="page037">[pg 037]</span><a name="Pg037" id="Pg037" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>civilising effect on the people, not only from a religious +but also from the economic and industrial points of view.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In the "Journal" (p. 419) we find a detailed account of +a visit to the missionary settlement at Waimate, New +Zealand. After describing the familiar English appearance +of the whole surroundings, he adds: "All this is +very surprising when it is considered that five years ago +nothing but the fern flourished here. Moreover, native +workmanship, taught by these missionaries, has effected +this changeāthe lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's +wand. The house had been built, the windows framed, the +fields ploughed, and even the trees grafted, by the New +Zealander. When I looked at the whole scene it was +admirable. It was not that England was brought vividly +before my mind; ... nor was it the triumphant feeling at +seeing what Englishmen could effect; but rather the high +hopes thus inspired for the future progress of this fine +island."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">No such feeling was inspired by the conditions surrounding +the Roman Catholic missionaries whom he met +from time to time. In an earlier part of the "Journal" he +records an evening spent with one living in a lonely place +in South America who, "coming from Santiago, had contrived +to surround himself with some few comforts. Being +a man of some little education, he bitterly complained of +the total want of society. With no particular zeal for +religion, no business or pursuit, how completely must this +man's life be wasted."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In complete opposition to these views, passages occur +in the following letters which show that Wallace thought +more highly of the Roman Catholic than of the Protestant +missionaries. In one place, speaking of the former, he +says: "Most are Frenchmen ... well-educated men who +give up their lives for the good of the people they live +<span class="tei-pb" id="page038">[pg 038]</span><a name="Pg038" id="Pg038" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>among, I think Catholics and Protestants are equally +wrong, but as missionaries I think Catholics are the best, +and I would gladly see none others rather than have, as +in New Zealand, sects of native Dissenters more rancorous +against each other than in England. The unity of the +Catholics is their strength, and an unmarried clergy can +do as missionaries what married men never can undertake."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As a sidelight on these contradictory estimates of the +same work, it should be borne in mind that Darwin had +but recently given up the idea of becoming a clergyman, +and doubtless retained some of the instinctive regard +for sincere Christian Protestantism (whether represented +by the Church of England or by Nonconformists), while +Wallace had long since relinquished all doctrinal ideas on +religion and all belief in the beneficial effect produced by +forms of worship on the individual.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Among the regions Wallace visited was Sarawak. Of +one of his sojourns here some interesting reminiscences +have been sent to me by Mr. L.V. Helmes. He says:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">It was in 1854 that Wallace came to Sarawak. I was +there then, sent by a private firm, which later became the +Borneo Company, to open up, by mining, manufacture and +trade, the resources of the country, and amongst these enterprises +was coal-mining on the west. Wallace came in search +of new specimens of animal and especially insect life. The +clearing of ancient forests at these mines offered a naturalist +great opportunities, and I gave Wallace an introduction to +our engineer in charge there. His collections of beetles and +butterflies there were phenomenal; but the district was also +the special home of the great ape, the orang-utan, or meias, +as the natives called them, of which he obtained so many +valuable specimens. Many notes must at that time have +passed between us, for I took much interest in his work. +We had put up a temporary hut for him at the mines, and +<span class="tei-pb" id="page039">[pg 039]</span><a name="Pg039" id="Pg039" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>on my occasional visits there I saw him and his young +assistant, Charles Allen, at work, admired his beautiful +collections, and gave my help in forwarding them.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">But it was mainly in social intercourse that we met, +when Wallace, in intervals of his labours, came to Ku-ching, +and was the Rajah's guest. Then occurred those interesting +discussions at social gatherings to which he refers +in a letter to me in 1909, when he wrote: "I was pleased +to receive your letter, with reminiscences of old times. I +often recall those pleasant evenings with Rajah Brooke +and our little circle, but since the old Rajah's death I have +not met any of the party."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Wallace was in Sarawak at the happy period in the +country's history. It was beginning to emerge from barbarism. +The Borneo Company was just formed, and the +seed of the country's future prosperity was sown. Wallace, +therefore, found us all sanguine and cheerful; yet +we were on the brink of a disaster which brought many +sorrows in its train. But the misfortunes of the Chinese +revolt had not yet cast their shadows before them. The +Rajah's white guests round his hospitable table; the +Malay chiefs and office-holders, who made evening calls +from curiosity or to pay their respects; Dyaks squatting +in dusky groups in corners of the hall, with petitions to +make or advice to seek from their white rulerāsuch would +be the gathering of which Wallace would form a part. No +suspicion or foreboding would trouble the company; yet +within a few months that hall would be given to the +flames of an enemy's torch, and the Rajah himself and +many of those who formed that company would be fugitives +in the jungle....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The Malay Archipelago, in the unregenerated days when +Wallace roamed the forests, and sailed the Straits in native +boats and canoes, was full of danger to wanderers of the +white race. Anarchy prevailed in many parts; usurping +nobles enslaved the people in their houses; and piratical +fleets scoured the sea, capturing and enslaving yearly +thousands of peaceful traders, women and children. The +writer was himself in 1862 besieged in a Bornean river by +<span class="tei-pb" id="page040">[pg 040]</span><a name="Pg040" id="Pg040" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a pirate fleet, which was eventually destroyed by a Sarawak +Government steamer with the following result of the +fight: 190 pirates and 140 captives were killed or drowned, +and 250 of the latter were liberated and sent to their homes; +showing how formidable these pirates were. But Wallace, +absorbed in his scientific pursuits, minded not these dangers, +nor the hardships of any kind which a roving life in untrodden +jungles and feverish swamps brings.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">When Wallace left Sarawak after his fifteen months' +residence in the country, he left his young assistant, +Charles Allen, there. He entered my service, and remained +some time after the formation of the Borneo +Company. Later, he again joined Wallace, and then went +to New Guinea, doing valuable collecting and exploring +work. He finally settled in Singapore, where I met him +in 1899. He had married and was doing well; but died +not long after my interview with him. He had come to +the East with Wallace as a lad of 16, and had been his +faithful companion and assistant during years of arduous +work.āL.V.H.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The eight years spent by Wallace in this almost unknown +part of the world were times of strenuous mental +and physical exertion, resulting in the gathering together +of an enormous amount of matter for future scientific investigation, +but counterbalanced unfortunately by more or +less continuous ill-healthāwhich at times made the effort +of clear reasoning and close application to scientific pursuits +extremely difficult.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">An indication of the unwearying application with +which he went about his task is seen in the fact that +during this period he collected 125,660 specimens of +natural history, travelled about 14,000 miles within the +Archipelago, and made sixty or seventy journeys, "each +involving some preparation and loss of time," so that +"not more than six years were really occupied in collecting." +<span class="tei-pb" id="page041">[pg 041]</span><a name="Pg041" id="Pg041" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +A faint idea of this long and solitary sojourn in lonely +places is given in a letter to his old friend Bates, dated +December 24th, 1860, in which he says: "Many thanks for +your long and interesting letter. I have myself suffered +much in the same way as you describe, and I think more +severely. The kind of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">tƦdium vitƦ</span> you mention I also +occasionally experience here. I impute it to a too monotonous +existence." And again when he begs his friend to +write, as he is "half froze for news."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As already stated, Wallace, at no time during these +wanderings, had any escort or protection, having to rely +entirely upon his own tact and patience, combined with +firmness, in his dealings with the natives. On one occasion +he was taken ill, and had to remain six weeks with none +but native Papuans around him, and he became so attached +to them that when saying good-bye it was with the full intention +of returning amongst them at a later period. In +another place he speaks of sleeping under cover of an +open palm-leaf hut as calmly as under the protection of +the Metropolitan Police!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Up to that time, also, he was the only Englishman who +had actually seen the beautiful "birds of paradise in their +native forests," this success being achieved after "five +voyages to different parts of the district they inhabit, each +occupying in its preparation and execution the larger part +of a year." And then only five species out of a possible +fourteen were procured. His enthusiasm as a naturalist +and collector knew no bounds, butterflies especially calling +into play all his feelings of joy and satisfaction. Describing +his first sight of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ornithoptera croesus</span>, he says that +the blood rushed to his head and he felt much more like +fainting than he had done when in apprehension of immediate +death; a similar sensation being experienced when +he came across another large bird-winged butterfly, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ornithoptera +poseidon</span>. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page042">[pg 042]</span><a name="Pg042" id="Pg042" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>"It is one thing," he says, "to see +such beauty in a cabinet, and quite another to feel it +struggling between one's fingers, and to gaze upon its +fresh and living beauty, a bright-green gem shining out +amid the silent gloom of a dark and tangled forest. The +village of Dobbo held that evening at least one contented +man."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">These thrills of joy may be considered as some compensation +for such experiences as those contained in his graphic +account of a single journey in a "prau," or native boat. +"My first crew," he wrote, "ran away; two men were +lost for a month on a desert island; we were ten times +aground on coral reefs; we lost four anchors; our sails +were devoured by rats; the small boat was lost astern; +we were thirty-eight days on the voyage home which +should have taken twelve; we were many times short of +food and water; we had no compass-lamp owing to there +not being a drop of oil in Waigiou when we left; and to +crown it all, during the whole of our voyage, occupying +in all seventy-eight days (all in what was supposed to be +the favourable season), we had not one single day of fair +wind."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The scientific discoveries arising out of these eight years +of laborious work and physical hardship were firstāwith +the exception of the memorable Essay on Natural Selectionāincluded +in his books on the Malay Archipelago, the +Geographical Distribution of Animals, Island Life, and +Australasia, besides a number of papers contributed to +various scientific journals.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">A bare catalogue of the places visited and explored +includes Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, +Timor, New Guinea, the Aru and KĆ© Islands. Comparing +this list with that given by Darwin at the close of the +"Journal," we find that though in some respects the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page043">[pg 043]</span><a name="Pg043" id="Pg043" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ground covered by the two men was similar, it never +actually overlapped. The countries and islands visited by +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span> came in the following order: Cape de Verde +Islands, St. Paul's Rocks, Fernando Noronha, South +America (including the Galapagos Archipelago, the Falkland +Isles, and Tierra del Fuego), Tahiti, New Zealand, +Australia, Tasmania, Keeling Island, Maldive coral atolls, +Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension. Brazil was revisited for +a short time, and the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span> touched at the Cape de Verde +Islands and the Azores on the homeward voyage.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The very nature of this voyage did not permit Darwin +to give unlimited time to the study of any particular +spot or locality; but his accurate observation of every +detail, together with his carefully kept journal, afforded +ample scope and foundation for future contemplation. To +Wallace, the outstanding result may be summed up in the +fact that he discovered that the Malay Archipelago is +divided into a western group of islands, which in their +zoological affinities are Asiatic, and an eastern, which +are Australian. The Oriental Borneo and Bali are respectively +divided from the Australian Celebes and Lombok +by a narrow belt of sea known as "Wallace's line," on +the opposite side of which the indigenous mammalia are +as widely divergent as in any two parts of the world.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">To both men Darwin's estimate of the influence of +travel may aptly apply in the sense that from a geographical +point of view "the map of the world ceases to be a +blank ... each part assumes its proper dimensions," continents +are no longer considered islands, nor islands as +mere specks.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Wallace's homeward journey was not so eventful as the +previous one had been, except for the unsuccessful efforts +to bring back several species of live birds, which, with the +exception of his birds of paradise, died on the way. On +<span class="tei-pb" id="page044">[pg 044]</span><a name="Pg044" id="Pg044" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>reaching London in the spring of 1862, he again made his +home with his married sister, Mrs. Sims (who was living +in Westbourne Grove). In a large empty room at the top +of the house he found himself surrounded with packing-cases +which he had not seen for five or six years, and +which, together with his recent collections, absorbed his +time and interest for the first few weeks. Later, he settled +down to his literary work, and, with the exception of one +or two visits to the Continent and America, spent the remainder +of his life in Englandāa life full of activity, the +results of which still permeate scientific research. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page045">[pg 045]</span><a name="Pg045" id="Pg045" class="tei tei-anchor"></a></p> +</div> + +<hr class="page" /> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_7" id="toc_7"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head">II.āEarly Letters</h2> + +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">[1854ā62]</p> + + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">Of the few letters which have been preserved relating +to this period, a number have already been published +in "My Life," and need not be reprinted here. +But in some cases portions of these letters have been given +because they bring out aspects of Wallace's character which +are not revealed elsewhere. The various omissions which +have been made in other letters refer either to unimportant +personal matters or to technical scientific details. The first +of the letters was written during Wallace's voyage to the +Malay Archipelago.</p> +</blockquote> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_8" id="toc_8"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO G. SILK</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Steamer "Bengal," Red Sea. March 26,</span> [1854].</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear George,ā ... Of all the eventful days of +my life my first in Alexandria was the most striking. +Imagine my feelings when, coming out of the hotel +(whither I had been conveyed in an omnibus) for the +purpose of taking a quiet stroll through the city, I +found myself in the midst of a vast crowd of donkeys +and their drivers, all thoroughly determined to appropriate +my person to their own use and interest, without in the +least consulting my inclinations. In vain with rapid +strides and waving arms I endeavoured to clear a way +and move forward; arms and legs were seized upon, and +even the Christian coat-tails were not sacred from the profane +Mahometans. One would hold together two donkeys +<span class="tei-pb" id="page046">[pg 046]</span><a name="Pg046" id="Pg046" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>by their tails while I was struggling between them, and +another, forcing together their heads, would thus hope +to compel me to mount upon one or both of them; and one +fellow more impudent than the rest I laid flat upon the +ground, and sending the donkey staggering after him, I +escaped a moment midst hideous yells and most unearthly +cries. I now beckoned to a fellow more sensible-looking +than the rest, and told him that I wished to walk and +would take him for a guide, and hoped now to be at rest; +but vain thought! I was in the hands of the Philistines, +and getting us up against a wall, they formed an impenetrable +phalanx of men and brutes thoroughly determined +that I should only get away from the spot on the legs of +a donkey. Bethinking myself now that donkey-riding was +a national institution, and seeing a fat Yankee (very like +my Paris friend) mounted, being like myself hopeless of +any other means of escape, I seized upon a bridle in hopes +that I should then be left in peace. But this was the signal +for a more furious onset, for, seeing that I would at length +ride, each one was determined that he alone should profit +by the transaction, and a dozen animals were forced suddenly +upon me and a dozen hands tried to lift me upon their respective +beasts. But now my patience was exhausted, so, +keeping firm hold of the bridle I had first taken with one +hand, I hit right and left with the other, and calling upon +my guide to do the same, we succeeded in clearing a little +space around us. Now then behold your friend mounted +upon a jackass in the streets of Alexandria, a boy behind +holding by his tail and whipping him up, Charles (who +had been lost sight of in the crowd) upon another, and my +guide upon a third, and off we go among a crowd of Jews +and Greeks, Turks and Arabs, and veiled women and yelling +donkey-boys to see the city. We saw the bazaars and +the slave market, where I was again nearly pulled to pieces +<span class="tei-pb" id="page047">[pg 047]</span><a name="Pg047" id="Pg047" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>for "backsheesh" (money), the mosques with their elegant +minarets, and then the Pasha's new palace, the interior of +which is most gorgeous.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">We have seen lots of Turkish soldiers walking in comfortable +irregularity; and, after feeling ourselves to be +dreadful guys for two hours, returned to the hotel whence +we were to start for the canal boats. You may think this +account is exaggerated, but it is not; the pertinacity, vigour +and screams of the Alexandrian donkey-drivers no description +can do justice to....āYours sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_9" id="toc_9"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS MOTHER</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Singapore, April 30, 1854</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mother,āWe arrived here safe on the 20th of +this month, having had very fine weather all the voyage. +On shore I was obliged to go to a hotel, which was very +expensive, so I tried to get out into the country as soon +as I could, which, however, I did not manage in less than +a week, when I at last got permission to stay with a French +Roman Catholic missionary who lives about eight miles out +of the town and close to the jungle. The greater part of +the inhabitants of Singapore are Chinese, many of whom +are very rich, and all the villages about are almost entirely +of Chinese, who cultivate pepper and gambir. Some of the +English merchants here have splendid country houses. I +dined with one to whom I brought an introduction. His +house was most elegant, and full of magnificent Chinese and +Japanese furniture. We are now at the Mission of Bukit +Tima. The missionary speaks English, Malay and Chinese, +as well as French, and is a very pleasant man. He has +built a very pretty church here, and has about 300 Chinese +converts. Having only been here four days, I cannot tell +<span class="tei-pb" id="page048">[pg 048]</span><a name="Pg048" id="Pg048" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>much about my collections yet. Insects, however, are +plentiful....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Charles gets on pretty well in health, and catches a +few insects; but he is very untidy, as you may imagine +by his clothes being all torn to pieces by the time we +arrived here. He will no doubt improve and will soon be +useful.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Malay is the universal language, in which all business +is carried on. It is easy, and I am beginning to pick up +a little, but when we go to Malacca shall learn it most, as +there they speak nothing else.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am very unfortunate with my watch. I dropped it on +board and broke the balance-spring, and have now sent it +home to Mr. Matthews to repair, as I cannot trust anyone +here to do it....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Love to Fanny and Thomas,āI remain your affectionate +son,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED B. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_10" id="toc_10"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS MOTHER</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Bukit Tama, Singapore. May 28,</span> 1854.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mother,āI send you a few lines through G. +Silk as I thought you would like to hear from me. I am +very comfortable here living with a Roman Catholic missionary.... I +send by this mail a small box of insects +for Mr. StevensāI think a very valuable oneāand I hope +it will go safely. I expected a letter from you by the +last mail, but received only two <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Athenoeums</span> of March 18 +and 25....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The forest here is very similar to that of South America. +Palms are very numerous, but they are generally small and +horridly spiny. There are none of the large and majestic +species so abundant on the Amazon. I am so busy with +insects now that I have no time for anything else, I send +<span class="tei-pb" id="page049">[pg 049]</span><a name="Pg049" id="Pg049" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>now about a thousand beetles to Mr. Stevens, and I have +as many other insects still on hand which will form part +of my next and principal consignment. Singapore is very +rich in beetles, and before I leave I think I shall have a +most beautiful collection.</p> + +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p"><a name="image03" id="image03" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +<img src="images/image03.png" alt="A.R. WALLACE'S MOTHER" class="tei tei-figure" /></p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">A.R. WALLACE'S MOTHER</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I will tell you how my day is now occupied. Get up at +half-past five. Bath and coffee. Sit down to arrange and +put away my insects of the day before, and set them safe +out to dry. Charles mending nets, filling pincushions, +and getting ready for the day. Breakfast at eight. Out +to the jungle at nine. We have to walk up a steep hill to +get to it, and always arrive dripping with perspiration. +Then we wander about till two or three, generally returning +with about 50 or 60 beetles, some very rare and beautiful. +Bathe, change clothes, and sit down to kill and pin insects. +Charles ditto with flies, bugs and wasps; I do not trust him +yet with beetles. Dinner at four. Then to work again till +six. Coffee. Read. If very numerous, work at insects till +eight or nine. Then to bed.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Adieu, with love to all.āYour affectionate son,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED E. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_11" id="toc_11"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS MOTHER</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">In the Jungle near Malacca. July,</span> 1854.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mother,āAs this letter may be delayed getting +to Singapore I write at once, having an opportunity of +sending to Malacca to-morrow. We have been here a +week, living in a Chinese house or shed, which reminds +me remarkably of my old Rio Negro habitation. I have +now for the first time brought my "rede" into use, and +find it very comfortable.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">We came from Singapore in a small schooner with about +fifty Chinese, Hindoos and Portuguese passengers, and were +<span class="tei-pb" id="page050">[pg 050]</span><a name="Pg050" id="Pg050" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>two days on the voyage, with nothing but rice and curry +to eat, not having made any provision, it being our first +experience of these country vessels. Malacca is an old +Dutch city, but the Portuguese have left the strongest +mark of their possession in the common language of the +place being still theirs. I have now two Portuguese servants, +a cook and a hunter, and find myself thus almost +brought back again to Brazil by the similarity of language, +the people, and the jungle life. In Malacca we +stayed only two days, being anxious to get into the country +as soon as possible. I stayed with a Roman Catholic missionary; +there are several here, each devoted to a particular +part of the population, Portuguese, Chinese and wild Malays +of the jungle. The gentleman we were with is building a +large church, of which he is architect himself, and superintends +the laying of every brick and the cutting of every +piece of timber. Money enough could not be raised here, +so he took a voyage <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">round the world!</span> and in the United +States, California, and India got subscriptions sufficient +to complete it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is a curious and not very creditable thing that in the +English colonies of Singapore and Malacca there is not a +single Protestant missionary; while the conversion, education +and physical and moral improvement of the inhabitants +(non-European) is entirely left to these French missionaries, +who without the slightest assistance from our Government +devote their lives to the Christianising and civilising of the +varied populations which we rule over.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Here the birds are abundant and most beautiful, more +so than on the Amazon, and I think I shall soon form a +most beautiful collection. They are, however, almost all +common, and so are of little value except that I hope they +will be better specimens than usually come to England. +My guns are both very good, but I find powder and shot +<span class="tei-pb" id="page051">[pg 051]</span><a name="Pg051" id="Pg051" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in Singapore cheaper than in London, so I need not have +troubled myself to take any. So far both I and Charles +have enjoyed excellent health. He can now shoot pretty +well, and is so fond of it that I can hardly get him to do +anything else. He will soon be very useful, if I can cure +him of his incorrigible carelessness. At present I cannot +trust him to do the smallest thing without watching that +he does it properly, so that I might generally as well do +it myself. I shall remain here probably two months, and +then return to Singapore to prepare for a voyage to Cambodia +or somewhere else, so do not be alarmed if you do +not hear from me regularly. Love to all.āYour affectionate +son,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_12" id="toc_12"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS MOTHER</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Singapore. September 30,</span> 1854.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mother,āI last wrote to you from Malacca in +July. I have now just returned to Singapore after two +months' hard work. At Malacca I had a pretty strong +touch of fever with the old Rio Negro symptoms, but the +Government doctor made me take a great quantity of +quinine every day for a week together and so killed it, +and in less than a fortnight I was quite well and off to +the jungle again. I see now how to treat the fever, and +shall commence at once when the symptoms again appear. +I never took half enough quinine in America to cure me. +Malacca is a pretty place, and I worked very hard. Insects +are not very abundant there, still by perseverance I got a +good number and many rare ones. Of birds, too, I made +a good collection. I went to the celebrated Mount Ophir +and ascended to the top. The walk was terribleāthirty +miles through jungle, a succession of mud holes. My boots +did good service. We lived there a week at the foot of the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page052">[pg 052]</span><a name="Pg052" id="Pg052" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>mountain, in a little hut built by our men, and I got some +fine new butterflies there and hundreds of other new and +rare insects. We had only rice and a little fish and tea, +but came home quite well. The height of the mountain is +about 4,000 feet.... Elephants and rhinoceroses, as well +as tigers, are abundant there, but we had our usual bad +luck in not seeing any of them.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">On returning to Malacca I found the accumulations +of two or three posts, a dozen letters and fifty newspapers....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am glad to be safe in Singapore with my collections, +as from here they can be insured. I have now a fortnight's +work to arrange, examine, and pack them, and +then in four months hence there will be some work for +Mr. Stevens.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sir James Brooke is here. I have called on him. He +received me most cordially, and offered me every assistance +at Sarawak. I shall go there next, as the missionary does +not go to Cambodia for some months. Besides, I shall have +some pleasant society at Sarawak, and shall get on in Malay, +which is very easy, but I have had no practiceāthough still +I can ask for most common things. My books and instruments +arrived in beautiful condition. They looked as if +they had been packed up but a day. Not so the unfortunate +eatables....āI remain your affectionate son,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_13" id="toc_13"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO G. SILK</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Singapore. October 15,</span> 1854.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear G.,āTo-morrow I sail for Sarawak. Sir J. Brooke +has given me a letter to his nephew, Capt. Brooke, to make +me at home till he arrives, which may be a month, perhaps. +I look forward with much interest to see what he has done +<span class="tei-pb" id="page053">[pg 053]</span><a name="Pg053" id="Pg053" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and how he governs. I look forward to spending a very +pleasant time at Sarawak....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sir W. Hooker's remarks are encouraging, but I cannot +afford to collect plants. I have to work for a living, and +plants would not pay unless I collect nothing else, which +I cannot do, being too much interested in zoology. I +should like a botanical companion like Mr. Spruce very +much. We are anxiously expecting accounts of the taking +of Sebastopol.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am much obliged to Latham for quoting me, and hope +to see it soon. That ought to make my name a little known. +I have not your talent at making acquaintances, and find +Singapore very dull. I have not found a single companion. +I long for you to walk about with and observe the queer +things in the streets of Singapore. The Chinamen and their +ways are inexhaustibly amusing. My revolver is too heavy +for daily use. I wish I had had a small one.āYours sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_14" id="toc_14"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO AN UNKNOWN CORRESPONDENT<a name="noteref_13" id="noteref_13"></a><a href="#note_13"><span class="footnoteref">13</span></a></h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Si Munjon Coal Works, Borneo. May,</span> 1855.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">One of the principal reasons which induced me to come +here was that it is the country of those most strange and +interesting animals, the orang-utans, or "mias" of the +Dyaks. In the Sarawak district, though scarce twenty +miles distant, they are quite unknown, there being some +boundary line in this short space which, obeying the inexplicable +laws of distribution, they never pass. The +Dyaks distinguish three different kinds, which are known +in Europe by skulls or skeletons only, much confusion still +existing in their synonymy, and the external characters of +the adult animals being almost or quite unknown. I have +already been fortunate enough to shoot two young animals +<span class="tei-pb" id="page054">[pg 054]</span><a name="Pg054" id="Pg054" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of two of the species, which were easily distinguishable +from each other, and I hope by staying here some time to +get adult specimens of all the species, and also to obtain +much valuable information as to their habits. The jungle +here is exceedingly monotonous; palms are scarce and +flowers almost wanting, except some species of dwarf gingerwort. +It is high on the trees that flowers are alone to +be found.... Oak trees are rather plentiful, as I have +already found three species with red, brown, and black +acorns. This is confirmatory of Dr. Hooker's statement +that, contrary to the generally received opinion, oaks are +equally characteristic of a tropical as of a temperate climate. +I must make an exception to the scarcity of flowers, however, +tall slender trees occurring not unfrequently, whose +stems are flower-bearing. One is a magnificent object, 12 +or 15 ft. of the stem being almost hidden by rich orange-coloured +flowers, which in the gloomy forest have, as I +have before remarked of tropical insects under similar circumstances, +an almost magical effect of brilliancy. Not +less beautiful is another tree similarly clothed with spikes +of pink and white berries.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The only striking features of the animal world are the +hornbills, which are very abundant and take the place of +the toucans of Brazil, though I believe they have no real +affinity with them; and the immense flights of fruit-eating +bats which frequently pass over us. They extend as far +as the eye can reach, and continue passing for hours. By +counting and estimation I calculated that at least 30,000 +passed one evening while we could see them, and they continued +on some time after dark. The species is probably +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pteropus edulis</span>; its expanded wings are near 5 ft. +across, and it flies with great ease and rapidity. Fruit +seems so scarce in these jungles that it is a mystery where +they find enough to supply such vast multitudes. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page055">[pg 055]</span><a name="Pg055" id="Pg055" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +Our mode of life here is very simpleārather too much +so, as we have a continual struggle to get enough to eat. +The Sarawak market is to a great extent supplied with +rice, fowls, and sweet potatoes from this river, yet I have +been obliged to send to Sarawak to purchase these very +articles. The reason is that the Dyaks are almost all in +debt to the Malay traders, and will therefore not sell +anything, fearful of not having sufficient to satisfy their +creditors. They have now just got in their rice harvest, +and though it is not a very abundant one there is no +immediate pressure of hunger to induce them to earn anything +by hunting or snaring birds, etc. This also prevents +them from being very industrious in seeking for the "mias," +though I have offered a high price for full-grown animals. +The old men here relate with pride how many heads they +have taken in their youth, and though they all acknowledge +the goodness of the present Rajah's government, yet they +think that if they could still take a few heads they would +have better harvests. The more I see of uncivilised people, +the better I think of human nature on the whole, and the +essential differences between so-called civilised and savage +man seem to disappear. Here are we, two Europeans surrounded +by a population of Chinese, Malays, and Dyaks. +The Chinese are generally considered, and with some truth, +to be thieves, liars, and careless of human life, and these +Chinese are coolies of the very lowest and least educated +class. The Malays are invariably characterised as treacherous +and bloodthirsty, and the Dyaks have only recently +ceased to think head-taking an absolute necessity. We +are two days' journey from Sarawak, where, though the +Government is European, yet it only exists by the consent +and support of the native population. Now I can safely +say that in any part of Europe, if the same facilities for +crime and disturbance existed, things would not go on so +<span class="tei-pb" id="page056">[pg 056]</span><a name="Pg056" id="Pg056" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>smoothly as they do here. We sleep with open doors and +go about constantly unarmed; one or two petty robberies +and a little private fighting have taken place among the +Chinese, but the great proportion of them are quiet, honest, +decent sort of men. They did not at first like the strictness +and punctuality with which the English manager kept them +to their work, and two or three ringleaders tried to get up +a strike for short hours and higher wages, but Mr. G.'s +energy and decision soon stopped this by sending off the +ringleaders at once, and summoning all the Dyaks and +Malays in the neighbourhood to his assistance in case of +any resistance being attempted. It was very gratifying to +see how rapidly they came up at his summons, and this +display of power did much good, for since then everything +has gone on smoothly. Preparations are now making for +building a "joss house," a sure sign that the Chinese have +settled to the work, and giving every promise of success in +an undertaking which must have a vast influence on the +progress of commerce and civilisation of Borneo and the +surrounding countries. India, Australia, and every country +with which they have communication must also be incalculably +benefited by an abundant supply of good coal +within two days' steam of Singapore. Let us wish success, +then, to the Si Munjon Coal Works!āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_15" id="toc_15"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS</h3> + + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Sadong River Borneo]. June 25,</span> 1855.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Fanny,ā ... I am now obliged to keep fowls +and pigs, or we should get nothing to eat. I have three +pigs now and a China boy to attend to them, who also +assists in skinning "orang-utans," which he and Charles +are doing at this moment. I have also planted some onions +and pumpkins, which were above ground in three days and +<span class="tei-pb" id="page057">[pg 057]</span><a name="Pg057" id="Pg057" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>are growing vigorously. I have been practising salting pork, +and find I can make excellent pickled pork here, which I +thought was impossible, as everyone I have seen try has +failed. It is because they leave it to servants, who will not +take the necessary trouble. I do it myself. I shall therefore +always keep pigs in the future. I find there will not +be time for another box round the Cape, so must have a +small parcel overland. I should much like my <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">lasts</span>, but +nothing else, unless some canvas shoes are made.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If the young man my mother and Mr. Stevens mentioned +comes, he can bring them. I shall write to Mr. Stevens about +the terms on which I can take him. I am, however, rather +shy about it, having hitherto had no one to suit me. As you +seem to know him, I suppose he comes to see you sometimes. +Let me know what you think of him. Do not tell me merely +that he is "a very nice young man." Of course he is. So +is Charles a very nice boy, but I could not be troubled with +another like him for any consideration whatever. I have +written to Mr. Stevens to let me know his character, as +regards <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">neatness</span> and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">perseverance</span> in doing anything he is +set about. From you I should like to know whether he is +quiet or boisterous, forward or shy, talkative or silent, +sensible or frivolous, delicate or strong. Ask him whether +he can live on rice and salt fish for a week on an occasionāwhether +he can do without wine or beer, and sometimes +without tea, coffee or sugarāwhether he can sleep on a +boardāwhether he likes the hottest weather in Englandāwhether +he is too delicate to skin a stinking animalāwhether +he can walk twenty miles a dayāwhether he can +work, for there is sometimes as hard work in collecting as +in anything. Can he draw (not copy)? Can he speak +French? Does he write a good hand? Can he make anything? +Can he saw a piece of board straight? (Charles +cannot, and every bit of carpenter work I have to do myself.) +<span class="tei-pb" id="page058">[pg 058]</span><a name="Pg058" id="Pg058" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Ask him to make you anythingāa little card box, +a wooden peg or bottle-stopper, and see if he makes them +neat, straight and square. Charles never does anything +the one or the other. Charles has now been with me more +than a year, and every day some such conversation as this +ensues: "Charles, look at these butterflies that you set out +yesterday." "Yes, sir." "Look at that oneāis it set +out evenly?" "No, sir." "Put it right then, and all +the others that want it." In five minutes he brings me +the box to look at. "Have you put them all right?" +"Yes, sir." "There's one with the wings uneven, there's +another with the body on one side, then another with the +pin crooked. Put them all right this time." It most +frequently happens that they have to go back a third time. +Then all is right. If he puts up a bird, the head is on one +side, there is a great lump of cotton on one side of the +neck like a wen, the feet are twisted soles uppermost, or +something else. In everything it is the same, what ought +to be straight is always put crooked. This after twelve +months' constant practice and constant teaching! And not +the slightest sign of improvement. I believe he never will +improve. Day after day I have to look over everything +he does and tell him of the same faults. Another with a +similar incapacity would drive me mad. He never, too, by +any chance, puts anything away after him. When done +with, everything is thrown on the floor. Every other day +an hour is lost looking for knife, scissors, pliers, hammer, +pins, or something he has mislaid. Yet out of doors he +does very wellāhe collects insects well, and if I could get +a neat, orderly person in the house I would keep him +almost entirely at out-of-door work and at skinning, which +he does also well, but cannot put into shape....āYour +affectionate brother,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page059">[pg 059]</span><a name="Pg059" id="Pg059" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_16" id="toc_16"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS MOTHER</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Sarawak. Christmas Day,</span> 1855.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mother,āYou will see I am spending a second +Christmas Day with the Rajah.... I have lived a month +with the Dyaks and have been a journey about sixty miles +into the interior. I have been very much pleased with the +Dyaks. They are a very kind, simple and hospitable people, +and I do not wonder at the great interest Sir J. Brooke takes +in them. They are more communicative and lively than the +American Indians, and it is therefore more agreeable to live +with them. In moral character they are far superior to +either Malays or Chinese, for though head-taking has been +a custom among them it is only as a trophy of war. In +their own villages crimes are very rare. Ever since Sir J. +has been here, more than twelve years, in a large population +there has been but one case of murder in a Dyak tribe, and +that one was committed by a stranger who had been adopted +into the tribe. One wet day I got a piece of string to show +them how to play "scratch cradle," and was quite astonished +to find that they knew it better than I did and could make +all sorts of new figures I had never seen. They were also +very clever with tricks with string on their fingers, which +seemed to be a favourite amusement. Many of the distant +tribes think the Rajah cannot be a man. They ask all sorts +of curious questions about him, whether he is not as old as +the mountains, whether he cannot bring the dead to life, +and I have no doubt for many years after his death he will +be looked upon as a deity and expected to come back again. +I have now seen a good deal of Sir James, and the more I +see of him the more I admire him. With the highest talents +for government he combines the greatest goodness of heart +and gentleness of manner. At the same time he has such +confidence and determination, that he has put down with the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page060">[pg 060]</span><a name="Pg060" id="Pg060" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>greatest ease some conspiracies of one or two Malay chiefs +against him. It is a unique case in the history of the world, +for a European gentleman to rule over two conflicting +races of semi-savages with their own consent, without any +means of coercion, and depending solely upon them for +protection and support, and at the same time to introduce +the benefits of civilisation and check all crime and semi-barbarous +practices. Under his government, "running +amuck," so frequent in all other Malay countries, has +never taken place, and with a population of 30,000 Malays, +all of whom carry their "creese" and revenge an insult +by a stab, murders do not occur more than once in five or +six years.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The people are never taxed but with their own consent, +and Sir J.'s private fortune has been spent in the government +and improvement of the country; yet this is the man +who has been accused of injuring other parties for his own +private interests, and of wholesale murder and butchery to +secure his government!...āYour ever affectionate son,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_17" id="toc_17"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Singapore.. February 20,</span> 1856.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Fanny,ā ... I have now left Sarawak, where +I began to feel quite at home, and may perhaps never return +to it again; but I shall always look back with pleasure to +my residence there and to my acquaintance with Sir James +Brooke, who is a gentleman and a nobleman in the noblest +sense of both words....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Charles has left me. He has stayed with the Bishop of +Sarawak, who wants teachers and is going to try to educate +him for one. I offered to take him on with me, paying him +a fair price for all the insects, etc., he collected, but he preferred +<span class="tei-pb" id="page061">[pg 061]</span><a name="Pg061" id="Pg061" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>to stay. I hardly know whether to be glad or sorry +he has left. It saves me a great deal of trouble and annoyance, +and I feel it quite a relief to be without him. On the +other hand, it is a considerable loss for me, as he had just +begun to be valuable in collecting. I must now try and teach +a China boy to collect and pin insects. My collections in +Borneo have been very good, but some of them will, I fear, +be injured by the long voyages of the ships. I have collected +upwards of 25,000 insects, besides birds, shells, quadrupeds, +and plants. The day I arrived here a vessel sailed +for Macassar, and I fear I shall not have another chance +for two months unless I go a roundabout way, and perhaps +not then, so I have hardly made up my mind what to +do,āYour affectionate brother,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_18" id="toc_18"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, THOMAS SIMS</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Singapore. [Probably about March,</span> 1856.]</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Thomas,ā ... You and Fanny talk of my +coming back for a trifling sore as if I was within an +omnibus ride of Conduit St. I am now perfectly well, +and only waiting to go eastward. The far east is to +me what the far west is to the Americans. They both +meet in California, where I hope to arrive some day. I +quite enjoy being a few days at Singapore now. The +scene is at once so familiar and strange. The half-naked +Chinese coolies, the neat shopkeepers, the clean, fat, old, +long-tailed merchants, all as busy and full of business as +any Londoners. Then the handsome Klings, who always +ask double what they take, and with whom it is most amusing +to bargain. The crowd of boatmen at the ferry, a dozer +begging and disputing for a farthing fare, the Americans, +the Malays, and the Portuguese make up a scene doubly +interesting to me now that I know something about them +<span class="tei-pb" id="page062">[pg 062]</span><a name="Pg062" id="Pg062" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and can talk to them in the general language of the place. +The streets of Singapore on a fine day are as crowded and +busy as Tottenham Court Road, and from the variety of +nations and occupations far more interesting. I am more +convinced than ever that no one can appreciate a new +country in a short visit. After two years in the country +I only now begin to understand Singapore and to marvel +at the life and bustle, the varied occupations, and strange +population, on a spot which so short a time ago was an +uninhabited jungle....āYours affectionately,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_19" id="toc_19"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Singapore. April 21,</span> 1856.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Fanny,āI believe I wrote to you last mail, and +have now little to say except that I am still a prisoner in +Singapore and unable to get away to my land of promise, +Macassar, with whose celebrated oil you are doubtless +acquainted. I have been spending three weeks with my +old friend the French missionary, going daily into the +jungle, and fasting on Fridays on omelet and vegetables, +a most wholesome custom which I think the Protestants +were wrong to leave off. I have been reading Huc's travels +in China in French, and talking with a French missionary +just arrived from Tonquin. I have thus obtained a great +deal of information about these countries and about the +extent of the Catholic missions in them, which is astonishing. +How is it that they do their work so much more +thoroughly than the Protestant missionaries? In Cochin +China, Tonquin, and China, where all Christian missionaries +are obliged to live in secret and are subject to persecution, +expulsion, and often death, yet every province, even +those farthest in the interior of China, have their regular +<span class="tei-pb" id="page063">[pg 063]</span><a name="Pg063" id="Pg063" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>establishment of missionaries constantly kept up by fresh +supplies who are taught the languages of the countries they +are going to at Penang or Singapore. In China there are +near a million Catholics, in Tonquin and Cochin China +more than half a million! One secret of their success is +the cheapness of their establishments. A missionary is +allowed about Ā£30 a year, on which he lives, in whatever +country he may be. This has two good effects. A large +number of missionaries can be employed with limited +funds, and the people of the countries in which they +reside, seeing they live in poverty and with none of the +luxuries of life, are convinced they are sincere. Most are +Frenchmen, and those I have seen or heard of are well-educated +men, who give up their lives to the good of the +people they live among. No wonder they make converts, +among the lower orders principally. For it must be a +great comfort to these poor people to have a man among +them to whom they can go in any trouble or distress, whose +sole object is to comfort and advise them, who visits them +in sickness, who relieves them in want, and whom they see +living in daily danger of persecution and death only for +their benefit.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You will think they have converted me, but in point +of doctrine I think Catholics and Protestants are equally +wrong. As missionaries I think Catholics are best, and I +would gladly see none others, rather than have, as in New +Zealand, sects of native Dissenters more rancorous against +each other than in England. The unity of the Catholics +is their strength, and an unmarried clergy can do as missionaries +what married men can never undertake. I have +written on this subject because I have nothing else to write +about. Love to Thomas and Edward.āBelieve me, dear +Fanny, your ever affectionate brother,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page064">[pg 064]</span><a name="Pg064" id="Pg064" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_20" id="toc_20"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS</h3> + + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Macassar. December 10,</span> 1856.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Fanny,āI have received yours of September, +and my mother's of October, and as I am now going out +of reach of letters for six months I must send you a few +lines to let you know that I am well and in good spirits, +though rather disappointed with the celebrated Macassar.... +For the last fortnight, since I came in from the +country, I have been living here rather luxuriously, getting +good rich cow's milk to my tea and coffee, very good +bread and excellent Dutch butter (3s. a lb.). The bread +here is raised with toddy just as it is fermenting, and it +imparts a peculiar sweet taste to the bread which is very +nice. At last, too, there is some fruit here. The mangoes +have just come in, and they are certainly magnificent. The +flavour is something between a peach and a melon, with +the slightest possible flavour of turpentine, and very juicy. +They say they are unwholesome, and it is a good thing for +me I am going away now. When I come back there will +be not one to be had....āI remain, dear Fanny, your +ever affectionate brother,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">A.R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_21" id="toc_21"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">H.W. BATES TO A.R. WALLACE</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Tunantins, Upper Amazon. November 19,</span> 1856.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Wallace,ā ... I received about six months ago +a copy of your paper in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals</span> on "The Laws which +have Governed the Introduction of New Species." I was +startled at first to see you already ripe for the enunciation +of the theory. You can imagine with what interest I read +and studied it, and I must say that it is perfectly well done. +The idea is like truth itself, so simple and obvious that those +who read and understand it will be struck by its simplicity; +<span class="tei-pb" id="page065">[pg 065]</span><a name="Pg065" id="Pg065" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and yet it is perfectly original. The reasoning is close and +clear, and although so brief an essay, it is quite complete, +embraces the whole difficulty, and anticipates and annihilates +all objections.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Few men will be in a condition to comprehend and +appreciate the paper, but it will infallibly create for you +a high and sound reputation. The theory I quite assent +to, and, you know, was conceived by me also, but I profess +that I could not have propounded it with so much force +and completeness.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Many details I could supply, in fact a great deal remains +to be done to illustrate and confirm the theory: a new +method of investigating and propounding zoology and botany +inductively is necessitated, and new libraries will have to +be written; in part of this task I hope to be a labourer for +many happy and profitable years. What a noble subject +would be that of a monograph of a group of beings peculiar +to one region but offering different species in each province +of itātracing the laws which connect together the modifications +of forms and colour with the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">local</span> circumstances of a +province or stationātracing as far as possible the actual +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">affiliation</span> of the species.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Two of such groups occur to me at once, in entomology, +in HeliconiidƦ and ErotylidƦ of South America; the latter +I think more interesting than the former for one reasonāthe +species are more local, having feebler means of locomotion +than the HeliconiidƦ....āYours very truly,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">HENRY WALTER BATES.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_22" id="toc_22"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO H.W. BATES</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Amboyna. January 4,</span> 1858.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Bates,āMy delay of six months in answering +your very interesting and most acceptable letter dated +<span class="tei-pb" id="page066">[pg 066]</span><a name="Pg066" id="Pg066" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>an ideal absurdity put forth when such a simple hypothesis +will explain <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">all the facts</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been much gratified by a letter from Darwin, in +which he says that he agrees with "almost every word" of +my paper. He is now preparing for publication his great +work on species and varieties, for which he has been collecting +information twenty years. He may save me the +trouble of writing the second part of my hypothesis by +proving that there is no difference in nature between the +origin of species and varieties, or he may give me trouble +by arriving at another conclusion, but at all events his facts +will be given for me to work upon. Your collections and +my own will furnish most valuable material to illustrate +and prove the universal applicability of the hypothesis. +The connection between the succession of affinities and the +geographical distribution of a group, worked out species +by species, has never yet been shown as we shall be able +to show it. In this Archipelago there are two distinct +faunas rigidly circumscribed, which differ as much as +those of South America and Africa, and more than those +of Europe and North America: yet there is nothing on +the map or on the face of the islands to mark their limits. +The boundary line often passes between islands closer than +others in the same group. I believe the western part to be +a separated portion of continental Asia, the eastern the +fragmentary prolongation of a former Pacific continent. +In mammalia and birds the distinction is marked by +genera, families, and even orders confined to one region; +in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">insects</span> by a number of genera and little groups of +peculiar species, the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">families</span> of insects having generally a +universal distribution. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page067">[pg 067]</span><a name="Pg067" id="Pg067" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>an ideal absurdity put forth when such a simple hypothesis +will explain <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">all the facts</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been much gratified by a letter from Darwin, in +which he says that he agrees with "almost every word" of +my paper. He is now preparing for publication his great +work on species and varieties, for which he has been collecting +information twenty years. He may save me the +trouble of writing the second part of my hypothesis by +proving that there is no difference in nature between the +origin of species and varieties, or he may give me trouble +by arriving at another conclusion, but at all events his facts +will be given for me to work upon. Your collections and +my own will furnish most valuable material to illustrate +and prove the universal applicability of the hypothesis. +The connection between the succession of affinities and the +geographical distribution of a group, worked out species +by species, has never yet been shown as we shall be able +to show it. In this Archipelago there are two distinct +faunas rigidly circumscribed, which differ as much as +those of South America and Africa, and more than those +of Europe and North America: yet there is nothing on +the map or on the face of the islands to mark their limits. +The boundary line often passes between islands closer than +others in the same group. I believe the western part to be +a separated portion of continental Asia, the eastern the +fragmentary prolongation of a former Pacific continent. +In mammalia and birds the distinction is marked by +genera, families, and even orders confined to one region; +in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">insects</span> by a number of genera and little groups of +peculiar species, the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">families</span> of insects having generally a +universal distribution.</p> +</div> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page068">[pg 068]</span><a name="Pg068" id="Pg068" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_23" id="toc_23"></a> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ternate, January 25,</span> 1858.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have not done much here yet, having been much occupied +in getting a house repaired and put in order. This island is +a volcano with a sloping spur on which the town is situated. +About ten miles to the east is the coast of the large Island +of Gilolo, perhaps the most perfect entomological <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">terra incognita</span> +now to be found. I am not aware that a single +insect has ever been collected there, and cannot find it +given as the locality of any insects in my catalogues or +descriptions. In about a week I go for a month collecting +there, and then return to prepare for a voyage to +New Guinea. I think I shall stay in this place two or +three years, as it is the centre of a most interesting +and almost unknown region. Every house here was +destroyed in 1840 by an earthquake during an eruption of +the volcano....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">What great political events have passed since we left +England together! And the most eventful for England, +and perhaps the most glorious, is the present mutiny in +India, which has proved British courage and pluck as +much as did the famed battles of Balaclava and Inker-man. +I believe that both India and England will gain +in the end by the fearful ordeal. When do you mean +returning for good? If you go to the Andes you will, +I think, be disappointed, at least in the number of +species, especially of Coleoptera. My experience here is +that the low grounds are much the most productive, +though the mountains generally produce a few striking +and brilliant species....āYours sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page069">[pg 069]</span><a name="Pg069" id="Pg069" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_24" id="toc_24"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO F. BATES</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ternate. March 2,</span> 1858.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Bates,āWhen I received your very acceptable +letter (a month ago) I had just written one to your +brother, which I thought I could not do better than send +to you to forward to him, as I shall thereby be able to +confine myself solely to the group you are studying and +to other matters touched upon in your letter. I had heard +from Mr. Stevens some time ago that you had begun collecting +exotic Geodephaga, but were confining yourself to +one or two illustrations of each genus. I was sure, however, +that you would soon find this unsatisfactory. Nature +must be studied in detail, and it is the wonderful variety +of the species of a group, their complicated relations and +their endless modification of form, size and colours, which +constitute the pre-eminent charm of the entomologist's +study. It is with the greatest satisfaction, too, I hail +your accession to the very limited number of collectors +and students of exotic insects, and sincerely hope you may +be sufficiently favoured by fortune to enable you to form +an extensive collection and to devote the necessary time to +its study and ultimately to the preparation of a complete +and useful work. Though I cannot but be pleased that you +are able to do so, I am certainly surprised to find that you +indulge in the expensive luxury of from three to seven specimens +of a species. I should have thought that in such a +very extensive group you would have found one or, at most, +a pair quite sufficient. I fancy very few collectors of exotic +insects do more than this, except where they can obtain additional +specimens by gift or by exchange. Your remarks on +my collections are very interesting to me, especially as I have +kept descriptions with many outline figures of my Malacca +and Sarawak Geodephaga, so that with one or two exceptions +<span class="tei-pb" id="page070">[pg 070]</span><a name="Pg070" id="Pg070" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>I can recognise and perfectly remember every species you +mention....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now with regard to your request for notes of habits, +etc. I shall be most willing to comply with it to some +extent, first informing you that I look forward to undertaking +on my return to England a "Coleoptera Malayana," +to contain descriptions of the known species of the +whole Archipelago, with an essay on their geographical distribution, +and an account of the habits of the genera and +species from my own observations. Of course, therefore, I +do not wish any part of my notes to be published, as this +will be a distinctive feature of the work, so little being +known of the habits, stations and modes of collecting +exotic Coleoptera, ...</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You appear to consider the state of entomological literature +flourishing and satisfactory: to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">me</span> it seems quite the +contrary. The number of unfinished works and of others +with false titles is disgraceful to science....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I think ... on the whole we may say that the Archipelago +is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">very rich</span>, and will bear a comparison even with +the richest part of South America. In the country between +Ega and Peru there is work for fifty collectors for fifty years. +There are hundreds and thousands of Andean valleys every +one of which would bear exploring. Here it is the same +with islands. I could spend twenty years here were life +long enough, but feel I cannot stand it, away from home +and books and collections and comforts, more than four +or five, and then I shall have work to do for the rest of +my life. What would be the use of accumulating materials +which one could not have time to work up? I trust your +brother may give us a grand and complete work on the +Coleoptera of the Amazon Valley, if not of all South +America....āYours faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page071">[pg 071]</span><a name="Pg071" id="Pg071" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_25" id="toc_25"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS MOTHER</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">October 6,</span> 1858.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mother,ā ... I have just returned from a +short trip, and am now about to start on a longer one, +but to a place where there are some soldiers, a doctor and +engineer who speak English, so if it is good for collecting +I shall stay there some months. It is Batchian, an island +on the south-west side of Gilolo, about three or four days' +sail from Ternate. I am now quite recovered from my +New Guinea voyage and am in good health.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have received letters from Mr. Darwin and Dr. Hooker, +two of the most eminent naturalists in England, which has +highly gratified me. I sent Mr. Darwin an essay on a subject +on which he is now writing a great work. He showed +it to Dr. Hooker and Sir C. Lyell, who thought so highly +of it that they immediately read it before the Linnean +Society. This assures me the acquaintance and assistance +of these eminent men on my return home.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Mr. Stevens also tells me of the great success of the +Aru collection, of which Ā£1,000 worth has actually been +sold. This makes me hope I may soon realise enough to +live upon and carry out my long cherished plans of a +country life in old England.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If I had sent the large and handsome shells from Aru, +which are what you expected to see, they would not have +paid expenses, whereas the cigar box of small ones has sold +for Ā£50. You must not think I shall always do so well as +at Aru; perhaps never again, because no other collections +will have the novelty, all the neighbouring countries producing +birds and insects very similar, and many even the +very same. Still, if I have health I fear not to do very +well. I feel little inclined now to go to California; as +soon as I have finished my exploration of this region I +<span class="tei-pb" id="page072">[pg 072]</span><a name="Pg072" id="Pg072" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>shall be glad to return home as quickly and cheaply as +possible. It will certainly be by way of the Cape or by +second class overland. May I meet you, dear old Mother, +and all my other relatives and friends, in good health. +Perhaps John and his trio will have had the start of me....</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_26" id="toc_26"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO H.W. BATES</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ceram, November 25,</span> 1859.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Bates,āAllow me to congratulate you on your safe +arrival home with all your treasures; a good fortune which +I trust is this time<a name="noteref_14" id="noteref_14"></a><a href="#note_14"><span class="footnoteref">14</span></a> reserved for me. I hope you will write +to me and tell me your projects. Stevens hinted at your +undertaking a "Fauna of the Amazon Valley." It would +be a noble work, but one requiring years of labour, as of +course you would wish to incorporate all existing materials +and would have to spend months in Berlin and Milan and +Paris to study the collections of Spix, Natterer, Oscolati, +Castituan and others, as well as most of the chief private +collections of Europe. I hope you may undertake it and +bring it to a glorious conclusion. I have long been contemplating +such a work for this Archipelago, but am convinced +that the plan must be very limited to be capable of completion....āI +remain, dear Bates, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_27" id="toc_27"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO H.W. BATES</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ternate. December 24,</span> 1860.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Bates,āMany thanks for your long and interesting +letter. I have myself suffered much in the same way as you +describe, and I think more severely. The kind of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">tƦdium +vitƦ</span> you mention I also occasionally experience here. I +impute it to a too monotonous existence. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page073">[pg 073]</span><a name="Pg073" id="Pg073" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +I know not how or to whom to express fully my admiration +of Darwin's book. To him it would seem flattery, to +others self-praise; but I do honestly believe that with however +much patience I had worked up and experimented on +the subject, I could never have <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">approached</span> the completeness +of his bookāits vast accumulation of evidence, its +overwhelming argument, and its admirable tone and spirit. +I really feel thankful that it has not been left to me to give +the theory to the public. Mr. Darwin has created a new +science and a new philosophy, and I believe that never has +such a complete illustration of a new branch of human knowledge +been due to the labours and researches of a single man. +Never have such vast masses of widely scattered and hitherto +utterly disconnected facts been combined into a system, and +brought to bear upon the establishment of such a grand and +new and simple philosophy!...āIn haste, yours faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_28" id="toc_28"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, THOMAS SIMS</h3> + + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Delli, Timor. March 15,</span> 1861<a name="noteref_15" id="noteref_15"></a><a href="#note_15"><span class="footnoteref">15</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Thomas,āI will now try and write you a few +lines in reply to your last three letters, which I have not +before had time and inclination to do. First, about your +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">one-eyed</span> and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">two-eyed</span> theory of art, etc. etc. I do not +altogether agree with you. We do not see <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">all objects</span> wider +with two eyes than with one. A spherical or curved object +we do see so, because our right and left eye each see a portion +of the surface not seen by the other, but for that very +reason the portion seen perfectly with both eyes is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">less</span> than +with one. Thus [<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">see</span> diagram on next page] we only see from +A to A with both our eyes, the two side portions Ab Ab being +<span class="tei-pb" id="page074">[pg 074]</span><a name="Pg074" id="Pg074" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>seen with but one eye, and therefore (when we are using both +eyes) being seen obscurely. But if we look at a flat object, +whether square or oblique to the line of vision, we see it of +exactly the same size with two eyes as with one because the +one eye can see no part of it that the other does not see also. +But in painting I believe that this difference of proportion, +where it does exist, is far too small to be <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">given</span> by any artist +and also too small to affect the picture if given.</p> + +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p"> +<img src="images/image06.png" alt="Figure 1" class="tei tei-figure" /></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Again, I entirely deny that by <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">any means</span> the exact effect of a +landscape with objects at various distances from the eye can be given on +a fiat surface; and moreover that the monocular clear outlined view is +quite as true and good on the whole as the binocular hazy outlined view, +and for this reason: we cannot and do not see clearly or look at two +objects at once, if at different distances from us. In a real view our +eyes are directed successively at every object, which we then see +clearly and with distinct outlines, everything elseānearer and +fartherābeing indistinct; but being able to change the focal angle of +our two eyes and their angle of direction with great rapidity, we are +enabled to glance rapidly at each object in succession and thus obtain a +general and detailed view of the whole. A house, a tree, a spire, the +leaves of a shrub in the foreground, are each seen (while we direct our +eyes to them) with perfect definition and sharpness of outline. Now a +monocular photo gives the clearness of outline and accuracy of +definition, and thus +<span class="tei-pb" id="page075">[pg 075]</span><a name="Pg075" id="Pg075" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>represents every individual part of a landscape just as we +see it when looking at that part. Now I maintain that this +is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">right</span>, because no painting can represent an object both +distinct and indistinct. The only question is, Shall a painting +show us objects as we see them when looking at them, +or as we see them when looking at <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">something else</span> near them? +The only approach painters can make to this varying effect +of binocular vision, and what they often do, is to give the +most important and main feature of their painting <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">distinct</span> +as we should see it when looking at it in nature, while all +around has a subdued tone and haziness of outline like that +produced by seeing the real objects when our vision is not +absolutely directed to them. But then if, as in nature, when +you turn your gaze to one of these objects in order to see +it clearly, you cannot do so, this is a defect. Again, I +believe that we actually see in a good photograph better +than in nature, because the best camera lenses are more +perfectly adjusted than our eyes, and give objects at varying +distances with better definition. Thus in a picture we +see at the same time near and distinct objects easily and +clearly, which in reality we cannot do. If we could do +so, everyone must acknowledge that our vision would be +so much the more perfect and our appreciation of the +beauties of nature more intense and complete; and in so +far as a good landscape painting gives us this power it is +better than nature itself; and I think this may account for +that excessive and entrancing beauty of a good landscape +or of a good panorama. You will think these ideas horribly +heterodox, but if we all thought alike there would be +nothing to write about and nothing to learn. I quite agree +with you, however, as to artists using both eyes to paint +and to see their paintings, but I think you quite mistake +the theory of looking through the "catalogue"; it is not +because the picture can be seen better with one eye, but +<span class="tei-pb" id="page076">[pg 076]</span><a name="Pg076" id="Pg076" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>because its effect can be better seen when all lateral objects +are hiddenāthe catalogue does this. A double tube would +be better, but that cannot be extemporised so easily. Have +you ever tried a stereograph taken with the camera only the +distance apart of the eyes? That must give <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">nature</span>. When +the angle is greater the views in the stereoscope show us, not +nature, but a perfect reduced model of nature seen nearer +the eye.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is curious that you should put Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites +as <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">opposed</span> and representing <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">binocular</span> and +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">monocular</span> painting when Turner himself praises up the +Pre-Raphaelites and calls Holman Hunt the greatest living +painter!!...</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now for Mr. Darwin's book. You quite misunderstand +Mr. D.'s statement in the preface and his sentiments. I +have, of course, been in correspondence with him since I +first sent him my little essay. His conduct has been most +liberal and disinterested. I think anyone who reads the +Linnean Society papers and his book will see it. I <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">do</span> back +him up in his whole round of conclusions and look upon +him as the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Newton of Natural History</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You begin by criticising the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">title</span>. Now, though I consider +the title admirable, I believe it is not Mr. Darwin's +but the Publisher's, as you are no doubt aware that publishers +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">will</span> have a taking title, and authors must and do +give way to them. Mr. D. gave me a different title before +the book came out. Again, you misquote and misunderstand +Huxley, who is a complete convert. Prof. Asa +Gray and Dr. Hooker, the two first botanists of Europe +and America, are converts. And Lyell, the first geologist +living, who has all his life written against such conclusions +as Darwin arrives at, is a convert and is about to declare +or already has declared his conversionāa noble and almost +unique example of a man yielding to conviction on a subject +<span class="tei-pb" id="page077">[pg 077]</span><a name="Pg077" id="Pg077" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>which he has taught as a master all his life, and confessing +that he has all his life been wrong.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is clear that you have not yet sufficiently read the +book to enable you to criticise it. It is a book in which +every page and almost every line has a bearing on the +main argument, and it is very difficult to bear in mind +such a variety of facts, arguments and indications as are +brought forward. It was only on the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">fifth</span> perusal that I +fully appreciated the whole strength of the work, and as +I had been long before familiar with the same subjects I +cannot but think that persons less familiar with them cannot +have any clear idea of the accumulated argument by +a single perusal.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Your objections, so far as I can see anything definite +in them, are so fully and clearly anticipated and answered +in the book itself that it is perfectly useless my saying anything +about them. It seems to me, however, as clear as +daylight that the principle of Natural Selection <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">must</span> act in +nature. It is almost as necessary a truth as any of mathematics. +Next, the effects produced by this action <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">cannot be +limited.</span> It cannot be shown that there <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">is</span> any limit to them +in nature. Again, the millions of facts in the numerical +relations of organic beings, their geographical distribution, +their relations of affinity, the modification of their parts +and organs, the phenomena of intercrossing, embryology +and morphologyāall are in accordance with his theory, +and almost all are necessary results from it; while on +the other theory they are all isolated facts having no connection +with each other and as utterly inexplicable and +confusing as fossils are on the theory that they are special +creations and are not the remains of animals that have +once lived. It is the vast <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">chaos</span> of facts, which are explicable +and fall into beautiful order on the one theory, +which are inexplicable and remain a chaos on the other, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page078">[pg 078]</span><a name="Pg078" id="Pg078" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>which I think must ultimately force Darwin's views on +any and every reflecting mind. Isolated difficulties and +objections are nothing against this vast cumulative argument. +The human mind cannot go on for ever accumulating +facts which remain unconnected and without any mutual +bearing and bound together by no law. The evidence for the +production of the organic world by the simple laws of inheritance +is exactly of the same nature as that for the production +of the present surface of the earthāhills and valleys, +plains, rocks, strata, volcanoes, and all their fossil remainsāby +the slow and natural action of natural causes now in +operation. The mind that will ultimately reject Darwin +must (to be consistent) reject Lyell also. The same arguments +of apparent stability which are thought to disprove +that organic species can change will also disprove any +change in the inorganic world, and you must believe with +your forefathers that each hill and each river, each inland +lake and continent, were created as they stand, with their +various strata and their various fossilsāall appearances +and arguments to the contrary notwithstanding. I can +only recommend you to read again Darwin's account of +the horse family and its comparison with pigeons; and if +that does not convince and stagger you, then you are unconvertible. +I do not expect Mr. Darwin's larger work will add anything to +the general strength of his argument. +It will consist chiefly of the details (often numerical) and +experiments and calculations of which he has already given +the summaries and results. It will therefore be more confusing +and less interesting to the general reader. It will +prove to scientific men the accuracy of his details, and +point out the sources of his information, but as not one +in a thousand readers will ever test these details and references +the smaller work will remain for general purposes +the best.... +<span class="tei-pb" id="page079">[pg 079]</span><a name="Pg079" id="Pg079" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +I see that the Great Exhibition for 1862 seems determined +on. If so it will be a great inducement to me to cut short +the period of my banishment and get home in time to see +it. I assure you I now feel at times very great longings +for the peace and quiet of homeāvery much weariness of +this troublesome, wearisome, wandering life. I have lost +some of that elasticity and freshness which made the overcoming +of difficulties a pleasure, and the country and people +are now too familiar to me to retain any of the charms of +novelty which gild over so much that is really monotonous +and disagreeable. My health, too, gives way, and I cannot +now put up so well with fatigue and privations as at first. +All these causes will induce me to come home as soon as +possible, and I think I may promise, if no accident happens, +to come back to dear and beautiful England in the summer +of next year. C. Allen will stay a year longer and complete +the work which I shall not be able to do.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been pretty comfortable here, having for two +months had the society of Mr. Geach, a Cornish mining +engineer who has been looking for copper here. He is a +very intelligent and pleasant fellow, but has now left. +Another Englishman, Capt. Hart, is a resident here. He +has a little house on the foot of the hills two miles out of +town; I have a cottage (which was Mr. Geach's) a quarter +of a mile farther. He is what you may call a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">speculative</span> +man: he reads a good deal, knows a little and wants to +know more, and is fond of speculating on the most +abstruse and unattainable points of science and philosophy. +You would be astonished at the number of men among the +captains and traders of these parts who have more than +an average amount of literary and scientific taste; whereas +among the naval and military officers and various Government +officials very few have any such taste, but find their +only amusements in card-playing and dissipation. Some of +<span class="tei-pb" id="page080">[pg 080]</span><a name="Pg080" id="Pg080" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the most intelligent and best informed Dutchmen I have +met with are trading captains and merchants.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This country much resembles Australia in its physical +features, and is very barren compared with most of the other +islands.... It is very rugged and mountainous, having +no true forests, but a scanty vegetation of gum trees with +a few thickets in moist places. It is consequently very +poor in insects, and in fact will hardly pay my expenses; +but having once come here I may as well give it a fair trial. +Birds are tolerably abundant, but with few exceptions very +dull coloured. I really believe the whole series of birds of +the tropical island of Timor are less beautiful and bright-coloured +than those of Great Britain. In the mountains +potatoes, cabbages and wheat are grown in abundance, and +so we get excellent pure bread made by Chinamen in Delli. +Fowls, sheep, pigs and onions are also always to be had, +so that it is the easiest country to live in I have yet met +with, as in most other places one is always doubtful whether +a dinner can be obtained. I have been a trip to the hills and +stayed ten days in the clouds, but it was very wet, being the +wrong season....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Having now paid you off my literary debts, I trust you +will give me credit again for some long letters on things in +general. Address now to care of Hamilton, Gray and Co., +Singapore, and with love and remembrances to all friends, +I remain, my dear Thomas, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.ā ... Will you, next time you visit my mother, +make me a little plan of her cottage, showing the rooms +and their dimensions, so that I may see if there will be +room enough for me on my return? I shall want a good-sized +room for my collections, and when I can decide exactly +on my return it would be as well to get a little larger house +<span class="tei-pb" id="page081">[pg 081]</span><a name="Pg081" id="Pg081" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>beforehand if necessary. Please do not forget this.āYours, +A.R.W.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āWrite by next mail, as circumstances have +occurred which make it possible I may return home this +year.āA.R.W.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āYou allude in your last letter to a subject I never +touch upon because I know we cannot agree upon it. However, +I will now say a few words, that you may know my +opinions, and if you wish to convert me to your way of +thinking, take more vigorous measures to effect it. You +intimate that the happiness to be enjoyed in a future state +will depend upon, and be a reward for, our belief in certain +doctrines which you believe to constitute the essence of true +religion. You must think, therefore, that belief is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">voluntary</span> +and also that it is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">meritorious</span>. But I think that a little consideration +will show you that belief is quite independent of +our will, and our common expressions show it. We say, "I +wish I could believe him innocent, but the evidence is too +clear "; or, "Whatever people may say, I can never believe +he can do such a mean action." Now, suppose in any similar +case the evidence on both sides leads you to a certain belief +or disbelief, and then a reward is offered you for changing +your opinion. Can you really change your opinion and +belief, for the hope of reward or the fear of punishment? +Will you not say, "As the matter stands I can't change +my belief. You must give me proofs that I am wrong or +show that the evidence I have heard is false, and then I +may change my belief "? It may be that you do get more +and do change your belief. But this change is not voluntary +on your part. It depends upon the force of evidence upon +your individual mind, and the evidence remaining the same +and your mental faculties remaining unimpairedāyou cannot +believe otherwise any more than you can fly.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Belief, then, is not voluntary. How, then, can it be +<span class="tei-pb" id="page082">[pg 082]</span><a name="Pg082" id="Pg082" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>meritorious? When a jury try a case, all hear the same +evidence, but nine say "Guilty" and three "Not guilty," +according to the honest belief of each. Are either of these +more worthy of reward on that account than the others? +Certainly you will say No! But suppose beforehand they +all know or suspect that those who say "Not guilty" will +be punished and the rest rewarded: what is likely to be +the result? Why, perhaps six will say "Guilty" honestly +believing it, and glad they can with a clear conscience escape +punishment; three will say "Not guilty" boldly, and rather +bear the punishment than be false or dishonest; the other +three, fearful of being convinced against their will, will +carefully stop their ears while the witnesses for the defence +are being examined, and delude themselves with the idea +they give an honest verdict because they have heard only +one side of the evidence. If any out of the dozen deserve +punishment, you will surely agree with me it is these. +Belief or disbelief is therefore not meritorious, and when +founded on an unfair balance of evidence is blameable.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now to apply the principles to my own case. In my early +youth I heard, as ninety-nine-hundredths of the world do, +only the evidence on one side, and became impressed with +a veneration for religion which has left some traces even +to this day. I have since heard and read much on both +sides, and pondered much upon the matter in all its bearings. +I spent, as you know, a year and a half in a clergyman's +family and heard almost every Tuesday the very best, +most earnest and most impressive preacher it has ever been +my fortune to meet with, but it produced no effect whatever +on my mind. I have since wandered among men of many +races and many religions. I have studied man, and nature +in all its aspects, and I have sought after truth. In my +solitude I have pondered much on the incomprehensible +subjects of space, eternity, life and death. I think I have +<span class="tei-pb" id="page083">[pg 083]</span><a name="Pg083" id="Pg083" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>fairly heard and fairly weighed the evidence on both sides, +and I remain an <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">utter disbeliever</span> in almost all that you consider +the most sacred truths. I will pass over as utterly contemptible +the oft-repeated accusation that sceptics shut out +evidence because they will not be governed by the morality +of Christianity. You I know will not believe that in my +case, and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">I</span> know its falsehood as a general rule. I only +ask, Do you think I can change the self-formed convictions +of twenty-five years, and could you think such a +change would have anything in it to merit <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">reward</span> from +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">justice</span>? I am thankful I can see much to admire in all +religions. To the mass of mankind religion of some kind +is a necessity. But whether there be a God and whatever +be His nature; whether we have an immortal soul or not, +or whatever may be our state after death, I can have no +fear of having to suffer for the study of nature and the +search for truth, or believe that those will be better off in +a future state who have lived in the belief of doctrines inculcated +from childhood, and which are to them rather a +matter of blind faith than intelligent conviction.āA.R.W.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This for yourself; show the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">letter only</span> to my mother.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_29" id="toc_29"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS MOTHER</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Sourabaya, Java. July 20,</span> 1861.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mother,āI am, as you will see, now commencing +my retreat westwards, and have left the wild and savage +Moluccas and New Guinea for Java, the Garden of the East, +and probably without any exception the finest island in the +world. My plans are to visit the interior and collect till +November, and then work my way to Singapore so as to +return home and arrive in the spring. Travelling here will +be a much pleasanter business than in any other country I +have visited, as there are good roads, regular posting stages, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page084">[pg 084]</span><a name="Pg084" id="Pg084" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and regular inns or lodging-houses all over the interior, and +I shall no more be obliged to carry about with me that miscellaneous +lot of household furnitureābed, blankets, pots, +kettles and frying pan, plates, dishes and wash-basin, coffee-pots +and coffee, tea, sugar and butter, salt, pickles, rice, +bread and wine, pepper and curry powder, and half a hundred +more odds and ends, the constant looking after which, +packing and repacking, calculating and contriving, have been +the standing plague of my life for the last seven years. You +will better understand this when I tell you that I have made +in that time about eighty movements, averaging one a month, +at every one of which all of these articles have had to be rearranged +and repacked by myself according to the length of +the trip, besides a constant personal supervision to prevent +waste or destruction of stores in places where it is impossible +to supply them.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Fanny wrote me last month to know about how I should +like to live on my return. Of course, my dear mother, I +should not think of living anywhere but with you, after +such a long absence, if you feel yourself equal to housekeeping +for us both; and I have always understood that +your cottage would be large enough. The accommodation +I should require is, besides a small bedroom, one large +room, or a small one if there is, besides, a kind of lumber +room where I could keep my cases and do rough and dirty +work. I expect soon from Thomas a sketch-plan of your +cottage, by which I can at once tell if it will do. If not, +I must leave you and Fanny to arrange as you like about +a new residence. I should prefer being a little way out +of town in a quiet neighbourhood and with a garden, but +near an omnibus route, and if necessary I could lodge at +any time for a week in London. This, I think, will be +better and much cheaper than living close to town, and +rents anywhere in the West End are sure now to rise +<span class="tei-pb" id="page085">[pg 085]</span><a name="Pg085" id="Pg085" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>owing to the approaching Great Exhibition. I must of +course study economy, as the little money I have made will +not be all got in for a year or two after my return....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You must remember to write to me by the middle of +November mail, as that is probably the last letter I can +receive from you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I send the letter to Fanny, who will most likely call on +you and talk over matters. I am a little confused arriving +in a new place with a great deal to do and living in a noisy +hotel, so different to my usual solitary life, so that I cannot +well collect my ideas to write any more, but must remain, +my dear mother, your ever affectionate son,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_30" id="toc_30"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">In the Mountains of Java. October 10,</span> 1861.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Fanny,āI have just received your second letter +in praise of your new house. As I have said my say about +it in my last, I shall now send you a few lines on other +subjects.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been staying here a fortnight 4,000 feet above the +sea in a fine cool climate, but it is unfortunately dreadfully +wet and cloudy. I have just returned from a three days' excursion +to one of the great Java volcanoes 10,000 feet high. +I slept two nights in a house 7,500 feet above the sea. It +was bitterly cold at night, as the hut was merely of plaited +bamboo, like a sieve, so that the wind came in on all sides. +I had flannel jackets and blankets and still was cold, and +my poor men, with nothing but their usual thin cotton +clothes, passed miserable nights lying on a mat on the +ground round the fire which could only warm one side at +a time. The highest peak is an extinct volcano with the +crater nearly filled up, forming merely a saucer on the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page086">[pg 086]</span><a name="Pg086" id="Pg086" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>top, in which is a good house built by the Government for +the old Dutch naturalists who surveyed and explored the +mountain. There are a lot of strawberries planted there, +which do very well, but there were not many ripe. The +common weeds and plants of the top were very like English +ones, such as buttercups, sow-thistle, plantain, wormwood, +chickweed, charlock, St. John's wort, violets and many +others, all closely allied to our common plants of those +names, but of distinct species. There was also a honey-suckle, +and a tall and very pretty kind of cowslip. None +of these are found in the low tropical lands, and most +of them only on the tops of these high mountains. Mr. +Darwin supposed them to have come there during a glacial +or very cold period, when they could have spread over the +tropics and, as the heat increased, gradually rose up the +mountains. They were, as you may imagine, most interesting +to me, and I am very glad that I have ascended +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">one</span> lofty mountain in the tropics, though I had miserable +wet weather and had no view, owing to constant clouds +and mist.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I also visited a semi-active volcano close by continually +sending out steam with a noise like a blast-furnaceāquite +enough to give me a conception of all other descriptions +of volcanoes.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The lower parts of the mountains of Java, from 3,000 to +6,000 feet, have the most beautiful tropical vegetation I have +ever seen. Abundance of splendid tree ferns, some 50 ft. high, +and some hundreds of varieties of other ferns, beautiful-leaved +plants as begonias, melastomas, and many others, +and more flowers than are generally seen in the tropics. +In fact, this region exhibits all the beauty the tropics can +produce, but still I consider and will always maintain +that our own meadows and woods and mountains are more +beautiful. Our own weeds and wayside flowers are far +<span class="tei-pb" id="page087">[pg 087]</span><a name="Pg087" id="Pg087" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>prettier and more varied than those of the tropics. It is +only the great leaves and the curious-looking plants, and +the deep gloom of the forests and the mass of tangled +vegetation that astonish and delight Europeans, and it is +certainly grand and interesting and in a certain sense +beautiful, but not the calm, sweet, warm beauty of our +own fields, and there is none of the brightness of our own +flowers; a field of buttercups, a hill of gorse or of heather, +a bank of foxgloves and a hedge of wild roses and purple +vetches surpass in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">beauty</span> anything I have ever seen in the +tropics. This is a favourite subject with me, but I cannot +go into it now.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Send the accompanying note to Mr. Stevens immediately. +You will see what I say to him about my collections here. +Java is the richest of all the islands in birds, but they are +as well known as those of Europe, and it is almost impossible +to get a new one. However, I am adding fine specimens +to my collection, which will be altogether the finest +known of the birds of the Archipelago, except perhaps +that of the Leyden Museum, who have had naturalists collecting +for them in all the chief islands for many years +with unlimited means.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Give my kind love to mother, to whom I will write next +time.āYour affectionate brother,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_31" id="toc_31"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">TO G. SILK<a name="noteref_16" id="noteref_16"></a><a href="#note_16"><span class="footnoteref">16</span></a></h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Singapore. January 20,</span> 1862.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear George,ā ... On the question of marriage we +probably differ much. I believe a good wife to be the greatest +blessing a man can enjoy, and the only road to happiness, +but the qualifications I should look for are probably not such +as would satisfy you. My opinions have changed much on +<span class="tei-pb" id="page088">[pg 088]</span><a name="Pg088" id="Pg088" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>this point: I now look at intellectual companionship as +quite a secondary matter, and should my good stars ever +send me an affectionate, good-tempered and domestic wife, +I shall care not one iota for accomplishments or even for +education.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I cannot write more now. I do not yet know how long I +shall be here, perhaps a month. Then ho! for England!āIn +haste, yours most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page089">[pg 089]</span><a name="Pg089" id="Pg089" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="page" /> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_32" id="toc_32"></a> +<h1 class="tei tei-head">PART II</h1> +<p class="tei tei-p"></p> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_33" id="toc_33"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head">I.āThe Discovery of Natural Selection</h2> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">"There are not many joys in human life equal to the joy of the sudden +birth of a generalisation, illuminating the mind after a long period of +patient research. What has seemed for years so chaotic, so +contradictory, and so problematic takes at once its proper position +within an harmonious whole. Out of the wild confusion of facts and from +behind the fog of guessesācontradicted almost as soon as they are +bornāa stately picture makes its appearance, like an Alpine chain +suddenly emerging in all its grandeur from the mists which concealed it +the moment before, glittering under the rays of the sun in all its +simplicity and variety, in all its mightiness and beauty. And when the +generalisation is put to a test, by applying it to hundreds of separate +facts which seemed to be hopelessly contradictory the moment before, +each of them assumes its due position, increasing the impressiveness of +the picture, accentuating some characteristic outline, or adding an +unsuspected detail full of meaning. The generalisation gains in strength +and extent; its foundations grow in width and solidity; while in the +distance, through the far-off mist on the horizon, the eye detects the +outlines of new and still wider generalisations. He who has once in his +life experienced this joy of scientific creation will never forget it; +he will be longing to renew it; and he cannot but feel with pain that +this sort of happiness is the lot of so few of us, while so many could +also live through itāon a small or on a grand scaleāif scientific +methods and leisure were not limited to a handful of men."āPRINCE +KROPOTKIN, "Memoirs of a Revolutionist."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The social and scientific atmosphere in which Wallace +found himself on his return from his eight years' +exile in the Malay Archipelago was considerably more +genial than that which he had enjoyed during his previous +stay in London following his exploration of the Amazon. +His position as one of the leading scientists of the day was +already recognised, dating from the memorable 1st of July, +1858, when the two Papers, his own and Darwin's, on the +theory of Natural Selection had been read before the Linnean +Society.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">During the four years which had elapsed since that date +<span class="tei-pb" id="page090">[pg 090]</span><a name="Pg090" id="Pg090" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the storm of criticism had waxed and waned; subsiding for +a time only to burst out afresh from some new quarter where +the theory bade fair to jeopardise some ancient belief in +which scientist or theologian had rested with comparative +satisfaction until so rudely disturbed.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">During this period Wallace had been quietly pursuing +his researches in the Malay Archipelago, though not without +a keen interest in all that was taking place at home in +so far as this reached him by means of correspondence +and newspaper reportsāhis only means of keeping in +touch with the world beyond the boundaries of the semi-civilised +countries in which he was then living.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In order to follow the story of how the conception of +the theory of Natural Selection grew and eventually took +definite form in Wallace's mind, independently of the same +development in the mind of Darwin, we must go back to a +much earlier period in his life, and as nearly as possible +link up, the scattered remarks which here and there act as +signposts pointing towards the supreme solution which has +made his name famous for all time.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In Part I., Section I., many passages occur which +clearly reveal his awakening to the study of nature. A +chance remark overheard in conversation in the quiet +street of Hertford touched the hidden spring of interest +in a subject which was to become the one great purpose +of his life. Then his enthusiastic yielding to the simple +and natural attraction which flowers and trees have always +exerted upon the sympathetic observer led step by step to +the study of groups and families, until, on his second +sojourn at Neath, and about a year before his journey to +South America with H.W. Bates, we find him deliberately +pondering over the problem which many years later he described +by saying that he "had in fact been bitten by the +passion for species and their description." +<span class="tei-pb" id="page091">[pg 091]</span><a name="Pg091" id="Pg091" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +In a letter to Bates dated November 9th, 1847, he concludes +by asking, "Have you read 'Vestiges of the Natural +History of Creation,' or is it out of your line?" and in the +next (dated December 28th), in reply to one from his friend, +he continues, "I have a rather more favourable opinion of +the 'Vestiges' than you appear to have, I do not consider +it a hasty generalisation, but rather an ingenious hypothesis +strongly supported by some striking facts and analogies, but +which remains to be proved by more facts and the additional +light which more research may throw upon the problem.... +It furnishes a subject for every observer of nature to attend +to; every fact," he observes, "will make either for or against +it, and it thus serves both as an incitement to the collection +of facts, and an object to which they can be applied when +collected. Many eminent writers support the theory of the +progressive development of animals and plants. There is a +very philosophical work bearing directly on the questionāLawrence's +'Lectures on Man'.... The great object of +these 'Lectures' is to illustrate the different races of mankind, +and the manner in which they probably originated, +and he arrives at the conclusion (as also does Prichard +in his work on the 'Physical History of Man') that the +varieties of the human race have not been produced by +any external causes, but are due to the development of +certain distinctive peculiarities in some individuals which +have thereafter become propagated through an entire race. +Now, I should say that a permanent peculiarity not produced +by external causes is a characteristic of 'species' +and not of mere 'variety,' and thus, if the theory of the +'Vestiges' is accepted, the Negro, the Red Indian, and +the European are distinct species of the genus Homo.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">"An animal which differs from another by some decided +and permanent character, however slight, which difference is +undiminished by propagation and unchanged by climate and +<span class="tei-pb" id="page092">[pg 092]</span><a name="Pg092" id="Pg092" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>external circumstances, is universally held to be a distinct +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">species</span>; while one which is not regularly transmitted so as +to form a distinct race, but is occasionally reproduced from +the parent stock (like albinoes), is generally, if the difference +is not very considerable, classed as a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">variety</span>. But I +would class both these as distinct <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">species</span>, and I would only +consider those to be <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">varieties</span> whose differences are produced +by external causes, and which, therefore, are not propagated +as distinct races."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Again, writing about the same period, he adds: "I begin +to feel rather dissatisfied with a mere local collection; little +is to be learnt by it. I should like to take some one family +to study thoroughly, principally with a view to the theory of +the origin of species. By that means I am strongly of opinion +that some definite results might be arrived at." And he +further alludes to "my favourite subjectāthe variations, +arrangements, distribution, etc., of species."<a name="noteref_17" id="noteref_17"></a><a href="#note_17"><span class="footnoteref">17</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is evident that in Bates Wallace found his first real +friend and companion in matters scientific; for in another +letter he says: "I quite envy you, who have friends near +you attracted to the same pursuits. I know not a single +person in this little town who studies any one branch of +natural history, so that I am quite alone in this respect." +In fact, except for a little friendly help now and then, as +in the case of Mr. Hayward lending him a copy of Loudon's +Encyclopedia of Plants, he had always pondered over +his nature studies without any assistance up to the time +of his meeting Bates at Leicester. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page093">[pg 093]</span><a name="Pg093" id="Pg093" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +From the date of the above letter (1847) on to the early +part of 1855ānearly eight years laterāno reference is found +either in his Life or correspondence to the one absorbing +idea towards which all his reflective powers were being +directed. Then, during a quiet time at Sarawak, the +accumulation of thought and observation found expression +in an essay entitled "The Law which has regulated +the Introduction of Species," which appeared in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals and Magazine of Natural History</span> in the following +September (1855).</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">From November, 1854, the year of his arrival in the East, +until January or February, 1856, Sarawak was the centre +from which Wallace made his explorations inland, including +some adventurous excursions on the Sadong River. +During the wet seasonāor springāof 1855, while living +in a small house at the foot of the Santubong Mountains +(with one Malay boy who acted as cook and general companion), +he tells us how he occupied his time in looking +over his books and pondering "over the problem which +was rarely absent from [his] thoughts." In addition to +the knowledge he had acquired from reading such books +as those by Swainson and Humboldt, also Lucien Bonaparte's +"Conspectus," and several catalogues of insects +and reptiles in the British Museum "giving a mass of +facts" as to the distribution of animals over the whole +world, and having by his own efforts accumulated a vast +store of information and facts direct from nature while in +South America and since coming out East, he arrived at +the conclusion that this "mass of facts" had never been +properly utilised as an indication of the way in which +species had come into existence. Having no fellow-traveller +to whom he could confide these conclusions, he was almost +driven to put his thoughts and ideas on paperāweighing +each argument with studious care and open-eyed consideration +<span class="tei-pb" id="page094">[pg 094]</span><a name="Pg094" id="Pg094" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>as to its bearing on the whole theory. As the "result +seemed to be of some importance," it was sent, as already +mentioned, to the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals and Magazine of Natural History</span> +as one of the leading scientific journals in England.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In the light of future events it is not surprising that +Huxley (many years later), in referring to this "powerful +essay," adds: "On reading it afresh I have been astonished +to recollect how small was the impression it made."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As this earliest contribution by Wallace to the doctrine +of Evolution<a name="noteref_18" id="noteref_18"></a><a href="#note_18"><span class="footnoteref">18</span></a> is of peculiar historical value, and has not +been so fully recognised as it undoubtedly deserves, and +is now almost inaccessible, it will be useful to indicate in +his own words the clear line of argument put forth by +him two years before his second essay with which many +readers are more familiar. He begins:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">Every naturalist who has directed his attention to the +subject of the geographical distribution of animals and +plants must have been interested in the singular facts +which it presents. Many of these facts are quite different +from what would have been anticipated, and have hitherto +been considered as highly curious but quite inexplicable. +None of the explanations attempted from the time of LinnƦus +are now considered at all satisfactory; none of them +have given a cause sufficient to account for the facts +known at the time, or comprehensive enough to include +all the new facts which have since been and are daily +being added. Of late years, however, a great light has +been thrown upon the subject by geological investigations, +which have shown that the present state of the earth, and +the organisms now inhabiting it, are but the last stage of +a long and uninterrupted series of changes which it has +undergone, and consequently, that to endeavour to explain +and account for its present condition without any reference +to those changes (as has frequently been done) must +<span class="tei-pb" id="page095">[pg 095]</span><a name="Pg095" id="Pg095" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>lead to very imperfect and erroneous conclusions.... +The following propositions in Organic Geography and +Geology give the main facts on which the hypothesis [<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">see</span> +p. 96] is founded.</p> + +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">GEOGRAPHY</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(1) Large groups, such as classes and orders, are +generally spread over the whole earth, while smaller ones, +such as families and genera, are frequently confined to +one portion, often to a very limited district.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(2) In widely distributed families the genera are often +limited in range; in widely distributed genera, well-marked +groups of species are peculiar to each geographical district.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(3) When a group is confined to one district and is rich +in species, it is almost invariably the case that the most +closely allied species are found in the same locality or in +closely adjoining localities, and that therefore the natural +sequence of the species by affinity is also geographical.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(4) In countries of a similar climate, but separated by +a wide sea or lofty mountains, the families, genera and +species of the one are often represented by closely allied +families, genera and species peculiar to the other.</p> + +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">GEOLOGY</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(5) The distribution of the organic world in time is very +similar to its present distribution in space.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(6) Most of the larger and some of the smaller groups +extend through several geological periods.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(7) In each period, however, there are peculiar groups, +found nowhere else, and extending through one or several +formations.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(8) Species of one genus, or genera of one family, occurring +in the same geological time are more closely allied than +those separated in time.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(9) As generally in geography no species or genus occurs +in two very distant localities without being also found in +intermediate places, so in geology the life of a species or +genus has not been interrupted. In other words, no group +or species has come into existence twice. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page096">[pg 096]</span><a name="Pg096" id="Pg096" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +(10) The following law may be deduced from these facts: +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Every species has come into existence coincident both in time +and space with a pre-existing closely allied species</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This law agrees with, explains and illustrates all the +facts connected with the following branches of the subject: +1st, the system of natural affinities; 2nd, the distribution +of animals and plants in space; 3rd, the same +in time, including all the phenomena of representative +groups, and those which Prof. Forbes supposed to manifest +polarity; 4th, the phenomena of rudimentary organs. +We will briefly endeavour to show its bearing upon each +of these.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If [this] law be true, it follows that the natural series +of affinities will also represent the order in which the +several species came into existence, each one having had +for its immediate antetype a clearly allied species existing +at the time of its origin.... If two or more species +have been independently formed on the plan of a common +antetype, then the series of affinities will be compound, +and can only be represented by a forked or many-branched +line.... Sometimes the series of affinities can be well represented +for a space by a direct progression from species +to species or from group to group, but it is generally found +impossible so to continue. There constantly occur two or +more modifications of an organ or modifications of two +distinct organs, leading us on to two distinct series of +species, which at length differ so much from each other +as to form distinct genera or families. These are the +parallel series or representative groups of naturalists, and +they often occur in different countries, or are found fossil +in different formations.... We thus see how difficult it +is to determine in every case whether a given relation is +an analogy or an affinity, for it is evident that as we go +back along the parallel or divergent series, towards the +common antetype, the analogy which existed between the +two groups becomes an affinity.... Again, if we consider +that we have only the fragments of this vast system, the +stems and main branches being represented by extinct +species of which we have no knowledge, while a vast mass +<span class="tei-pb" id="page097">[pg 097]</span><a name="Pg097" id="Pg097" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of limbs and boughs and minute twigs and scattered leaves +is what we have to place in order, and determine the true +position each originally occupied with regard to the others, +the whole difficulty of the true Natural System of classification +becomes apparent to us.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">We shall thus find ourselves obliged to reject all those +systems of classification which arrange species or groups +in circles, as well as those which fix a definite number for +the division of each group.... We have ... never been +able to find a case in which the circle has been closed by +a direct affinity. In most cases a palpable analogy has +been substituted, in others the affinity is very obscure or +altogether doubtful....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If we now consider the geographical distribution of +animals and plants upon the earth, we shall find all the +facts beautifully in accordance with, and readily explained +by, the present hypothesis. A country having species, +genera, and whole families peculiar to it will be the +necessary result of its having been isolated for a long +period, sufficient for many series of species to have been +created on the type of pre-existing ones, which, as well as +many of the earlier-formed species, have become extinct, +and made the groups appear isolated....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Such phenomena as are exhibited by the Galapagos +Islands, which contain little groups of plants and animals +peculiar to themselves, but most nearly allied to those of +South America, have not hitherto received any, even a +conjectural explanation. The Galapagos are a volcanic +group of high antiquity and have probably never been +more closely connected with the continent than they are +at present.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">He then proceeds at some length to explain how the +Galapagos must have been at first "peopled ... by the +action of winds and currents," and that the modified +prototypes remaining are the "new species" which have +been "created in each on the plan of the pre-existing +ones." This is followed by a graphic sketch of the general +<span class="tei-pb" id="page098">[pg 098]</span><a name="Pg098" id="Pg098" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>effect of volcanic and other action as affecting the distribution +of species, and the exact form in which they are +found, even fishes giving "evidence of a similar kind: each +great river [having] its peculiar genera, and in more extensive +genera its groups of closely allied species."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">After stating a number of practical examples he continues:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">The question forces itself upon every thinking mindāWhy +are these things so? They could not be as they are, +had no law regulated their creation and dispersion. The +law here enunciated not merely explains, but necessitates +the facts we see to exist, while the vast and long-continued +geological changes of the earth readily account for the exceptions +and apparent discrepancies that here and there +occur. The writer's object in putting forward his views +in the present imperfect manner is to submit them to the +tests of other minds, and to be made aware of all the facts +supposed to be inconsistent with them. As his hypothesis +is one which claims acceptance solely as explaining and +connecting facts which exist in nature, he expects facts +alone to be brought forward to disprove it, not <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">a priori</span> +arguments against its probability.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">He then refers to some of the geological "principles" +expounded by Sir Charles Lyell on the "extinction of +species," and follows this up by saying:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">To discover how the extinct species have from time to +time been replaced by new ones down to the very latest +geological period, is the most difficult, and at the same +time the most interesting, problem in the natural history +of the earth. The present inquiry, which seeks to eliminate +from known facts a law which has determined, to a +certain degree, what species could and did appear at a +given epoch, may, it is hoped, be considered as one step +in the right direction towards a complete solution of it.... +Admitted facts seem to show ... a general, but not +a detailed progression.... It is, however, by no means +<span class="tei-pb" id="page099">[pg 099]</span><a name="Pg099" id="Pg099" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>difficult to show that a real progression in the scale of +organisation is perfectly consistent with all the appearances, +and even with apparent retrogression should such +occur.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Using once more the analogy of a branching tree to +illustrate the natural arrangement of species and their +successive creation, he clearly shows how "apparent retrogression +may be in reality a progress, though an interrupted +one"; as "when some monarch of the forest loses +a limb, it may be replaced by a feeble and sickly substitute." +As an instance he mentions the Mollusca, which +at an early period had reached a high state of development +of forms and species, while in each succeeding age +modified species and genera replaced the former ones +which had become extinct, and "as we approach the +present era but few and small representatives of the +group remain, while the Gasteropods and Bivalves have +acquired an immense preponderance." In the long series of +changes the earth had undergone, the process of peopling +it with organic beings had been continually going on, +and whenever any of the higher groups had become nearly +or quite extinct, the lower forms which better resisted the +modified physical conditions served as the antetype on which +to found new races. In this manner alone, it was believed, +could the representative groups of successive periods, and +the risings and fallings in the scale of organisations, be in +every case explained.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Again, attending to a recent article by Prof. Forbes, he +points out certain inaccuracies and how they may be proved +to be so; and continues:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">We have no reason for believing that the number of +species on the earth at any former period was much less +than at present; at all events the aquatic portion, with +<span class="tei-pb" id="page100">[pg 100]</span><a name="Pg100" id="Pg100" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>which the geologists have most acquaintance, was probably +often as great or greater. Now we know that there have +been many complete changes of species, new sets of organisms +have many times been introduced in place of old ones +which have become extinct, so that the total amount which +have existed on the earth from the earliest geological period +must have borne about the same proportion to those now +living as the whole human race who have lived and died +upon the earth to the population at the present time.... +Records of vast geological periods are entirely buried beneath +the ocean ... beyond our reach. Most of the gaps in the +geological series may thus be filled up, and vast numbers +of unknown and unimaginable animals which might help to +elucidate the affinities of the numerous isolated groups which +are a perpetual puzzle to the zoologist may be buried there, +till future revolutions may raise them in turn above the +water, to afford materials for the study of whatever race of +intelligent beings may then have succeeded us. These considerations +must lead us to the conclusion that our knowledge +of the whole series of the former inhabitants of the +earth is necessarily most imperfect and fragmentaryāas +much as our knowledge of the present organic world would +be, were we forced to make our collections and observations +only in spots equally limited in area and in number with +those actually laid open for the collection of fossils.... +The hypothesis of Prof. Forbes is essentially one that +assumes to a great extent the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">completeness</span> of our knowledge +of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">whole series</span> of organic beings which have +existed on earth.... The hypothesis put forward in this +paper depends in no degree upon the completeness of our +knowledge of the former condition of the organic world, +but takes what facts we have as fragments of a vast +whole, and deduces from them something of the nature +and proportion of that whole which we can never know +in detail....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Another important series of facts, quite in accordance +with, and even necessary deductions from, the law now +developed, are those of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">rudimentary organs</span>. That these +really do exist, and in most cases have no special function +<span class="tei-pb" id="page101">[pg 101]</span><a name="Pg101" id="Pg101" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in the animal economy, is admitted by the first authorities +in comparative anatomy. The minute limbs hidden beneath +the skin in many of the snake-like lizards, the anal hooks +of the boa constrictor, the complete series of jointed finger-bones +in the paddle of the manatee and the whale, are a few +of the most familiar instances. In botany a similar class +of facts has been long recognised. Abortive stamens, rudimentary +floral envelope and undeveloped carpels are of the +most frequent occurrence. To every thoughtful naturalist +the question must arise, What are these for? What have +they to do with the great laws of creation? Do they not +teach us something of the system of nature? If each +species has been created independently, and without any +necessary relation with pre-existing species, what do these +rudiments, these apparent imperfections, mean? There +must be a cause for them; they must be the necessary +result of some great natural law. Now, if ... the great +law which has regulated the peopling of the earth with +animal and vegetable life is, that every change shall be +gradual; that no new creature shall be formed widely +different from anything before existing; that in this, as +in everything else in nature, there shall be gradation and +harmonyāthen these rudimentary organs are necessary and +are an essential part of the system of nature. Ere the higher +vertebrates were formed, for instance, many steps were required, +and many organs had to undergo modifications from +the rudimental condition in which only they had as yet +existed.... Many more of these modifications should we +behold, and more complete series of them, had we a view +of all the forms which have ceased to live. The great gaps +that exist ... would be softened down by intermediate +groups, and the whole organic world would be seen to be +an unbroken and harmonious system.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The article, in which we can see a great generalisation +struggling to be born, ends thus:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">It has now been shown, though most briefly and imperfectly, +how the law that "every species has come into +<span class="tei-pb" id="page102">[pg 102]</span><a name="Pg102" id="Pg102" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>existence coincident both in time and space with a pre-existing +closely allied species," connects together and renders +intelligible a vast number of independent and hitherto +unexplained facts. The natural system of arrangement of +organic beings, their geographical distribution, their geological +sequence, the phenomena of representative and +substituted groups in all their modifications, and the most +singular peculiarities of anatomical structure, are all explained +and illustrated by it, in perfect accordance with +the vast mass of facts which the researches of modern +naturalists have brought together, and, it is believed, not +materially opposed to any of them. It also claims a +superiority over previous hypotheses, on the ground that it +not merely explains but necessitates what exists. Granted +the law, and many of the most important facts in nature +could not have been otherwise, but are almost as necessary +deductions from it as are the elliptic orbits of the planets +from the law of gravitation.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Some time after the appearance of this article, Wallace +was informed by his friend and agent, Mr. Stevens, +that several naturalists had expressed regret that he was +"theorising," when what "was wanted was to collect +more facts." Apart from this the only recognition which +reached him in his remote solitude was a remark in an +approving letter from Darwin (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">see</span> p. 129).</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As Wallace wrote nothing further of importance until +the second essay which more fully disclosed his view of +the origin of species, we will now briefly trace the growth +of the theory of Natural Selection up to 1858, as it came +to Darwin.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is well known that during Darwin's voyage in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span> he was deeply impressed by discovering extinct +armadillo-like fossil forms in South America, the home of +armadilloes, and by observing the relationship of the plants +and animals of each island in the Galapagos group to those +<span class="tei-pb" id="page103">[pg 103]</span><a name="Pg103" id="Pg103" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the other islands and of South America, the nearest continent. +These facts suggested evolution, and without evolution +appeared to be meaningless.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Evolution and its motive cause were the problems +which "haunted" him for the next twenty years. The +first step towards a possible solution was the "opening of +a notebook for facts in relation to the origin of species" +in 1837, two years before the publication of his Journal. +From the very commencement of his literary and scientific +work, a rule rigidly adhered to was that of interspersing +his main line of thought and research by reading books +touching on widely diverging subjects; and it was thus, +no doubt, that during October, 1838, he read "for amusement" +Malthus's "Essay on Population"; not, as he +himself affirms, with any definite idea as to its intimate +bearing on the subject so near his heart. But the immediate +result was that the idea of Natural Selection at once +arose in his mind, and, in his own words, he "had a theory +by which to work."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In May and June, 1842, during a visit to Maer and +Shrewsbury, he wrote his first "pencil sketch of Species +theory," but not until two years later (1844) did he venture +to enlarge this to one of 230 folio pages, "a wonderfully +complete presentation of the arguments familiar to +us in the 'Origin.'"<a name="noteref_19" id="noteref_19"></a><a href="#note_19"><span class="footnoteref">19</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Already, in addition to the mass of facts collected, Darwin +was busy with some of the experiments which he described in +a letter to Sir Joseph Hooker (in 1855) as affording the latter +a "good right to sneer, for they are so <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">absurd</span>, even in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">my</span> +opinion, that I dare not tell you." While a sentence in +another letter (dated 1849) throws a sidelight on all this +preparatory work: "In your letter you wonder what +'ornamental poultry' has to do with barnacles; but do +<span class="tei-pb" id="page104">[pg 104]</span><a name="Pg104" id="Pg104" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>not flatter yourself that I shall not yet live to finish the +barnacles, and then make a fool of myself on the subject +of species, under which head ornamental poultry are very +interesting."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Somewhere about this time (1842-44), Darwin, referring +to the idea of Natural Selection which arose in his mind after +reading Malthus on "Population" four years earlier, continues: +"But at that time I overlooked one problem of +great importance ... the tendency in organic beings descended +from the same stock to diverge in character as +they become modified ... and I can remember the very +spot in the road, whilst in my carriage, when to my joy +the solution occurred to me.... The solution, as I believe, +is that the modified offspring of all dominant and increasing +forms tend to become adapted to many and highly +diversified places in the economy of nature."<a name="noteref_20" id="noteref_20"></a><a href="#note_20"><span class="footnoteref">20</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">So convinced was he of the truth of his ideas as expressed +in the 1844 MS., that immediately after its completion +he wrote the memorable letter to Mrs. Darwin +telling her what he would wish done regarding its publication +in the event of his death.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It was probably about two years later (1846) that he +first confided his completed workāup to that dateāto +Sir Joseph Hooker, and later to Sir Charles Lyell; refraining, +however, except in general conversation with +other scientists, from informing anyone of the progress he +was making towards a positive solution of the problem. +His attitude of mind and manner at this period is happily +illustrated by Huxley, who, speaking of his early acquaintance +with Darwin, says: "I remember in the course of my +first interview with Darwin expressing my belief in the +sharpness of the line of demarcation between natural groups +and in the absence of transitional forms, with all the confidence +<span class="tei-pb" id="page105">[pg 105]</span><a name="Pg105" id="Pg105" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of youth and imperfect knowledge. I was not +aware, at that time, that he had then been many years +brooding over the Species question; and the humorous +smile which accompanied his gentle answer, that such was +not altogether his view, long haunted and puzzled me."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Little did Charles Darwin dream that, only three years +after this first MS. was written (in 1844), a youthful +naturalistāknown only as a surveyor at Neathāwas deliberately +pondering over the same issue, and writing to +his only scientific friend on the subject. As, however, the +different methods of thought by which they arrived at the +same conclusion is so aptly related by Wallace himself, we +will leave it for him to tell the story in its appointed place.<a name="noteref_21" id="noteref_21"></a><a href="#note_21"><span class="footnoteref">21</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In 1856, the year following the appearance of Wallace's +essay in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals and Magazine of Natural History</span>, both +Hooker and Lyell urged Darwin to publish the result of his +long and patient research. But he was still reluctant to +do so, not having as yet satisfied himself with regard to +certain conclusions which, he felt, must be stoutly maintained +in face of the enormous amount of criticism which +would arise immediately his theory was launched on the +scientific world. And thus the event was postponed until +the memorable year 1858.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Up to the year 1856 no correspondence had passed between +Wallace and Darwin, so far, at least, as the former could +remember, for he says, in a letter dated Frith Hill, Godalming, +December 3, 1887 (written to Mr. A. Newton): "I +had hardly heard of Darwin before going to the East, +except as connected with the voyage of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span>.... I +saw him <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">once</span> for a few minutes in the British Museum +before I sailed. Through Stevens, my agent, I heard that +he wanted curious <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">varieties</span> which he was studying. I +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">think</span> I wrote about some varieties of ducks I had sent, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page106">[pg 106]</span><a name="Pg106" id="Pg106" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and he must have written once to me.... But at that +time I had not the remotest notion that he had already +arrived at a definite theoryāstill less that it was the +same as occurred to me, suddenly, in Ternate in 1858." +It is clear, therefore, that the essay written at Sarawak +formed the first real link with Darwin, although not fully +recognised at the time. In May, 1857, Darwin wrote to +Wallace: "I am much obliged for your letter ... and +even still more by your paper in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals</span>, a year or +more ago. I can plainly see that we have thought much +alike and to a certain extent have come to similar conclusions.... +I agree to almost every word of your paper; +and I dare say that you will agree with me that it is +very rare to find oneself agreeing pretty closely with +any theoretical paper." He concludes: "You have my +very sincere and cordial good wishes for success of all +kinds, and may all your theories succeed, except that on +Oceanic Islands, on which subject I will do battle to the +death."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The three years from 1855 to 1858 were for Wallace +crowded with hard work, and perilous voyages by sea +and hardships by land. January, 1858, found him at +Amboyna, where, in all probability, he found a pile of +long-delayed correspondence awaiting him, and among this +a letter from Bates referring to the article which had +appeared in print September, 1855. In reply he says: +"To persons who have not thought much on the subject +I fear my paper on the 'Succession of Species' will not +appear so clear as it does to you. That paper is, of course, +merely the announcement of the theory, not its development. +I have prepared the plan and written portions of a work +embracing the whole subject, and have endeavoured to prove +in detail what I have as yet only indicated.... I have been +much gratified by a letter from Darwin, in which he says +<span class="tei-pb" id="page107">[pg 107]</span><a name="Pg107" id="Pg107" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>that he agrees with 'almost every word' of my paper. He +is now preparing his great work on 'Species and Varieties,' +for which he has been preparing materials for twenty years. +He may save me the trouble of writing more on my hypothesis, +by proving that there is no difference in nature +between the origin of species and of varieties; or he may +give me trouble by arriving at another conclusion; but, +at all events, his facts will be given for me to work upon. +Your collections and my own will furnish most valuable +material to illustrate and prove the universal application +of the hypothesis. The connection between the succession +of affinities and the geographical distribution of a group, +worked out species by species, has never yet been shown +as we shall be able to show it."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">"This letter proves," writes Wallace,<a name="noteref_22" id="noteref_22"></a><a href="#note_22"><span class="footnoteref">22</span></a> "that at this +time I had not the least idea of the nature of Darwin's +proposed work nor of the definite conclusions he had +arrived at, nor had I myself any expectations of a complete +solution of the great problem to which my paper was +merely the prelude. Yet less than two months later that +solution flashed upon me, and to a large extent marked out +a different line of work from that which I had up to this +time anticipated.... In other parts of this letter I refer +to the work I hoped to do myself in describing, cataloguing, +and working out the distribution of my insects. I +had in fact been bitten by the passion for species and their +description, and if neither Darwin nor myself had hit upon +'Natural Selection,' I might have spent the best years of +my life in this comparatively profitless work. But the +new ideas swept all this away."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This letter was finished after his arrival at Ternate, +and a few weeks later he was prostrated by a sharp attack +of intermittent fever which obliged him to take a prolonged +<span class="tei-pb" id="page108">[pg 108]</span><a name="Pg108" id="Pg108" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>rest each day, owing to the exhausting hot and cold fits +which rapidly succeeded one another.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The little bungalow at Ternate had now come to be regarded +as "home" for it was here that he stored all his +treasured collections, besides making it the goal of all his +wanderings in the Archipelago. One can understand, therefore, +that, in spite of the fever, there was a sense of satisfaction +in the feeling that he was surrounded with the +trophies of his arduous labours as a naturalist, and this +passion for species and their descriptions being an ever-present +speculation in his mind, his very surroundings +would unconsciously conduce towards the line of thought +which brought to memory the argument of "positive +checks" set forth by Malthus in his "Principles of Population" +(read twelve years earlier) as applied to savage +and civilised races. "It then," he says, "occurred to me +that these causes or their equivalents are continually acting +in the case of animals also; and as animals usually +breed much more rapidly than does mankind, the destruction +every year from these causes must be enormous in +order to keep down the numbers of each species, since they +evidently do not increase regularly from year to year, as +otherwise the world would have been densely crowded with +those that breed most quickly.... Then it suddenly flashed +upon me that this self-acting process would necessarily <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">improve +the race</span>, because in every generation the inferior would +inevitably be killed off and the superior would remaināthat +is, the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">fittest would survive</span>. Then at once I seemed to see +the whole effect of this, that when changes of land and sea, +or of climate, or of food-supply, or of enemies occurredāand +we know that such changes have always been taking +placeāand considering the amount of individual variation +that my experience as a collector had shown me to exist, +then it followed that all the changes necessary for the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page109">[pg 109]</span><a name="Pg109" id="Pg109" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>adaptation of the species to the changing conditions would +be brought about; and as great changes in the environment +are always slow, there would be ample time for the change +to be effected by the survival of the best fitted in every +generation. In this way every part of an animal's organism +could be modified as required, and in the very process +of this modification the unmodified would die out, and +thus the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">definite</span> characters and the clear <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">isolation</span> of each +new species would be explained. The more I thought over +it the more I became convinced that I had at length found +the long-sought-for law of nature that solved the problem +of the origin of species. For the next hour I thought +over the deficiencies in the theories of Lamarck and of the +author of the 'Vestiges,' and I saw that my new theory +supplemented these views and obviated every important +difficulty. I waited anxiously for the termination of my +fit (of fever) so that I might at once make notes for a +paper on the subject. The same evening I did this pretty +fully, and on the two succeeding evenings wrote it out +carefully in order to send it to Darwin by the next post, +which would leave in a day or two."<a name="noteref_23" id="noteref_23"></a><a href="#note_23"><span class="footnoteref">23</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The story of the arrival of this letter at Down, and of +the swift passage of events between the date on which Darwin +received it and the reading of the "joint communications" +before the Linnean Society, has been often told. +But few, perhaps, have enjoyed the privilege of reading +the account of this memorable proceeding as related by +Sir Joseph Hooker at the celebration of the event held by +the Linnean Society in 1908.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As, therefore, the correspondence (pp. 127-320) between +Wallace and Darwin during a long series of years conveys +many expressions of their mutual appreciation of each +other's work in connection with the origin of species, it +<span class="tei-pb" id="page110">[pg 110]</span><a name="Pg110" id="Pg110" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>will avoid a possible repetition of these if we take a long +leap forward and give the notable speeches made by Wallace, +Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir E. Ray Lankester, and others at this +historical ceremony, which have not been published except in +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Proceedings</span> of the Society, now out of print.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The gathering was held on July 1, 1908, at the Institute +of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, to celebrate +the fiftieth anniversary of the joint communication made +by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace to the +Linnean Society, "On the Tendency of Species to form +Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and +Species by Natural Means of Selection." The large +gathering included the President, Dr. Dukinfield H. Scott, +distinguished representatives of many scientific Societies +and Universities, the Danish and Swedish Ministers, and +a representative from the German Embassy. Most of +the members of Dr. Wallace's and Mr. Darwin's family +were also present.<a name="noteref_24" id="noteref_24"></a><a href="#note_24"><span class="footnoteref">24</span></a> The President opened with some explanatory +observations, and then invited Wallace to come +forward in order to receive the first Darwin-Wallace Medal. +In presenting it he said:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace,āWe rejoice that we are so +happy as to have with us to-day the survivor of the two +great naturalists whose crowning work we are here to +commemorate.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Your brilliant work in natural history and geography, +and as one of the founders of the theory of Evolution by +Natural Selection, is universally honoured and has often +received public recognition, as in the awards of the Darwin +and Royal Medals of the Royal Society, and of our Medal +in 1892.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">To-day, in asking you to accept the first Darwin-Wallace +Medal, we are offering you of your own, for it is +<span class="tei-pb" id="page111">[pg 111]</span><a name="Pg111" id="Pg111" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>you, equally with your great colleague, who created the +occasion we celebrate.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">There is nothing in the history of science more delightful +or more noble than the story of the relations between +yourself and Mr. Darwin, as told in the correspondence +now so fully publishedāthe story of a generous rivalry +in which each discoverer strives to exalt the claims of the +other. We know that Mr. Darwin wrote (April 6th, +1859): "You cannot tell how much I admire your spirit +in the manner in which you have taken all that was done +about publishing our papers. I had actually written a +letter to you stating that I would not publish anything +before you had published." Then came the letters of +Hooker and Lyell, leading to the publication of the joint +papers which they communicated.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You, on your side, always gave the credit to him, and +underestimated your own position as the co-discoverer. I +need only refer to your calling your great exposition of +the joint theory "Darwinism," as the typical example of +your generous emphasising of the claims of your illustrious +fellow-worker.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It was a remarkable and momentous coincidence that +both you and he should have independently arrived at the +idea of Natural Selection after reading Malthus's book, and +a most happy inspiration that you should have selected Mr. +Darwin as the naturalist to whom to communicate your +discovery. That theory, in spite of changes in the +scientific fashion of the moment, you have always unflinchingly +maintained, and still uphold as unshaken by all +attacks.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Like Mr. Darwin, you, if I may say so, are above all +a naturalist, a student and lover of living animals and +plants, as shown in later years by your enthusiasm and +success in gardening. It is to such men, those who have +learnt the ways of Nature, as Nature really is in the +open, to whom your doctrine of Natural Selection specially +appeals, and therein lies its great and lasting strength.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Finally, you must allow me to allude to the generous +interest you have always shown, and continue to show, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page112">[pg 112]</span><a name="Pg112" id="Pg112" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in the careers of younger men who are endeavouring to +follow in your steps.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I ask you, Dr. Wallace, to accept this Medal, struck in +your honour and in that of the great work inaugurated +fifty years ago by Mr. Darwin and yourself.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Wallace began his reply by thanking the Council of the +Society for the Honour they had done him, and then proceeded:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">Since the death of Darwin, in 1882, I have found myself +in the somewhat unusual position of receiving credit and +praise from popular writers under a complete misapprehension +of what my share in Darwin's work really amounted +to. It has been stated (not unfrequently) in the daily and +weekly press, that Darwin and myself discovered "Natural +Selection" simultaneously, while a more daring few have +declared that I was <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">the first</span> to discover it, and I gave +way to Darwin!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In order to avoid further errors of this kind (which this +Celebration may possibly encourage), I think it will be well +to give the actual facts as simply and clearly as possible.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">one fact</span> that connects me with Darwin, and which, +I am happy to say, has never been doubted, is that the idea +of what is now termed "natural selection" or "survival +of the fittest," together with its far-reaching consequences, +occurred to us <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">independently</span>, and was first jointly announced +before this Society fifty years ago.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">But, what is often forgotten by the Press and the public +is, that the idea occurred to Darwin in 1838, nearly twenty +years earlier than to myself (in February, 1858); and that +during the whole of that twenty years he had been laboriously +collecting evidence from the vast mass of literature +of biology, of horticulture, and of agriculture; as well as +himself carrying out ingenious experiments and original +observations, the extent of which is indicated by the +range of subjects discussed in his "Origin of Species," +and especially in that wonderful storehouse of knowledge, +his "Animals and Plants under Domestication," almost +<span class="tei-pb" id="page113">[pg 113]</span><a name="Pg113" id="Pg113" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the whole materials for which work had been collected, +and to a large extent systematised, during that twenty +years.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">So far back as 1844, at a time when I had hardly thought +of any serious study of nature, Darwin had written an outline +of his views, which he communicated to his friends Sir +Charles Lyell and Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker. The former +strongly urged him to publish an abstract of his theory as +soon as possible, lest some other person might precede him; +but he always refused till he had got together the whole of +the materials for his intended great work. Then, at last, +Lyell's prediction was fulfilled, and, without any apparent +warning, my letter, with the enclosed essay, came upon him, +like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky! This forced him +to what he considered a premature publicity, and his two +friends undertook to have our two papers read before this +Society.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">How different from this long study and preparationāthis +philosophical cautionāthis determination not to make +known his fruitful conception till he could back it up by +overwhelming proofsāwas my own conduct.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The idea came to me as it had come to Darwin, in a +sudden flash of insight; it was thought out in a few hoursāwas +written down with such a sketch of its various +applications and developments as occurred to me at the +momentāthen copied on thin letter paper and sent off to +Darwināall within one week. <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">I</span> was then (as often since) +the "young man in a hurry": <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">he</span>, the painstaking and +patient student seeking ever the full demonstration of the +truth that he had discovered, rather than to achieve immediate +personal fame.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Such being the actual facts of the case, I should have had +no cause for complaint if the respective shares of Darwin and +myself in regard to the elucidation of Nature's method of +organic development had been henceforth estimated as being, +roughly, proportional to the time we had each bestowed upon +it when it was thus first given to the worldāthat is to say, +as twenty years is to one week. For, he had already made it +his own. If the persuasion of his friends had prevailed with +<span class="tei-pb" id="page114">[pg 114]</span><a name="Pg114" id="Pg114" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>him, and he had published his theory after ten years'āfifteen +years'āor even eighteen years' elaboration of itā<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">I</span> should +have had no part in it whatever, and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">he</span> would have been at +once recognised as the sole and undisputed discoverer and +patient investigator of this great law of "Natural Selection" +in all its far-reaching consequences.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It was really a singular piece of good luck that gave to +me any share whatever in the discovery. During the first +half of the nineteenth century (and even earlier) many great +biological thinkers and workers had been pondering over the +problem and had even suggested ingenious but inadequate +solutions. Some of these men were among the greatest intellects +of our time, yet, till Darwin, all had failed; and it +was only Darwin's extreme desire to perfect his work that +allowed me to come in, as a very bad second, in the truly +Olympian race in which all philosophical biologists, from +Buffon and Erasmus Darwin to Richard Owen and Robert +Chambers, were more or less actively engaged.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">And this brings me to the very interesting question: +Why did so many of the greatest intellects fail, while +Darwin and myself hit upon the solution of this problemāa +solution which this Celebration proves to have been +(and still to be) a satisfying one to a large number of +those best able to form a judgment on its merits? As I +have found what seems to me a good and precise answer +to this question, and one which is of some psychological +interest, I will, with your permission, briefly state what +it is.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">On a careful consideration, we find a curious series of +correspondences, both in mind and in environment, which +led Darwin and myself, alone among our contemporaries, +to reach identically the same theory.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">First (and most important, as I believe), in early life +both Darwin and myself became ardent beetle-hunters. +Now there is certainly no group of organisms that so impresses +the collector by the almost infinite number of its +specific forms, the endless modifications of structure, +shape, colour, and surface-markings that distinguish them +from each other, and their innumerable adaptations to +<span class="tei-pb" id="page115">[pg 115]</span><a name="Pg115" id="Pg115" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>diverse environments. These interesting features are exhibited +almost as strikingly in temperate as in tropical +regions, our own comparatively limited island-fauna possessing +more than 3,000 species of this one order of insects.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Again, both Darwin and myself had what he terms +"the mere passion for collecting," not that of studying +the minutiƦ of structure, either internal or external. I +should describe it rather as an intense interest in the +variety of living thingsāthe variety that catches the eye +of the observer even among those which are very much +alike, but which are soon found to differ in several distinct +characters.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now it is this superficial and almost child-like interest +in the outward forms of living things which, though often +despised as unscientific, happened to be <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">the only one</span> which +would lead us towards a solution of the problem of species. +For Nature herself distinguishes her species by just such +charactersāoften exclusively so, always in some degreeāvery +small changes in outline, or in the proportions of +appendagesāas give a quite distinct and recognisable facies +to each, often aided by slight peculiarities in motion or +habit; while in a larger number of cases differences of surface-texture, +of colour, or in the details of the same general +scheme of colour-pattern or of shading, give an unmistakable +individuality to closely allied species.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is the constant search for and detection of these often +unexpected differences between very similar creatures that +gives such an intellectual charm and fascination to the mere +collection of these insects; and when, as in the case of Darwin +and myself, the collectors were of a speculative turn of +mind, they were constantly led to think upon the "why" +and the "how" of all this wonderful variety in natureāthis +overwhelming and, at first sight, purposeless wealth +of specific forms among the very humblest forms of life.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Then, a little later (and with both of us almost accidentally) +we became travellers, collectors, and observers, +in some of the richest and most interesting portions of the +earth; and we thus had forced upon our attention all the +strange phenomena of local and geographical distribution, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page116">[pg 116]</span><a name="Pg116" id="Pg116" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>with the numerous problems to which they give rise. +Thenceforward our interest in the great mystery of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">how</span> +species came into existence was intensified, andāagain to +use Darwin's expressionā"haunted" us.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Finally, both Darwin and myself, at the critical period +when our minds were freshly stored with a considerable +body of personal observation and reflection bearing upon +the problem to be solved, had our attention directed to +the system of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">positive checks</span> as expounded by Malthus in +his "Principles of Population." The effect of that was +analogous to that of friction upon the specially prepared +match, producing that flash of insight which led us immediately +to the simple but universal law of the "survival +of the fittest," as the long-sought <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">effective</span> cause of the +continuous modification and adaptations of living things.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is an unimportant detail that Darwin read this book +two years <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">after</span> his return from his voyage, while I read it +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">before</span> I went abroad, and it was a sudden recollection of +its teachings that caused the solution to flash upon me. I +attach much importance, however, to the large amount of +solitude we both enjoyed during our travels, which, at the +most impressionable period of our lives, gave us ample time +for reflection on the phenomena we were daily observing.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This view, of the combination of certain mental faculties +and external conditions that led Darwin and myself to an +identical conception, also serves to explain why none of our +precursors or contemporaries hit upon what is really so very +simple a solution of the great problem. Such evolutionists +as Robert Chambers, Herbert Spencer, and Huxley, though +of great intellect, wide knowledge, and immense power of +work, had none of them the special turn of mind that makes +the collector and the species-man; while they allāas well +as the equally great thinker on similar lines, Sir Charles +Lyellābecame in early life immersed in different lines of +research which engaged their chief attention.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Neither did the actual precursors of Darwin in the +statement of the principleāWells, Matthews and Prichardāpossess +any adequate knowledge of the class of facts +above referred to, or sufficient antecedent interest in the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page117">[pg 117]</span><a name="Pg117" id="Pg117" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>problem itself, which were both needed in order to perceive +the application of the principle to the mode of +development of the varied forms of life.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">And now, to recur to my own position, I may be allowed +to make a final remark. I have long since come to see that +no one deserves either praise or blame for the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">ideas</span> that come +to him, but only for the actions resulting therefrom. Ideas +and beliefs are certainly not voluntary acts. They come to +usāwe hardly know <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">how</span> or <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">whence</span>, and once they have got +possession of us we cannot reject or change them at will. It +is for the common good that the promulgation of ideas should +be freeāuninfluenced either by praise or blame, reward or +punishment.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">But the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">actions</span> which result from our ideas may properly +be so treated, because it is only by patient thought and +work that new ideas, if good and true, become adapted and +utilised; while if untrue, or if not adequately presented to +the world, they are rejected or forgotten.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I therefore accept the crowning honour you have conferred +on me to-day, not for the happy chance through +which I became an independent originator of the doctrine +of "survival of the fittest," but as a too liberal recognition +by you of the moderate amount of time and work I +have given to explain and elucidate the theory, to point +out some novel applications of it, and (I hope I may add) +for my attempts to extend those applications, even in directions +which somewhat diverged from those accepted by my +honoured friend and teacher Charles Darwin.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sir Joseph Hooker was now called upon by the President +to receive the Darwin-Wallace Medal. In acknowledging +the honour that had been paid him, he said:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">No thesis or subject was vouchsafed to me by the +Council, but, having gratefully accepted the honour, I +was bound to find one for myself. It soon dawned upon +me that the object sought by my selection might have +been that, considering the intimate terms upon which +Mr. Darwin extended to me his friendship, I could from +<span class="tei-pb" id="page118">[pg 118]</span><a name="Pg118" id="Pg118" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>my memory contribute to the knowledge of some important +events in his career. It having been intimated to +me that this was in a measure true, I have selected as such +an event one germane to this Celebration and also engraven +on my memory, namely, the considerations which determined +Mr. Darwin to assent to the course which Sir Charles Lyell +and myself had suggested to him, that of presenting to the +Society, in one communication, his own and Mr. Wallace's +theories on the effect of variation and the struggle for existence +on the evolution of species.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You have all read Francis Darwin's fascinating work as +editor of his father's "Life and Letters," where you will +find (Vol. II., p. 116) a letter addressed, on the 18th of +June, 1858, to Sir Charles Lyell by Mr. Darwin, who states +that he had on that day received a communication from +Mr. Wallace written from the Celebes Islands requesting +that it might be sent to him (Sir Charles).</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In a covering letter Mr. Darwin pointed out that the +enclosure contained a sketch of a theory of Natural Selection +as depending on the struggle for existence so identical +with one he himself entertained and fully described in MS. +in 1842 that he never saw a more striking coincidence: had +Mr. Wallace seen his sketch he could not have made a better +short abstract, even his terms standing "as heads of chapters." +He goes on to say that he would at once write to Mr. +Wallace offering to send his MS. to any journal; and concludes: +"So my originality is smashed, though my book [the +forthcoming 'Origin of Species'], if it will have any value +will not be deteriorated, as all know the labour consists in +the application of the theory."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">After writing to Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. Darwin informed +me of Mr. Wallace's letter and its enclosure, in a similar +strain, only more explicitly announcing his resolve to +abandon all claim to priority for his own sketch. I could +not but protest against such a course, no doubt reminding +him that I had read it and that Sir Charles knew its contents +some years before the arrival of Mr. Wallace's letter; +and that our withholding our knowledge of its priority would +be unjustifiable. I further suggested the simultaneous publication +<span class="tei-pb" id="page119">[pg 119]</span><a name="Pg119" id="Pg119" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the two, and offeredāshould he agree to such a +compromiseāto write to Mr. Wallace fully informing him +of the motives of the course adopted.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In answer Mr. Darwin thanked me warmly for my offer +to explain all to Mr. Wallace, and in a later letter he informed +me that he was disposed to look favourably on my +suggested compromise, but that before making up his mind +he desired a second opinion as to whether he could honourably +claim priority, and that he proposed applying to Sir +Charles Lyell for this. I need not say that this was a relief +to me, knowing as I did what Sir Charles's answer must be.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In Vol. II., pp. 117-18, of the "Life and Letters," Mr. +Darwin's application to Sir Charles Lyell is given, dated +June 26th, with a postscript dated June 27th. In it he +requests that the answer shall be sent to me to be forwarded +to himself. I have no recollection of reading the +answer, which is not to be found either in Darwin's or +my own correspondence; it was no doubt satisfactory.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Further action was now left in the hands of Sir Charles +and myself, we all agreeing that, whatever action was taken, +the result should be offered for publication to the Linnean +Society.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">On June 29th Mr. Darwin wrote to me in acute distress, +being himself very ill, and scarlet fever raging in the family, +to which one infant son had succumbed on the previous day, +and a daughter was ill with diphtheria. He acknowledged the +receipt of the letter from me, adding, "I cannot think now +of the subject, but soon will: you shall hear as soon as I can +think"; and on the night of the same day he writes again, +telling me that he is quite prostrated and can do nothing but +send certain papers for which I had asked as essential for +completing the prefatory statement to the communication to +the Linnean Society of Mr. Wallace's essay....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The communications were read, as was the custom in +those days, by the Secretary to the Society. Mr. Darwin +himself, owing to his illness and distress, could not be +present. Sir Charles Lyell and myself said a few words +to emphasise the importance of the subject, but, as recorded +in the "Life and Letters" (Vol. II., p. 126), +<span class="tei-pb" id="page120">[pg 120]</span><a name="Pg120" id="Pg120" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>although intense interest was excited, no discussion took +place: "the subject was too novel, too ominous, for the +old school to enter the lists before armouring." ...</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It must also be noticed that for the detailed history given +above there is no documentary evidence beyond what Francis +Darwin has produced in the "Life and Letters." There are +no letters from Lyell relating to it, not even answers to Mr. +Darwin's of the 18th, 25th, and 26th of June; and Sir Leonard +Lyell has at my request very kindly but vainly searched his +uncle's correspondence for any relating to this subject beyond +the two above mentioned. There are none of my letters to +either Lyell or Darwin, nor other evidence of their having +existed beyond the latter's acknowledgment of the receipt of +some of them; and, most surprising of all, Mr. Wallace's +letter and its enclosure have disappeared. Such is my recollection +of this day, the fiftieth anniversary of which we +are now celebrating, and of the fortnight that immediately +preceded it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It remains for me to ask your forgiveness for intruding +upon your time and attention with the half-century-old real +or fancied memories of a nonagenarian as contributions to +the history of the most notable event in the annals of Biology +that had followed the appearance in 1735 of the "Systema +NaturƦ" of LinnƦus.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Following Sir J. Hooker, the President, referring to Prof. +Haeckel, who was unable to be present, said that he was "the +great apostle of the Darwin-Wallace theory in Germany +... his enthusiastic and gallant advocacy [having] chiefly +contributed to its success in that country.... A man +of world-wide reputation, the leader on the Continent of +the 'Old Guard' of evolutionary biologists, Prof. Haeckel +was one whom the Linnean Society delighted to honour." +Two more German scientists were honoured with the Medal, +namely Prof. August Weismann (who was also absent), and +Prof. Eduard Strasburger, the latter paying a special tribute +to Wallace in saying: "When I was young the investigations +<span class="tei-pb" id="page121">[pg 121]</span><a name="Pg121" id="Pg121" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and the thought of Alfred Russel Wallace brought me +a great stimulus. Through his 'Malay Archipelago' a new +world of scientific knowledge was unfolded before me. +On this occasion I feel it my duty to proclaim it with +gratitude." The Medal was then presented to Sir Francis +Galton, who delivered a notable speech in responding. +The last on this occasion to receive the Medal was Sir +E. Ray Lankester, who, in replying to the President's +graceful speech, referred to the happy relationships which +had existed between the contemporary men of science of +his own time, but with special reference to Darwin and +Wallace he said:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">Never was there a more beautiful example of modesty, +of unselfish admiration for another's work, of loyal determination +that the other should receive the full merit of +his independent labours and thoughts, than was shown by +Charles Darwin on that occasion....</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Subsequently, throughout all their arduous work and +varied publications upon the great doctrine which they on +that day unfolded to humanity ... the same complete +absence of rivalry characterised these high-minded Englishmen, +even when in some outcomes of their doctrine they +were not in perfect agreement.... I think I am able to +say that great as was the interest excited by the new +doctrine in the scientific world, and wild and angry as +was the opposition to it in some quarters, few, if any, who +took part in the scenes attending the birth and earlier reception +of Darwin's "Origin of Species" had a prevision +of the enormous and all-important influence which that +doctrine was destined to exercise upon every line of +human thought.... It is in its application to the +problems of human society that there still remains an +enormous field of work and discovery for the Darwin-Wallace +doctrine.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In the special branch of study which Wallace himself +set goingāthe inquiry into the local variations, races, and +species of insects as evidence of descent with modification, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page122">[pg 122]</span><a name="Pg122" id="Pg122" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and of the mechanism by which that modification is brought +aboutāthere is still great work in progress, still an abundant +field to be reaped.... Several able observers and experimenters +have set themselves the task of improving, if +possible, the theoretical structure raised by Darwin and +Wallace.... But I venture to express the opinion that +they have none of them resulted in any serious modification +of the great doctrine submitted to the Linnean Society +on July 1st, 1858, by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel +Wallace. Not only do the main lines of the theory of +Darwin and Wallace remain unchanged, but the more it +is challenged by new suggestions and new hypotheses the +more brilliantly do the novelty, the importance, and the +permanent value of the work by those great men, to-day +commemorated by us, shine forth as the one great epoch-making +effort of human thought on this subject.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sir Francis Darwin and Sir William Thiselton-Dyer +spoke on behalf of Schools which had sent representatives +to the meeting; Prof. Lƶnnberg and Sir Archibald Geikie +on behalf of the Academies and Societies; while Lord +Avebury delivered the concluding address.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Any summary of this period in the lives of Darwin and +Wallace would be incomplete without some distinct reference +to one other name, namely, that of Herbert Spencer, +whom I have linked with them in the Introduction.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">While we owe to Darwin and Wallace a definite theory +of organic development, it must be remembered that Spencer +included this in the general scheme of Evolution which grew +as slowly but surely in his mindāand as independently as +did that of the origin of species in the minds of Darwin +and Wallace. Huxley recalls: "Within the ranks of +biologists, at that time, I met with nobody except Dr. +Grant, of University College, who had a word to say for +Evolutionāand his advocacy was not calculated to advance +the cause. Outside these ranks, the only person known to +<span class="tei-pb" id="page123">[pg 123]</span><a name="Pg123" id="Pg123" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>me whose knowledge and capacity compelled respect, and +who was, at the same time, a thorough-going evolutionist, +was Mr. Herbert Spencer.... Many and prolonged were +the battles we fought on this topic.... I took my stand +upon two grounds: first, that up to that time the evidence +in favour of transmutation was wholly insufficient; and, +secondly, that no suggestions respecting the causes of the +transmutations assumed ... were in any war adequate +to explain the phenomena. Looking back at the state of +knowledge at that time, I really do not see that any other +conclusion was justifiable."<a name="noteref_25" id="noteref_25"></a><a href="#note_25"><span class="footnoteref">25</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">And Prof. Raphael Meldola, in a lecture on Evolution +wherein he compares the impression left by each of these +great founders of that school upon the current of modern +thought, says: "Through all ... his [Spencer's] writings +the underlying idea of development can be traced with increasing +depth and breadth, expanding in 1850 in his 'Social +Statics' to a foreshadowing of the general doctrine of Evolution. +In 1852 his views on organic evolution had become +so definite that he gave public expression to them in that well-known +and powerful essay on 'The Development Hypothesis.' +... In the 'Principles of Psychology,' the first +edition of which was published in 1855, the evolutionary +principle was dominant. By 1858āthe year of the announcement +of Natural Selection by Darwin and Wallaceāhe +had conceived the great general scheme and had +sketched out the first draft of the prospectus of the Synthetic +Philosophy, the final and amended syllabus [being] +issued in 1860. The work of Darwin and Spencer from +that period, although moving along independent lines, +was directed towards the same end, notwithstanding the +diversity of materials which they made use of and the +differences in their methods of attack; that end was +<span class="tei-pb" id="page124">[pg 124]</span><a name="Pg124" id="Pg124" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the establishment of Evolution as a great natural principle +or law."<a name="noteref_26" id="noteref_26"></a><a href="#note_26"><span class="footnoteref">26</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In this connection it is especially interesting to note how +near Spencer had come to the conception of Natural Selection +without grasping its full significance. In an article +on a "Theory of Population" (published in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Westminster +Review</span> for April, 1852) he wrote: "And here, indeed, +without further illustration, it will be seen that premature +death, under all its forms and from all its causes, cannot +fail to work in the same direction. For as those prematurely +carried off must, in the average of cases, be those in +whom the power of self-preservation is the least, it unavoidably +follows that those left behind to continue the +race must be those in whom the power of self-preservation +is the greatestāmust be the select of their generation. +So that whether the dangers of existence be of the kind +produced by excess of fertility, or of any other kind, it is +clear that by the ceaseless exercise of the faculties needed +to contend with them, and by the death of all men who +fail to contend with them successfully, there is ensured a +constant progress towards a higher degree of skill, intelligence, +self-regulationāa better co-ordinance of actionsāa +more complete life."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Up to the period of the publication of the "Origin of +Species" and the first conception of the scheme of the +Synthetic Philosophy there had been no communication +between Darwin and Spencer beyond the presentation by +Spencer of a copy of his Essays to Darwin in 1858, which +was duly acknowledged. But by the time the "Origin +of Species" had been before the public for eight years, +the Darwinian principle of selection had become an integral +part of the Spencerian mechanism of organic evolution. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page125">[pg 125]</span><a name="Pg125" id="Pg125" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Indeed the term "survival of the fittest," approved +by both Darwin and Wallace as an alternative for "natural +selection," was, as is well known, introduced by Spencer.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Wallace's relations with Spencer, though somewhat controversial +at times, were nevertheless cordial and sympathetic. +In "My Life" he tells of his first visit, and +the impression left upon his mind by their conversation. +It occurred somewhere about 1862-3, shortly after he and +Bates had read, and been greatly impressed by, Spencer's +"First Principles." "Our thoughts," he says, "were +full of the great unsolved problem of the origin of lifeāa +problem which Darwin's 'Origin of Species' left in as +much obscurity as everāand we looked to Spencer as the +one man living who could give us some clue to it. His +wonderful exposition of the fundamental laws and conditions, +actions and interactions of the material universe +seemed to penetrate so deeply into that 'nature of things' +after which the early philosophers searched in vain ... +that we hoped he would throw some light on that great +problem of problems.... He was very pleasant, spoke +appreciatively of what we had both done for the practical +exposition of evolution, and hoped we would continue +to work at the subject. But when we touched upon the +great problem, and whether he had arrived at even one of +the first steps towards its solution, our hopes were dashed +at once. That, he said, was too fundamental a problem to +even think of solving at present. We did not yet know +enough of matter in its essential constitution nor of the +various forces of nature; and all he could say was that +everything pointed to its having been a development out of +matterāa phase of that continuous process of evolution by +which the whole universe had been brought to its present +condition. And so we had to wait and work contentedly +at minor problems. And now, after forty years, though +<span class="tei-pb" id="page126">[pg 126]</span><a name="Pg126" id="Pg126" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Spencer and Darwin and Weismann have thrown floods of +light on the phenomena of life, its essential nature and its +origin remain as great a mystery as ever. Whatever light +we do possess is from a source which Spencer and Darwin +neglected or ignored."<a name="noteref_27" id="noteref_27"></a><a href="#note_27"><span class="footnoteref">27</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In his presidential address to the Entomological Society +in 1872 Wallace made some special allusion to Spencer's +theory of the origin of instincts, and on receiving a copy +of the address Spencer wrote: "It is gratifying to me to +find that your extended knowledge does not lead you to +scepticism respecting the speculation of mine which you +quote, but rather enables you to cite further facts in justification +of it. Possibly your exposition will lead some of +those, in whose lines of investigation the question lies, to +give deliberate attention to it." A further proof of his +confidence was shown by asking Wallace (in 1874) to look +over the proofs of the first six chapters of his "Principles +of Sociology" in order that he might have the benefit of +his criticisms alike as naturalist, anthropologist, and +traveller.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This brief reference to the illustrious group of men to +whom we owe the foundations of this new epoch of evolutionary +thoughtāand not the foundations only, but also +the patient building up of the structure upon which each +one continued to perform his allotted taskāand the prefatory +notes and the footnotes attached to the letters will +serve to elucidate the historical correspondence between +Darwin and Wallace which follows.</p> +</div> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page127">[pg 127]</span><a name="Pg127" id="Pg127" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_34" id="toc_34"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head">II.āThe Complete Extant Correspondence +between Wallace and Darwin</h2> + +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">[1857ā81]</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">"I hope it is a satisfaction to you to reflectāand very few things in +my life have been more satisfactory to meāthat we have never felt any +jealousy towards each other, though in some senses rivals. I believe I +can say this of myself with truth, and I am absolutely sure that it is +true of you."āDARWIN to Wallace.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">"To have thus inspired and retained this friendly feeling, +notwithstanding our many differences of opinion, I feel to be one of the +greatest honours of my life."āWALLACE to Darwin.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">"I think the way he [Wallace] carries on controversy is perfectly +beautiful, and in future histories of science the Wallace-Darwin episode +will form one of the few bright points among rival claimants."āERASMUS +DARWIN to his niece, Henrietta Darwin, 1871.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The first eight letters from Darwin to Wallace were +found amongst the latter's papers, carefully preserved +in an envelope on the outside of which he had written +the words reproduced on the next page. Neither Wallace's +part of this correspondence, nor the original MS. of his +essay "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely +from the Original Type," which he sent to Darwin from +Ternate, has been discovered. But these eight letters from +Darwin explain themselves and reveal the inner story of the +independent discovery of the theory of Natural Selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With respect to the letters which follow the first eight, +both sides of the correspondence, with few exceptions, have +been brought together. Some of the letters have already +appeared in "The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin" +and "More Letters," others in "My Life," by A.R. +Wallace, whilst many have not before been published.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Some of these letters, in themselves, have little more than +ephemeral interest, and parts of other letters could have been +<span class="tei-pb" id="page129">[pg 129]</span><a name="Pg129" id="Pg129" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>eliminated, from the point of view of lightening this volume +and of economising the reader's attention. But I decided, +with the fullest approval of the Wallace and Darwin families, +that the letters of these illustrious correspondents should be +here presented as a whole, without mutilation.</p> + +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p"> +<img src="images/image05.png" alt="Fascimile" class="tei tei-figure" /></p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">FACSIMILE OF INSCRIPTION BY WALLACE ON THE ENVELOPE +IN WHICH HE KEPT THE FIRST EIGHT LETTERS HE RECEIVED +FROM DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Many of the notes of explanation to the Wallace letters +have been gathered from his own writings, and are mainly +in his own words, and in such cases the reader has the advantage +of perusing letters annotated by their author, while most +of the notes to the Darwin letters are by Sir F. Darwin.</p> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_35" id="toc_35"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">LETTER I</h3> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">C. DARWIN to A.R. WALLACE</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, May 1,</span> 1857.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Sir,āI am much obliged for your letter of +Oct. 10th from Celebes, received a few days ago: in a +laborious undertaking, sympathy is a valuable and real +encouragement. By your letter, and even still more by +your paper in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals</span>,<a name="noteref_28" id="noteref_28"></a><a href="#note_28"><span class="footnoteref">28</span></a> a year or more ago, I can +plainly see that we have thought much alike and to a +certain extent have come to similar conclusions. In regard +to the paper in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals</span>, I agree to the truth of almost +every word of your paper; and I daresay that you will agree +with me that it is very rare to find oneself agreeing pretty +closely with any theoretical paper; for it is lamentable how +each man draws his own different conclusions from the very +same fact. This summer will make the twentieth year (!) +since I opened my first note-book on the question how +and in what way do species and varieties differ from each +other. I am now preparing my work for publication, but +I find the subject so very large, that though I have written +<span class="tei-pb" id="page130">[pg 130]</span><a name="Pg130" id="Pg130" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>many chapters, I do not suppose I shall go to press for +two years.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have never heard how long you intend staying in the +Malay Archipelago; I wish I might profit by the publication +of your Travels there before my work appears, for no +doubt you will reap a large harvest of facts.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have acted already in accordance with your advice of +keeping domestic varieties, and those appearing in a state +of nature, distinct; but I have sometimes doubted of the +wisdom of this, and therefore I am glad to be backed by +your opinion. I must confess, however, I rather doubt the +truth of the now very prevalent doctrine of all our domestic +animals having descended from several wild stocks; though +I do not doubt that it is so in some cases. I think there is +rather better evidence on the sterility of hybrid animals than +you seem to admit: and in regard to plants, the collection +of carefully recorded facts by Kƶlreuter and Gaertner (and +Herbert) is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">enormous</span>. I most entirely agree with you on +the little effect of "climatic conditions" which one sees +referred to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">ad nauseam</span> in all books: I suppose some very +little effect must be attributed to such influences, but I +fully believe that they are very slight. It is really <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">impossible</span> +to explain my views in the compass of a letter as +to causes and means of variation in a state of nature; but +I have slowly adopted a distinct and tangible ideaāwhether +true or false others must judge; for the firmest conviction +of the truth of a doctrine by its author seems, alas, not to +be the slightest guarantee of truth.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been rather disappointed at my results in the +poultry line; but if you should, after receiving this, stumble +on any curious domestic breed, I should be very glad to have +it; but I can plainly see that the result will not be at all +worth the trouble which I have taken. The case is different +with the domestic pigeons; from its study I have learned +<span class="tei-pb" id="page131">[pg 131]</span><a name="Pg131" id="Pg131" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>much. The Rajah has sent me some of his pigeons and +fowls and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">cats'</span> skins from the interior of Borneo and from +Singapore. Can you tell me positively that black jaguars +or leopards are believed generally or always to pair with +black? I do not think colour of offspring good evidence. +Is the case of parrots fed on fat of fish turning colour mentioned +in your Travels? I remember a case of parrots with +(I think) poison from some toad put into hollow whence +primaries had been removed.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">One of the subjects on which I have been experimenting, +and which cost me much trouble, is the means of distribution +of all organic beings found on oceanic islands; +and any facts on this subject would be most gratefully +received.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Land-molluscs are a great perplexity to me. This is a +very dull letter, but I am a good deal out of health, and +am writing this, not from my home, as dated, but from a +water-cure establishment.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With most sincere good wishes for your success in every +way, I remain, my dear Sir, yours sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_36" id="toc_36"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">LETTER II</h3> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent. December 22,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Sir,āI thank you for your letter of Sept. +27th. I am extremely glad to hear that you are attending +to distribution in accordance with theoretical ideas. I am +a firm believer that without speculation there is no good +and original observation. Few travellers have attended to +such points as you are now at work on; and indeed the +whole subject of distribution of animals is dreadfully behind +that of plants. You say that you have been somewhat +<span class="tei-pb" id="page132">[pg 132]</span><a name="Pg132" id="Pg132" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>surprised at no notice having been taken of your paper in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals</span>. I cannot say that I am; for so very few naturalists +care for anything beyond the mere description of species. +But you must not suppose that your paper has not been +attended to: two very good men, Sir C. Lyell, and Mr. +E. Blyth at Calcutta, specially called my attention to it. +Though agreeing with you on your conclusions in the +paper, I believe I go much further than you; but it is too +long a subject to enter on my speculative notions. I have +not yet seen your paper on distribution of animals in the +Aru Islands: I shall read it with the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">utmost</span> interest; for +I think that the most interesting quarter of the whole globe +in respect to distribution; and I have long been very imperfectly +trying to collect data from the Malay Archipelago. +I shall be quite prepared to subscribe to your doctrine of +subsidence: indeed from the quite independent evidence of +the coral reefs I coloured my original map in my Coral +volumes colours [<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">sic</span>] of the Aru Islands as one of subsidence, +but got frightened and left it uncoloured. But I can see +that you are inclined to go <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">much</span> further than I am in +regard to the former connection of oceanic islands with +continents. Ever since poor E. Forbes propounded this +doctrine, it has been eagerly followed; and Hooker elaborately +discusses the former connection of all the Antarctic +islands and New Zealand and South America. About a +year ago I discussed the subject much with Lyell and +Hooker (for I shall have to treat of it) and wrote out my +arguments in opposition; but you will be glad to hear that +neither Lyell nor Hooker thought much of my arguments; +nevertheless, for once in my life I dare withstand the almost +preternatural sagacity of Lyell. You ask about land-shells +on islands far distant from continents: Madeira has a few +identical with those of Europe, and here the evidence is +really good, as some of them are sub-fossil. In the Pacific +<span class="tei-pb" id="page133">[pg 133]</span><a name="Pg133" id="Pg133" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>islands there are cases of identity, which I cannot at +present persuade myself to account for by introduction +through man's agency; although Dr. Aug. Gould has conclusively +shown that many land-shells have thus been distributed +over the Pacific by man's agency. These cases of +introduction are most plaguing. Have you not found it so +in the Malay Archipelago? It has seemed to me, in the +lists of mammals of Timor and other islands, that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">several</span> +in all probability have been naturalised.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Since writing before, I have experimented a little on +some land-molluscs, and have found sea-water not quite so +deadly as I anticipated. You ask whether I shall discuss +Man: I think I shall avoid the whole subject, as so surrounded +with prejudices, though I fully admit that it is +the highest and most interesting problem for the naturalist. +My work, on which I have now been at work more or less +for twenty years, will <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not</span> fix or settle anything; but I hope +it will aid by giving a large collection of facts with one +definite end. I get on very slowly, partly from ill-health, +partly from being a very slow worker. I have got about +half written; but I do not suppose I shall publish under +a couple of years. I have now been three whole months on +one chapter on hybridism!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am astonished to see that you expect to remain out +three or four years more: what a wonderful deal you will +have seen; and what an interesting area, the grand Malay +Archipelago and the richest parts of South America! I +infinitely admire and honour your zeal and courage in the +good cause of natural science; and you have my very sincere +and cordial good wishes for success of all kinds; and may all +your theories succeed, except that on oceanic islands, on +which subject I will do battle to the death.āPray believe +me, my dear Sir, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page134">[pg 134]</span><a name="Pg134" id="Pg134" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_37" id="toc_37"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">LETTER III</h3> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent. January 25,</span> 1859.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Sir,āI was extremely much pleased at receiving +three days ago your letter to me and that to Dr. Hooker. +Permit me to say how heartily I admire the spirit in which +they are written. Though I had absolutely nothing whatever +to do in leading Lyell and Hooker to what they thought +a fair course of action, yet I naturally could not but feel +anxious to hear what your impression would be. I owe +indirectly much to you and them; for I almost think that +Lyell would have proved right and I should never have +completed my larger work, for I have found my abstract<a name="noteref_29" id="noteref_29"></a><a href="#note_29"><span class="footnoteref">29</span></a> +hard enough with my poor health; but now, thank God, I +am in my last chapter but one. My abstract will make a +small volume of 400 or 500 pages. Whenever published, I +will of course send you a copy, and then you will see +what I mean about the part which I believe selection +has played with domestic productions. It is a very different +part, as you suppose, from that played by "natural +selection."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I sent off, by same address as this note, a copy of +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Journal of the Linnean Society</span>, and subsequently I +have sent some half-dozen copies of the Paper. I have +many other copies at your disposal; and I sent two +to your friend Dr. Davies (?), author of works on men's +skulls.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am glad to hear that you have been attending to +birds' nests; I have done so, though almost exclusively +under one point of view, viz. to show that instincts +vary, so that selection could work on and improve them. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page135">[pg 135]</span><a name="Pg135" id="Pg135" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Few other instincts, so to speak, can be preserved in a +museum.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Many thanks for your offer to look after horses' stripes; +if there are any donkeys', pray add them.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am delighted to hear that you have collected bees' +combs; when next in London I will inquire of F. Smith +and Mr. Saunders. This is an especial hobby of mine, and +I think I can throw light on the subject. If you can collect +duplicates at no very great expense, I should be glad +of specimens for myself, with some bees of each kind. +Young growing and irregular combs, and those which +have not had pupƦ, are most valuable for measurements +and examination; their edges should be well protected +against abrasion.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Everyone whom I have seen has thought your paper very +well written and interesting. It puts my extracts (written +in 1839, now just twenty years ago!), which I must say in +apology were never for an instant intended for publication, +in the shade.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You ask about Lyell's frame of mind. I think he is somewhat +staggered, but does not give in, and speaks with horror +often to me of what a thing it would be and what a job it +would be for the next edition of the Principles if he were +"perverted." But he is most candid and honest, and I +think will end by being perverted. Dr. Hooker has become +almost as heterodox as you or Iāand I look at Hooker as +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">by far</span> the most capable judge in Europe.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Most cordially do I wish you health and entire success +in all your pursuits; and God knows, if admirable zeal and +energy deserve success, most amply do you deserve it. I +look at my own career as nearly run out; if I can publish +my abstract, and perhaps my greater work on the same +subject, I shall look at my course as done.āBelieve me, +my dear Sir, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page136">[pg 136]</span><a name="Pg136" id="Pg136" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_38" id="toc_38"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">LETTER IV</h3> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent. April 6,</span> 1859.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Wallace,āI this morning received your +pleasant and friendly note of Nov. 30th. The first part of +my MS.<a name="noteref_30" id="noteref_30"></a><a href="#note_30"><span class="footnoteref">30</span></a> is in Murray's hands, to see if he likes to publish +it. There is no Preface, but a short Introduction, which +must be read by everyone who reads my book. The second +paragraph in the Introduction<a name="noteref_31" id="noteref_31"></a><a href="#note_31"><span class="footnoteref">31</span></a> I have had copied <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">verbatim</span> +from my foul copy, and you will, I hope, think that I have +fairly noticed your papers in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Linnean Transactions</span>.<a name="noteref_32" id="noteref_32"></a><a href="#note_32"><span class="footnoteref">32</span></a> You +must remember that I am now publishing only an Abstract, +and I give no references. I shall of course allude to your +paper on Distribution;<a name="noteref_33" id="noteref_33"></a><a href="#note_33"><span class="footnoteref">33</span></a> and I have added that I know from +correspondence that your explanation of your law is the same +as that which I offer. You are right, that I came to the conclusion +that Selection was the principle of change from study +of domesticated productions; and then reading Malthus I +saw at once how to apply this principle. Geographical distribution +and geographical relations of extinct to recent +inhabitants of South America first led me to the subject. +Especially the case of the Galapagos Islands.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope to go to press in early part of next month. It will +be a small volume of about 500 pages or so. I will, of course, +send you a copy.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I forget whether I told you that Hooker, who is our +<span class="tei-pb" id="page137">[pg 137]</span><a name="Pg137" id="Pg137" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>best British botanist, and perhaps the best in the world, is +a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">full</span> convert, and is now going immediately to publish his +confession of faith; and I expect daily to see the proof-sheets. +Huxley is changed and believes in mutation of species: +whether a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">convert</span> to us, I do not quite know. We shall +live to see all the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">younger</span> men converts. My neighbour and +excellent naturalist, J. Lubbock, is an enthusiastic convert. +I see by Natural History notices that you are doing great +work in the Archipelago; and most heartily do I sympathise +with you. For God's sake take care of your health. There +have been few such noble labourers in the cause of natural +science as you are. Farewell, with every good wish.āYours +sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āYou cannot tell how I admire your spirit, in the +manner in which you have taken all that was done about +publishing our papers. I had actually written a letter to +you, stating that I would <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not</span> publish anything before you +had published. I had not sent that letter to the post when +I received one from Lyell and Hooker, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">urging</span> me to send +some MS. to them, and allow them to act as they thought +fair and honourably to both of us. I did so.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_39" id="toc_39"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">LETTER V</h3> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent. August 9,</span> 1859.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Wallace,āI received your letter and memoir<a name="noteref_34" id="noteref_34"></a><a href="#note_34"><span class="footnoteref">34</span></a> +on the 7th, and will forward it to-morrow to the Linnean +Society. But you will be aware that there is no meeting +till beginning of November. Your paper seems to me <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">admirable</span> +in matter, style and reasoning; and I thank you for +<span class="tei-pb" id="page138">[pg 138]</span><a name="Pg138" id="Pg138" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>allowing me to read it. Had I read it some months ago I +should have profited by it for my forthcoming volume. But +my two chapters on this subject are in type; and though not +yet corrected, I am so wearied out and weak in health that +I am fully resolved not to add one word, and merely improve +style. So you will see that my views are nearly the same with +yours, and you may rely on it that not one word shall be +altered owing to my having read your ideas. Are you aware +that Mr. W. Earl published several years ago the view of +distribution of animals in the Malay Archipelago in relation +to the depth of the sea between the islands? I was +much struck with this, and have been in habit of noting all +facts on distribution in the Archipelago and elsewhere in +this relation. I have been led to conclude that there has +been a good deal of naturalisation in the different Malay +islands, and which I have thought to certain extent would +account for anomalies. Timor has been my greatest puzzle. +What do you say to the peculiar <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Felis</span> there? I wish that +you had visited Timor: it has been asserted that a fossil +mastodon or elephant's tooth (I forget which) had been +found there, which would be a grand fact. I was aware that +Celebes was very peculiar; but the relation to Africa is quite +new to me and marvellous, and almost passes belief. It is as +anomalous as the relation of plants in South-West Australia +to the Cape of Good Hope.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I differ <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">wholly</span> from you on colonisation of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">oceanic</span> islands, +but you will have <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">everyone</span> else on your side. I quite agree +with respect to all islands not situated far in ocean. I quite +agree on little occasional internavigation between lands when +once pretty well stocked with inhabitants, but think this does +not apply to rising and ill-stocked islands.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Are you aware that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">annually</span> birds are blown to Madeira, +to Azores (and to Bermuda from America). I wish I had +given fuller abstract of my reasons for not believing in +<span class="tei-pb" id="page139">[pg 139]</span><a name="Pg139" id="Pg139" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Forbes's great continental extensions; but it is too late, for +I will alter nothing. I am worn out, and must have rest.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Owen, I do not doubt, will bitterly oppose us; but I +regard that very little, as he is a poor reasoner and deeply +considers the good opinion of the world, especially the aristocratic +world.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hooker is publishing a grand Introduction to the Flora +of Australia, and goes the whole length. I have seen proofs +of about half.āWith every good wish, believe me yours very +sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Excuse this brief note, but I am far from well.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_40" id="toc_40"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">LETTER VI</h3> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ilkley. November 13,</span> 1859.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Sir,āI have told Murray to send you by post +(if possible) a copy of my book, and I hope that you will +receive it at nearly the same time with this note. (N.B.āI +have got a bad finger, which makes me write extra badly.) +If you are so inclined, I should very much like to hear your +general impression of the book, as you have thought so profoundly +on the subject and in so nearly the same channel with +myself. I hope there will be some little new to you, but I +fear not much. Remember, it is only an abstract, and very +much condensed. God knows what the public will think. +No one has read it, except Lyell, with whom I have had +much correspondence. Hooker thinks him a complete convert, +but he does not seem so in his letters to me. But he +is evidently deeply interested in the subject. I do not think +your share in the theory will be overlooked by the real +judges, as Hooker, Lyell, Asa Gray, etc.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have heard from Mr. Sclater that your paper on the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page140">[pg 140]</span><a name="Pg140" id="Pg140" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Malay Archipelago has been read at the Linnean Society, +and that he was <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">extremely</span> much interested by it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have not seen one naturalist for six or nine months +owing to the state of my health, and therefore I really have +no news to tell you. I am writing this at Ilkley Wells, where +I have been with my family for the last six weeks, and shall +stay for some few weeks longer. As yet I have profited very +little. God knows when I shall have strength for my bigger +book.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I sincerely hope that you keep your health: I suppose +that you will be thinking of returning soon with your magnificent +collection and still grander mental materials. You +will be puzzled how to publish. The Royal Society Fund will +be worth your consideration.āWith every good wish, pray +believe me yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CHARLES DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I think that I told you before that Hooker is a complete +convert. If I can convert Huxley I shall be content.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_41" id="toc_41"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">LETTER VII</h3> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 7,</span> 1860.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āThe addresses which you have sent +me are capital, especially that to the Rajah; and I have +dispatched two sets of queries. I now enclose a copy to +you, and should be very glad of any answers; you must +not suppose the P.S. about memory has lately been inserted; +please return these queries, as it is my standard +copy. The subject is a curious one; I fancy I shall make +a rather interesting appendix to my Essay on Man.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I fully admit the probability of "protective adaptation" +having come into play with female butterflies as +well as with female birds. I have a good many facts which +<span class="tei-pb" id="page141">[pg 141]</span><a name="Pg141" id="Pg141" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>make me believe in sexual selection as applied to man, but +whether I shall convince anyone else is very doubtful.āDear +Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_42" id="toc_42"></a> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">LETTER VIII</h3> +<h3 class="tei tei-head">C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent. May 18,</span> 1860.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Wallace,āI received this morning your +letter from Amboyna dated Feb. 16th, containing some +remarks and your too high approbation of my book. Your +letter has pleased me very much, and I most completely +agree with you on the parts which are strongest and which +are weakest. The imperfection of the geological record is, +as you say, the weakest of all; but yet I am pleased to find +that there are almost more geological converts than of pursuers +of other branches of natural science. I may mention +Lyell, Ramsay, Jukes, Rogers, Keyerling, all good men and +true. Pictet of Geneva is not a convert, but is evidently +staggered (as I think is Bronn of Heidelberg), and he has +written a perfectly fair review in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Bib. Universelle</span> of +Geneva. Old Bronn has translated my book, well done +also into German, and his well-known name will give it +circulation. I think geologists are more converted than +simple naturalists because more accustomed to reasoning.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Before telling you about the progress of opinion on the +subject, you must let me say how I admire the generous +manner in which you speak of my book: most persons +would in your position have felt bitter envy and jealousy. +How nobly free you seem to be of this common failing of +mankind. But you speak far too modestly of yourself; you +would, if you had had my leisure, have done the work just +as well, perhaps better, than I have done it. Talking of +envy, you never read anything more envious and spiteful +<span class="tei-pb" id="page142">[pg 142]</span><a name="Pg142" id="Pg142" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>(with numerous misrepresentations) than Owen is in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Edinburgh Review</span>. I must give one instance; he throws +doubts and sneers at my saying that the ovigerous frena of +cirripedes have been converted into branchiƦ, because I have +not found them to be branchiƦ; whereas <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">he himself</span> admits, +before I wrote on cirripedes, without the least hesitation, +that their organs are branchiƦ. The attacks have been +heavy and incessant of late. Sedgwick and Prof. Clarke +attacked me savagely at the Cambridge Philosophical +Society, but Henslow defended me well, though not a convert. +Phillips has since attacked me in a lecture at Cambridge; +Sir W. Jardine in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Edinburgh New Philosophical +Journal</span>, Wollaston in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals of Nat. History</span>, +A. Murray before the Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, Haughton +at the Geological Society of Dublin, Dawson in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Canadian +Nat. Magazine</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">many others</span>. But I am getting case-hardened, +and all these attacks will make me only more +determinedly fight. Agassiz sends me personal civil messages, +but incessantly attacks me; but Asa Gray fights like +a hero in defence. Lyell keeps as firm as a tower, and this +autumn will publish on the Geological History of Man, and +will then declare his conversion, which now is universally +known. I hope that you have received Hooker's splendid +essay. So far is bigotry carried that I can name three +botanists who will not even read Hooker's essay!! Here +is a curious thing: a Mr. Pat. Matthews, a Scotchman, +published in 1830 a work on Naval Timber and Arboriculture, +and in the appendix to this he gives <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">most clearly</span> +but very briefly in half-dozen paragraphs our view of +Natural Selection. It is a most complete case of anticipation. +He published extracts in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Gardeners' Chronicle</span>. +I got the book, and have since published a letter acknowledging +that I am fairly forestalled. Yesterday I heard +from Lyell that a German, Dr. Schaffhausen, has sent him a +<span class="tei-pb" id="page143">[pg 143]</span><a name="Pg143" id="Pg143" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>pamphlet published some years ago, in which the same view +is nearly anticipated, but I have not yet seen this pamphlet. +My brother, who is a very sagacious man, always said, "You +will find that someone will have been before you." I am +at work at my larger work, which I shall publish in separate +volumes. But for ill-health and swarms of letters I get on +very, very slowly. I hope that I shall not have wearied +you with these details.</p> + +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p"><a name="image04" id="image04" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +<img src="images/image04.png" alt="A.R. WALLACE SOON AFTER HIS RETURN FROM THE EAST" class="tei tei-figure" /></p><p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p">A.R. WALLACE SOON AFTER HIS RETURN FROM +THE EAST</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With sincere thanks for your letter, and with most +deeply-felt wishes for your success in science and in every +way, believe me your sincere well-wisher,</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">Of the letters from Wallace to Darwin which have been +preserved, the earliest is the following:</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. April 7,</span> 1862.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Darwin,āI was much pleased to receive +your note this morning. I have not yet begun work, but +hope to be soon busy. As I am being doctored a little I +do not think I shall be able to accept your kind invitation +at present, but trust to be able to do so during the summer.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I beg you to accept a wild honeycomb from the island of +Timor, not quite perfect but the best I could get. It is of +a small size, but of characteristic form, and I think will +be interesting to you. I was quite unable to get the honey +out of it, so fear you will find it somewhat in a mess; but +no doubt you will know how to clean it. I have told Stevens +to send it to you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping your health is now quite restored and with best +wishes, I remain, my dear Mr. Darwin, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_43" id="toc_43"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 23,</span> 1862.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Darwin,āMany thanks for your most interesting +book on the Orchids. I have read it through most +<span class="tei-pb" id="page144">[pg 144]</span><a name="Pg144" id="Pg144" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>attentively, and have really been quite as much staggered +by the wonderful adaptations you show to exist in them as +by the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Eye</span> in animals or any other complicated organs. I +long to get into the country and have a look at some orchids +guided by your new lights, but I have been now for ten days +confined to my room with what is disagreeable though far +from dangerousāboils.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been reading several of the Reviews on the +"Origin," and it seems to me that you have assisted those +who want to criticise you by your overstating the difficulties +and objections. Several of them quote your own words as +the strongest arguments against you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I think you told me Owen wrote the article in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly</span>. This seems to me hardly credible, as he speaks +so much of Owen, quotes him as such a great authority, +and I believe even calls him a profound philosopher, etc. +etc. Would Owen thus speak of himself?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Trusting your health is good, I remain, my dear Mr. +Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_44" id="toc_44"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 24,</span> 1862.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Wallace,āI write one line to thank you for +your note and to say that the Bishop of Oxford<a name="noteref_35" id="noteref_35"></a><a href="#note_35"><span class="footnoteref">35</span></a> wrote the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Review</span> (paid Ā£60), aided by Owen. In the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Edinburgh</span> +Owen no doubt praised himself. Mr. Maw's Review +in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Zoologist</span> is one of the best, and staggered me in parts, +for I did not see the sophistry of parts. I could lend you +any which you might wish to see; but you would soon be +tired. Hopkins and Pictet in France are two of the best.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am glad you approve of my little Orchid book; but it +has not been worth, I fear, the ten months it has cost me: +it was a hobby-horse, and so beguiled me.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am sorry to hear that you are suffering from boils; I +<span class="tei-pb" id="page145">[pg 145]</span><a name="Pg145" id="Pg145" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>have often had fearful crops: I hope that the doctors are +right in saying that they are serviceable.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">How puzzled you must be to know what to begin at. You +will do grand work, I do not doubt.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My health is, and always will be, very poor: I am +that miserable animal a regular valetudinarian.āYours +very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_45" id="toc_45"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. August 8,</span> 1862.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Darwin,āI sincerely trust that your little +boy is by this time convalescent, and that you are therefore +enabled to follow your favourite investigations with a more +tranquil mind.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I heard a remark the other day which may not perhaps be +new to you, but seemed to me a fact, if true, in your favour. +Mr. Ward (I think it was), a member of the Microscopical +Society, mentioned as a fact noticed by himself with much +surprise that "the muscular fibres of the whale were no +larger than those of the bee!"āan excellent indication of +community of origin.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">While looking at the ostriches the other day at the +Gardens, it occurred to me that they were a case of special +difficulty, as, inhabiting an ancient continent, surrounded +by numerous enemies, how did their wings ever become +abortive, and if they did so before the birds had attained +their present gigantic size, strength and speed, how could +they in the transition have maintained their existence? I +see Westwood in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals</span> brings forward the same case, +arguing that the ostriches should have acquired better wings +within the historic period; but as they are now the swiftest +of animals they evidently do not want their wings, which in +their present state may serve some other trifling purpose in +their economy such as fans, or balancers, which may have +prevented their being reduced to such rudiments as in the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page146">[pg 146]</span><a name="Pg146" id="Pg146" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>cassowaries. The difficulty to me seems to be, how, if they +once had flight, could they have lost it, surrounded by swift +and powerful carnivora against whom it must have been the +only defence?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This probably is all clear to you, but I think it is a point +you might touch upon, as I think the objection will seem a +strong one to most people.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In a day or two I go to Devonshire for a few weeks +and hope to lay in a stock of health to enable me to stick +to work at my collections during the winter. I begin to +find that large collections involve a heavy amount of +manual labour which is not very agreeable.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Present my compliments to Mrs. and Miss Darwin, and +believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_46" id="toc_46"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">1 Carlton Terrace, Southampton. August 20,</span> 1862.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Wallace,āYou will not be surprised that +I have been slow in answering when I tell you that my poor +boy<a name="noteref_36" id="noteref_36"></a><a href="#note_36"><span class="footnoteref">36</span></a> became frightfully worse after you were at Down; and +that during our journey to Bournemouth he had a slight relapse +here and my wife took the scarlet fever rather severely. +She is over the crisis. I have had a horrid time of it, and God +only knows when we shall be all safe at home againāhalf my +family are at Bournemouth.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have given a piece of the comb from Timor to a +Mr. Woodbury (who is working at the subject), and he is +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">extremely</span> interested by it (I was sure the specimen would +be valuable) and has requested me to ascertain whether the +bee (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">A. testacea</span>) is domesticated when it makes its combs. +Will you kindly inform me?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Your remarks on ostriches have interested me, and I have +alluded to the case in the Third Edition. The difficulty does +not seem to me so great as to you. Think of bustards, which +<span class="tei-pb" id="page147">[pg 147]</span><a name="Pg147" id="Pg147" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>inhabit wide open plains, and which so seldom take flight: +a very little increase in size of body would make them incapable +of flight. The idea of ostriches acquiring flight is +worthy of Westwood; think of the food required in these +inhabitants of the desert to work the pectoral muscles! In +the rhea the wings seem of considerable service in the first +start and in turning.<a name="noteref_37" id="noteref_37"></a><a href="#note_37"><span class="footnoteref">37</span></a> ...</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_47" id="toc_47"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. September 30,</span> 1862.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Darwin,āMany thanks for the third edition +of the "Origin," which I found here on my return from +Devonshire on Saturday. I have not had time yet to read +more than the Historical Sketch, which is very interesting, +and shows that the time had quite come for your book.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am now reading Herbert Spencer's "First Principles," +which seems to me a truly great work, which goes to the +root of everything.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope you will be well enough to come to Cambridge.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I remain, my dear Mr. Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_48" id="toc_48"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 14 [1863?].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Darwin,āI am very sorry indeed to hear +you are still in weak health. Have you ever tried mountain +air? A residence at 2,000 or 3,000 ft. elevation is very invigorating.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I trust your family are now all in good health, and that +you may be spared any anxiety on that score for some time. +If you come to town I shall hope to have the pleasure of +seeing you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am now in much better health, but find sudden changes +of weather affect me very much, bringing on ague and fever +fits. I am now working a little, but having fresh collections +<span class="tei-pb" id="page148">[pg 148]</span><a name="Pg148" id="Pg148" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>still arriving from correspondents in the East, it is principally +the drudgery of cleaning, packing, and arrangement.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">On the opposite page I give all the information I can +about the Timor fossils, so that you can send it entire to +Dr. Falconer.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With best wishes for the speedy recovery of your health, +I remain, my dear Mr. Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_49" id="toc_49"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 1,</span> 1864.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Wallace,āI am still unable to write otherwise than +by dictation. In a letter received two or three weeks +ago from Asa Gray he writes: "I read lately with gusto +Wallace's exposĆ© of the Dublin man on Bee cells, etc."<a name="noteref_38" id="noteref_38"></a><a href="#note_38"><span class="footnoteref">38</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now though I cannot read at present, I much want to +know where this is published, that I may procure a copy. +Further on Asa Gray says (after speaking of Agassiz's +paper on Glaciers in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Atlantic Magazine</span> and his recent +book entitled "Method of Study"): "Pray set Wallace +upon these articles." So Asa Gray seems to think much +of your powers of reviewing, and I mention this as it +assuredly is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">laudari a laudato</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope you are hard at work, and if you are inclined to +tell me I should much like to know what you are doing.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It will be many months, I fear, before I shall do anything.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Pray believe me yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_50" id="toc_50"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 2,</span> 1864.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your kind letter. I +was afraid to write because I heard such sad accounts of +your health, but I am glad to find that you can write, and +<span class="tei-pb" id="page149">[pg 149]</span><a name="Pg149" id="Pg149" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>I presume read, by deputy. My little article on Haughton's +paper was published in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals of Natural History</span> about +August or September last, I think, but I have not a copy to +refer to. I am sure it does not deserve Asa Gray's praises, +for though the matter may be true enough, the manner I +know is very inferior. It was written hastily, and when I +read it in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals</span> I was rather ashamed of it, as I knew +so many could have done it so much better.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I will try and see Agassiz's paper and book. What I have +hitherto seen of his on Glacial subjects seems very good, but +in all his Natural History <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">theories</span>, he seems so utterly wrong +and so totally blind to the plainest deduction from facts, and +at the same time so vague and obscure in his language, that +it would be a very long and wearisome task to answer him.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With regard to work, I am doing but littleāI am +afraid I have no good habit of systematic work. I have +been gradually getting parts of my collections in order, but +the obscurities of synonymy and descriptions, the difficulty +of examining specimens, and my very limited library, make +it wearisome work.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been lately getting the first groups of my butterflies +in order, and they offer some most interesting facts in +variation and distributionāin variation some very puzzling +ones. Though I have very fine series of specimens, I find +in many cases I want more; in fact if I could have +afforded to have all my collections kept till my return I +should, I think, have found it necessary to retain twice as +many as I now have.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am at last making a beginning of a small book on my +Eastern journey, which, if I can persevere, I hope to have +ready by next Christmas. I am a very bad hand at writing +anything like narrative. I want something to argue on, and +then I find it much easier to go ahead. I rather despair, +therefore, of making so good a book as Bates's, though I +<span class="tei-pb" id="page150">[pg 150]</span><a name="Pg150" id="Pg150" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>think my subject is better. Like every other traveller, I +suppose, I feel dreadfully the want of copious notes on common +everyday objects, sights and sounds and incidents, which +I imagined I could never forget but which I now find it impossible +to recall with any accuracy.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have just had a long and most interesting letter from +my old companion Spruce. He says he has had a letter from +you about Melastoma, but has not, he says, for three years +seen a single melastomaceous plant! They are totally absent +from the Pacific plains of tropical America, though so abundant +on the Eastern plains. Poor fellow, he seems to be in +a worse state than you are. Life has been a burden to him +for three years owing to lung and heart disease, and rheumatism, +brought on by exposure in high, hot, and cold damp +valleys of the Andes. He went down to the dry climate of +the Pacific coast to die more at ease, but the change improved +him, and he thinks to come home, though he is sure he will +not survive the first winter in England. He had never been +able to get a copy of your book, though I am sure no one +would have enjoyed or appreciated it more.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If you are able to bear reading, will you allow me to +take the liberty of recommending you a book? The fact is I +have been so astonished and delighted with the perusal of +Spencer's works that I think it a duty to society to recommend +them to all my friends who I think can appreciate them. +The one I particularly refer to now is "Social Statics," a +book which is by no means hard to read; it is even amusing, +and owing to the wonderful clearness of its style may +be read and understood by anyone. I think, therefore, as +it is quite distinct from your special studies at present, you +might consider it as "light literature," and I am pretty +sure it would interest you more than a great deal of what +is now considered very good. I am utterly astonished that +so few people seem to read Spencer, and the utter ignorance +<span class="tei-pb" id="page151">[pg 151]</span><a name="Pg151" id="Pg151" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>there seems to be among politicians and political economists +of the grand views and logical stability of his works. He +appears to me as far ahead of John Stuart Mill as J.S.M. +is of the rest of the world, and, I may add, as Darwin is +of Agassiz. The range of his knowledge is no less than its +accuracy. His nebular hypothesis in the last volume of his +essays is the most masterly astronomical paper I have ever +read, and in his forthcoming volume on Biology he is I +understand going to show that there is something else +besides Natural Selection at work in nature. So you must +look out for a "foeman worthy of your steel"! But perhaps +all this time you have read his books. If so, excuse +me, and pray give me your opinion of him, as I have +hitherto only met with one man (Huxley) who has read +and appreciated him.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Allow me to say in conclusion how much I regret that +unavoidable circumstances have caused me to see so little +of you since my return home, and how earnestly I pray for +the speedy restoration of your health.āYours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_51" id="toc_51"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Malvern Wells. Tuesday, March,</span> 1864.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Mr. Wallace,āYour kindness is neverfailing. I +got worse and worse at home and was sick every day for two +months; so came here, when I suddenly broke down and could +do nothing; but I hope I am now very slowly recovering, but +am very weak.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sincere thanks about Melastoma: these flowers have +baffled me, and I have caused several friends much useless +labour; though, Heaven knows, I have thrown away time +enough on them myself.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The gorse case is very valuable, and I will quote it, as +I presume I may.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I was very glad to see in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Reader</span> that you have been +<span class="tei-pb" id="page152">[pg 152]</span><a name="Pg152" id="Pg152" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>giving a grand paper (as I infer from remarks in discussion) +on Geographical Distribution.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am very weak, so will say no more.āYours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">In Vol. I., p. 93, of the "Life and Letters of Charles +Darwin," Darwin states the circumstances which led to +his writing the "Descent of Man." He says that his +collection of facts, begun in 1837 or 1838, was continued +for many years without any definite idea of publishing on +the subject. The letter to Wallace of May 28, 1864, in reply +to the latter's of May 10, shows that in the period of ill-health +and depression about 1864 he despaired of ever being +able to do so.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 10,</span> 1864.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āI was very much gratified to hear by +your letter of a month back that you were a little better, +and I have since heard occasionally through Huxley and +Lubbock that you are not worse. I sincerely hope the summer +weather and repose may do you real good.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The Borneo Cave exploration is to go on at present without +a subscription. The new British consul who is going out +to Sarawak this month will undertake to explore some of the +caves nearest the town, and if anything of interest is obtained +a good large sum can no doubt be raised for a thorough exploration +of the whole country. Sir J. Brooke will give every +assistance, and will supply men for the preliminary work.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I send you now my little contribution to the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">theory</span> of +the origin of man. I hope you will be able to agree with +me. If you are able, I shall be glad to have your criticisms.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I was led to the subject by the necessity of explaining +the vast mental and cranial differences between man and +the apes combined with such small structural differences +in other parts of the body, and also by an endeavour to +account for the diversity of human races combined with +<span class="tei-pb" id="page153">[pg 153]</span><a name="Pg153" id="Pg153" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>man's almost perfect stability of form during all historical +epochs.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It has given me a settled opinion on these subjects, if +nobody can show a fallacy in the argument.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The Anthropologicals did not seem to appreciate it much, +but we had a long discussion which appears almost verbatim +in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Anthropological Review</span>.<a name="noteref_39" id="noteref_39"></a><a href="#note_39"><span class="footnoteref">39</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Linnean Transactions</span> will not be out till the end +of the year I sent a pretty full abstract of the more interesting +parts of my PapilionidƦ paper<a name="noteref_40" id="noteref_40"></a><a href="#note_40"><span class="footnoteref">40</span></a> to the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Reader</span>, which, as +you say, is a splendid paper.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Trusting Mrs. Darwin and all your family are well, and +that you are improving, believe me yours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_52" id="toc_52"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent. May 28,</span> 1864.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Wallace,āI am so much better that I have just +finished a paper for the Linnean Society; but as I am not +yet at all strong I felt much disinclination to write, and +therefore you must forgive me for not having sooner +thanked you for your paper on Man received on the 11th. +But first let me say that I have hardly ever in my life been +more struck by any paper than that on variation, etc. +etc., in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Reader</span>. I feel sure that such papers will do +more for the spreading of our views on the modification of +species than any separate treatises on the single subject +itself. It is really admirable; but you ought not in the +Man paper to speak of the theory as mine; it is just as much +yours as mine. One correspondent has already noticed to +me your "high-minded" conduct on this head. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page154">[pg 154]</span><a name="Pg154" id="Pg154" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +But now for your Man paper, about which I should like +to write more than I can. The great leading idea is quite +new to me, viz. that during late ages the mind will have +been modified more than the body; yet I had got as far as +to see with you that the struggle between the races of man +depended entirely on intellectual and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">moral</span> qualities. The +latter part of the paper I can designate only as grand and +most eloquently done. I have shown your paper to two or +three persons who have been here, and they have been equally +struck with it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am not sure that I go with you on all minor points. +When reading Sir G. Grey's account of the constant battles +of Australian savages, I remember thinking that Natural +Selection would come in, and likewise with the Esquimaux, +with whom the art of fishing and managing canoes is said +to be hereditary. I rather differ on the rank under the +classificatory point of view which you assign to Man: I +do not think any character simply in excess ought ever to +be used for the higher division. Ants would not be separated +from other hymenopterous insects, however high the +instinct of the one and however low the instincts of the +other.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With respect to the differences of race, a conjecture has +occurred to me that much may be due to the correlation +of complexion (and consequently hair) with constitution. +Assume that a dusky individual best escaped miasma and +you will readily see what I mean. I persuaded the Director-General +of the Medical Department of the Army to send +printed forms to the surgeons of all regiments in tropical +countries to ascertain this point, but I daresay I shall never +get any returns. Secondly, I suspect that a sort of sexual +selection has been the most powerful means of changing the +races of man. I can show that the different races have a +widely different standard of beauty. Among savages the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page155">[pg 155]</span><a name="Pg155" id="Pg155" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>most powerful men will have the pick of the women, and +they will generally leave the most descendants.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have collected a few notes on Man, but I do not suppose +I shall ever use them. Do you intend to follow out +your views, and if so would you like at some future time +to have my few references and notes?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am sure I hardly know whether they are of any value, +and they are at present in a state of chaos.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">There is much more that I should like to write but I +have not strength.āBelieve me, dear Wallace, yours very +sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Our aristocracy is handsomer? (more hideous according +to a Chinese or negro) than the middle classes, from pick of +women; but oh what a scheme is primogeniture for destroying +Natural Selection! I fear my letter will be barely intelligible +to you.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_53" id="toc_53"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 29 [1864].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āYou are always so ready to appreciate +what others do, and especially to overestimate my desultory +efforts, that I cannot be surprised at your very kind and flattering +remarks on my papers. I am glad, however, that you +have made a few critical observations, and am only sorry you +were not well enough to make more, as that enables me to +say a few words in explanation.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My great fault is haste. An idea strikes me, I think over +it for a few days, and then write away with such illustrations +as occur to me while going on. I therefore look at the subject +almost solely from one point of view. Thus in my paper +on Man<a name="noteref_41" id="noteref_41"></a><a href="#note_41"><span class="footnoteref">41</span></a> I aim solely at showing that brutes are modified in +a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">great variety</span> of ways by Natural Selection, but that in +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">none of these particular</span> ways can man be modified, because +of the superiority of his intellect. I therefore no doubt +<span class="tei-pb" id="page156">[pg 156]</span><a name="Pg156" id="Pg156" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>overlook a few smaller points in which Natural Selection may +still act on men and brutes alike. Colour is one of them, +and I have alluded to this in correlation to constitution in +an abstract I have made at Sclater's request for the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Natural +History Review</span>.<a name="noteref_42" id="noteref_42"></a><a href="#note_42"><span class="footnoteref">42</span></a> At the same time, there is so much evidence +of migrations and displacements of races of man, and +so many cases of peoples of distinct physical characters inhabiting +the same or similar regions, and also of races of +uniform physical characters inhabiting widely dissimilar +regions, that the external characteristics of the chief races +of man must I think be older than his present geographical +distribution, and the modifications produced by correlation +to favourable variations of constitution be only a secondary +cause of external modification.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope you may get the returns from the Army. They +would be very interesting, but I do not expect the results +would be favourable to your view.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With regard to the constant battles of savages leading +to selection of physical superiority, I think it would be +very imperfect, and subject to so many exceptions and +irregularities that it could produce no <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">definite</span> result. +For instance, the strongest and bravest men would lead, +and expose themselves most, and would therefore be most +subject to wounds and death. And the physical energy +which led to any one tribe delighting in war might lead to +its extermination by inducing quarrels with all surrounding +tribes and leading them to combine against it. Again, +superior cunning, stealth and swiftness of foot, or even +better weapons, would often lead to victory as well as mere +physical strength. Moreover this kind of more or less perpetual +war goes on among all savage peoples. It could +lead therefore to no differential characters, but merely to +the keeping up of a certain average standard of bodily and +<span class="tei-pb" id="page157">[pg 157]</span><a name="Pg157" id="Pg157" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>mental health and vigour. So with selection of variations +adapted to special habits of life, as fishing, paddling, +riding, climbing, etc. etc., in different races: no doubt it +must act to some extent, but will it be ever so rigid as to +induce a definite physical modification, and can we imagine +it to have had any part in producing the distinct races that +now exist?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The sexual selection you allude to will also, I think, have +been equally uncertain in its results. In the very lowest +tribes there is rarely much polygamy, and women are more +or less a matter of purchase. There is also little difference +of social condition, and I think it rarely happens that any +healthy and undeformed man remains without wife and +children. I very much doubt the often-repeated assertion +that our aristocracy are more beautiful than the middle +classes. I allow that they present <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">specimens</span> of the highest +kind of beauty, but I doubt the average. I have noticed in +country places a greater average amount of good looks among +the middle classes, and besides, we unavoidably combine in +our idea of beauty, intellectual expression and refinement +of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">manner</span>, which often make the less appear the more +beautiful. Mere physical beautyāthat is, a healthy and +regular development of the body and features approaching +to the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">mean</span> or <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">type</span> of European manāI believe is quite as +frequent in one class of society as the other, and much more +frequent in rural districts than in cities.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With regard to the rank of man in zoological classification, +I fear I have not made myself intelligible. I never +meant to adopt Owen's or any other such views, but only +to point out that from <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">one</span> point of view he was right. I +hold that a distinct <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">family</span> for man, as Huxley allows, is +all that can possibly be given him zoologically. But at +the same time, if my theory is trueāthat while the animals +which surrounded him have been undergoing modification +<span class="tei-pb" id="page158">[pg 158]</span><a name="Pg158" id="Pg158" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">all</span> parts of their bodies to a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">generic</span> or even <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">family</span> +degree of difference, he has been changing almost wholly +in the brain and headāthen, in geological antiquity the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">species</span> of man may be as old as many mammalian +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">families</span>, and the origin of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">family</span> man may date back +to a period when some of the orders first originated.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As to the theory of Natural Selection itself, I shall +always maintain it to be actually yours and yours only. +You had worked it out in details I had never thought of, +years before I had a ray of light on the subject, and my +paper would never have convinced anybody or been noticed +as more than an ingenious speculation, whereas your book +has revolutionised the study of natural history, and carried +away captive the best men of the present age. All the merit +I claim is the having been the means of inducing <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">you</span> to write +and publish at once.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I may possibly some day go a little more into this subject +(of Man), and, if I do, will accept the kind offer of +your notes. I am now, however, beginning to write the +"Narrative of my Travels" which will occupy me a long +time, as I hate writing narrative, and after Bates's brilliant +success rather fear to fail. I shall introduce a few +chapters on geographical distribution and other such +topics.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sir C. Lyell, while agreeing with my main argument on +Man, thinks I am wrong in wanting to put him back into +Miocene times, and thinks I do not appreciate the immense +interval even to the later Pliocene. But I still maintain +my view, which in fact is a logical result of my theory, for +if man originated in later Pliocene times, when almost all +mammalia were of closely allied species to those now living, +and many even identical, then man has <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not</span> been stationary +in bodily structure while animals have been varying, and +my theory will be proved to be all wrong. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page159">[pg 159]</span><a name="Pg159" id="Pg159" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +In Murchison's address to the Geographical Society just +delivered he points out Africa, as being the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">oldest</span> existing +land. He says there is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">no</span> evidence of its having been ever +submerged during the tertiary epoch. Here, then, is evidently +the place to find <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">early man</span>. I hope something +good may be found in Borneo, and that then means may +be found to explore the still more promising regions of +tropical Africa, for we can expect nothing of man <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">very</span> +early in Europe.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It has given me great pleasure to find that there are +symptoms of improvement in your health. I hope you will +not exert yourself too soon or write more than is quite +agreeable to you. I think I made out every word of your +letter though it was not always easy.āBelieve me, my dear +Darwin, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_54" id="toc_54"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. June 15,</span> 1864.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Wallace,āYou must not suppose from my delay +that I have not been much interested by your long letter. +I write now merely to thank you, and just to say that +probably you are right on all the points you touch on +except, as I think, about sexual selection, which I will not +give up.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My belief in it, however, is contingent on my general +beliefs in sexual selection. It is an awful stretcher to +believe that a peacock's tail was thus formed; but believing +it, I believe in the same principle somewhat modified +applied to man.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I doubt whether my notes would be of any use to you, +and as far as I remember they are chiefly on sexual +selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am very glad to hear that you are on your Travels. I +believe you will find it a very convenient vehicle for miscellaneous +discussion. With your admirable powers of +<span class="tei-pb" id="page160">[pg 160]</span><a name="Pg160" id="Pg160" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>writing, I cannot doubt that you will make an excellent +book.āBelieve me, dear Wallace, yours sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āA great gun, Flourens, has written a little dull +book against me; which pleases me much, for it is plain +that our good work is spreading in France. He speaks of +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">engouement</span> about this book, "so full of empty and +presumptuous thoughts."</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_55" id="toc_55"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 29,</span> 1865.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI must ease my mind by saying how +much I admire the two papers you have sent me.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">That on parrots<a name="noteref_43" id="noteref_43"></a><a href="#note_43"><span class="footnoteref">43</span></a> contained most new matter to me, and +interested me <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">extremely</span>; that in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Geographical Journal</span><a name="noteref_44" id="noteref_44"></a><a href="#note_44"><span class="footnoteref">44</span></a> +strikes me as an epitome of the whole theory of geographical +distribution: the comparison of Borneo and New Guinea, +the relation of the volcanic outbursts and the required subsidence, +and the comparison of the supposed conversion of +the Atlantic into a great archipelago, seemed to me the three +best hits. They are both indeed excellent papers.āBelieve +me yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CHARLES DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Do try what hard work will do to banish painful +thoughts.<a name="noteref_45" id="noteref_45"></a><a href="#note_45"><span class="footnoteref">45</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āDuring one of the later French voyages, a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">wild</span> pig +was killed and brought from the Aru Islands to Paris. Am +I not right in inferring that this must have been introduced +and run wild? If you have a clear opinion on this head, may +I quote you?</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page161">[pg 161]</span><a name="Pg161" id="Pg161" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_56" id="toc_56"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 31, [1865?].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your kind letter. I send +you now a few more papers. One on Man is not much +in your line. The other three are bird lists, but in the +introductory remarks are a few facts of distribution that +may be of use to you, and as you have them already in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Zoological Proceedings</span>, you can cut these up if you want +"extracts."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope you do not very much want the Aru pig to be a +domestic animal run wild, because I have no doubt myself +it was the species peculiar to the New Guinea fauna (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Sus +papuensis</span>, Less.), a very distinct form. I have no doubt it +is this species, though I did not get it myself there, because +I was told that on a small island near, called there Pulo babi +(Pig Island), was a race of pigs (different from and larger +than those of the large islands) which had originated from +the wreck of a large ship near a century ago. The productions +of the Aru Islands closely resemble those of New +Guinea, more than half the species of birds being identical, +as well as about half of the few known mammals.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am beginning to work at some semi-mechanical +work, drawing up catalogues of parts of my collection for +publication.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I enclose my "carte." Have you a photograph of yourself +of any kind you can send me? When you come to town +next, may I beg the honour of a sitting for my brother-in-law, +Mr. Sims, 73 Westbourne Grove?āYours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āYour paper on <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Lythrum salicaria</span><a name="noteref_46" id="noteref_46"></a><a href="#note_46"><span class="footnoteref">46</span></a> is most beautiful. +What a wonderful plant it is! I long to hear your +paper on Tendrils and hear what you have got out of them. +My old friend Spruce, a good botanist and close observer, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page162">[pg 162]</span><a name="Pg162" id="Pg162" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>could probably supply you with some facts on that or other +botanical subjects if you would write to him. He is now +at Kew, but almost as ill as yourself.āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_57" id="toc_57"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 1,</span> 1865.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI am much obliged for your photograph, +for I have lately set up a scientific album; and for +the papers, which I will read before long. I enclose my +own photo, taken by my son, and I have no other.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I fear it will be a long time before I shall be able to sit +to a photographer, otherwise I should be happy to sit to +Mr. Sims.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Thanks for information about the Aru pig, which will +make me very cautious.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is a perplexing case, for Nathusius says the skull of +the Aru resembles that of the Chinese breed, and he thinks +that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Sus papuensis</span> has been founded on a young skull; +D. Blainville stating that an old skull from New Guinea +resembles that of the wild pigs of Malabar, and these belong +to the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">S. scrofa</span> type, which is different from the Chinese +domestic breed. The latter has not been found in a wild +condition.āBelieve me, dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_58" id="toc_58"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. Sept. 18,</span> 1865.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI should have written before to thank +you for the copy of your paper on climbing plants, which I +read with great interest; I can imagine how much pleasure +the working out must have given you. I was afraid you were +too ill to make it advisable that you should be bothered with +letters.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I write now, in hopes you are better, to communicate a +curious case of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">variation</span> becoming at once <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">hereditary</span>, which +was brought forward at the British Association. I send a +<span class="tei-pb" id="page163">[pg 163]</span><a name="Pg163" id="Pg163" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>note of it on the other side, but if you would like more exact +particulars, with names and dates and a drawing of the bird, +I am sure Mr. O'Callaghan would send them to you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope to hear that you are better, and that your new +book is really to come out next winter.āBelieve me yours +very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">NOTE.āLast spring Mr. O'Callaghan was told by a +country boy that he had seen a blackbird with a topknot; +on which Mr. O'C. very judiciously told him to watch it +and communicate further with him. After a time the boy +told him he had found a blackbird's nest, and had seen this +crested bird near it and believed he belonged to it. He continued +watching the nest till the young were hatched. After +a time he told Mr. O'C. that two of the young birds seemed +as if they would have topknots. He was told to get one of +them as soon as it was fledged. However, he was too late, +and they left the nest, but luckily he found them near and +knocked one down with a stone, which Mr. O'C. had stuffed +and exhibited. It has a fine crest, something like that of a +Polish fowl, but <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">larger</span> in proportion to the bird, and very +regular and well formed. The male must have been almost +like the Umbrella bird in miniature, the crest is so large and +expanded.āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_59" id="toc_59"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. September 22,</span> 1865.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Wallace,āI am much obliged for your extract; I +never heard of such a case, though such a variation is perhaps +the most likely of any to occur in a state of nature and +be inherited, inasmuch as all domesticated birds present +races with a tuft or with reversed feathers on their heads. +I have sometimes thought that the progenitor of the whole +class must have been a crested animal.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Do you make any progress with your Journal of travels? +I am the more anxious that you should do so as I have lately +read with much interest some papers by you on the ouran-outang, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page164">[pg 164]</span><a name="Pg164" id="Pg164" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>etc., in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals</span>, of which I have lately been reading +the latter volumes, I have always thought that Journals +of this nature do considerable good by advancing the taste +for natural history; I know in my own case that nothing ever +stimulated my zeal so much as reading Humboldt's Personal +Narrative. I have not yet received the last part of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Linnean +Transactions</span>, but your paper<a name="noteref_47" id="noteref_47"></a><a href="#note_47"><span class="footnoteref">47</span></a> at present will be rather beyond +my strength, for though somewhat better I can as yet +do hardly anything but lie on the sofa and be read aloud to. +By the way, have you read Tylor and Lecky?<a name="noteref_48" id="noteref_48"></a><a href="#note_48"><span class="footnoteref">48</span></a> Both these +books have interested me much. I suppose you have read +Lubbock?<a name="noteref_49" id="noteref_49"></a><a href="#note_49"><span class="footnoteref">49</span></a> In the last chapter there is a note about you in +which I most cordially concur.<a name="noteref_50" id="noteref_50"></a><a href="#note_50"><span class="footnoteref">50</span></a> I see you were at the +British Association, but I have heard nothing of it except +what I have picked up in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Reader</span>. I have heard a rumour +that the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Reader</span> is sold to the Anthropological Society. If +you do not begrudge the trouble of another note (for my sole +channel of news through Hooker is closed by his illness), I +should much like to hear whether the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Reader</span> is thus sold. +I should be very sorry for it, as the paper would thus become +sectional in its tendency. If you write, tell me what you are +doing yourself.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The only news which I have about the "Origin" is that +Fritz MĆ¼ller published a few months ago a remarkable book<a name="noteref_51" id="noteref_51"></a><a href="#note_51"><span class="footnoteref">51</span></a> +in its favour, and secondly that a second French edition is +just coming out.āBelieve me, dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page165">[pg 165]</span><a name="Pg165" id="Pg165" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_60" id="toc_60"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regents Park. October 2,</span> 1865.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI was just leaving town for a few days +when I received your letter, or should have replied at once.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Reader</span> has no doubt changed hands, and I am inclined +to think for the better. It is purchased, I believe, by +a gentleman who is a Fellow of the Anthropological Society, +but I see no signs of its being made a special organ of that +Society. The Editor (and, I believe, proprietor) is a Mr. +Bendyshe, the most talented man in the Society, and, judging +from his speaking, which I have often heard, I should +say the articles on "Simeon and Simony," "Metropolitan +Sewage," and "France and Mexico," are his, and these +are in my opinion superior to anything that has been in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Reader</span> for a long time; they have the point and brilliancy +which are wanted to make leading articles readable and +popular. The articles on Mill's Political Economy and on +Mazzini are also first-rate. He has introduced also the +plan of having two, and now three, important articles in +each numberāone political or social, one literary, and one +scientific. Under the old regime they never had an editor +above mediocrity, except Masson (? Musson); there was a +want of unity among the proprietors as to the aims and +objects of the journal; and there was a want of capital to +secure the services of good writers. This seems to me to +be now all changed for the better, and I only hope the +rumour of that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">bĆŖte noire</span>, the Anthropological Society, +having anything to do with it may not cause our best men +of science to withdraw their support and contributions.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have read Tylor, and am reading Lecky. I found the +former somewhat disconnected and unsatisfactory from the +absence of any definite result or any decided opinion on +most of the matters treated of.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Lecky I like much, though he is rather tedious and +<span class="tei-pb" id="page166">[pg 166]</span><a name="Pg166" id="Pg166" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>obscure at times. Most of what he says has been said so +much more forcibly by Buckle, whose work I have read for +the second time with increased admiration, although with +a clear view of some of his errors. Nevertheless, his is I +think unapproachably the grandest work of the present +century, and the one most likely to liberalise opinion. Lubbock's +book is very good, but his concluding chapter very +weak. Why are men of science so dreadfully afraid to say +what they think and believe?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In reply to your kind inquiries about myself, I can only +say that I am ashamed of my laziness. I have done nothing +lately but write a paper on Pigeons for the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ibis</span>, and am +drawing up a Catalogue of my Collection of Birds.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As to my "Travels," I cannot bring myself to undertake +them yet, and perhaps never shall, unless I should be fortunate +enough to get a wife who would incite me thereto +and assist me thereināwhich is not likely.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am glad to hear that the "Origin" is still working its +revolutionary way on the Continent. Will MĆ¼ller's book on +it be translated?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am glad to hear you are a little better. My poor friend +Spruce is still worse than you are, and I fear now will not +recover. He wants to write a book if he gets well enough.āWith +best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p style="text-align: center" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 22,</span> 1866.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI thank you for your paper on +Pigeons,<a name="noteref_52" id="noteref_52"></a><a href="#note_52"><span class="footnoteref">52</span></a> which interested me, as everything that you +<span class="tei-pb" id="page167">[pg 167]</span><a name="Pg167" id="Pg167" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>write does. Who would ever have dreamed that monkeys +influenced the distribution of pigeons and parrots! But +I have had a still higher satisfaction; for I finished yesterday +your paper in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Linnean Transactions</span>.<a name="noteref_53" id="noteref_53"></a><a href="#note_53"><span class="footnoteref">53</span></a> It is admirably +done. I cannot conceive that the most firm believer in +Species could read it without being staggered. Such papers +will make many more converts among naturalists than long-winded +books such as I shall write if I have strength.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been particularly struck with your remarks on +dimorphism; but I cannot quite understand one point (p. +22), and should be grateful for an explanation, for I want +fully to understand you.<a name="noteref_54" id="noteref_54"></a><a href="#note_54"><span class="footnoteref">54</span></a> How can one female form be +selected and the intermediate forms die out, without also +the other extreme form also dying out from not having the +advantages of the first selected form? for, as I understand, +both female forms occur on the same island. I quite agree +with your distinction between dimorphic forms and varieties; +but I doubt whether your criterion of dimorphic forms not +<span class="tei-pb" id="page168">[pg 168]</span><a name="Pg168" id="Pg168" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>producing intermediate offspring will suffice; for I know of +a good many varieties, which must be so called, that will +not blend or intermix, but produce offspring quite like either +parent.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been particularly struck with your remarks on +geological distribution in Celebes. It is impossible that anything +could be better put, and [it] would give a cold shudder +to the immutable naturalists.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">And now I am going to ask a question which you will +not like. How does your Journal get on? It will be a +shame if you do not popularise your researches.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My health is so far improved that I am able to work +one or two hours a day.āBelieve me, dear Wallace, yours +very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_61" id="toc_61"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. February 4,</span> 1866.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āI am very glad to hear you are a little +better, and hope we shall soon have the pleasure of seeing +your volume on "Variation under Domestication." I do +not see the difficulty you seem to feel about two or more +female forms of one species. The <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">most common</span> or <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">typical</span> +female form must have certain characters or qualities which +are sufficiently advantageous to it to enable it to maintain +its existence; in general, such as vary much from it die out. +But occasionally a variation may occur which has special +advantageous characters of its own (such as mimicking a +protected species), and then this variation will maintain +itself by selection. In no less than three of my <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">polymorphic</span> +species of Papilio, one of the female forms mimics the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Polydorus</span> +group, which, like the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ćneas</span> group in America, seems +to have some special protection. In two or three other cases +one of the female forms is confined to a restricted locality, +to the conditions of which it is probably specially adapted. +In other cases one of the female forms resembles the male, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page169">[pg 169]</span><a name="Pg169" id="Pg169" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and perhaps receives a protection from the abundance of the +males, in the crowd of which it is passed over. I think these +considerations render the production of two or three forms +of female very conceivable. The physiological difficulty is +to me greater, of how each of two forms of female produces +offspring like the other female as well as like itself, but no +intermediates?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If you "know varieties that will not blend or intermix, +but produce offspring quite like either parents," is not that +the very physiological test of a species which is wanting for +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">complete proof</span> of the origin of species?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have by no means given up the idea of writing my +Travels, but I think I shall be able to do it better for the +delay, as I can introduce chapters giving popular sketches +of the subjects treated of in my various papers.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope, if things go as I wish this summer, to begin work +at it next winter. But I feel myself incorrigibly lazy, and +have no such system of collecting and arranging facts or +of making the most of my materials as you and many of +our hard-working naturalists possess in perfection.āWith +best wishes, believe me, dear Darwin, yours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_62" id="toc_62"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, S.E. Tuesday, February,</span> 1866.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āAfter I had dispatched my last note, +the simple explanation which you give had occurred to me, +and seems satisfactory. I do not think you understand what +I mean by the non-blending of certain varieties. It does not +refer to fertility. An instance will explain. I crossed the +Painted Lady and Purple sweet peas, which are very differently +coloured varieties, and got, even out of the same pod, +both varieties perfect, but none intermediate. Something +of this kind, I should think, must occur at first with your +butterflies and the three forms of Lythrum; though these +<span class="tei-pb" id="page170">[pg 170]</span><a name="Pg170" id="Pg170" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>cases are in appearance so wonderful, I do not know that +they are really more so than every female in the world producing +distinct male and female offspring.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am heartily glad that you mean to go on preparing your +Journal.āBelieve me yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_63" id="toc_63"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. July 2,</span> 1866.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āI have been so repeatedly struck by +the utter inability of numbers of intelligent persons to see +clearly, or at all, the self-acting and necessary effects of +Natural Selection, that I am led to conclude that the term +itself, and your mode of illustrating it, however clear and +beautiful to many of us, are yet not the best adapted to +impress it on the general naturalist public. The two last +cases of this misunderstanding are (1) the article on "Darwin +and his Teachings" in the last <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Journal of +Science</span>, which, though very well written and on the whole +appreciative, yet concludes with a charge of something like +blindness, in your not seeing that Natural Selection requires +the constant watching of an intelligent "chooser," +like man's selection to which you so often compare it; and +(2) in Janet's recent work on the "Materialism of the +Present Day," reviewed in last Saturday's <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Reader</span>, by an +extract from which I see that he considers your weak point +to be that you do not see that "thought and direction are +essential to the action of Natural Selection." The same +objection has been made a score of times by your chief +opponents, and I have heard it as often stated myself in +conversation. Now, I think this arises almost entirely +from your choice of the term Natural Selection, and so +constantly comparing it in its effects to man's selection, +and also to your so frequently personifying nature as +"selecting," as "preferring," as "seeking only the good +<span class="tei-pb" id="page171">[pg 171]</span><a name="Pg171" id="Pg171" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the species," etc., etc. To the few this is as clear as +daylight, and beautifully suggestive, but to many it is evidently +a stumbling-block. I wish, therefore, to suggest to +you the possibility of entirely avoiding this source of misconception +in your great work (if not now too late), and +also in any future editions of the "Origin," and I think +it may be done without difficulty and very effectually +by adopting Spencer's term (which he generally uses in +preference to Natural Selection), viz. "Survival of the +Fittest." This term is the plain expression of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">fact</span>; +"Natural Selection" is a metaphorical expression of it, +and to a certain degree <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">indirect</span> and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">incorrect</span>, since, even +personifying Nature, she does not so much select special +variations as exterminate the most unfavourable ones.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Combined with the enormous multiplying powers of all +organisms, and the "struggle for existence," leading to +the constant destruction of by far the largest proportionāfacts +which no one of your opponents, as far as I am +aware, has denied or misunderstoodā"the survival of the +fittest," rather than of those which were less fit, could not +possibly be denied or misunderstood. Neither would it be +possible to say that to ensure the "survival of the fittest" +any <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">intelligent chooser</span> was necessary, whereas when you say +"Natural Selection" acts so as to choose those that are +fittest it <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">is</span> misunderstood, and apparently always will be. +Referring to your book, I find such expressions as "Man +selects only for his own good; Nature only for that of the +being which she tends." This, it seems, will always be +misunderstood; but if you had said, "Man selects only +for his own good; Nature, by the inevitable survival of +the fittest, only for that of the being she tends," it would +have been less liable to be so.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I find you use the term Natural Selection in two sensesā(1) +for the simple preservation of favourable and rejection +<span class="tei-pb" id="page172">[pg 172]</span><a name="Pg172" id="Pg172" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of unfavourable variations, in which case it is equivalent +to "survival of the fittest"; (2) for the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">effect or +change</span> produced by this preservation, as when you say, +"To sum up the circumstances favourable or unfavourable +to natural selection," and, again, "Isolation, also, is an +important element in the process of natural selection": +here it is not merely "survival of the fittest," but <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">change</span> +produced by survival of the fittest, that is meant. On looking +over your fourth chapter, I find that these alterations +of terms can be in most cases easily made, while in some +cases the addition of "or survival of the fittest" after +"natural selection" would be best; and in others, less +likely to be misunderstood, the original term might stand +alone.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I could not venture to propose to any other person so +great an alteration of terms, but you, I am sure, will give +it an impartial consideration, and, if you really think the +change will produce a better understanding of your work, +will not hesitate to adopt it. It is evidently also necessary +not to personify "nature" too much, though I am very +apt to do it myself, since people will not understand that +all such phrases are metaphors. Natural Selection is, +when understood, so necessary and self-evident a principle +that it is a pity it should be in any way obscured; and it +therefore occurs to me that the free use of "survival of +the fittest", which is a compact and accurate definition of +it, would tend much to its being more widely accepted and +prevent its being so much misrepresented and misunderstood.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">There is another objection made by Janet which is also +a very common one. It is that the chances are almost infinite +against the particular kind of variation required +being coincident with each change of external conditions, +to enable an animal to become modified by Natural Selection +<span class="tei-pb" id="page173">[pg 173]</span><a name="Pg173" id="Pg173" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in harmony with such changed conditions; especially +when we consider that, to have produced the almost infinite +modifications of organic beings, this coincidence +must have taken place an almost infinite number of +times.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now it seems to me that you have yourself led to this +objection being made by so often stating the case too +strongly against yourself. For example, at the commencement +of Chapter IV. you ask if it is "improbable that +useful variations should sometimes occur in the course of +thousands of generations"; and a little further on you +say, "unless profitable variations do occur, natural selection +can do nothing." Now, such expressions have given +your opponents the advantage of assuming that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">favourable</span> +variations are <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">rare accidents</span>, or may even for long periods +never occur at all, and thus Janet's argument would appear +to many to have great force. I think it would be better to +do away with all such qualifying expressions, and constantly +maintain (what I certainly believe to be the fact) +that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">variations of every kind</span> are <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">always occurring</span> in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">every +part</span> of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">every species</span>, and therefore that favourable variations +are <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">always ready</span> when wanted. You have, I am +sure, abundant materials to prove this, and it is, I believe, +the grand fact that renders modification and adaptation +to conditions almost always possible. I would put the +burthen of proof on my opponents to show that any one +organ, structure, or faculty does <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not vary</span>, even during one +generation, among all the individuals of a species; and also +to show any <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">mode or way</span> in which any such organ, etc., +does not vary. I would ask them to give any reason for +supposing that any organ, etc., is ever <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">absolutely identical</span> +at any <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">one time in all the individuals</span> of a species, and if +not, then it is always varying, and there are always materials +which, from the simple fact that the "fittest survive," will +<span class="tei-pb" id="page174">[pg 174]</span><a name="Pg174" id="Pg174" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tend to the modification of the race into harmony with +changed conditions.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope these remarks may be intelligible to you, and that +you will be so kind as to let me know what you think of +them.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have not heard for some time how you are getting on. +I hope you are still improving in health, and that you will +be able now to get on with your great work, for which +so many thousands are looking with interest.āWith best +wishes, believe me, my dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_64" id="toc_64"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. July 5, [1866].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have been much interested by your +letter, which is as clear as daylight. I fully agree with +all that you say on the advantages of H. Spencer's excellent +expression of "the survival of the fittest." This, +however, had not occurred to me till reading your letter. +It is, however, a great objection to this term that it cannot +be used as a substantive governing a verb; and that +this is a real objection I infer from H. Spencer continually +using the words "Natural Selection."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I formerly thought, probably in an exaggerated degree, +that it was a great advantage to bring into connection +natural and artificial selection; this indeed led me to +use a term in common, and I still think it some advantage. +I wish I had received your letter two months ago, for I +would have worked in "the survival," etc., often in the +new edition of the "Origin," which is now almost printed +off, and of which I will, of course, send you a copy. I will +use the term in my next book on Domestic Animals, etc., +from which, by the way, I plainly see that you expect <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">much</span> +too much. The term Natural Selection has now been so +largely used abroad and at home that I doubt whether it +<span class="tei-pb" id="page175">[pg 175]</span><a name="Pg175" id="Pg175" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>could be given up, and with all its faults I should be sorry +to see the attempt made. Whether it will be rejected must +now depend on the "survival of the fittest."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As in time the term must grow intelligible, the objections +to its use will grow weaker and weaker. I doubt +whether the use of any term would have made the subject +intelligible to some minds, clear as it is to others; for do +we not see, even to the present day, Malthus on Population +absurdly misunderstood? This reflection about Malthus +has often comforted me when I have been vexed at the +misstatement of my views.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As for M. Janet,<a name="noteref_55" id="noteref_55"></a><a href="#note_55"><span class="footnoteref">55</span></a> he is a metaphysician, and such +gentlemen are so acute that I think they often misunderstand +common folk. Your criticism on the double sense +in which I have used Natural Selection is new to me and +unanswerable; but my blunder has done no harm, for I +do not believe that anyone excepting you has ever observed +it. Again, I agree that I have said too much about +"favourable variations," but I am inclined to think you +put the opposite side too strongly; if every part of every +being varied, I do not think we should see the same end +or object gained by such wonderfully diversified means.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope you are enjoying the country and are in good +health, and are working hard at your Malay Archipelago +book, for I will always put this wish in every note I write +to you, like some good people always put in a text. My +health keeps much the same, or rather improves, and I am +able to work some hours daily.āWith many thanks for +your interesting letter, believe me, my dear Wallace, yours +sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI suppose you have read the last number of H. +Spencer; I have been struck with astonishment at the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page176">[pg 176]</span><a name="Pg176" id="Pg176" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>prodigality of original thought in it. But how unfortunate +it is that it seems scarcely ever possible to discriminate +between the direct effect of external influences and the +"survival of the fittest."</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_65" id="toc_65"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. Nov. 19,</span> 1866.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for the fourth edition of the +"Origin," which I am glad to see grows so vigorously at +each moult, although it undergoes no metamorphosis. How +curious it is that Dr. Wells should so clearly have seen the +principle of Natural Selection fifty years ago, and that it +should have struck no one that it was a great principle of +universal application in nature!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">We are going to have a discussion on "Mimicry, as producing +Abnormal Sexual Characters," at the Entomological +to-night. I have a butterfly (Diadema) of which the female +is metallic blue, the male dusky brown, contrary to the rule +in all other species of the genus, and in almost all insects; +but the explanation is easyāit mimics a metallic <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Euploea</span>, +and so gets a protection perhaps more efficient than its +allies derive from their sombre colours, and which females +require much more than males. I read a paper on this at +the British Association. Have you the report published +at Nottingham in a volume by Dr. Robertson? If so, you +can tell me if my paper is printed in full.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I suppose you have read Agassiz's marvellous theory of +the Great Amazonian glacier, 2,000 miles long! I presume +that will be a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">little</span> too much, even for you. I have been +writing a little popular paper on "Glacial Theories" for +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Journal of Science</span> of January next, in which +I stick up for glaciers in North America and icebergs in the +Amazon!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I was very glad to hear from Lubbock that your health +is permanently improved. I hope therefore you will be +<span class="tei-pb" id="page177">[pg 177]</span><a name="Pg177" id="Pg177" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>able to give us a volume per annum of your <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">magnum opus</span>, +with all the facts as you now have them, leaving additions +to come in new editions.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am working a little at another family of my butterflies, +and find the usual interesting and puzzling cases of +variation, but no such phenomena as in the PapilionidƦ.āWith +best wishes, believe me, my dear Darwin, yours very +faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_66" id="toc_66"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">6 Queen Anne Street, W. Monday, January,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI return by this post the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Journal</span>.<a name="noteref_56" id="noteref_56"></a><a href="#note_56"><span class="footnoteref">56</span></a> +Your rĆ©sumĆ© of glacier action seems to me very good, and +has interested my brother much, and as the subject is new +to him he is a better judge. That is quite a new and perplexing +point which you specify about the freshwater fishes +during the glacial period.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have also been very glad to see the article on Lyell, +which seems to me to be done by some good man.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I forgot to say when with youābut I then indeed did +not know so much as I do nowāthat the sexual, i.e. <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">ornamental</span>, +differences in fishes, which differences are sometimes +very great, offer a difficulty in the wide extension of +the view that the female is not brightly coloured on account +of the danger which she would incur in the propagation of +the species.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I very much enjoyed my long conversation with you; +and to-day we return home, and I to my horrid dull work +of correcting proof-sheets.āBelieve me, my dear Wallace, +yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CHARLES DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI had arranged to go and see your collection on +Saturday evening, but my head suddenly failed after luncheon, +and I was forced to lie down all the rest of the day.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page178">[pg 178]</span><a name="Pg178" id="Pg178" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_67" id="toc_67"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 23,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Wallace,āI much regretted that I was unable to +call on you, but after Monday I was unable even to leave +the house. On Monday evening I called on Bates and put +a difficulty before him, which he could not answer, and, +as on some former similar occasion, his first suggestion +was, "You had better ask Wallace." My difficulty is, why +are caterpillars sometimes so beautifully and artistically +coloured? Seeing that many are coloured to escape danger, +I can hardly attribute their bright colour in other cases to +mere physical conditions. Bates says the most gaudy caterpillar +he ever saw in Amazonia (of a Sphinx) was conspicuous +at the distance of yards from its black and red +colouring whilst feeding on large green leaves. If anyone +objected to male butterflies having been made beautiful by +sexual selection, and asked why should they not have been +made beautiful as well as their caterpillars, what would +you answer? I could not answer, but should maintain +my ground. Will you think over this, and some time, +either by letter or when we meet, tell me what you think? +Also, I want to know whether your <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">female</span> mimetic butterfly +is more beautiful and brighter than the male?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">When next in London I must get you to show me your +Kingfishers.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My health is a dreadful evil; I failed in half my engagements +during this last visit to London.āBelieve me, yours +very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">The answer to this letter is missing, but in Vol. II. of +"My Life," p. 3, Wallace writes:</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">"On reading this letter I almost at once saw what +seemed to be a very easy and probable explanation of the +facts. I had then just been preparing for publication (in +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Westminster Review</span>) my rather elaborate paper on +<span class="tei-pb" id="page179">[pg 179]</span><a name="Pg179" id="Pg179" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>'Mimicry and Protective Colouring,' and the numerous +cases in which specially showy and slow-flying butterflies +were known to have a peculiar odour and taste which protected +them from the attacks of insect-eating birds and +other animals led me at once to suppose that the gaudily +coloured caterpillars must have a similar protection. I +had just ascertained from Mr. Jenner Weir that one of +our common white moths (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Spilosoma menthastri</span>) would +not be eaten by most of the small birds in his aviary, nor +by young turkeys. Now, as a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">white</span> moth is as conspicuous +in the dusk as a coloured caterpillar in the daylight, +this case seemed to me so much on a par with the other +that I felt almost sure my explanation would turn out +correct. I at once wrote to Mr. Darwin to this effect."</p> +</blockquote> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_68" id="toc_68"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 26,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āBates was quite right, you are the +man to apply to in a difficulty. I never heard anything +more ingenious than your suggestion, and I hope you may +be able to prove it true. That is a splendid fact about the +white moths; it warms one's very blood to see a theory +thus almost proved to be true.<a name="noteref_57" id="noteref_57"></a><a href="#note_57"><span class="footnoteref">57</span></a> With respect to the beauty +of male butterflies, I must as yet think that it is due to +sexual selection; there is some evidence that dragonflies +are attracted by bright colours; but what leads me to the +above belief is so many male Orthoptera and Cicadas +having musical instruments. This being the case, the +analogy of birds makes me believe in sexual selection with +respect to colour in insects. I wish I had strength and +time to make some of the experiments suggested by you; +but I thought butterflies would not pair in confinement; I +am sure I have heard of some such difficulty. Many years +ago I had a dragonfly painted with gorgeous colours, but +I never had an opportunity of fairly trying it.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page180">[pg 180]</span><a name="Pg180" id="Pg180" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The reason of my being so much interested just at +present about sexual selection is that I have almost resolved +to publish a little essay on the Origin of Mankind, +and I still strongly think (though I failed to convince you, +and this to me is the heaviest blow possible) that sexual +selection has been the main agent in forming the races of +man.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">By the way, there is another subject which I shall introduce +in my essay, viz. expression of countenance. Now, +do you happen to know by any odd chance a very good-natured +and acute observer in the Malay Archipelago who, +you think, would make a few easy observations for me on +the expression of the Malays when excited by various +emotions. For in this case I would send to such person a +list of queries.āI thank you for your most interesting +letters, and remain yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_69" id="toc_69"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. March 11,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI return your queries, but cannot answer +them with any certainty. For the Malays I should say Yes +to 1, 3, 8, 9, 10 and 17, and No to 12, 13 and 16; but I +cannot be <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">certain</span> in any one. But do you think these +things are of much importance? I am inclined to think +that if you could get good direct observations you would +find some of them often differ from tribe to tribe, from +island to island, and sometimes from village to village. +Some no doubt may be deep-seated, and would imply +organic differences; but can you tell beforehand which +these are? I presume the Frenchman shrugs his shoulders +whether he is of the Norman, Breton, or Gaulish stock. +Would it not be a good thing to send your List of Queries +to some of the Bombay and Calcutta papers? as there must +be numbers of Indian judges and other officers who would +be interested and would send you hosts of replies. The +<span class="tei-pb" id="page181">[pg 181]</span><a name="Pg181" id="Pg181" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Australian papers and New Zealand might also publish +them, and then you would have a fine basis to go on.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Is your essay on Variation in Man to be a supplement +to your volume on Domesticated Animals and Cultivated +Plants? I would rather see your second volume on "The +Struggle for Existence, etc.," for I doubt if we have a +sufficiency of fair and accurate facts to do anything with +man. Huxley, I believe, is at work upon it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been reading Murray's volume on the Geographical +Distribution of Mammals. He has some good ideas +here and there, but is quite unable to understand Natural +Selection, and makes a most absurd mess of his criticism +of your views on oceanic islands.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">By the bye, what an interesting volume the whole of +your materials on that subject would, I am sure, make.āYours +very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_70" id="toc_70"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI thank you much for your two +notes. The case of Julia Pastrana<a name="noteref_58" id="noteref_58"></a><a href="#note_58"><span class="footnoteref">58</span></a> is a splendid addition +to my other cases of correlated teeth and hair, and I will +add it in correcting the proof of my present volume. Pray +let me hear in course of the summer if you get any evidence +about the gaudy caterpillars. I should much like to give +(or quote if published) this idea of yours, if in any way +supported, as suggested by you. It will, however, be a long +time hence, for I can see that sexual selection is growing +into quite a large subject, which I shall introduce into my +essay on Man, supposing that I ever publish it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I had intended giving a chapter on Man, inasmuch as +many call him (not <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">quite</span> truly) an eminently <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">domesticated</span> +animal; but I found the subject too large for a chapter. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page182">[pg 182]</span><a name="Pg182" id="Pg182" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Nor shall I be capable of treating the subject well, and my +sole reason for taking it up is that I am pretty well convinced +that sexual selection has played an important part +in the formation of races, and sexual selection has always +been a subject which has interested me much.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been very glad to see your impression from +memory on the expressions of Malays. I fully agree with +you that the subject is in no way an important one: it is +simply a "hobby-horse" with me about twenty-seven years +old; and after thinking that I would write an essay on +Man, it flashed on me that I could work in some "supplemental +remarks on expression." After the horrid, tedious, +dull work of my present huge and, I fear, unreadable +book, I thought I would amuse myself with my hobby-horse. +The subject is, I think, more curious and more +amenable to scientific treatment than you seem willing to +allow. I want, anyhow, to upset Sir C. Bell's view, given +in his most interesting work, "The Anatomy of Expression," +that certain muscles have been given to man solely +that he may reveal to other men his feelings. I want to +try and show how expressions have arisen.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">That is a good suggestion about newspapers; but my +experience tells me that private applications are generally +most fruitful. I will, however, see if I can get the queries +inserted in some Indian paper. I do not know names or +addresses of any other papers.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have just ordered, but not yet received, Murray's +book: Lindley used to call him a blunder-headed man. It +is very doubtful whether I shall ever have strength to publish +the latter part of my materials.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My two female amanuenses are busy with friends, and +I fear this scrawl will give you much trouble to read.āWith +many thanks, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page183">[pg 183]</span><a name="Pg183" id="Pg183" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_71" id="toc_71"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 29,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Wallace,āI have been greatly interested by your +letter;<a name="noteref_59" id="noteref_59"></a><a href="#note_59"><span class="footnoteref">59</span></a> but your view is not new to me. If you will look +at p. 240 of the fourth edition of the "Origin," you will +find it very briefly given with two extremes of the peacock +and black grouse. A more general statement is given at +p. 101, or at p. 89 of the first edition, for I have long +entertained this view, though I have never had space to +develop it. But I had not sufficient knowledge to generalise +as far as you do about colouring and nesting. In your +paper, perhaps you will just allude to my scanty remark +in the fourth edition, because in my essay upon Man I +intend to discuss the whole subject of sexual selection, explaining, +as I believe it does, much with respect to man. +I have collected all my old notes and partly written my +discussion, and it would be flat work for me to give the +leading idea as exclusively from you. But as I am sure +from your greater knowledge of ornithology and entomology +that you will write a much better discussion than I +could, your paper will be of great use to me. Nevertheless, +I must discuss the subject fully in my essay on Man. +When we met at the Zoological Society and I asked you +about the sexual differences in kingfishers, I had this subject +in view; as I had when I suggested to Bates the difficulty +about gaudy caterpillars which you have so admirably +(as I believe it will prove) explained. I have got one capital +case (genus forgotten) of an [Australian] bird in which the +female has long-tailed plumes and which consequently +builds a different nest from all her allies.<a name="noteref_60" id="noteref_60"></a><a href="#note_60"><span class="footnoteref">60</span></a> With respect +<span class="tei-pb" id="page184">[pg 184]</span><a name="Pg184" id="Pg184" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>to certain female birds being more brightly coloured than +the males, and the latter incubating, I have gone a little +into the subject and cannot say that I am fully satisfied. +I remember mentioning to you the case of RhynchƦa, but +its nesting seems unknown. In some other cases the +difference in brightness seemed to me hardly sufficiently +accounted for by the principle of protection. At the +Falkland Islands there is a carrion hawk in which the +female (as I ascertained by dissection) is the brightest +coloured, and I doubt whether protection will here apply; +but I wrote several months ago to the Falklands to make +inquiries. The conclusion to which I have been leaning is +that in some of these abnormal cases the colour happened +to vary in the female alone, and was transmitted to females +alone, and that her variations have been selected through the +admiration of the male.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is a very interesting subject, but I shall not be able +to go on with it for the next five or six months, as I am +fully employed in correcting dull proof-sheets; when I +return to the work I shall find it much better done by you +than I could have succeeded in doing.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With many thanks for your very interesting note, believe +me, dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is curious how we hit on the same ideas. I have +endeavoured to show in my MS. discussion that nearly the +same principles account for young birds <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not</span> being gaily +coloured in many casesābut this is too complex a point for +a note.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page185">[pg 185]</span><a name="Pg185" id="Pg185" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_72" id="toc_72"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Postscript. Down. April 29.</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āOn reading over your letter again, +and on further reflection, I do not think (as far as I remember +my words) that I expressed myself <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">nearly strongly</span> +enough as to the value and beauty of your generalisation, +viz. that all birds in which the female is conspicuously or +brightly coloured build in holes or under domes. I thought +that this was the explanation in many, perhaps most cases, +but do not think I should ever have extended my view to +your generalisation. Forgive me troubling you with this +P.S.āYours,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_73" id="toc_73"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 5,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āThe offer of your valuable notes is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">most</span> +generous, but it would vex me to take so much from you, +as it is certain that you could work up the subject very +much better than I could. Therefore I earnestly and without +any reservation hope that you will proceed with your +paper, so that I return your notes.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You seem already to have well investigated the subject. +I confess on receiving your note that I felt rather flat at +my recent work being almost thrown away, but I did not +intend to show this feeling. As a proof how little advance +I had made on the subject, I may mention that though I +had been collecting facts on the colouring and other sexual +differences in mammals, your explanation with respect to +the females had not occurred to me. I am surprised at my +own stupidity, but I have long recognised how much clearer +and deeper your insight into matters is than mine.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I do not know how far you have attended to the laws +of inheritance, so what follows may be obvious to you. I +have begun my discussion on sexual selection by showing +that new characters often appear in one sex and are +<span class="tei-pb" id="page186">[pg 186]</span><a name="Pg186" id="Pg186" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>transmitted to that sex alone, and that from some unknown +cause such characters apparently appear oftener in +the male than in the female. Secondly, characters may be +developed and be confined to the male, and long afterwards +be transferred to the female. Thirdly, characters +may, again, arise in either sex and be transmitted to both +sexes, either in an equal or unequal degree. In this latter +case I have supposed that the survival of the fittest has +come into play with female birds and kept the female dull-coloured. +With respect to the absence of spurs in female +gallinaceous birds, I presume that they would be in the +way during incubation; at least, I have got the case of a +German breed of fowls in which the hens were spurred, +and were found to disturb and break their eggs much.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With respect to the females of deer not having horns, I +presume it is to save the loss of organised matter.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In your note you speak of sexual selection and protection +as sufficient to account for the colouring of all +animals; but it seems to me doubtful how far this will +come into play with some of the lower animals, such as +sea anemones, some corals, etc. etc.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">On the other hand, Haeckel has recently well shown that +the transparency and absence of colour in the lower oceanic +animals, belonging to the most different classes, may be well +accounted for on the principle of protection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Some time or other I should like much to know where +your paper on the nests of birds has appeared, and I shall +be extremely anxious to read your paper in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Westminster +Review</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Your paper on the sexual colouring of birds will, I have +no doubt, be very striking.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Forgive me, if you can, for a touch of illiberality about +your paper, and believe me yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page187">[pg 187]</span><a name="Pg187" id="Pg187" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_74" id="toc_74"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. July 6,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI am very much obliged for your +article on Mimicry,<a name="noteref_61" id="noteref_61"></a><a href="#note_61"><span class="footnoteref">61</span></a> the whole of which I have read with +the greatest interest. You certainly have the art of putting +your ideas with remarkable force and clearness; now +that I am slaving over proof-sheets it makes me almost +envious.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been particularly glad to read about the birds' +nests, and I must procure the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Intellectual Observer</span>; but +the point which I think struck me most was about its +being of no use to the Heliconias to acquire in a slight +degree a disagreeable taste. What a curious case is that +about the coral snakes. The summary, and indeed the +whole, is excellent, and I have enjoyed it much.āWith +many thanks, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_75" id="toc_75"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. Wednesday, [August or September, 1867].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI am very sorry I was out when you +called yesterday. I had just gone to the Zoological +Gardens, and I met Sir C. Lyell, who told me you were +in town.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If you should have time to go to Bayswater, I think +you would be pleased to see the collections which I have +displayed there in the form of an <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">exhibition</span> (though the +public will not go to see it).</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If you can go, with any friends, I should like to meet +you there if you can appoint a time.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am glad to find you continue in tolerable health.āBelieve +me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">What do you think of the Duke of Argyll's criticisms, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page188">[pg 188]</span><a name="Pg188" id="Pg188" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and the more pretentious one in the last number of the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">North British Review</span>?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have written a little article answering them both, but +I do not yet know where to get it published.āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_76" id="toc_76"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">76-1/2 Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, W. October 1,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI am sorry I was not in town when your +note came. I took a short trip to Scotland after the British +Association Meeting, and went up Ben Lawers. It was +very cold and wet, and I could not find a companion or I +should have gone as far as Glen Roy.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My article on "Creation by Law," in reply to the Duke +of Argyll and the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">North British</span> reviewer, is in the present +month's number of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Journal of Science</span>. I +cannot send you a copy because they do not allow separate +copies to be printed.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">There is a nice illustration of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">predicted</span> Madagascar +moth and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">AngrƦcum sesquipedale</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I shall be glad to know whether I have done it satisfactorily +to you, and hope you will not be so very sparing +of criticism as you usually are.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope you are getting on well with your great book. +I hear a rumour that we are to have <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">one</span> vol. of it about +Christmas.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I quite forget whether I told you that I have a little +boy, now three months old, and have named him Herbert +Spencer (having had a brother Herbert). I am now staying +chiefly in the country, at Hurstpierpoint, but come up +to town once a month at least. You may address simply, +"Hurstpierpoint, Sussex."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping your health is tolerable and that all your family +are well, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page189">[pg 189]</span><a name="Pg189" id="Pg189" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_77" id="toc_77"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. October 12 and 13,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI ordered the journal a long time +ago, but by some oversight received it only yesterday and +read it. You will think my praise not worth having from +being so indiscriminate, but if I am to speak the truth, I +must say I admire every word.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You have just touched on the points which I particularly +wished to see noticed. I am glad you had the courage to +take up <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">AngrƦcum</span><a name="noteref_62" id="noteref_62"></a><a href="#note_62"><span class="footnoteref">62</span></a> after the Duke's attack; for I believe +the principle in this case may be widely applied. I like +the figure, but I wish the artist had drawn a better +sphinx.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With respect to beauty, your remarks on hideous objects +and on flowers not being made beautiful except when of +practical use to them strike me as very good.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">On this one point of beauty, I can hardly think that the +Duke was quite candid. I have used in the concluding +paragraph of my present book precisely the same argument +as you have, even bringing in the bulldog,<a name="noteref_63" id="noteref_63"></a><a href="#note_63"><span class="footnoteref">63</span></a> with respect +to variations not having been specially ordained. Your +<span class="tei-pb" id="page190">[pg 190]</span><a name="Pg190" id="Pg190" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>metaphor of the river<a name="noteref_64" id="noteref_64"></a><a href="#note_64"><span class="footnoteref">64</span></a> is new to me, and admirable; but your +other metaphor, in which you compare classification and +complex machines, does not seem to me quite appropriate, +though I cannot point out what seems deficient. The point +which seems to me strong is that all naturalists admit that +there is a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">natural</span> classification, and it is this which descent +explains. I wish you had insisted a little more against the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">North British</span><a name="noteref_65" id="noteref_65"></a><a href="#note_65"><span class="footnoteref">65</span></a> reviewer assuming that each variation which +appears is a strongly marked one; though by implication +you have made this <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">very</span>, plain. Nothing in your whole +article has struck me more than your view with respect to +the limit of fleetness in the racehorse and other such cases; +I shall try and quote you on this head in the proof of my +concluding chapter. I quite missed this explanation, though +in the case of wheat I hit upon something analogous. I am +glad you praise the Duke's book, for I was much struck with +it. The part about flight seemed to me at first very good, +but as the wing is articulated by a ball-and-socket joint, I +suspect the Duke would find it very difficult to give any +reason against the belief that the wing strikes the air more +or less obliquely. I have been very glad to see your article +and the drawing of the butterfly in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Science Gossip</span>. By +the way, I cannot but think that you push protection too +<span class="tei-pb" id="page191">[pg 191]</span><a name="Pg191" id="Pg191" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>far in some cases, as with the stripes on the tiger. I +have also this morning read an excellent abstract in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Gardeners' Chronicle</span> of your paper on nests;<a name="noteref_66" id="noteref_66"></a><a href="#note_66"><span class="footnoteref">66</span></a> I was not +by any means fully converted by your letter, but I think +now I am so; and I hope it will be published somewhere +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">in extenso</span>. It strikes me as a capital generalisation, and +appears to me even more original than it did at first.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have had an excellent and cautious letter from Mr. +Geach of Singapore with some valuable answers on expression, +which I owe to you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I heartily congratulate you on the birth of "Herbert +Spencer," and may he deserve his name, but I hope he +will copy his father's style and not his namesake's. Pray +observe, though I fear I am a month too late, when tears +are first secreted enough to overflow; and write down +date.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have finished Vol. I. of my book, and I hope the whole +will be out by the end of November; if you have the patience +to read it through, which is very doubtful, you will find, I +think, a large accumulation of facts which will be of service +to you in your future papers, and they could not be +put to better use, for you certainly are a master in the noble +art of reasoning.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Have you changed your house to Westbourne Grove?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This letter is so badly expressed that it is barely intelligible, +but I am tired with proofs.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āMr. Warington has lately read an excellent and +spirited abstract of the "Origin" before the Victoria Institute, +and as this is a most orthodox body he has gained +<span class="tei-pb" id="page192">[pg 192]</span><a name="Pg192" id="Pg192" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the name of the devil's advocate. The discussion which followed +during three consecutive meetings is very rich from +the nonsense talked. If you would care to see the number +I could lend it you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I forgot to remark how capitally you turn the table on +the Duke, when you make him create the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">AngrƦcum</span> and +moth by special creation.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_78" id="toc_78"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Hurstpierpoint. October 22,</span> 1867.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI am very glad you approve of my article +on "Creation by Law" as a whole.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The "machine metaphor" is not mine, but the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">North +British</span> reviewer's. I merely accept it and show that it is +on our side and not against us, but I do not think it at all +a good metaphor to be used as an <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">argument</span> either way. I +did not half develop the argument on the limits of variation, +being myself limited in space; but I feel satisfied that +it is the true answer to the very common and very strong +objection, that "variation has strict limits." The fallacy +is the requiring variation in domesticity to go beyond the +limits of the same variation under nature. It does do so +sometimes, however, because the conditions of existence are +so different. I do not think a case can be pointed out in +which the limits of variation under domestication are not +up to or beyond those already marked out in nature, only +we generally get in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">species</span> an amount of change which +in nature occurs only in the whole range of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">genus</span> or +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">family</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The many cases, however, in which variation has gone +far beyond nature and has not yet stopped are ignored. +For instance, no wild pomaceous fruit is, I believe, so +large as our apples, and no doubt they could be got much +larger if flavour, etc., were entirely neglected.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I may perhaps push "protection" too far sometimes, for +<span class="tei-pb" id="page193">[pg 193]</span><a name="Pg193" id="Pg193" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>it is my hobby just now, but as the lion and the tiger are, +I think, the only two non-arboreal cats, I think the tiger +stripe agreeing so well with its usual habitat is at least a +probable case.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am rewriting my article on Birds' Nests for the new +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Natural History Review</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I cannot tell you about the first appearance of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">tears</span>, +but it is very earlyāthe first week or two, I think. I +can see the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Victoria Institute Magazine</span> at the London +Library.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I shall read your book, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">every word</span>. I hear from Sir +C. Lyell that you come out with a grand new theory at +the end, which even the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">cautious</span> (!) Huxley is afraid of! +Sir C. said he could think of nothing else since he read it. +I long to see it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My address is Hurstpierpoint during the winter, and, +when in town, 76-1/2 Westbourne Grove.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I suppose you will now be going on with your book on +Sexual Selection and Man, by way of relaxation! It is a +glorious subject, but will require delicate handling,āYours +very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_79" id="toc_79"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">10 Duchess Street, W. February 7,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI have to thank you for signing the +Memorial as to the East London Museum, and also for +your kindness in sending me a copy of your great book, +which I have only just received. I shall take it down in +the country with me next week, and enjoy every line at +my leisure.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Allow me also to congratulate you on the splendid position +obtained by your second son at Cambridge.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You will perhaps be glad to hear that I have been for +some time hammering away at my Travels, but I fear I +shall make a mess of it. I shall leave most of the Natural +<span class="tei-pb" id="page194">[pg 194]</span><a name="Pg194" id="Pg194" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>History generalisation, etc., for another work, as if I wait +to incorporate all, I may wait for years.āHoping you are +quite well, believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_80" id="toc_80"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 22, [1868?].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI am hard at work on sexual selection +and am driven half mad by the number of collateral +points which require investigation, such as the relative +numbers of the two sexes, and especially on polygamy. +Can you aid me with respect to birds which have strongly +marked secondary sexual characters, such as birds of paradise, +humming-birds, the rupicola or rock-thrush, or any +other such cases? Many gallinaceous birds certainly are +polygamous. I suppose that birds may be known not to +be polygamous if they are seen during the whole breeding +season to associate in pairs, or if the male incubates, or +aids in feeding the young. Will you have the kindness to +turn this in your mind? but it is a shame to trouble you +now that, as I am <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">heartily</span> glad to hear, you are at work +on your Malayan Travels. I am fearfully puzzled how far +to extend your protective views with respect to the females +in various classes. The more I work, the more important +sexual selection apparently comes out.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Can butterflies be polygamous?āi.e. will one male impregnate +more than one female?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Forgive me troubling you, and I daresay I shall have +to ask your forgiveness again, and believe me, my dear +Wallace, yours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āBaker has had the kindness to set the Entomological +Society discussing the relative numbers of the +sexes in insects, and has brought out some very curious +results. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page195">[pg 195]</span><a name="Pg195" id="Pg195" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +Is the orang polygamous? But I daresay I shall find +that in your papers in (I think) the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Annals and Magazine +of Natural History</span>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">The following group of letters deals with the causes of +the sterility of hybrids (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">see</span> note in "More Letters," p. +287). Darwin's final view is given in the "Origin," 6th +edit., 1900, p. 384. He acknowledges that it would be +advantageous to two incipient species if, by physiological +isolation due to mutual sterility, they could be kept from +blending; but he continues: "After mature reflection, it +seems to me that this could not have been effected through +Natural Selection." And finally he concludes (p. 386): +"But it would be superfluous to discuss this question in +detail; for with plants we have conclusive evidence that +the sterility of crossed species must be due to some +principle quite independent of Natural Selection. Both +GƤartner and Kolreuter have proved that in genera including +numerous species a series can be formed from species +which, when crossed, yield fewer and fewer seeds, to +species which never produce a single seed, but yet are +affected by the pollen of certain other species, for the +germen swells. It is here manifestly impossible to select +the more sterile individuals, which have already ceased +to yield seeds; so that this acme of sterility, when the +germen alone is affected, cannot have been gained through +selection; and from the laws governing the various grades +of sterility being so uniform throughout the animal and +vegetable kingdoms, we may infer that the cause, whatever +it may be, is the same or nearly the same in all +cases."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Wallace still adhered to his view (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">see</span> "Darwinism," +1889, p. 174, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">also</span> p. 292 of "More Letters," note 1, and Letter +211, p. 299). The discussion of 1868 began with a letter +from Wallace, written towards the end of February, giving +his opinion on the "Variation of Animals and Plants"; +the discussion on the sterility of hybrids is at p. 185, Vol. +II., 1st edit.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page196">[pg 196]</span><a name="Pg196" id="Pg196" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">(<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Second and third sheets of a letter from Wallace, apparently of +February, 1868.</span>)</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am in the second volume of your book, and I have +been astonished at the immense number of interesting facts +you have brought together. I read the chapter on Pangenesis +first, for I could not wait. I can hardly tell you +how much I admire it. It is a positive <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">comfort</span> to me to +have any feasible explanation of a difficulty that has always +been haunting me, and I shall never be able to give it up +till a better one supplies its place, and that I think hardly +possible. You have now fairly beaten Spencer on his own +ground, for he really offered no solution of the difficulties +of the problem. The incomprehensible minuteness and vast +numbers of the physiological germs or atoms (Which themselves +must be compounded of numbers of Spencer's physiological +units) is the only difficulty, but that is only on a +par with the difficulties in all conceptions of matter, space, +motion, force, etc. As I understood Spencer, his physiological +units were identical throughout each species, but +slightly different in each different species; but no attempt +was made to show how the identical form of the parent or +ancestors came to be built up of such units.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The only parts I have yet met with where I somewhat +differ from your views are in the chapter on the Causes +of Variability, in which I think several of your arguments +are unsound: but this is too long a subject to go +into now.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Also, I do not see your objection to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">sterility</span> between +allied species having been aided by Natural Selection. It +appears to me that, given a differentiation of a species into +two forms, each of which was adapted to a special sphere +of existence, every slight degree of sterility would be a +positive advantage, not to the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">individuals</span> who were sterile, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page197">[pg 197]</span><a name="Pg197" id="Pg197" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>but to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">each form</span>. If you work it out, and suppose the two +incipient species A, B to be divided into two groups, one +of which contains those which are fertile when the two are +crossed, the other being slightly sterile, you will find that +the latter will certainly supplant the former in the struggle +for existence, remembering that you have shown that in such +a cross the offspring would be <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">more vigorous</span> than the pure +breed, and would therefore certainly soon supplant them, and +as these would not be so well adapted to any special sphere +of existence as the pure species A and B, they would certainly +in their turn give way to A and B.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am sure all naturalists will be disgusted at the malicious +and ignorant article in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">AthenƦum</span>. It is a disgrace to +the paper, and I hope someone will publicly express the +general opinion of it. We can expect no good reviews of +your book till the quarterlies or best monthlies come out.... I +shall be anxious to see how Pangenesis is received.āBelieve +me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_81" id="toc_81"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 27,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āYou cannot well imagine how much +I have been pleased by what you say about Pangenesis. +None of my friends will speak out, except, to a certain +extent, Sir H. Holland,<a name="noteref_67" id="noteref_67"></a><a href="#note_67"><span class="footnoteref">67</span></a> who found it very tough reading, +but admits that some view "closely akin to it" will have +to be admitted. Hooker, as far as I understand him, which +I hardly do at present, seems to think that the hypothesis +is little more than saying that organisms have such and +such potentialities. What you say exactly and fully expresses +my feeling, viz. that it is a relief to have some +feasible explanation of the various facts, which can be +given up as soon as any better hypothesis is found. It has +<span class="tei-pb" id="page198">[pg 198]</span><a name="Pg198" id="Pg198" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>certainly been an immense relief to my mind; for I have +been stumbling over the subject for years, dimly seeing that +some relation existed between the various classes of facts. +I now hear from H. Spencer that his views quoted in my +footnote refer to something quite distinct, as you seem to +have perceived.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I shall be very glad to hear, at some future day, your +criticisms on the causes of variability.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Indeed, I feel sure that I am right about sterility and +Natural Selection. Two of my grown-up children who are +acute reasoners have two or three times at intervals tried +to prove me wrong, and when your letter came they had +another try, but ended by coming back to my side. I do +not quite understand your case, and we think that a word +or two is misplaced. I wish some time you would consider +the case under the following point of view. If +sterility is caused or accumulated through Natural Selection, +then, as every degree exists up to absolute barrenness, +Natural Selection must have the power of increasing +it. Now take two species, A and B, and assume that +they are (by any means) half-sterile, i.e. produce half the +full number of offspring. Now try and make (by Natural +Selection) A and B absolutely sterile when crossed, and +you will find how difficult it is. I grant, indeed it is certain, +that the degree of sterility of the individuals of A +and B will vary, but any such extra-sterile individuals of, +we will say, A, if they should hereafter breed with other +individuals of A, will bequeath no advantage to their +progeny, by which these families will tend to increase in +number over other families of A, which are not more sterile +when crossed with B. But I do not know that I have made +this any clearer than in the chapter in my book. It is a +most difficult bit of reasoning, which I have gone over and +over again on paper with diagrams. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page199">[pg 199]</span><a name="Pg199" id="Pg199" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>I shall be intensely curious to see your article in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Journal of Travel</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Many thanks for such answers as you could give. From +what you say I should have inferred that birds of paradise +were probably polygamous. But after all, perhaps it is +not so important as I thought. I have been going through +the whole animal kingdom in reference to sexual selection, +and I have just got to the beginning of Lepidoptera, i.e. to +end of insects, and shall then pass on to Vertebrata. But +my ladies next week are going (ill-luck to it) to take me +nolens-volens to London for a whole month.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I suspect Owen wrote the article in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">AthenƦum</span>, but +I have been told that it is Berthold Seeman. The writer +despises and hates me.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hearty thanks for your letterāyou have indeed pleased +me, for I had given up the great god Pan as a stillborn +deity. I wish you could be induced to make it clear with +your admirable powers of elucidation in one of the scientific +journals.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I think we almost entirely agree about sexual selection, +as I now follow you to large extent about protection to +females, having always believed that colour was often transmitted +to both sexes; but I do not go quite so far about +protection.āAlways yours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_82" id="toc_82"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Hurstpierpoint. March 1,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āI beg to enclose what appears to me +a demonstration, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">on your own principles</span>, that Natural Selection +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">could</span> produce <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">sterility of hybrids</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If it does not convince you I shall be glad if you will +point out where the fallacy lies. I have taken the two cases +of a slight sterility overcoming a perfect fertility, and of +a perfect sterility overcoming a partial fertilityāthe beginning +and end of the process. You admit that variations +<span class="tei-pb" id="page200">[pg 200]</span><a name="Pg200" id="Pg200" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in fertility and sterility occur, and I think you will also +admit that if I demonstrate that a considerable amount of +sterility would be advantageous to a variety, that is sufficient +proof that the slightest variation in that direction +would be useful also, and would go on accumulating.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sir C. Lyell spoke to me as if he greatly admired pangenesis. +I am very glad H. Spencer at once acknowledges +that his view was something quite distinct from yours. +Although, as you know, I am a great admirer of his, I +feel how completely his view failed to go to the root of +the matter, as yours does. His explained nothing, though +he was evidently struggling hard to find an explanation. +Yours, as far as I can see, explains everything in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">growth +and reproduction</span>, though of course the mystery of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">life</span> and +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">consciousness</span> remains as great as ever.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Parts of the chapter on Pangenesis I found hard reading, +and have not quite mastered yet, and there are also +throughout the discussions in Vol. <span style="font-weight: 700" class="tei tei-hi">II</span>. many bits of hard +reading on minute points which we, who have not worked +experimentally at cultivation and crossing as you have done, +can hardly see the importance of, or their bearing on the +general question.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If I am asked, I may perhaps write an article on the +book for some periodical, and if so shall do what I can to +make pangenesis appreciated.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I suppose Mrs. Darwin thinks you <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">must</span> have a holiday, +after the enormous labour of bringing out such a book as +that. I am sorry I am not now staying in town. I shall, +however, be up for two days on Thursday, and shall hope +to see you at the Linnean, where Mr. Trimen has a paper +on some of his wonderful South African mimetic butterflies.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope this will reach you before you leave.āBelieve +me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page201">[pg 201]</span><a name="Pg201" id="Pg201" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_83" id="toc_83"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Hurstpierpoint. March 8,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI am very sorry your letter came back +here while I was going to town, or I should have been very +pleased to have seen you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Trimen's paper at the Linnean was a very good one, +but the only opponents were Andrew Murray and B. +Seeman. The former talked utter nonsense about the +"harmony of nature" produced by "polarisation," alike +in "rocks, plants and animals," etc. etc. etc. And Seeman +objected that there was mimicry among plants, and that our +theory would not explain it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Lubbock answered them both in his best manner.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Pray take your rest, and put my last notes by till you +return to Down, or let your son discover the fallacies in +them.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Would you like to see the specimens of pupƦ of butterflies +whose colours have changed in accordance with the +colour of the surrounding objects? They are very curious, +and Mr. T.W. Wood, who bred them, would, I am sure, +be delighted to bring them to show you. His address is +89 Stanhope Street, Hampstead Road, N.W.āBelieve me +yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + + +<p class="tei tei-p">Darwin had already written a short note to Wallace +expressing a general dissent from his views.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_84" id="toc_84"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 17,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āMany thanks about PieridƦ. I have +no photographs up here, but will remember to send one +from Down. Should you care to have a large one, of treble +or quadruple common size, I will with pleasure send you +one under glass cover, to any address you like in London, +either now or hereafter. I grieve to say we shall not be +here on April 2nd, as we return home on the 31st. In +<span class="tei-pb" id="page202">[pg 202]</span><a name="Pg202" id="Pg202" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>summer I hope that Mrs. Wallace and yourself will pay us a +visit at Down, soon after you return to London; for I am +sure you will allow me the freedom of an invalid.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My paper to-morrow at the Linnean Society is simply +to prove, alas! that primrose and cowslip are as good +species as any in the world, and that there is no trustworthy +evidence of one producing the other. The only +interesting point is the frequency of the production of +natural hybrids, i.e. oxlips, and the existence of one kind +of oxlip which constitutes a third good and distinct species. +I do not suppose that I shall be able to attend the Linnean +Society to-morrow.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been working hard in collecting facts on sexual +selection every morning in London, and have done a good +deal; but the subject grows more and more complex, and +in many respects more difficult and doubtful. I have had +grand success this morning in tracing gradational steps by +which the peacock tail has been developed: I quite feel as +if I had seen a long line of its progenitors.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I do not feel that I shall grapple with the sterility argument +till my return home; I have tried once or twice and +it has made my stomach feel as if it had been placed in a +vice. Your paper has driven three of my children half-madāone +sat up to twelve o'clock over it. My second +son, the mathematician, thinks that you have omitted one +almost inevitable deduction which apparently would modify +the result. He has written out what he thinks, but I have +not tried fully to understand him. I suppose that you +do not care enough about the subject to like to see what +he has written?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope your book progresses.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am intensely anxious to see your paper in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Murray's +Journal</span>.āMy dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page203">[pg 203]</span><a name="Pg203" id="Pg203" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_85" id="toc_85"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Hurstpierpoint. March 19,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI should very much value a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">large</span> photograph +of you, and also a carte for my album, though it is +too bad to ask you for both, as you must have so many +applicants.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am sorry I shall not see you in town, but shall +look forward with pleasure to paying you a visit in the +summer.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am sorry about the Primulas, but I feel sure some such +equally good case will some day be discovered, for it seems +impossible to understand how all natural species whatever +should have acquired sterility. Closely allied forms from +adjacent islands would, I should think, offer the best +chance of finding good species fertile <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">inter se</span>; since even +if Natural Selection induces sterility I do not see how it +could affect them, or why they should <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">always</span> be sterile, +and varieties <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">never</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am glad you have got good materials on sexual selection. +It is no doubt a difficult subject. One difficulty to +me is, that I do not see how the constant <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">minute</span> variations, +which are sufficient for Natural Selection to work +with, could be <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">sexually</span> selected. We seem to require a +series of bold and abrupt variations. How can we imagine +that an inch in the tail of a peacock, or a quarter of an +inch in that of the bird of paradise, would be noticed and +preferred by the female?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Pray let me see what your son says about the sterility +selection question. I am deeply interested in all that concerns +the powers of Natural Selection, but, though I admit +there are a few things it cannot do, I do not yet believe +sterility to be one of them.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In case your son has turned his attention to mathematical +physics, will you ask him to look at the enclosed question, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page204">[pg 204]</span><a name="Pg204" id="Pg204" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>which I have vainly attempted to get an answer to?āBelieve +me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_86" id="toc_86"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 19-24,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have sent your query to Cambridge +to my son. He ought to answer it, for he got his place of +Second Wrangler chiefly by solving very difficult problems. +I enclose his remarks on two of your paragraphs: I should +like them returned some time, for I have not studied them, +and let me have your impression.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have told E. Edwards to send one of my large photographs +to you addressed to 76-1/2 Westbourne Grove, not to +be forwarded. When at home I will send my carte.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The sterility is a most [? puzzling] problem. I can see +so far, but I am hardly willing to admit all your assumptions, +and even if they were all admitted, the process is +so complex and the sterility (as you remark in your note) +so universal, even with species inhabiting quite distinct +countries (as I remarked in my chapter), together with +the frequency of a difference in reciprocal unions, that I +cannot persuade myself that it has been gained by Natural +Selection, any more than the difficulty of grafting distinct +genera and the impossibility of grafting distinct families. +You will allow, I suppose, that the capacity of grafting has +not been directly acquired through Natural Selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I think that you will be pleased with the second volume +or part of Lyell's Principles, just out.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In regard to sexual selection. A girl sees a handsome +man, and without observing whether his nose or whiskers +are the tenth of an inch longer or shorter than in some +other man, admires his appearance and says she will marry +him. So, I suppose, with the pea-hen; and the tail has +been increased in length merely by, on the whole, presenting +a more gorgeous appearance. Jenner Weir, however, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page205">[pg 205]</span><a name="Pg205" id="Pg205" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>has given me some facts showing that birds apparently +admire details of plumage.āYours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_87" id="toc_87"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Hurstpierpoint. March 24, [1868?].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for the photo, which I +shall get when I go to town.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I return your son's notes with my notes on them.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Without going into any details, is not this a strong +general argument?ā</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">1. A species varies occasionally in two directions, but +owing to their free intercrossing they (the variations) never +increase.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">2. A change of conditions occurs which threatens the +existence of the species, but the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">two varieties</span> are adapted +to the changing conditions, and, if accumulated, will form +two new <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">species adapted to the new conditions</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">3. Free crossing, however, renders this impossible, and +so the species is in danger of extinction.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">4. If <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">sterility</span> could be induced, then the pure races +would increase more rapidly and replace the old species.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">5. It is admitted that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">partial sterility</span> between <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">varieties</span> +does occasionally occur. It is admitted the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">degree</span> of this +sterility <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">varies</span>. Is it not probable that Natural Selection +can accumulate these variations and thus save the species?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If Natural Selection can <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not</span> do this, how do species +ever arise, except when a variety is isolated?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Closely allied species in distinct countries being sterile +is no difficulty, for either they diverged from a common +ancestor in contact, and Natural Selection increased the +sterility, or they were isolated, and have varied since, in +which case they have been for ages influenced by distinct +conditions which may well produce sterility.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If the difficulty of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">grafting</span> was as great as the difficulty +<span class="tei-pb" id="page206">[pg 206]</span><a name="Pg206" id="Pg206" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">crossing</span>, and as <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">regular</span>, I admit it would be a most +serious objection. But it is not. I believe many distinct +species can be grafted while others less distinct cannot. +The regularity with which natural species are sterile +together, even when <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">very much alike</span>, I think is an argument +in favour of the sterility having been generally produced +by Natural Selection for the good of the species.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The other difficulty, of unequal sterility of reciprocal +crosses, seems none to me; for it is a step to more complete +sterility, and as such would be useful and would be +increased by selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have read Sir C. Lyell's second volume with great +pleasure. He is, as usual, very cautious, and hardly ever +expresses a positive opinion, but the general effect of the +whole book is very strong, as the argument is all on +our side.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am in hopes it will bring in a new set of converts to +Natural Selection, and will at all events lead to a fresh +ventilation of the subject.āBelieve me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_88" id="toc_88"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 27,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āMy son has failed in your problem, +and says that it is "excessively difficult": he says you +will find something about it in Thomson and Tait, "Natural +Philosophy" (art. 649). He has, however, sent the solution, +if the plate rested on a square rim, but he supposes this +will not answer your purpose; nevertheless, I have forwarded +it by this same post. It seems that the rim being +round makes the problem much more difficult.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I enclose my photograph, which I have received from +Down. I sent your answer to George on his objection to +your argument on sterility, but have not yet heard from +him. I dread beginning to think over this fearful problem, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page207">[pg 207]</span><a name="Pg207" id="Pg207" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>which I believe beats the plate on the circular rim; +but I will sometime. I foresee, however, that there are so +many doubtful points that we shall never agree. As far +as a glance serves it seems to me, perhaps falsely, that +you sometimes argue that hybrids have an advantage from +greater vigour, and sometimes a disadvantage from not +being so well fitted to their conditions. Heaven protect +my stomach whenever I attempt following your argument!āYours +most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_89" id="toc_89"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent. April 6,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have been considering the terrible +problem. Let me first say that no man could have more +earnestly wished for the success of Natural Selection in +regard to sterility than I did, and when I considered a +general statement (as in your last note) I always felt sure +it could be worked out, but always failed in detail, the +cause being, as I believe, that Natural Selection cannot +effect what is not good for the individual, including in +this term a social community. It would take a volume to +discuss all the points; and nothing is so humiliating to +me as to agree with a man like you (or Hooker) on the +premises and disagree about the result.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I agree with my son's argument and not with rejoinder. +The cause of our difference, I think, is that I look at the +number of offspring as an important element (all circumstances +remaining the same) in keeping up the average +number of individuals within any area. I do not believe +that the amount of food by any means is the sole determining +cause of number. Lessened fertility is equivalent +to a new source of destruction. I believe if in one district +a species produce <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">from any cause</span> fewer young, the deficiency +would be supplied from surrounding districts. This +applies to your par. 5. If the species produced fewer young +<span class="tei-pb" id="page208">[pg 208]</span><a name="Pg208" id="Pg208" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>from any cause in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">every</span> district, it would become extinct +unless its fertility were augmented through Natural Selection +(<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">see</span> H. Spencer).</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I demur to the probability and almost to the possibility of +par. 1, as you start with two forms, within the same area, +which are not mutually sterile, and which yet have supplanted +the parent-form (par. 6). I know of no ghost of +a fact supporting belief that disinclination to cross accompanies +sterility. It cannot hold with plants, or the lower +fixed aquatic animals. I saw clearly what an immense aid +this would be, but gave it up. Disinclination to cross seems +to have been independently acquired, probably by Natural +Selection; and I do not see why it would not have sufficed +to have prevented incipient species from blending to have +simply increased sexual disinclination to cross.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Par. 11: I demur to a certain extent to amount of +sterility and structural dissimilarity necessarily going +together, except indirectly and by no means strictly. +Look at the case of pigeons, fowls, and cabbages.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I overlooked the advantage of the half-sterility of reciprocal +crosses; yet, perhaps from novelty, I do not feel +inclined to admit the probability of Natural Selection +having done its work so clearly.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I will not discuss the second case of utter sterility; but +your assumptions in par. 13 seem to me much too complicated. +I cannot believe so universal an attribute as utter +sterility between remote species was acquired in so complex +a manner. I do not agree with your rejoinder on +grafting; I fully admit that it is not so closely restricted +as crossing; but this does not seem to me to weaken the +case as one of analogy. The incapacity of grafting is likewise +an invariable attribute of plants sufficiently remote from +each other, and sometimes of plants pretty closely allied.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The difficulty of increasing the sterility, through Natural +<span class="tei-pb" id="page209">[pg 209]</span><a name="Pg209" id="Pg209" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Selection, of two already sterile species seems to me best +brought home by considering an actual case. The cowslip +and primrose are moderately sterile, yet occasionally +produce hybrids: now these hybrids, two or three or a +dozen in a whole parish, occupy ground which <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">might</span> have +been occupied by either pure species, and no doubt the +latter suffer to this small extent. But can you conceive +that any individual plants of the primrose and cowslip, +which happened to be mutually rather more sterile (i.e. +which when crossed yielded a few less seeds) than usual, +would profit to such a degree as to increase in number to +the ultimate exclusion of the present primrose and cowslip? +I cannot.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My son, I am sorry to say, cannot see the full force of +your rejoinder in regard to the second head of continually +augmented sterility. You speak in this rejoinder, and in +par. 5, of all the individuals becoming in some slight +degree sterile in certain districts; if you were to admit +that by continued exposure to these same conditions the +sterility would inevitably increase, there would be no need +of Natural Selection. But I suspect that the sterility is +not caused so much by any particular conditions, as by +long habituation to conditions of any kind. To speak +according to pangenesis, the gemmules of hybrids are not +injured, for hybrids propagate freely by buds; but their +reproductive organs are somehow affected, so that they +cannot accumulate the proper gemmules, in nearly the same +manner as the reproductive organs of a pure species +become affected when exposed to unnatural conditions.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This is a very ill-expressed and ill-written letter. Do +not answer it, unless the spirit urges you. Life is too +short for so long a discussion. We shall, I <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">greatly</span> fear, +never agree.āMy dear Wallace, most sincerely yours,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page210">[pg 210]</span><a name="Pg210" id="Pg210" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_90" id="toc_90"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Hurstpierpoint. [?] April 8,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI am sorry you should have given yourself +the trouble to answer my ideas on Sterility. If you +are not convinced, I have little doubt but that I am +wrong; and in fact I was only <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">half convinced</span> by my own +arguments, and I now think there is about an even chance +that Natural Selection may or not be able to accumulate +sterility. If my first proposition is modified to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">the existence +of a species and a variety in the same area</span>, it will +do just as well for my argument. Such certainly do +exist. They are fertile together, and yet each maintains +itself tolerably distinct. How can this be, if there is no +disinclination to crossing? My belief certainly is that +number of offspring is not so important an element in +keeping up population of a species as supply of food and +other favourable conditions, because the numbers of a +species constantly vary greatly in different parts of its +area, whereas the average number of offspring is not a +very variable element.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">However, I will say no more but leave the problem as +insoluble, only fearing that it will become a formidable +weapon in the hands of the enemies of Natural Selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">While writing a few pages on the northern alpine +forms of plants on the Java mountains I wanted a few +cases to refer to like Teneriffe, where there are no <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">northern</span> +forms, and scarcely any alpine. I expected the volcanoes +of Hawaii would be a good case, and asked Dr. Seeman +about them. It seems a man has lately published a list of +Hawaiian plants, and the mountains swarm with European +alpine genera and some species!<a name="noteref_68" id="noteref_68"></a><a href="#note_68"><span class="footnoteref">68</span></a> Is not this most extraordinary +and a puzzler? They are, I believe, truly oceanic +<span class="tei-pb" id="page211">[pg 211]</span><a name="Pg211" id="Pg211" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>islands in the absence of mammals and the extreme poverty +of birds and insects, and they are within the tropics. Will +not that be a hard nut for you when you come to treat in +detail on geographical distribution?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I enclose Seeman's note, which please return when you +have copied the list, if of any use to you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Many thanks for your carte, which I think very good. +The large one had not arrived when I was in town last +week.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sir C. Lyell's chapter on Oceanic Islands I think very +good.āBelieve me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_91" id="toc_91"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 9,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āYou allude in your note to several +points which I should much enjoy discussing with you did +time and strength permit. I know Dr. Seeman is a good +botanist, but I most strongly advise you to show the list +to Hooker before you make use of the materials in print. +Hooker seems much overworked, and is now gone a tour, +but I suppose you will be in town before very long, and +could see him. The list is quite unintelligible to me; it +is not pretended that the same species exist in the Sandwich +Islands and Arctic regions; and as far as the genera +are concerned, I know that in almost every one of +them species inhabit such countries as Florida, North +Africa, New Holland, etc. Therefore these, genera seem +to me almost mundane, and their presence in the Sandwich +Islands will not, as I suspect in my ignorance, +show any relation to the Arctic regions. The Sandwich +Islands, though I have never considered them much, have +long been a sore perplexity to me: they are eminently +oceanic in position and productions; they have long been +separated from each other; and there are only slight signs +<span class="tei-pb" id="page212">[pg 212]</span><a name="Pg212" id="Pg212" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of subsidence in the islets to the westward. I remember, +however, speculating that there must have been some immigration +during the glacial period from North America +or Japan; but I cannot remember what my grounds were. +Some of the plants, I think, show an affinity with Australia. +I am very glad that you like Lyell's chapter on Oceanic +Islands, for I thought it one of the best in the part which +I have read. If you do not receive the big photo of me in +due time, let me hear.āYours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">The following refers to Wallace's article, "A Theory of +Birds' Nests," in Andrew Murray's <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Journal of Travel</span>, +i. 73. He here treats in fuller detail the view already published +in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Westminster Review</span> for July, 1867, p. 38. +The rule which Wallace believes, with very few exceptions, +to hold good is, "that when both sexes are of strikingly +gay and conspicuous colours, the nest is ... such as to +conceal the sitting bird; while, whenever there is a striking +contrast of colours, the male being gay and conspicuous, +the female dull and obscure, the nest is open and the +sitting bird exposed to view." At this time Wallace allowed +considerably more influence to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">sexual</span> selection (in combination +with the need of protection) than in his later writings. +See his letter to Darwin of July 23, 1877 (p. 298), which +fixes the period at which the change in his views occurred. +He finally rejected Darwin's theory that colours "have +been developed by the preference of the females, the more +ornamented males becoming the parents of each successive +generation." (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">See</span> "Darwinism," 1889, p. 285.)</p> + + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 15,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have been deeply interested by +your admirable article on Birds' Nests. I am delighted +to see that we really differ very littleānot more than two +men almost always will. You do not lay much or any +stress on new characters spontaneously appearing in one +<span class="tei-pb" id="page213">[pg 213]</span><a name="Pg213" id="Pg213" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>sex (generally the male) and being transmitted exclusively, +or more commonly only in excess, to that sex. I, on the +other hand, formerly paid far too little attention to protection. +I had only a glimpse of the truth. But even +now I do not go quite as far as you. I cannot avoid +thinking rather more than you do about the exceptions in +nesting to the rule, especially the partial exceptions, i.e. +when there is some little difference between the sexes in +species which build concealed nests. I am now quite satisfied +about the incubating males; there is so little difference +in conspicuousness between the sexes. I wish with +all my heart I could go the whole length with you. You +seem to think that such birds probably select the most +beautiful females: I must feel some doubt on this head, +for I can find no evidence of it. Though I am writing so +carping a note, I admire the article <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">thoroughly</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">And now I want to ask a question. When female +butterflies are more brilliant than their males, you believe +that they have in most cases, or in all cases, been rendered +brilliant so as to mimic some other species and thus escape +danger. But can you account for the males not having been +rendered equally brilliant and equally protected? Although +it may be most for the welfare of the species that the female +should be protected, yet it would be some advantage, certainly +no disadvantage, for the unfortunate male to enjoy +an equal immunity from danger. For my part, I should +say that the female alone had happened to vary in the right +manner, and that the beneficial variations had been transmitted +to the same sex alone. Believing in this, I can see +no improbability (but from analogy of domestic animals a +strong probability): the variations leading to beauty must +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">often</span> have occurred in the males alone, and been transmitted +to that sex alone. Thus I should account in many +cases for the greater beauty of the male over the female, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page214">[pg 214]</span><a name="Pg214" id="Pg214" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>without the need of the protective principle. I should be +grateful for an answer on this point.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope that your Eastern book progresses well.āMy +dear Wallace, yours sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">Sir Clifford Allbutt's view, referred to in the following +letter, probably had reference to the fact that the sperm-cell +goes, or is carried, to the germ-cell, never vice versa. +In this letter Darwin gives the reason for the "law" referred +to. Wallace has been good enough to supply the +following note (May 27, 1902): "It was at this time +that my paper on 'Protective Resemblance' first appeared +in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Westminster Review</span>, in which I adduced the greater, +or, rather, the more continuous, importance of the female +(in the lower animals) for the race, and my 'Theory of +Birds' Nests' (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Journal of Travel and Natural History</span>, +No. 2), in which I applied this to the usually dull colours +of female butterflies and birds. It is to these articles, as +well as to my letters, that Darwin chiefly refers."</p> + + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 30,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āYour letter, like so many previous +ones, has interested me much. Dr. Allbutt's view occurred +to me some time ago, and I have written a short discussion +on it. It is, I think, a remarkable law, to which I have +found no exception. The foundation lies in the fact that +in many cases the eggs or seeds require nourishment +and protection by the mother-form for some time after +impregnation. Hence the spermatozoa and antherozoids +travel in the lower aquatic animals and plants to the +female, and pollen is borne to the female organ. As +organisms rise in the scale it seems natural that the +male should carry the spermatozoa to the females in his +own body. As the male is the searcher he has received +and gained more eager passions than the female; and, +very differently from you, I look at this as <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">one</span> great difficulty +<span class="tei-pb" id="page215">[pg 215]</span><a name="Pg215" id="Pg215" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in believing that the males select the more attractive +females; as far as I can discover they are always ready +to seize on any female, and sometimes on many females. +Nothing would please me more than to find evidence of +males selecting the more attractive females [? <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">in pigeons</span><a name="noteref_69" id="noteref_69"></a><a href="#note_69"><span class="footnoteref">69</span></a>]: +I have for months been trying to persuade myself of this. +There is the case of man in favour of this belief, and I +know in hybrid [<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">lizards'</span><a name="noteref_70" id="noteref_70"></a><a href="#note_70"><span class="footnoteref">70</span></a>] unions of males preferring particular +females, but alas! not guided by colour. Perhaps I +may get more evidence as I wade through my twenty years' +mass of notes.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am not shaken about the female protected butterflies: +I will grant (only for argument) that the life of the male +is of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">very</span> little value; I will grant that the males do not +vary; yet why has not the protective beauty of the female +been transferred by inheritance to the male? The beauty +would be a gain to the male, as far as we can see, as a protection; +and I cannot believe that it would be repulsive to +the female as she became beautiful. But we shall never +convince each other. I sometimes marvel how truth progresses, +so difficult is it for one man to convince another +unless his mind is vacant. Nevertheless, I myself to a +certain extent contradict my own remark; for I believe +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">far more</span> in the importance of protection than I did before +reading your articles.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I do not think you lay nearly stress enough in your +articles on what you admit in your letter, viz. "there +seems to be some production of vividness ... of colour in +the male independent of protection." This I am making +a chief point; and have come to your conclusion so far that +I believe that intense colouring in the female sex is often +checked by being dangerous.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">That is an excellent remark of yours about no known +<span class="tei-pb" id="page216">[pg 216]</span><a name="Pg216" id="Pg216" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>case of the male <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">alone</span> assuming protective colours; but +in the cases in which protection has been gained by dull +colours, I presume that sexual selection would interfere +with the male losing his beauty. If the male alone had +acquired beauty as a protection, it would be most readily +overlooked, as males are so often more beautiful than +their females. Moreover, I grant that the loss of the +male is somewhat less precious and thus there would be +less rigorous selection with the male, so he would be less +likely to be made beautiful through Natural Selection for +protection. (This does not apply to sexual selection, for +the greater the excess of males and the less precious their +lives, so much the better for sexual selection.) But it +seems to me a good argument, and very good if it could be +thoroughly established.āYours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I do not know whether you will care to read this scrawl.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI heard yesterday that my photograph had been +sent to your London addressāWestbourne Grove.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_92" id="toc_92"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 5,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI am afraid I have caused you a +great deal of trouble in writing to me at such length. I +am glad to say that I agree almost entirely with your summary, +except that I should put sexual selection as an equal +or perhaps as even a more important agent in giving colour +than natural selection for protection. As I get on in my +work I hope to get clearer and more decided ideas. Working +up from the bottom of the scale I have as yet only got +to fishes. What I rather object to in your articles is that +I do not think anyone would infer from them that you +place sexual selection even as high as No. 4 in your summary. +It was very natural that you should give only a +<span class="tei-pb" id="page217">[pg 217]</span><a name="Pg217" id="Pg217" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>line to sexual selection in the summary to the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Westminster +Review</span>, but the result at first to my mind was that you +attributed hardly anything to its power. In your penultimate +note you say: "In the great mass of cases in which +there is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">great</span> differentiation of colour between the sexes, +I believe it is due <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">almost wholly</span> to the need of protection +to the female." Now, looking to the whole animal kingdom +I can at present by no means admit this view; but +pray do not suppose that because I differ to a certain +extent, I do not thoroughly admire your several papers +and your admirable generalisation on birds' nests. With +respect to this latter point, however, although following +you, I suspect that I shall ultimately look at the whole +case from a rather different point of view.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You ask what I think about the gay-coloured females +of Pieris:<a name="noteref_71" id="noteref_71"></a><a href="#note_71"><span class="footnoteref">71</span></a> I believe I quite follow you in believing that +the colours are wholly due to mimicry; and I further +believe that the male is not brilliant from not having received +through inheritance colour from the female, and +from not himself having varied; in short, that he has not +been influenced by Selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I can make no answer with respect to the elephants. +With respect to the female reindeer, I have hitherto looked +at the horns simply as the consequence of inheritance <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not</span> +having been limited by sex.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Your idea about colour being concentrated in the smaller +males seems good, and I presume that you will not object +to my giving it as your suggestion.āBelieve me, my dear +Wallace, with many thanks, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">Wallace's more recent views on the question of Natural +Selection and Sterility may be found in a note written by +<span class="tei-pb" id="page218">[pg 218]</span><a name="Pg218" id="Pg218" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>him in 1899: "When writing my 'Darwinism' and coming +again to the consideration of the problem of the effect of +Natural Selection in accumulating variations in the amount +of sterility between varieties or incipient species, twenty +years later, I became more convinced than I was when +discussing with Darwin, of the substantial accuracy of +my argument. Recently a correspondent who is both a +naturalist and a mathematician has pointed out to me a +slight error in my calculation at p, 183 (which does not, +however, materially affect the result) disproving the physiological +selection of the late Dr. Romanes, but he can +see no fallacy in my argument as to the power of Natural +Selection to increase sterility between incipient species, +nor, so far as I am aware, has anyone shown such fallacy +to exist.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">"On the other points on which I differed from Mr. +Darwin in the foregoing discussionāthe effect of high fertility +on population of a species, etc.āI still hold the +views I then expressed, but it would be out of place to +attempt to justify them here."āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_93" id="toc_93"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. August 16, [1868?],</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI ought to have written before to thank +you for the copies of your paper on "Primula" and on +"Cross Unions of Dimorphic Plants, etc." The latter is +particularly interesting, and the conclusion most important; +but I think it makes the difficulty of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">how</span> these forms, +with their varying degrees of sterility, originated, greater +than ever. If Natural Selection could not accumulate +varying degrees of sterility for the plant's benefit, then +how did sterility ever come to be associated with <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">one cross</span> +of a trimorphic plant rather than another? The difficulty +seems to be increased by the consideration that the advantage +of a cross with a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">distinct individual</span> is gained just +as well by illegitimate as by legitimate unions. By what +means, then, did illegitimate unions ever become sterile? +It would seem a far simpler way for each plant's pollen +<span class="tei-pb" id="page219">[pg 219]</span><a name="Pg219" id="Pg219" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>to have acquired a prepotency on another individual's +stigma over that of the same individual, without the extraordinary +complication of three differences of structure +and eighteen different unions with varying degrees of +sterility!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">However, the fact remains an excellent answer to the +statement that sterility of hybrids proves the absolute distinctness +of the parents.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been reading with great pleasure Mr. Bentham's +last admirable address,<a name="noteref_72" id="noteref_72"></a><a href="#note_72"><span class="footnoteref">72</span></a> in which he so well replies to the +gross misstatements of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">AthenƦum</span>; and also says a +word in favour of pangenesis. I think we may now congratulate +you on having made a valuable convert, whose +opinions on the subject, coming so late and being evidently +so well considered, will have much weight.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am going to Norwich on Tuesday to hear Dr. Hooker, +who I hope will boldly promulgate "Darwinianism" in his +address. Shall we have the pleasure of seeing you there?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am engaged in negotiations about my book.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you are well and getting on with your next +volumes, believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_94" id="toc_94"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Freshwater, Isle of Wight. August 19,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āThanks for your note. I did sometimes +think of going to Norwich, for I should have very +much liked it, but it has been quite out of the question. +We have been here for five weeks for a change, and it has +done me some little good; but I have been forced to live +the life of a drone, and for a month before leaving home +I was unable to do anything and had to stop all work.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">We return to Down to-morrow.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hooker has been here for two or three days, so that I +<span class="tei-pb" id="page220">[pg 220]</span><a name="Pg220" id="Pg220" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>have had much talk about his Address. I am glad that +you will be there.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">It is real good news that your book is so advanced that +you are negotiating about its publication.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With respect to dimorphic plants: it is a great puzzle, +but I <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">fancy</span> I partially see my wayātoo long for a letter +and too speculative for publication. The groundwork of +the acquirement of such peculiar fertility (for what you +say about any other distinct individual being, as it would +appear, sufficient, is very true) rests on the stamens and +pistil having varied first in relative length, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">as actually +occurs</span> irrespective of dimorphism, and the peculiar kind +of fertility characteristic of dimorphic and the trimorphic +plants having been <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">secondarily</span> acquired. Pangenesis makes +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">very</span> few converts: G.H. Lewes is one.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I had become, before my nine weeks' horrid interruption +of all work, extremely interested in sexual selection +and was making fair progress. In truth, it has vexed me +much to find that the further I get on, the more I differ +from you about the females being dull-coloured for protection. +I can now hardly express myself as strongly +even as in the "Origin." This has <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">much decreased</span> the +pleasure of my work.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In the course of September, if I can get at all stronger, +I hope to get Mr. J. Jenner Weir (who has been <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">wonderfully</span> +kind in giving me information) to pay me a visit, +and I will then write for the chance of your being able to +come and, I hope, bring with you Mrs. Wallace. If I +could get several of you together, it would be less dull for +you, for of late I have found it impossible to talk with any +human being for more than half an hour, except on extraordinarily +good days.āBelieve me, my dear Wallace, ever +yours sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page221">[pg 221]</span><a name="Pg221" id="Pg221" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_95" id="toc_95"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent. August 30, [1868?].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI was very sorry to hear you had been +so unwell again, and hope you will not exert yourself to +write me such long letters. Darwinianism was in the +ascendant at Norwich (I hope you do not dislike the word, +for we really <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">must</span> use it), and I think it rather disgusted +some of the parsons, joined with the amount of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">advice</span> they +received from Hooker and Huxley. The worst of it is that +there are no opponents left who know anything of natural +history, so that there are none of the good discussions we +used to have. G.H. Lewes seems to me to be making a +great mistake in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Fortnightly</span>, advocating <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">many distinct</span> +origins for different groups, and even, if I understand him, +distinct origins for some allied groups, just as the anthropologists +do who make the red man descend from the orang, +the black man from the chimpanzeeāor rather the Malay +and orang one ancestor, the negro and chimpanzee another. +Vogt told me that the Germans are all becoming converted +by your last book.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am certainly surprised that you should find so much +evidence against protection having checked the acquirement +of bright colour in females; but I console myself +by presumptuously hoping that I can explain your facts, +unless they are derived from the very groups on which I +chiefly restābirds and insects. There is nothing <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">necessarily</span> +requiring protection in females; it is a matter of +habits. There are groups in which both sexes require protection +in an exactly equal degree, and others (I think) in +which the male requires most protection, and I feel the +greatest confidence that these will ultimately support my +view, although I do <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not</span> yet know the facts they may afford.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you are in better health, believe me, dear +Darwin, yours faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page222">[pg 222]</span><a name="Pg222" id="Pg222" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_96" id="toc_96"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. September 5, [1868?].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āIt will give me great pleasure to accept +your kind invitation for next Saturday and Sunday, and +my wife would very much like to come too, and will if +possible. Unfortunately, there is a new servant coming +that very day, and there is a baby at the mischievous age +of a year and a quarter to be left in somebody's care; but +I daresay it will be managed somehow.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I will drop a line on Friday to say if we are coming +the time you mention.āBelieve me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_97" id="toc_97"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Friday</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āMy wife has arranged to accompany +me to-morrow, and we hope to be at Orpington Station at +5.44, as mentioned by you.āVery truly yours,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_98" id="toc_98"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. September 16,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āThe beetles have arrived, and cordial +thanks: I never saw such wonderful creatures in my life. +I was thinking of something quite different. I shall wait +till my son Frank returns, before soaking and examining +them. I long to steal the box, but return it by this post, +like a too honest man.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am so much pleased about the male musk Callichroma; +for by odd chance I told Frank a week ago that next +spring he must collect at Cambridge lots of Cerambyx +moschatus, for as sure as life he would find the odour +sexual!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You will be pleased to hear that I am undergoing severe +distress about protection and sexual selection: this morning +I oscillated with joy towards you; this evening I have +<span class="tei-pb" id="page223">[pg 223]</span><a name="Pg223" id="Pg223" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>swung back to the old position, out of which I fear I shall +never get.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I did most thoroughly enjoy my talk with you three +gentlemen, and especially with you, and to my great surprise +it has not knocked me up. Pray give my kindest +remembrances to Mrs. Wallace, and if my wife were at +home she would cordially join in this.āYours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have had this morning a capital letter from Walsh of +Illinois; but details too long to give.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">Among Wallace's papers was found the following draft +of a letter of his to Darwin:</p> + + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. September 18,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āThe more I think of your views as to +the colours of females, the more difficulty I find in accepting +them, and as you are now working at the subject I +hope it will not interrupt you to hear "counsel on the +other side."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have a "general" and a "special" argument to submit.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">1. Female birds and insects are generally exposed to +more danger than the male, and in the case of insects their +existence is necessary for a longer period.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">2. They therefore require in some way or other a special +balance of protection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">3. Now, if the male and female were distinct species, +with different habits and organisations, you would, I +think, at once admit that a difference of colour serving to +make that one less conspicuous which evidently required +more protection than the other had been acquired by +Natural Selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">4. But you admit that variations appearing in one sex +are transmitted (often) to that sex only: there is therefore +<span class="tei-pb" id="page224">[pg 224]</span><a name="Pg224" id="Pg224" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>nothing to prevent Natural Selection acting on the two +sexes as if they were two species.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">5. Your objection that the same protection would to a +certain extent be useful to the male, seems to me utterly +unsound, and directly opposed to your own doctrine so +convincingly urged in the "Origin," "<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">that Natural Selection +never can improve an animal beyond its needs</span>." So +that admitting abundant variation of colour in the male, +it is impossible that he can be brought by Natural Selection +to resemble the female (unless <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">her</span> variations are +always transmitted to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">him</span>), because the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">difference</span> of their +colours is to balance the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">difference</span> in their organisations +and habits, and Natural Selection cannot give to the male +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">more</span> than is needed to effect that balance.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">6. The fact that in almost all protected groups the +females perfectly resemble the males shows, I think, a +tendency to transference of colour from one sex to the +other when this tendency is not injurious.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Or perhaps the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">protection</span> is acquired because this +tendency exists. I admit therefore in the case of concealed +nests they [habits] may have been acquired for +protection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now for the special case.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">7. In the very weak-flying Leptalis both sexes mimic +HeliconidƦ.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">8. In the much more powerful Papilio, Pieris, and +Diadema it is generally the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">female only</span> that mimics +Danaida.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">9. In these cases the females often acquire more bright +and varied colours than the male. Sometimes, as in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pieris +pyrrha</span>, conspicuously so.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">10. No single case is known of a male Papilio, Pieris, +Diadema (or any other insect?) <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">alone</span> mimicking a Danais, +etc. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page225">[pg 225]</span><a name="Pg225" id="Pg225" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +11. But colour is more frequent in males, and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">variations</span> +always seem ready for purposes of sexual or other +selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">12. The fair inference seems to be that given in proposition +5 of the general argument, viz. that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">each species</span> +and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">each sex</span> can only be modified by selection just as far +as is absolutely necessary, not a step farther. A male, +being by structure and habits less exposed to danger and +less requiring protection than the female, cannot have +more protection given to it by Natural Selection, but a +female must have some extra protection to balance the +greater danger, and she rapidly acquires it in one way or +another.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">13. An objection derived from cases like male fish, +which seem to require protection, yet having brighter +colours, seems to me of no more weight than is that of +the existence of many white and unprotected species of +Leptalis to Bates's theory of mimicry, that only one or +two species of butterflies perfectly resemble leaves, or that +the instincts or habits or colours that seem essential to the +preservation of one animal are often totally absent in an +allied species.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_99" id="toc_99"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent. September 23,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI am very much obliged for all your +trouble in writing me your long letter, which I will keep +by me and ponder over. To answer it would require at +least 200 folio pages! If you could see how often I have +rewritten some pages, you would know how anxious I am +to arrive as near as I can to the truth. We differ, I think, +chiefly from fixing our minds perhaps too closely on different +points, on which we agree: I lay great stress on what +I know takes place under domestication: I think we start +with different fundamental notions on inheritance. I find +<span class="tei-pb" id="page226">[pg 226]</span><a name="Pg226" id="Pg226" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>it most difficult, but not, I think, impossible, to see how, for +instance, a few red feathers appearing on the head of a male bird, and +which <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">are at first transmitted to both sexes</span>, could come to be +transmitted to males alone;<a name="noteref_73" id="noteref_73"></a><a href="#note_73"><span class="footnoteref">73</span></a> but I have no difficulty in making the +whole head red if the few red feathers in the male from the first tended +to be sexually transmitted. I am quite willing to admit that the female +may have been modified, either at the same time or subsequently, for +protection, by the accumulation of variations limited in their +transmission to the female sex. I owe to your writings the consideration +of this latter point. But I cannot yet persuade myself that females +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">alone</span> have often been modified for protection. Should you grudge the +trouble briefly to tell me whether you believe that the plainer head and +less bright <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">colours</span> of [female symbol]<a name="noteref_74" id="noteref_74"></a><a href="#note_74"><span class="footnoteref">74</span></a> chaffinch, the less red on +the head and less clean colours of [female symbol] goldfinch, the much +less red on breast of [female symbol] bullfinch, the paler crest of +goldencrest wren, etc., have been acquired by them for protection? I +cannot think so; any more than I can that the considerable differences +between [female symbol] and [male symbol] house-sparrow, or much greater +brightness of [male symbol] <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Parus cƦruleus</span> (both of which build under +cover) than of [female symbol] Parus are related to protection. I even +misdoubt much whether the less blackness of blackbird is for protection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Again, can you give me reason for believing that the +merest differences between female pheasants, the female +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Gallus bankiva</span>, the female of black grouse, the pea-hen, +female partridge, have all special reference to protection +<span class="tei-pb" id="page227">[pg 227]</span><a name="Pg227" id="Pg227" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>under slightly different conditions? I of course admit that +they are all protected by dull colours, derived, as I think, +from some dull-ground progenitor; and I account partly +for their difference by partial transference of colour from +the male, and by other means too long to specify; but I +earnestly wish to see reason to believe that each is specially +adapted for concealment to its environment.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I grieve to differ from you, and it actually terrifies me, +and makes me constantly distrust myself.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I fear we shall never quite understand each other. I +value the cases of bright-coloured, incubating male fishesāand +brilliant female butterflies, solely as showing that +one sex may be made brilliant without any necessary +transference of beauty to the other sex; for in these cases +I cannot suppose that beauty in the other sex was checked +by selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I fear this letter will trouble you to read it. A very +short answer about your belief in regard to the [female symbol] finches +and GallinaceƦ would suffice.āBelieve me, my dear Wallace, +yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_100" id="toc_100"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, S.W. September 27,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āYour view seems to be that variations +occurring in one sex are transmitted either to that sex exclusively +or to both sexes equally, or more rarely partially +transferred. But we have every gradation of sexual colours +from total dissimilarity to perfect identity. If this is explained +solely by the laws of inheritance, then the colours +of one or other sex will be always (in relation to their +environment) a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">matter of chance</span>. I cannot think this. I +think Selection more powerful than laws of inheritance, +of which it makes use, as shown by cases of two, three or +four forms of female butterflies, all of which have, I have +little doubt, been specialised for protection. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page228">[pg 228]</span><a name="Pg228" id="Pg228" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +To answer your first question is most difficult, if not +impossible, because we have no sufficient evidence in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">individual +cases of slight sexual difference</span>, to determine +whether the male alone has acquired his superior brightness +by sexual selection, or the female been made duller +by need of protection, or whether the two causes have +acted. Many of the sexual differences of existing species +may be inherited differences from parent forms who existed +under different conditions and had greater or less need of +protection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I think I admitted before the general tendency (probably) +of males to acquire brighter tints. Yet this cannot be universal, +for many female birds and quadrupeds have equally +bright tints.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I think the case of [female symbol] <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pieris pyrrha</span> proves that females +alone can be greatly modified for protection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">To your second question I can reply more decidedly. I +do think the females of the GallmaceƦ you mention have +been modified or been prevented from acquiring the +brighter plumage of the male by need of protection. I +know that the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Gallus bankiva</span> frequents drier and more +open situations than the pea-hen of Java, which is found +among grassy and leafy vegetation corresponding with the +colours of the two. So the Argus pheasant, [male symbol] and [female +symbol], are, +I feel sure, protected by their tints corresponding to the +dead leaves of the lofty forest in which they dwell, and the +female of the gorgeous fire-back pheasant, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Lophura viellottii</span>, +is of a very similar <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">rich brown colour</span>. I do not, however, +at all think the question can be settled by individual cases, +but only by large masses of facts.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The colours of the mass of female birds seem to me +strictly analogous to the colours of both sexes of snipes, +woodcocks, plovers, etc., which are undoubtedly protective.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now, supposing, on your view, that the colours of a +<span class="tei-pb" id="page229">[pg 229]</span><a name="Pg229" id="Pg229" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>male bird become more and more brilliant by sexual selection, +and a good deal of that colour is transmitted to the +female till it becomes positively injurious to her during +incubation and the race is in danger of extinction, do you +not think that all the females who had acquired less of +the male's bright colours or who themselves varied in a +protective direction would be preserved, and that thus a +good protective colouring would be acquired? If you +admit that this could occur, and can show no good reason +why it should not often occur, then we no longer differ, +for this is the main point of my view.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Have you ever thought of the red wax-tips of the Bombycilla +beautifully imitating the red fructification of lichens +used in the nest, and therefore the females have it too? Yet +this is a very sexual-looking character.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">We begin printing this week.āYours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āPray don't distress yourself on this subject. It +will all come right in the end, and after all it is only an +episode in your great work.āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_101" id="toc_101"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. October 4,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI should have answered your letter +before, but have been very busy reading over my MSS. +the last time before going to press, drawing maps, +etc. etc.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Your first question cannot be answered, because we have +not, in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">individual cases</span> of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">slight sexual</span> difference, sufficient +evidence to determine how much of that difference is due to +sexual selection acting on the male, how much to natural +selection (protective) acting on the female, or how much +of the difference may be due to inherited differences from +ancestors who lived under different conditions. On your +second question I can give an opinion. I do think the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page230">[pg 230]</span><a name="Pg230" id="Pg230" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>females of the GallinaceƦ you mention have been either +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">modified</span>; or <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">prevented from acquiring much of the brighter +plumage of the males</span>, by the need of protection. I know +that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Gallus bankiva</span> frequents drier and more open situations +than <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pavo muticus</span>, which in Java is found among +grassy and leafy vegetation corresponding with the colours +of the two females. So the Argus pheasants, male and +female, are, I feel sure, protected by their tints corresponding +to dead leaves of the dry lofty forests in which +they dwell; and the female of the gorgeous fire-back +pheasant, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Lophura viellottii</span>, is of a very similar rich +brown colour.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">These and many other colours of female birds seem to +me exactly analogous to the colours of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">both sexes</span> in such +groups as the snipes, woodcocks, plovers, ptarmigan, desert +birds, Arctic animals, greenbirds.</p> + +<blockquote style="margin: 2em 4em" class="tei tei-quote"> +<p class="tei tei-p">[The second page of this letter has been torn off. This +letter and that of September 27 appear both to answer the +same letter from Darwin. The last page of this or of +another letter was placed with it in the portfolio of +letters; it is now given.]</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am sorry to find that our difference of opinion on this +point is a source of anxiety to you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Pray do not let it be so. The truth will come out at +last, and our difference may be the means of setting others +to work who may set us both right.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">After all, this question is only an episode (though an important +one) in the great question of the origin of species, +and whether you or I are right will not at all affect the main +doctrineāthat is one comfort.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope you will publish your treatise on Sexual Selection +as a separate book as soon as possible, and then +while you are going on with your other work, there will no +<span class="tei-pb" id="page231">[pg 231]</span><a name="Pg231" id="Pg231" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>doubt be found someone to battle with me over your facts, +on this hard problem.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With best wishes and kind regards to Mrs. Darwin and +all your family, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_102" id="toc_102"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. October 6,</span> 1868.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āYour letter is very valuable to me, +and in every way very kind. I will not inflict a long +answer, but only answer your queries. There are breeds +(viz. Hamburgh) in which both sexes differ much from +each other and from both sexes of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">G. bankiva</span>; and both +sexes are kept constant by selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The comb of Spanish [male symbol] has been ordered to be upright +and that of Spanish [female symbol] to lop over, and this has been +effected. There are sub-breeds of game fowl, with [female symbol]s +very distinct and [male symbol]s almost identical; but this apparently +is the result of spontaneous variation without special +selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am very glad to hear of the case of [female symbol] birds of paradise.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have never in the least doubted the possibility of modifying +female birds <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">alone</span> for protection; and I have long +believed it for butterflies: I have wanted only evidence for +the females alone of birds having had their colours modified +for protection. But then I believe that the variations +by which a female bird or butterfly could get or has got +protective colouring have probably from the first been +variations limited in their transmission to the female sex; +and so with the variations of the male, where the male is +more beautiful than the female, I believe the variations +were sexually limited in their transmission to the males. +I am delighted to hear that you have been hard at work +on your MS.āYours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page232">[pg 232]</span><a name="Pg232" id="Pg232" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_103" id="toc_103"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 20,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āIt will give me very great pleasure if +you will allow me to dedicate my little book of Malayan +Travels to you, although it will be far too small and unpretending +a work to be worthy of that honour. Still, I +have done what I can to make it a vehicle for communicating +a taste for the higher branches of Natural History, +and I know that you will judge it only too favourably. +We are in the middle of the second volume, and if the +printers will get on, shall be out next month.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Have you seen in the last number of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly +Journal of Science</span> the excellent remarks on <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Fraser's</span> +article on Natural Selection failing as to Man? In one +page it gets to the heart of the question, and I have +written to the editor to ask who the author is.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My friend Spruce's paper on Palms is to be read to-morrow +evening at the Linnean. He tells me it contains +a discovery which he calls "alteration of function." He +found a clump of Geonema all of which were females, and +the next year the same clump were all males! He has +found other facts analogous to this, and I have no doubt +the subject is one that will interest you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you are pretty well and are getting on steadily +with your next volumes, and with kind regards to Mrs. +Darwin and all your circle, believe me, dear Darwin, yours +very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āHave you seen the admirable article in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Guardian</span> (!) on Lyell's "Principles"? It is most excellent +and liberal. It is written by the Rev. Geo. Buckle, of +Tiverton Vicarage, Bath, whom I met at Norwich and +found a thoroughly scientific and liberal parson. Perhaps +you have heard that I have undertaken to write an +article for the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly</span> (!) on the same subject, to make +<span class="tei-pb" id="page233">[pg 233]</span><a name="Pg233" id="Pg233" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>up for that on "Modern Geology" last year not mentioning +Sir C. Lyell.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Really, what with the Tories passing Radical Reform +Bills and the Church periodicals advocating Darwinianism, +the millennium must be at hand.āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_104" id="toc_104"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 22,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āYour intended dedication pleases me +much and I look at it as a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">great</span> honour, and this is +nothing more than the truth. I am glad to hear, for +Lyell's sake and on general grounds, that you are going +to write in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly</span>. Some little time ago I was +actually wishing that you wrote in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly</span>, as I +knew that you occasionally contributed to periodicals, and +I thought that your articles would thus be more widely +read.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Thank you for telling me about the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Guardian</span>, +which I will borrow from Lyell. I did note the article +in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Journal of Science</span> and put it aside +to read again with the articles in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Fraser</span> and the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Spectator</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been interrupted in my regular work in preparing +a new edition<a name="noteref_75" id="noteref_75"></a><a href="#note_75"><span class="footnoteref">75</span></a> of the "Origin," which has cost me +much labour, and which I hope I have considerably improved +in two or three important points. I always thought +individual differences more important than single variations, +but now I have come to the conclusion that they +are of paramount importance, and in this I believe I +agree with you. Fleeming Jenkin's arguments have convinced +me.<a name="noteref_76" id="noteref_76"></a><a href="#note_76"><span class="footnoteref">76</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I heartily congratulate you on your new book being so +nearly finished.āBelieve me, my dear Wallace, yours very +sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page234">[pg 234]</span><a name="Pg234" id="Pg234" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_105" id="toc_105"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 30,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āWill you tell me <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">where</span> are Fleeming +Jenkin's arguments on the importance of single variation? +Because I at present hold most strongly the contrary +opinion, that it is the individual differences or +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">general variability</span> of species that enables them to become +modified and adapted to new conditions.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Variations or "sports" may be important in modifying +an animal in one direction, as in colour for instance, +but how it can possibly work in changes requiring co-ordination +of many parts, as in Orchids for example, I +cannot conceive. And as all the more important structural +modifications of animals and plants imply much co-ordination, +it appears to me that the chances are millions +to one against <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">individual variations</span> ever coinciding so as +to render the required modification possible. However, let +me read first what has convinced you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You may tell Mrs. Darwin that I have now a daughter.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Give my kind regards to her and all your family.āVery +truly yours,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_106" id="toc_106"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 2,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI must have expressed myself atrociously; +I meant to say exactly the reverse of what you have +understood. F. Jenkin argued in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">North British Review</span><a name="noteref_77" id="noteref_77"></a><a href="#note_77"><span class="footnoteref">77</span></a> +against single variations ever being perpetuated, and has +convinced me, though not in quite so broad a manner as +here put. I always thought individual differences more +important, but I was blind and thought that single variations +might be preserved much oftener than I now see is +possible or probable. I mentioned this in my former note +merely because I believed that you had come to similar +<span class="tei-pb" id="page235">[pg 235]</span><a name="Pg235" id="Pg235" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>conclusions, and I like much to be in accord with you. I +believe I was mainly deceived by single variations offering +such simple illustrations, as when man selects.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">We heartily congratulate you on the birth of your little +daughter.āYours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_107" id="toc_107"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 5,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI was delighted at receiving your +book<a name="noteref_78" id="noteref_78"></a><a href="#note_78"><span class="footnoteref">78</span></a> this morning. The whole appearance and the illustrations +with which it [is] so profusely ornamented are +quite beautiful. Blessings on you and your publisher for +having the pages cut and gilded.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As for the dedication, putting quite aside how far I +deserve what you say, it seems to me decidedly the best +expressed dedication which I have ever met.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The reading will probably last me a month, for I dare +not have it read aloud, as I know that it will set me +thinking.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I see that many points will interest me greatly. When +I have finished, if I have anything particular to say, I will +write again. Accept my cordial thanks. The dedication +is a thing for my children's children to be proud of.āYours +most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_108" id="toc_108"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. March 10,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āThanks for your kind note. I could not +persuade Mr. Macmillan to cut more than twenty-five copies +for my own friends, and he even seemed to think this a sign +of most strange and barbarous taste.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Mr. Weir's paper on the kinds of larvƦ, etc., eaten or +rejected by insectivorous birds was read at the last meeting +of the Entomological Society and was most interesting +and satisfactory. His observations and experiments, so far +<span class="tei-pb" id="page236">[pg 236]</span><a name="Pg236" id="Pg236" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>as they have yet gone, confirm in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">every instance</span> my hypothetical +explanation of the colours of caterpillars. He finds +that all nocturnal-feeding obscure-coloured caterpillars, all +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">green</span> and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">brown</span> and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">mimicking</span> caterpillars, are greedily +eaten by almost every insectivorous bird. On the other +hand, every gaily coloured, spotted or banded species, +which never conceal themselves, and all spiny and hairy +kinds, are <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">invariably rejected</span>, either without or after trial. +He has also come to the curious and rather unexpected +conclusion, that hairy and spiny caterpillars are not protected +by their hairs, but by their nauseous taste, the +hairs being merely an external mark of their uneatableness, +like the gay colours of others. He deduces this from +two kinds of facts: (1) that very young caterpillars before +the hairs are developed are equally rejected, and (2) that +in many cases the smooth pupƦ and even the perfect insects +of the same species are equally rejected.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">His facts, it is true, are at present not very numerous, +but they all point one way. They seem to me to lend an +immense support to my view of the great importance of +protection in determining colour, for it has not only prevented +the eatable species from ever acquiring bright +colours, spots, or markings injurious to them, but it has +also conferred on all the nauseous species distinguishing +marks to render their uneatableness more protective to +them than it would otherwise be. When you have read +my book I shall be glad of any hints for corrections if +it comes to another edition. I was horrified myself by +coming accidentally on several verbal inelegancies after +all my trouble in correcting, and I have no doubt there are +many more important errors.āBelieve me, dear Darwin, +yours very truly,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page237">[pg 237]</span><a name="Pg237" id="Pg237" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_109" id="toc_109"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 22,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have finished your book.<a name="noteref_79" id="noteref_79"></a><a href="#note_79"><span class="footnoteref">79</span></a> It seems +to me excellent, and at the same time most pleasant to read. +That you ever returned alive is wonderful after all your risks +from illness and sea voyages, especially that most interesting +one to Waigiou and back. Of all the impressions which +I have received from your book, the strongest is that your +perseverance in the cause of science was heroic. Your descriptions +of catching the splendid butterflies have made me +quite envious, and at the same time have made me feel almost +young again, so vividly have they brought before my mind +old days when I collected, though I never made such captures +as yours. Certainly collecting is the best sport in the +world. I shall be astonished if your book has not a great +success; and your splendid generalisations on geographical +distribution, with which I am familiar from your papers, +will be new to most of your readers. I think I enjoyed +most the Timor case, as it is best demonstrated; but perhaps +Celebes is really the most valuable. I should prefer +looking at the whole Asiatic continent as having formerly +been more African in its fauna, than admitting the former +existence of a continent across the Indian Ocean. Decaisne's +paper on the flora of Timor, in which he points out its close +relation to that of the Mascarene Islands, supports your +view. On the other hand, I might advance the giraffes, +etc., in the Sewalik deposits. How I wish someone would +collect the plants of Banca! The puzzle of Java, Sumatra +and Borneo is like the three geese and foxes: I have a wish +to extend Malacca through Banca to part of Java and thus +make three parallel peninsulas, but I cannot get the geese +and foxes across the river.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Many parts of your book have interested me much: I +<span class="tei-pb" id="page238">[pg 238]</span><a name="Pg238" id="Pg238" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>always wished to hear an independent judgment about the +Rajah Brooke, and now I have been delighted with your +splendid eulogium on him.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With respect to the fewness and inconspicuousness of +the flowers in the tropics, may it not be accounted for by +the hosts of insects, so that there is no need for the +flowers to be conspicuous? As, according to Humboldt, +fewer plants are social in the tropical than in the temperate +regions, the flowers in the former would not make +so great a show.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In your note you speak of observing some inelegancies +of style. I notice none. All is as clear as daylight. I +have detected two or three errata.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In Vol. I. you write lond<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">i</span>acus: is this not an error?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Vol. II., p. 236: for <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">western</span> side of Aru read <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">eastern</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Page 315: Do you not mean the horns of the moose? +For the elk has not palmated horns.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have only one criticism of a general nature, and I am +not sure that other geologists would agree with me: you +repeatedly speak as if the pouring out of lava, etc., from +volcanoes actually caused the subsidence of an adjoining +area. I quite agree that areas undergoing opposite movements +are somehow connected; but volcanic outbursts must, +I think, be looked at as mere accidents in the swelling tip +of a great dome or surface of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">plutonic</span> rocks; and there +seems no more reason to conclude that such swelling or +elevation in mass is the cause of the subsidence than that +the subsidence is the cause of the elevation; which latter +view is indeed held by some geologists, I have regretted +to find so little about the habits of the many animals +which you have seen.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In Vol. II., p. 399, I wish I could see the connection +between variations having been first or long ago selected, +and their appearance at an earlier age in birds of paradise +<span class="tei-pb" id="page239">[pg 239]</span><a name="Pg239" id="Pg239" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>than the variations which have subsequently arisen and +been selected. In fact, I do not understand your explanation +of the curious order of development of the ornaments +of these birds.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Will you please to tell me whether you are sure that the +female Casuarius (Vol. II., p. 150) sits on her eggs as well +as the male?āfor, if I am not mistaken, Bartlett told me +that the male alone, who is less brightly coloured about +the neck, sits on the eggs. In Vol. II., p. 255, you speak +of male savages ornamenting themselves more than the +women, of which I have heard before; now, have you any +notion whether they do this to please themselves, or to +excite the admiration of their fellow-men, or to please the +women, or, as is perhaps probable, from all three motives?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Finally, let me congratulate you heartily on having +written so excellent a book, full of thought on all sorts +of subjects. Once again, let me thank you for the very +great honour which you have done me by your dedication.āBelieve +me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Vol. II., p. 455: When in New Zealand I thought the +inhabitants a mixed race, with the type of Tahiti preponderating +over some darker race with more frizzled hair; and +now that the stone instruments [have] revealed the existence +of ancient inhabitants, is it not probable that these islands +were inhabited by true Papuans? Judging from descriptions +the pure Tahitans must differ much from your +Papuans.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">The reference in the following letter is to Wallace's +review, in the April number of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly</span>, of Lyell's +"Principles of Geology" (tenth edition), and of the sixth +edition of the "Elements of Geology." Wallace points +out that here for the first time Sir C. Lyell gave up his +opposition to Evolution; and this leads Wallace to give +<span class="tei-pb" id="page240">[pg 240]</span><a name="Pg240" id="Pg240" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a short account of the views set forth in the "Origin of +Species." In this article Wallace makes a definite statement +as to his views on the evolution of man, which were +opposed to those of Darwin. He upholds the view that +the brain of man, as well as the organs of speech, the +hand and the external form, could not have been evolved +by Natural Selection (the "child" he is supposed to +"murder "). At p. 391 he writes: "In the brain of the +lowest savages and, as far as we know, of the prehistoric +races, we have an organ ... little inferior in size and +complexity to that of the highest types.... But the +mental requirements of the lowest savages, such as the +Australians or the Andaman Islanders, are very little +above those of many animals.... How then was an +organ developed far beyond the needs of its possessor? +Natural Selection could only have endowed the savage +with a brain a little superior to that of an ape, whereas +he actually possesses one but very little inferior to that +of the average members of our learned societies."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This passage is marked in Darwin's copy with a triply +underlined "No," and with a shower of notes of exclamation. +It was probably the first occasion on which he realised +the extent of this great and striking divergence in opinion +between himself and his colleague. He had, however, some +indication of it in Wallace's paper on Man in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Anthropological +Review</span>, 1864, referred to in his letter to Wallace +of May 28, 1864, and again in that of April 14, 1869.</p> + + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 27,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI must send a line to thank you, but +this note will require no answer. This very morning after +writing I found that "elk" was used for "moose" in +Sweden, but I had been reading lately about elk and moose +in North America.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As you put the case in your letter, which I think differs +somewhat from your book, I am inclined to agree, and had +thought that a feather could hardly be increased in length +<span class="tei-pb" id="page241">[pg 241]</span><a name="Pg241" id="Pg241" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>until it had first grown to full length, and therefore it would +be increased late in life and transmitted to a corresponding +age. But the Crossoptilon pheasant, and even the common +pheasant, show that the tail feathers can be developed very +early.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Thanks for other facts, which I will reflect on when I +go again over my MS.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I read all that you said about the Dutch Government +with much interest, but I do not feel I know enough to +form any opinion against yours.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I shall be intensely curious to read the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly</span>: I +hope you have not murdered too completely your own +and my child.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have lately, i.e. in the new edition of the "Origin,"<a name="noteref_80" id="noteref_80"></a><a href="#note_80"><span class="footnoteref">80</span></a> +been moderating my zeal, and attributing much more to +mere useless variability. I did think I would send you +the sheet, but I daresay you would not care to see it, in +which I discuss NƤgeli's essay on Natural Selection not +affecting characters of no functional importance, and +which yet are of high classificatory importance.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hooker is pretty well satisfied with what I have said +on this head. It will be curious if we have hit on similar +conclusions. You are about the last man in England who +would deviate a hair's breadth from his conviction to please +any editor in the world.āYours very sincerely,</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āAfter all, I have thought of one question, but if +I receive no answer I shall understand that (as is probable) +you have nothing to say. I have seen it remarked that the +men and women of certain tribes differ a little in shade or +tint; but have you ever seen or heard of any difference in +tint between the two sexes which did not appear to follow +from a difference in habits of life?</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page242">[pg 242]</span><a name="Pg242" id="Pg242" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_110" id="toc_110"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 14,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have been wonderfully interested +by your article,<a name="noteref_81" id="noteref_81"></a><a href="#note_81"><span class="footnoteref">81</span></a> and I should think Lyell will be much +gratified by it. I declare if I had been editor and had the +power of directing you I should have selected for discussion +the very points which you have chosen. I have often said +to younger geologists (for I began in the year 1830) that they +did not know what a revolution Lyell had effected; nevertheless, +your extracts from Cuvier have quite astonished me.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Though not able really to judge, I am inclined to put +more confidence in Croll than you seem to do; but I have +been much struck by many of your remarks on degradation.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Thomson's views of the recent age of the world have been +for some time one of my sorest troubles, and so I have been +glad to read what you say. Your exposition of Natural +Selection seems to me inimitably good; there never lived a +better expounder than you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I was also much pleased at your discussing the difference +between our views and Lamarck's. One sometimes sees the +odious expression, "Justice to myself compels me to say, +etc.," but you are the only man I ever heard of who persistently +does himself an injustice and never demands justice. +Indeed, you ought in the review to have alluded to your paper +in the Linnean <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Journal</span>, and I feel sure all our friends will +agree in this, but you cannot "Burke" yourself, however +much you may try, as may be seen in half the articles which +appear.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I was asked but the other day by a German professor for +your paper, which I sent him. Altogether, I look at your +article as appearing in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly</span> as an immense triumph +for our cause. I presume that your remarks on Man are +those to which you alluded in your note. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page243">[pg 243]</span><a name="Pg243" id="Pg243" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +If you had not told me I should have thought that they +had been added by someone else. As you expected, I differ +grievously from you, and I am very sorry for it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I can see no necessity for calling in an additional and +proximate cause in regard to Man. But the subject is too +long for a letter.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been particularly glad to read your discussion, +because I am now writing and thinking much about Man.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope that your Malay book sells well. I was extremely +pleased with the article in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Q.J. of Science</span>, inasmuch as +it is thoroughly appreciative of your work. Alas! you will +probably agree with what the writer says about the uses of +the bamboo.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hear that there is also a good article in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Saturday +Review</span>, but have heard nothing more about it.āBelieve me, +my dear Wallace, yours ever sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI have had a baddish fall, my horse partly rolling +over me; but I am getting rapidly well.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_111" id="toc_111"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. April 18,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI am very glad you think I have done +justice to Lyell, and have also well "exposed" (as a Frenchman +would say) Natural Selection. There is nothing I like +better than writing a little account of it, and trying to make +it clear to the meanest capacity.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The "Croll" question is awfully difficult. I had gone +into it more fully, but the Editor made me cut out eight +pages.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am very sorry indeed to hear of your accident, but +trust you will soon recover and that it will leave no +bad effects.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I can quite comprehend your feelings with regard to my +"unscientific" opinions as to Man, because a few years back +<span class="tei-pb" id="page244">[pg 244]</span><a name="Pg244" id="Pg244" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>I should myself have looked at them as equally wild and +uncalled for. I shall look with extreme interest for what +you are writing on Man, and shall give full weight to any +explanations you can give of his probable origin. My +opinions on the subject have been modified solely by the +consideration of a series of remarkable phenomena, physical +and mental, which I have now had every opportunity of fully +testing, and which demonstrate the existence of forces and +influences not yet recognised by science. This will, I know, +seem to you like some mental hallucination, but as I can +assure you from personal communication with them, that +Robert Chambers, Dr. Norris of Birmingham, the well-known +physiologist, and C.F. Varley, the well-known electrician, +who have all investigated the subject for years, agree +with me both as to the facts and as to the main inferences to +be drawn from them, I am in hopes that you will suspend +your judgment for a time till we exhibit some corroborative +symptoms of insanity.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In the meantime I can console you by the assurance that +I <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">don't</span> agree with the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Q.J. of Science</span> about bamboo, and +that I see no cause to modify any of my opinions expressed +in my article on the "Reign of Law."āBelieve me yours +very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_112" id="toc_112"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. June 23,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āThank you very much for the copy of +your fifth edition of the "Origin." I have not yet read +all the additions, but those I have looked at seem very interesting, +though somewhat brief, but I suppose you are +afraid of its great and rapid growth.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">A difficult sexual character seems to me the plumules +or battledore scales on the wings of certain families and +genera of butterflies, almost invariably changing in form +with the species and genera in proportion to other changes, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page245">[pg 245]</span><a name="Pg245" id="Pg245" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and always constant in each species yet confined to the +males, and so small and mixed up with the other scales as +to produce no effect on the colour or marking of the wings. +How could sexual selection produce them?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Your correspondent Mr. Geach is now in England, and +if you would like to see him I am sure he would be glad to +meet you. He is staying with his brother (address Guildford), +but often comes to town.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping that you have quite recovered from your accident +and that the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">great work</span> is progressing, believe me, +dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āYou will perhaps be pleased to hear that German, +French, and Danish translations of my "Malay +Archipelago" are in progress.āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_113" id="toc_113"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Caerleon, Barmouth, N. Wales. June 25,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āWe have been here a fortnight, and +shall remain here till the beginning of August. I can say +nothing good about my health, and I am so weak that I +can hardly crawl half a mile from the house; but I hope +I may improve, and anyhow the magnificent view of Cader +is enjoyable.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I do not know that I have anything to ask Mr. Geach, +nor do I suppose I shall be in London till late in the +autumn, but I should be particularly obliged, if you have +any communication with Mr. Geach, if you would express +for me my <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">sincere</span> thanks for his kindness in sending me +the very valuable answers on Expression. I wrote some +months ago to him in answer to his last letter.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I would ask him to Down, but the fatigue to me of +receiving a stranger is something which to you would be +utterly unintelligible.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I think I have heard of the scales on butterflies; but +<span class="tei-pb" id="page246">[pg 246]</span><a name="Pg246" id="Pg246" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>there are lots of sexual characters which quite baffle all +powers of even conjecture.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You are quite correct, that I felt forced to make all +additions to the "Origin" as short as possible.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am indeed pleased to hear, and fully expected, that +your Malay work would be known throughout Europe.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Oh dear! what would I not give for a little more strength +to get on with my work.āEver yours,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I wish that you could have told me that your place in +the new Museum was all settled.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_114" id="toc_114"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. October 20,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI do not know your son's (Mr. George +Darwin's) address at Cambridge. Will you be so good +as to forward him the enclosed note begging for a little +information?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I was delighted to see the notice in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Academy</span> that +you are really going to bring out your book on Man. I +anticipate for it an enormous sale, and shall read it with +intense interest, although I expect to find in it more to +differ from than in any of your other books. Some reasonable +and reasoning opponents are now taking the field. I +have been writing a little notice of Murphy's "Habit and +Intelligence," which, with much that is strange and unintelligible, +contains some very acute criticisms and the +statement of a few real difficulties. Another article just +sent me from the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Month</span> contains some good criticism. +How incipient organs can be useful is a real difficulty, so +is the independent origin of similar complex organs; but +most of his other points, though well put, are not very +formidable. I am trying to begin a little book on the Distribution +of Animals, but I fear I shall not make much of +it from my idleness in collecting facts. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page247">[pg 247]</span><a name="Pg247" id="Pg247" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +I shall make it a popular sketch first, and, if it succeeds, +gather materials for enlarging it at a future time. If any +suggestion occurs to you as to the kind of maps that would +be best, or on any other essential point, I should be glad +of a hint. I hope your residence in Wales did you good. +I had no idea you were so near Dolgelly till I met your +son there one evening when I was going to leave the next +morning. It is a glorious country, but the time I like is +May and Juneāthe foliage is so glorious.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sincerely hoping you are pretty well, and with kind +regards to Mrs. Darwin and the rest of your family, +believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_115" id="toc_115"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. October 21,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI forwarded your letter at once to +my son George, but I am nearly sure that he will not be +able to tell you anything; I wish he could for my own +sake; but I suspect there are few men in England who +could. Pray send me a copy or tell me where your article +on Murphy will be published. I have just received the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Month</span>, but have only read half as yet. I wish I knew +who was the author; you ought to know, as he admires +you so much; he has a wonderful deal of knowledge, but +his difficulties have not troubled me much as yet, except +the case of the dipterous larva. My book will not be published +for a long time, but Murray wished to insert some +notice of it. Sexual selection has been a tremendous job. +Fate has ordained that almost every point on which we +differ should be crowded into this vol. Have you seen +the October number of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Revue des deux Mondes?</span> It +has an article on you, but I have not yet read it; and +another article, not yet read, by a very good man on the +Transformist School.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am very glad to hear that you are beginning a book, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page248">[pg 248]</span><a name="Pg248" id="Pg248" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>but do not let it be "little," on Distribution, etc. I have +no hints to give about maps; the subject would require +long and anxious consideration. Before Forbes published +his essay on Distribution and the Glacial Period I wrote +out and had <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">copied</span> an essay on the same subject, which +Hooker read. If this MS. would be of any use to you, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">on +account of the references</span> in it to papers, etc., I should be +very glad to lend it, to be used in any way; for I foresee that +my strength will never last out to come to this subject.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been pretty well since my return from Wales, +though at the time it did me no good.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">We shall be in London next month, when I shall hope +to see you.āMy dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_116" id="toc_116"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. December 4, [1869].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āDr. Adolf Bernhard Meyer, who translated +my book into German, has written to me for permission +to translate my original paper in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Linnean +Proceedings</span> with yours, and wants to put my photograph +and yours in it. If you have given him permission to +translate the papers (which I suppose he can do without +permission if he pleases), I write to ask which of your +photographs you would wish to represent you in Germanyāthe +last, or the previous one by Ernest Edwards, which +I think much the bestāas if you like I will undertake to +order them and save you any more trouble about it. It +is, of course, out of the question our meeting to be photographed +together, as Mr. Meyer coolly proposes.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you are well, believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI have written a paper on Geological Time, which +will appear in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>, and I <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">think</span> I have hit upon a solution +of your greatest difficulties in that matter.āA.R.W.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page249">[pg 249]</span><a name="Pg249" id="Pg249" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_117" id="toc_117"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. December 5,</span> 1869.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI wrote to Dr. Meyer that the photographs +in England would cost much and that they did not +seem to me worth the cost to him, but that I of course had +no sort of objection. I should be greatly obliged if you +would kindly take the trouble to order any one which you +think best: possibly it would be best to wait, unless you +feel sure, till you hear again from Dr. M. I sent him a +copy of our joint paper. He has kindly sent me the translation +of your book, which is splendidly got up, and which +I thought I could not better use than by sending it to +Fritz MĆ¼ller in Brazil, who will appreciate it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I liked your reviews on Mr. Murphy very much; they +are capitally written, like everything which is turned out +of your workshop. I was specially glad about the eye. +If you agree with me, take some opportunity of bringing +forward the case of perfected greyhound or racehorse, in +proof of the possibility of the selection of many correlated +variations. I have remarks on this head in my last book.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If you throw light on the want of geological time, may +honour, eternal glory and blessings crowd thick on your +head.āYours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I forgot to say that I wrote to Dr. M. to say that I +should not soon be in London, and that, of all things in +the world, I hate most the bother of sitting for photographs, +so I declined with many apologies. I have recently +refused several applications.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_118" id="toc_118"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 22,</span> 1870.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMy paper on Geological Time having +been in type nearly two months, and not knowing when +it will appear, I have asked for a proof to send you, Huxley +and Lyell. The latter part only contains what I think +<span class="tei-pb" id="page250">[pg 250]</span><a name="Pg250" id="Pg250" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>is new, and I shall be anxious to hear if it at all helps to +get over your difficulties.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been lately revising and adding to my various +papers bearing on the "Origin of Species," etc., and am +going to print them in a volume immediately, under the +title of "Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection: +A Series of Essays."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In the last, I put forth my heterodox opinions as to +Man, and even venture to attack the Huxleyan philosophy!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you are quite well and are getting on with your +Man book, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āWhen you have read the proof and done with it, +may I beg you to return it to me?āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_119" id="toc_119"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. January 26, [1870].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have been very much struck by +your whole article (returned by this post), especially as to +rate of denudation, for the still glaciated surfaces have of +late most perplexed me. Also <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">especially</span> on the lesser mutations +of climate during the last 60,000 years; for I quite +think with you no cause so powerful in inducing specific +changes, through the consequent migrations. Your argument +would be somewhat strengthened about organic +changes having been formerly more rapid, if Sir W. +Thomson is correct that physical changes were formerly +more violent and abrupt.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The whole subject is so new and vast that I suppose +you hardly expect anyone to be at once convinced, but +that he should keep your view before his mind and let it +ferment. This, I think, everyone will be forced to do. I +have not as yet been able to digest the fundamental notion +<span class="tei-pb" id="page251">[pg 251]</span><a name="Pg251" id="Pg251" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the shortened age of the sun and earth. Your whole +paper seems to me admirably clear and well put. I may +remark that RĆ¼timeyer has shown that several wild mammals +in Switzerland since the neolithic period have had +their dentition and, I <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">think</span>, general size <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">slightly</span> modified. +I cannot believe that the Isthmus of Panama has been open +since the commencement of the glacial period; for, notwithstanding +the fishes, so few shells, crustaceans, and, according +to Agassiz, not one echinoderm is common to the sides. +I am very glad you are going to publish all your papers +on Natural Selection: I am sure you are right, and that +they will do our cause much good.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">But I groan over Manāyou write like a metamorphosed +(in retrograde direction) naturalist, and you the author of +the best paper that ever appeared in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Anthropological +Review</span>! Eheu! Eheu! Eheu!āYour miserable friend,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_120" id="toc_120"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. March 31,</span> 1870.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āMany thanks for the woodcut, which, +judging from the rate at which I crawl on, will hardly be +wanted till this time next year. Whether I shall have it +reduced, or beg Mr. Macmillan for a stereotype, as you +said I might, I have not yet decided.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I heartily congratulate you on your removal being over, +and I much more heartily condole with myself at your having +left London, for I shall thus miss my talks with you which +I always greatly enjoy.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I was excessively pleased at your review of Galton, and +I agree to every word of it. I must add that I have just +re-read your article in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Anthropological Review</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">I +defy</span> you to upset your own doctrine.āEver yours very +sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page252">[pg 252]</span><a name="Pg252" id="Pg252" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_121" id="toc_121"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. April 20, [1870].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have just received your book +["Natural Selection"]<a name="noteref_82" id="noteref_82"></a><a href="#note_82"><span class="footnoteref">82</span></a> and read the preface. There +never has been passed on me, or indeed on anyone, a +higher eulogium than yours. I wish that I fully deserved +it. Your modesty and candour are very far from new to +me. I hope it is a satisfaction to you to reflectāand very +few things in my life have been more satisfactory to meāthat +we have never felt any jealousy towards each other, +though in one sense rivals. I believe that I can say this +of myself with truth, and I am absolutely sure that it is +true of you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You have been a good Christian to give a list of your +additions, for I want much to read them, and I should +hardly have had time just at present to have gone through +all your articles.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Of course, I shall immediately read those that are new +or greatly altered, and I will endeavour to be as honest as +can reasonably be expected. Your book looks remarkably +well got up.āBelieve me, my dear Wallace, to remain yours +very cordially,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_122" id="toc_122"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. June 5,</span> 1870.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āAs imitation and protection are your +subjects I have thought that you would like to possess the +enclosed curious drawing. The note tells all I know about +it.āYours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI read not long ago a German article on the colours +of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">female</span> birds, and that author leaned rather strongly to +your side about nidification. I forget who the author was, +but he seemed to know a good deal.āC.D.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page253">[pg 253]</span><a name="Pg253" id="Pg253" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_123" id="toc_123"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Holly House, Barking, E. July 6,</span> 1870.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for the drawing. I must +say, however, the resemblance to a snake is not very +striking, unless to a cobra not found in America. It is +also evident that it is not Mr. Bates's caterpillar, as that +threw the head backwards so as to show the feet above, +forming imitations of keeled scales.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">ClaparĆØde has sent me his critique on my book. You +will probably have it too. His arguments in reply to my +heresy seem to me of the weakest. I hear you have gone +to press, and I look forward with fear and trembling to +being crushed under a mountain of facts!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hear you were in town the other day. When you are +again, I should be glad to come at any convenient hour and +give you a call.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping your health is improving, and with kind remembrances +to Mrs. Darwin and all your family, believe me +yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">In "My Life" (Vol. II., p. 7) Wallace wrote: "In +the year 1870 Mr. A.W. Bennett read a paper before +Section D of the British Association at Liverpool entitled +'The Theory of Natural Selection from a Mathematical +Point of View,' and this paper was printed in full in +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span> of November 10, 1870. To this I replied on +November 17, and my reply so pleased Mr. Darwin that +he at once wrote to me as follows:"</p> + + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. November 22,</span> 1870.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI must ease myself by writing a few +words to say how much I and all others in this house admire +your article in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>. You are certainly an unparalleled +master in lucidly stating a case and in arguing. Nothing +ever was better done than your argument about the term +<span class="tei-pb" id="page254">[pg 254]</span><a name="Pg254" id="Pg254" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>"origin of species," and the consequences about much +being gained, even if we know nothing about precise cause +of each variation. By chance I have given a few words in +my first volume, now some time printed off, about mimetic +butterflies, and have touched on two of your points, viz. +on species already widely dissimilar not being made to +resemble each other, and about the variations in Lepidoptera +being often well pronounced. How strange it is that +Mr. Bennett or anyone else should bring in the action of +the mind as a leading cause of variation, seeing the beautiful +and complex adaptations and modifications of structure +in plants, which I do not suppose they would say had minds.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have finished the first volume, and am half-way through +the first proof of the second volume, of my confounded book, +which half kills me by fatigue, and which I much fear will +quite kill me in your good estimation.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If you have leisure I should much like a little news of +you and your doings and your family.āEver yours very +sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_124" id="toc_124"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Holly House, Barking, E. November 24,</span> 1870.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āYour letter gave me very great pleasure. +We still agree, I am sure, on nineteen points out of twenty, +and on the twentieth I am not inconvincible. But then I +must be convinced by facts and arguments, not by high-handed +ridicule such as ClaparĆØde's.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope you see the difference between such criticisms +as his, and that in the last number of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">North American +Review</span>, where my last chapter is really criticised, point by +point; and though I think some of it very weak, I admit +that some is very strong, and almost converts me from the +error of my ways.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As to your new book, I am sure it will not make me +think less highly of you than I do, unless you do, what +<span class="tei-pb" id="page255">[pg 255]</span><a name="Pg255" id="Pg255" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>you have never done yet, ignore facts and arguments that +go against you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am doing nothing just now but writing articles and +putting down anti-Darwinians, being dreadfully ridden +upon by a horrid old-man-of-the-sea, who has agreed to +let me have the piece of land I have set my heart on, +and which I have been trying to get of him since last +February, but who will not answer letters, will not sign +an agreement, and keeps me week after week in anxiety, +though I have accepted his own terms unconditionally, +one of which is that I pay rent from last Michaelmas! +And now the finest weather for planting is going by. It +is a bit of a wilderness that can be made into a splendid +imitation of a Welsh valley in little, and will enable me +to gather round me all the beauties of the temperate flora +which I so much admire, or I would not put up with the +little fellow's ways. The fixing on a residence for the rest +of your life is an important event, and I am not likely to +be in a very settled frame of mind for some time.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am answering A. Murray's Geographical Distribution +of Coleoptera for my Entomological Society Presidential +Address, and am printing a second edition of my "Essays," +with a few notes and additions. Very glad to see (by your +writing yourself) that you are better, and with kind regards +to all your family, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very +faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_125" id="toc_125"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Holly House, Barking, E. January 27,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your first volume,<a name="noteref_83" id="noteref_83"></a><a href="#note_83"><span class="footnoteref">83</span></a> +which I have just finished reading through with the +greatest pleasure and interest, and I have also to thank +you for the great tenderness with which you have treated +me and my heresies.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page256">[pg 256]</span><a name="Pg256" id="Pg256" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p">On the subject of sexual selection and protection you +do not yet convince me that I am wrong, but I expect +your heaviest artillery will be brought up in your second +volume, and I may have to capitulate. You seem, however, +to have somewhat misunderstood my exact meaning, +and I do not think the difference between us is quite so +great as you seem to think it. There are a number of +passages in which you argue against the view that the +female has, in any large number of cases, been "specially +modified" for protection, or that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">colour</span> has <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">generally</span> been +obtained by either sex for purposes of protection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">But my view is, and I thought I had made it clear, that +the female has (in most cases) been simply prevented from +acquiring the gay tints of the male (even when there was +a tendency for her to inherit it) because it was hurtful; +and, that when protection is not needed, gay colours are +so generally acquired by both sexes as to show that inheritance +by both sexes of colour variations is the most +usual, when <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not prevented from acting</span> by Natural Selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The colour itself may be acquired either by sexual +selection or by other unknown causes. There are, however, +difficulties in the very wide application you give to +sexual selection which at present stagger me, though no +one was or is more ready than myself to admit the perfect +truth of the principle or the immense importance and great +variety of its applications. Your chapters on Man are of +intense interest, but as touching my special heresy not as +yet altogether convincing, though of course I fully agree +with every word and every argument which goes to prove +the "evolution" or "development" of man out of a +lower form. My only difficulties are as to whether you +have accounted for <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">every</span> step of the development by ascertained +laws. Feeling sure that the book will keep up and +<span class="tei-pb" id="page257">[pg 257]</span><a name="Pg257" id="Pg257" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>increase your high reputation and be immensely successful, +as it deserves to be, believe me, dear Darwin, yours +very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_126" id="toc_126"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. January 30,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āYour note has given me very great +pleasure, chiefly because I was so anxious not to treat you +with the least disrespect, and it is so difficult to speak +fairly when differing from anyone. If I had offended you, +it would have grieved me more than you will readily +believe. Secondly, I am greatly pleased to hear that Vol. +I. interests you; I have got so sick of the whole subject +that I felt in utter doubt about the value of any part. I +intended when speaking of the female not having been +specially modified for protection to include the prevention +of characters acquired by the [male symbol] being transmitted to the +[female symbol]; but I now see it would have been better to have said +"specially acted on," or some such term. Possibly my +intention may be clearer in Vol. II. Let me say that my +conclusions are chiefly founded on a consideration of all +animals taken in a body, bearing in mind how common +the rules of sexual differences appear to be in all classes. +The first copy of the chapter on Lepidoptera agreed +pretty closely with you. I then worked on, came back +to Lepidoptera, and thought myself compelled to alter it, +finished sexual selection, and for the last time went over +Lepidoptera, and again I felt forced to alter it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope to God there will be nothing disagreeable to you +in Vol. II., and that I have spoken fairly of your views. I +feel the more fearful on this head, because I have just read +(but not with sufficient care) Mivart's book,<a name="noteref_84" id="noteref_84"></a><a href="#note_84"><span class="footnoteref">84</span></a> and I feel +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">absolutely certain</span> that he meant to be fair (but he was +stimulated by theological fervour); yet I do not think he +<span class="tei-pb" id="page258">[pg 258]</span><a name="Pg258" id="Pg258" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>has been quite fair: he gives in one place only half of one +of my sentences, ignores in many places all that I have +said on effects of use, speaks of my dogmatic assertion, +"of false belief," whereas the end of paragraph seems to +me to render the sentence by no means dogmatic or arrogant; +etc. etc. I have since its publication received some +quite charming letters from him.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">What an ardent (and most justly) admirer he is of you. +His work, I do not doubt, will have a most potent influence +versus Natural Selection. The pendulum will now swing +against us. The part which, I think, will have most influence +is when he gives whole series of cases, like that of +whalebone, in which we cannot explain the gradational +steps; but such cases have no weight on my mindāif a +few fish were extinct, who on earth would have ventured +even to conjecture that lung had originated in swim-bladder? +In such a case as Thylacines, I think he was +bound to say that the resemblance of the jaw to that of +the dog is superficial; the number and correspondence +and development of teeth being widely different. I think, +again, when speaking of the necessity of altering a number +of characters together, he ought to have thought of man +having power by selection to modify simultaneously or +almost simultaneously many points, as in making a greyhound +or racehorseāas enlarged upon in my "Domestic +Animals."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Mivart is savage or contemptuous about my "moral +sense," and so probably will you be. I am extremely +pleased that he agrees with my position, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">as far as animal +nature is concerned</span>, of man in the series; or, if anything, +thinks I have erred in making him too distinct.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Forgive me for scribbling at such length.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You have put me quite in good spirits, I did so dread +having been unintentionally unfair towards your views. I +<span class="tei-pb" id="page259">[pg 259]</span><a name="Pg259" id="Pg259" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>hope earnestly the second volume will escape as well. I +care now very little what others say. As for our not quite +agreeing, really in such complex subjects it is almost impossible +for two men who arrive independently at their +conclusions to agree fullyāit would be unnatural for them +to do so.āYours ever very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_127" id="toc_127"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Holly House, Barking, E. March 11,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI need not say that I read your second +volume with, if possible, a greater interest than the first, +as so many topics of special interest to me are treated of. +You will not be surprised to find that you have not convinced +me on the "female protection" question, but you +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">will</span> be surprised to hear that I do not despair of convincing +you. I have been writing, as you are aware, a review +for the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Academy</span>, which I tried to refuse doing, but the +Editor used as an argument the statement that you wished +me to do so. It is not an easy job fairly to summarise such +a book, but I hope I have succeeded tolerably. When I got +to discussion, I felt more at home, but I most sincerely trust +that I may not have let pass any word that may seem to you +in the least too strong.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">You have not written a word about me that I could wish +altered, but as I know you wish me to be candid with you, +I will mention that you have quoted one passage in a note +(p. 376, Vol. II.) which seems to me a caricature of anything +I have written.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now let me ask you to rejoice with me, for I have got +my chalk pit, and am hard at work engineering a road up +its precipitous slopes. I hope you may be able to come and +see me there some day, as it is an easy ride from London, +and I shall be anxious to know if it is equal to the pit in +the wilds of Kent Mrs. Darwin mentioned when I lunched +with you. Should your gardener in the autumn have any +<span class="tei-pb" id="page260">[pg 260]</span><a name="Pg260" id="Pg260" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>thinnings out of almost any kind of hardy plants they +would be welcome, as I have near four acres of ground in +which I want to substitute ornamental plants for weeds.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With best wishes, and hoping you may have health and +strength to go on with your great work, believe me, dear +Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My review will appear next Wednesday.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_128" id="toc_128"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. March 16,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have just read your grand review.<a name="noteref_85" id="noteref_85"></a><a href="#note_85"><span class="footnoteref">85</span></a> +It is in every way as kindly expressed towards myself as +it is excellent in matter. The Lyells have been here, and +Sir C. remarked that no one wrote such good scientific +reviews as you, and, as Miss Buckley added, you delight +in picking out all that is good, though very far from blind +to the bad. In all this I most entirely agree. I shall always +consider your review as a great honour, and however much +my book may hereafter be abused, as no doubt it will be, your +review will console me, notwithstanding that we differ so +greatly.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I will keep your objections to my views in my mind, but +I fear that the latter are almost stereotyped in my mind, +I thought for long weeks about the inheritance and selection +difficulty, and covered quires of paper with notes, in +trying to get out of it, but could not, though clearly seeing +that it would be a great relief if I could. I will confine +myself to two or three remarks. I have been much +impressed with what you urge against colour<a name="noteref_86" id="noteref_86"></a><a href="#note_86"><span class="footnoteref">86</span></a> in the case +<span class="tei-pb" id="page261">[pg 261]</span><a name="Pg261" id="Pg261" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of insects having been acquired through sexual selection. +I always saw that the evidence was very weak; but I still +think, if it be admitted that the musical instruments of +insects have been gained through sexual selection, that +there is not the least improbability in colour having been +thus gained. Your argument with respect to the denudation +of mankind, and also to insects, that taste on the +part of one sex would have to remain nearly the same +during many generations, in order that sexual selection +should produce any effect, I agree to, and I think this +argument would be sound if used by one who denied that, +for instance, the plumes of birds of paradise had been so +gained.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I believe that you admit this, and if so I do not see +how your argument applies in other cases. I have recognised +for some short time that I have made a great omission +in not having discussed, as far as I could, the acquisition +of taste, its inherited nature, and its permanence within +pretty close limits for long periods.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">One other point and I have done: I see by p. 179 of +your review that I must have expressed myself very badly +to have led you to think that I consider the prehensile +organs of males as affording evidence of the females exerting +a choice. I have never thought so, and if you chance +to remember the passage (but do not hunt for it), pray +point it out to me.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am extremely sorry that I gave the note from Mr. +Stebbing; I thought myself bound to notice his suggestion +of beauty as a cause of denudation, and thus I was led on +to give his argument. I altered the final passage which +seemed to me offensive, and I had misgivings about the +first part.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I heartily wish I had yielded to these misgivings. I will +omit in any future edition the latter half of the note. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page262">[pg 262]</span><a name="Pg262" id="Pg262" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +I have heard from Miss Buckley that you have got possession +of your chalk pit, and I congratulate you on the +tedious delay being over. I fear all our bushes are so +large that there is nothing which we are at all likely to +grub up.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Years ago we threw away loads of things. I should +very much like to see your house and grounds; but +I fear the journey would be too long. Going even to +Kew knocks me up, and I have almost ceased trying to +do so.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Once again let me thank you warmly for your admirable +review.āMy dear Wallace, yours ever very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">What an excellent address you gave about Madeira, +but I wish you had alluded to Lyell's discussion on land +shells, etc.ānot that he has said a word on the subject. +The whole address quite delighted me. I hear Mr. Crotch<a name="noteref_87" id="noteref_87"></a><a href="#note_87"><span class="footnoteref">87</span></a> +disputed some of your facts about the wingless insects, but +he is a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">crotchety</span> man. As far as I remember, I did not +venture to ask Mr. Appleton to get you to review me, but +only said, in answer to an inquiry, that you would undoubtedly +be the best, or one of the very few men who could +do so effectively.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_129" id="toc_129"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. March 24,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āVery many thanks for the new edition +of your Essays. Honour and glory to you for giving list of +additions. It is grand as showing that our subject flourishes, +your book coming to a new edition so soon. My book also +sells immensely; the edition will, I believe, be 6,500 copies. +I am tired with writing, for the load of letters which I +receive is enough to make a man cry, yet some few are curious +<span class="tei-pb" id="page263">[pg 263]</span><a name="Pg263" id="Pg263" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and valuable. I got one to-day from a doctor on the hair +on backs of young weakly children, which afterwards falls +off. Also on hairy idiots. But I am tired to death, so +farewell.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Thanks for your last letter.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">There is a very striking second article on my book in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pall Mall</span>. The articles in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Spectator</span><a name="noteref_88" id="noteref_88"></a><a href="#note_88"><span class="footnoteref">88</span></a> have also interested +me much.āAgain farewell.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_130" id="toc_130"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Holly House, Barking, E. May 14,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āHave you read that very remarkable book +"The Fuel of the Sun"? If not, get it. It solves the great +problem of the almost unlimited duration of the sun's heat +in what appears to me a most satisfactory manner. I recommended +it to Sir C. Lyell, and he tells me that Grove +spoke very highly of it to him. It has been somewhat +ignored by the critics because it is by a new man with a +perfectly original hypothesis, founded on a vast accumulation +of physical and chemical facts; but not being encumbered +with any mathematical shibboleths, they have +evidently been afraid that anything so intelligible could +not be sound. The manner in which everything in physical +astronomy is explained is almost as marvellous as the powers +of Natural Selection in the same way, and naturally excites +a suspicion that the respective authors are pushing their +theories "a little too far."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If you read it, get Proctor's book on the Sun at the +same time, and refer to his coloured plates of the protuberances, +corona, etc., which marvellously correspond +<span class="tei-pb" id="page264">[pg 264]</span><a name="Pg264" id="Pg264" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>with what Matthieu Williams's theory requires. The +author is a practical chemist engaged in iron manufacture, +and it is from furnace chemistry that he has been +led to the subject. I think it the most original, most +thoughtful and most carefully-worked-out theory that has +appeared for a long time, and it does not say much for +the critics that, as far as I know, its great merits have not +been properly recognised.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been so fully occupied with road-making, well-digging, +garden- and house-planning, planting, etc., that I +have given up all other work.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Do you not admire our friend Miss Buckley's admirable +article in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Macmillan</span>? It seems to me the best and most +original that has been written on your book.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you are well, and are not working too hard, I +remain yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_131" id="toc_131"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 9,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI send by this post a review by +Chauncey Wright, as I much want your opinion of it, as +soon as you can send it. I consider you an incomparably +better critic than I am. The article, though not very clearly +written, and poor in parts for want of knowledge, seems to +me admirable.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Mivart's book is producing a great effect against Natural +Selection, and more especially against me. Therefore, if +you think the article even somewhat good, I will write and +get permission to publish it as a shilling pamphlet, together +with the MS. addition (enclosed), for which there was not +room at the end of the review. I do not suppose I should +lose more than Ā£20 or Ā£30.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am now at work at a new and cheap edition of the +"Origin," and shall answer several points in Mivart's book +and introduce a new chapter for this purpose; but I treat +<span class="tei-pb" id="page265">[pg 265]</span><a name="Pg265" id="Pg265" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the subject so much more concretely, and I daresay less +philosophically, than Wright, that we shall not interfere +with each other. You will think me a bigot when I say, after +studying Mivart, I was never before in my life so convinced +of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">general</span> (i.e. not in detail) truth of the views in the +"Origin." I grieve to see the omission of the words by +Mivart, detected by Wright.<a name="noteref_89" id="noteref_89"></a><a href="#note_89"><span class="footnoteref">89</span></a> I complained to M. that in +two cases he quotes only the commencement of sentences by +me and thus modifies my meaning; but I never supposed he +would have omitted words. There are other cases of what +I consider unfair treatment. I conclude with sorrow that +though he means to be honourable, he is so bigoted that he +cannot act fairly.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I was glad to see your letter in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>, though I think +you were a little hard on the silly and presumptuous man.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope that your house and grounds are progressing well, +and that you are in all ways flourishing.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have been rather seedy, but a few days in London did +me much good; and my dear good wife is going to take me +somewhere, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">nolens volens</span>, at the end of this month.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_132" id="toc_132"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Holly Home, Barking, E. July 12,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for giving me the opportunity +to read at my leisure the very talented article of Mr. +C. Wright. His criticism of Mivart, though very severe, is, +I think, in most cases sound; but I find the larger part of +the article so heavy and much of the language and argument +so very obscure, that I very much doubt the utility of printing +it separately. I do not think the readers of Mivart could +<span class="tei-pb" id="page266">[pg 266]</span><a name="Pg266" id="Pg266" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ever read it in that form, and I am sure your own answer +to Mivart's arguments will be so much more clear and to the +point, that the other will be unnecessary. You might extract +certain portions in your own chapter, such as the very ingenious +suggestion as to the possible origin of mammary +glands, as well as the possible use of the rattle of the rattlesnake, +etc.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I cannot see the force of Mivart's objection to the theory +of production of the long neck of the giraffe (suggested in my +first Essay), and which C. Wright seems to admit, while his +"watch-tower" theory seems to me more difficult and unlikely +as a means of origin. The argument, "Why haven't +other allied animals been modified in the same way?" seems +to me the weakest of the weak. I must say also I do not +see any great reason to complain of the "words" left out +by Mivart, as they do not seem to me materially to affect the +meaning. Your expression, "and tends to depart in a slight +degree," I think hardly grammatical; a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">tendency</span> to depart +cannot very well be said to be in a slight degree; a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">departure</span> +can, but a tendency must be either a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">slight tendency</span> or a +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">strong tendency</span>; the degree to which the departure may +reach must depend on favourable or unfavourable causes in +addition to the tendency itself. Mivart's words, "and +tending to depart from the parental type," seem to me +quite unobjectionable as a paraphrase of yours, because the +"tending" is kept in; and your own view undoubtedly is +that the tendency may lead to an ultimate departure to any +extent. Mivart's error is to suppose that your words favour +the view of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">sudden departures</span>, and I do not see that the +expression he uses really favours his view a bit more than +if he had quoted your exact words. The expression of yours +he relies upon is evidently "the whole organism seeming +to have become plastic," and he argues, no doubt erroneously, +that having so become "plastic," any amount or +<span class="tei-pb" id="page267">[pg 267]</span><a name="Pg267" id="Pg267" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a larger amount of sudden variation in some direction is +likely.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Mivart's greatest error, the confounding "individual +variations" with "minute or imperceptible variations," is +well exposed by C. Wright, and that part I should like to +see reprinted; but I always thought you laid too much stress +on the slowness of the action of Natural Selection owing to +the smallness and rarity of favourable variations. In your +chapter on Natural Selection the expressions, "extremely +slight modifications," "every variation even the slightest," +"every grade of constitutional difference," occur, and these +have led to errors such as Mivart's, I say all this because +I feel sure that Mivart would be the last to intentionally misrepresent +you, and he has told me that he was sorry the word +"infinitesimal," as applied to variations used by Natural +Selection, got into his book, and that he would alter it, as +no doubt he has done, in his second edition.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Some of Mivart's strongest pointsāthe eye and ear, for +instanceāare unnoticed in the review. You will, of course, +reply to these. His statement of the "missing link" argument +is also forcible, and has, I have no doubt, much weight +with the public. As to all his minor arguments, I feel with +you that they leave Natural Selection stronger than ever, +while the two or three main arguments do leave a lingering +doubt in my mind of some fundamental organic law of development +of which we have as yet no notion.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Pray do not attach any weight to my opinions as to the +review. It is very clever, but the writer seems a little like +those critics who know an author's or an artist's meaning +better than they do themselves.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My house is now in the hands of a contractor, but I am +wall-building, etc., and very busy.āWith best wishes, believe +me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page268">[pg 268]</span><a name="Pg268" id="Pg268" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_133" id="toc_133"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 12,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āVery many thanks. As soon as I +read your letter I determined, not to print the paper, notwithstanding +my eldest daughter, who is a very good critic, +thought it so interesting as to be worth reprinting. Then +my wife came in, and said, "I do not much care about +these things and shall therefore be a good judge whether +it is very dull." So I will leave my decision open for a +day or two. Your letter has been, and will be, of use to +me in other ways: thus I had quite forgotten that you had +taken up the case of the giraffe in your first memoir, and +I must look to this. I feel very doubtful how far I shall +succeed in answering Mivart; it is so difficult to answer +objections to doubtful points and make the discussion readable. +I shall make only a selection. The worst of it is +that I cannot possibly hunt through all my references for +isolated points; it would take me three weeks of intolerably +hard work. I wish I had your power of arguing +clearly. At present I feel sick of everything, and if I could +occupy my time and forget my daily discomforts or little +miseries, I would never publish another word. But I shall +cheer up, I daresay, soon, being only just got over a bad +attack. Farewell. God knows why I bother you about +myself.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I can say nothing more about missing links than what +I have said. I should rely much on pre-Silurian times; +but then comes Sir W. Thomson like an odious spectre. +Farewell.āYours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I was grieved to see in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Daily News</span> that the +madman about the flat earth has been threatening +your life. What an odious trouble this must have been +to you. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page269">[pg 269]</span><a name="Pg269" id="Pg269" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +P.S.āThere is a most cutting review of me in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly</span>:<a name="noteref_90" id="noteref_90"></a><a href="#note_90"><span class="footnoteref">90</span></a> I have only read a few pages. The skill and +style make me think of Mivart. I shall soon be viewed as +the most despicable of men. This <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly</span> review tempts +me to republish Ch. Wright, even if not read by anyone, +just to show that someone will say a word against Mivart, +and that his (i.e. Mivart's) remarks ought not to be swallowed +without some reflection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I quite agree with what you say that Mivart fully +intends to be honourable; but he seems to me to have the +mind of a most able lawyer retained to plead against us, +and especially against me. God knows whether my +strength and spirit will last out to write a chapter versus +Mivart and others; I do so hate controversy, and feel I +should do it so badly.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI have now finished the review: there can be no +doubt it is by Mivart, and wonderfully clever.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_134" id="toc_134"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Holly House, Barking, E. July 16,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI am very sorry you are so unwell, and +that you allow criticisms to worry you so. Remember the +noble army of converts you have made! and the host of +the most talented men living who support you wholly. +What do you think of putting C. Wright's article as an +appendix to the new edition of the "Origin"? That +would get it read, and obviate my chief objection, that the +people who read Mivart and the "Origin" will very few +of them buy a separate pamphlet to read. Pamphlets are +such nuisances. I don't think Mivart could have written +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly</span> article, but I will look at it and shall, I +think, be able to tell. Pray keep your spirits up. I am +so distracted by building troubles that I can write nothing, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page270">[pg 270]</span><a name="Pg270" id="Pg270" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and I shall not, till I get settled in my new house, some +time next spring, I hope.āWith best wishes, believe me +yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_135" id="toc_135"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Haredene, Albury, Guildford. August 1,</span> 1871.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āYour kind and sympathetic letter +pleased me greatly and did me good, but as you are so +busy I did not answer it. I write now because I have just +received a very remarkable letter from Fritz MĆ¼ller (with +butterflies' wings gummed on paper as illustrations) on +mimicry, etc. I think it is well worth your reading, but +I will not send it, unless I receive a 1/2d. card to this +effect. He puts the difficulty of first start in imitation +excellently, and gives wonderful proof of closeness of the +imitation. He hints a curious addition to the theory +in relation to sexual selection, which you will think +madly hypothetical: it occurred to me in a very different +class of cases, but I was afraid to publish it. It +would aid the theory of imitative protection, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">when the +colours are bright</span>. He seems much pleased with your +caterpillar theory. I wish the letter could be published, +but without coloured illustrations [it] would, I fear, be +unintelligible.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have not yet made up my mind about Wright's +review; I shall stop till I hear from him. Your suggestion +would make the "Origin," already too large, still +more bulky.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">By the way, did Mr. Youmans, of the United States, +apply to you to write a popular sketch of Natural Selection? +I told him you would do it immeasurably better +than anyone in the world. My head keeps very rocky and +wretched, but I am better,āEver yours most truly,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page271">[pg 271]</span><a name="Pg271" id="Pg271" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_136" id="toc_136"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Holly House, Barking, E. March 3,</span> 1872.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your new edition of +the "Origin," which I have been too busy to acknowledge +before. I think your answer to Mivart on the initial stages +of modification ample and complete, and the comparison of +whale and duck most beautiful. I always saw the fallacy +of these objections, of course. The eye and ear objection +you have not so satisfactorily answered, and to me the +difficulty exists of how <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">three times over</span> an organ of sight +was developed with the apparatus even approximately +identical. Why should not, in one case out of the three, +the heat rays or the chemical rays have been utilised for +the same purpose, in which case no translucent media +would have been required, and yet vision might have been +just as perfect? The fact that the eyes of insects and +molluscs are transparent to us shows that the very same +limited portion of the rays of the spectrum is utilised for +vision by them as by us.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The chances seem to me immense against that having +occurred through "fortuitous variation," as Mivart puts it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I see still further difficulties on this point but cannot go +into them now. Many thanks for your kind invitation. I +will try and call some day, but I am now very busy trying +to make my house habitable by Lady Day, when I <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">must</span> be +in it.āBelieve me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_137" id="toc_137"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 27,</span> 1872.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have just read with infinite satisfaction +your crushing article in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>.<a name="noteref_91" id="noteref_91"></a><a href="#note_91"><span class="footnoteref">91</span></a> I have been the +more glad to see it, as I have not seen the book itself: I +<span class="tei-pb" id="page272">[pg 272]</span><a name="Pg272" id="Pg272" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>did not order it, as I felt sure from Dr. B.'s former book +that he could write nothing of value. But assuredly I did +not suppose that anyone would have written such a mass +of inaccuracies and rubbish. How rich is everything which +he says and quotes from Herbert Spencer!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">By the way, I suppose that you read H. Spencer's answer +to Martineau: it struck me as quite wonderfully good, and +I felt even more strongly inclined than before to bow +in reverence before him. Nothing has amused me more +in your review than Dr. B.'s extraordinary presumption in +deciding that such men as Lyell, Owen, H. Spencer, +Mivart, Gaudry, etc. etc., are all wrong. I daresay it +would be very delightful to feel such overwhelming confidence +in oneself.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have had a poor time of it of late, rarely having an +hour of comfort, except when asleep or immersed in work; +and then when that is over I feel dead with fatigue. I am +now correcting my little book on Expression; but it will +not be published till November, when of course a copy will +be sent to you. I shall now try whether I can occupy +myself without writing anything more on so difficult a +subject as Evolution.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope you are now comfortably settled in your new +house, and have more leisure than you have had for some +time. I have looked out in the papers for any notice about +the curatorship of the new Museum, but have seen nothing. +If anything is decided in your favour, I <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">beg</span> you to inform +me.āMy dear Wallace, very truly yours,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">How grandly the public has taken up Hooker's case.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down. August 3, [1872].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI hate controversy, chiefly perhaps +because I do it badly; but as Dr. Bree accuses you of +"blundering," I have thought myself bound to send the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page273">[pg 273]</span><a name="Pg273" id="Pg273" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>enclosed letter<a name="noteref_92" id="noteref_92"></a><a href="#note_92"><span class="footnoteref">92</span></a> to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>, that is, if you in the least desire +it. In this case please post it. If you do not <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">at all</span> wish +it, I should rather prefer not sending it, and in this case +please tear it up. And I beg you to do the same, if you +intend answering Dr. Bree yourself, as you will do it incomparably +better than I should. Also please tear it up +if you don't like the letter.āMy dear Wallace, yours very +sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_138" id="toc_138"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">The Dell, Grays, Essex. August 4,</span> 1872.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI have sent your letter to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>, as I +think it will settle that question far better than anything +I can say. Many thanks for it. I have not seen Dr. Bree's +letter yet, as I get <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span> here very irregularly, but as I +was very careful to mention none but <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">real errors</span> in Dr. +Bree's book, I do not imagine there will be any necessity +for my taking any notice of it. It was really entertaining +to have such a book to review, the errors and misconceptions +were so inexplicable and the self-sufficiency of the +man so amazing. Yet there is some excellent writing in +the book, and to a half-informed person it has all the +appearance of being a most valuable and authoritative +work.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am now reviewing a much more important book and +one that, if I mistake not, will really compel you sooner +or later to modify some of your views, though it will not +<span class="tei-pb" id="page274">[pg 274]</span><a name="Pg274" id="Pg274" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>at all affect the main doctrine of Natural Selection as +applied to the higher animals. I allude, of course, to +Bastian's "Beginnings of Life," which you have no doubt +got. It is hard reading, but intensely interesting. I am +a thorough convert to his main results, and it seems to +me that nothing more important has appeared since your +"Origin." It is a pity he is so awfully voluminous and +discursive. When you have thoroughly digested it I shall +be glad to know what you are disposed to think. My first +notice of it will I think appear in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span> next week, but I +have been hurried for it, and it is not so well written an +article as I could wish.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I sincerely hope your health is improving.āBelieve me +yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI fear Lubbock's motion is being pushed off to the +end of the Session, and Hooker's case will not be fairly considered. +I hope the matter will <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not</span> be allowed to drop.āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_139" id="toc_139"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. August 28,</span> 1872.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have at last finished the gigantic +job of reading Dr. Bastian's book, and have been deeply +interested in it. You wished to hear my impression, but +it is not worth sending.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">He seems to me an extremely able man, as indeed I +thought when I read his first essay. His general argument +in favour of archebiosis<a name="noteref_93" id="noteref_93"></a><a href="#note_93"><span class="footnoteref">93</span></a> is wonderfully strong; +though I cannot think much of some few of his arguments. +The result is that I am bewildered and astonished +by his statements, but am not convinced; though on the +whole it seems to me probable that archebiosis is true. I +am not convinced partly I think owing to the deductive +<span class="tei-pb" id="page275">[pg 275]</span><a name="Pg275" id="Pg275" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>cast of much of his reasoning; and I know not why, but +I never feel convinced by deduction, even in the case of +H. Spencer's writings. If Dr. B.'s book had been turned +upside down, and he had begun with the various cases of +heterogenesis, and then gone on to organic and afterwards +to saline solutions, and had then given his general arguments, +I should have been, I believe, much more influenced. +I suspect, however, that my chief difficulty is the effect of +old convictions being stereotyped on my brain. I must +have more evidence that germs or the minutest fragments +of the lowest forms are always killed by 212Ā° of Fahr. +Perhaps the mere reiteration of the statements given by +Dr. B. by other men whose judgment I respect and who have +worked long on the lower organisms would suffice to convince +me. Here is a fine confession of intellectual weakness; but +what an inexplicable frame of mind is that of belief.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As for Rotifers and Tardigrades being spontaneously +generated, my mind can no more digest such statements, +whether true or false, than my stomach can digest a lump +of lead.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dr. B. is always comparing archebiosis as well as +growth to crystallisation; but on this view a Rotifer or +Tardigrade is adapted to its humble conditions of life by +a happy accident; and this I cannot believe. That observations +of the above nature may easily be altogether +wrong is well shown by Dr. B. having declared to Huxley +that he had watched the entire development of a leaf +of Sphagnum. He must have worked with very impure +materials in some cases, as plenty of organisms appeared +in a saline solution not containing an atom of nitrogen.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I wholly disagree with Dr. B. about many points in his +latter chapters. Thus the frequency of generalised forms +in the older strata seems to me clearly to indicate the common +descent with divergence of more recent forms. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page276">[pg 276]</span><a name="Pg276" id="Pg276" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +Notwithstanding all his sneers, I do not strike my +colours as yet about pangenesis. I should like to live to +see archebiosis proved true, for it would be a discovery of +transcendent importance; or if false I should like to see +it disproved, and the facts otherwise explained; but I shall +not live to see all this. If ever proved, Dr. B. will have +taken a prominent part in the work. How grand is the +onward rush of science; it is enough to console us for +the many errors which we have committed and for our +efforts being overlaid and forgotten in the mass of new +facts and new views which are daily turning up.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">This is all I have to say about Dr. B.'s book, and it +certainly has not been worth saying. Nevertheless, reward +me whenever you can by giving me any news about +your appointment to the Bethnal Green Museum.āMy +dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_140" id="toc_140"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">The Dell, Grays, Essex. August 31,</span> 1872.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your long and interesting +letter about Bastian's book, though I almost regret that +my asking you for your opinion should have led you to give +yourself so much trouble. I quite understand your frame +of mind, and think it quite a natural and proper one. You +had hard work to hammer your views into people's heads +at first, and if Bastian's theory is true he will have still +harder work, because the facts he appeals to are themselves +so difficult to establish. Are not you mistaken about the +Sphagnum? As I remember it, Huxley detected a fragment +of Sphagnum leaf <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">in the same solution in which a +fungoid growth had been developed</span>. Bastian mistook the +Sphagnum also for a vegetable growth, and on account +of this ignorance of the character of Sphagnum, and its +presence in the solution, Huxley rejected somewhat contemptuously +(and I think very illogically) all Bastian's +<span class="tei-pb" id="page277">[pg 277]</span><a name="Pg277" id="Pg277" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>observations. Again, as to the saline solution without +nitrogen, would not the air supply what was required?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I quite agree that the book would have gained force +by rearrangement in the way you suggest, but perhaps he +thought it necessary to begin with a general argument in +order to induce people to examine his new collection of +facts, I am impressed <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">most</span> by the agreement of so many +observers, some of whom struggle to explain away their +own facts. What a wonderfully ingenious and suggestive +paper that is by Galton on "Blood Relationship." It +helps to render intelligible many of the eccentricities of +heredity, atavism, etc.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sir Charles Lyell was good enough to write to Lord +Ripon and Mr. Cole<a name="noteref_94" id="noteref_94"></a><a href="#note_94"><span class="footnoteref">94</span></a> about me and the Bethnal Green +Museum, and the answer he got was that at present no +appointment of a director is contemplated. I suppose they +see no way of making it a Natural History Museum, and +it will have to be kept going by Loan Collections of miscellaneous +works of art, in which case, of course, the South +Kensington people will manage it. It is a considerable disappointment +to me, as I had almost calculated on getting +something there.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With best wishes for your good health and happiness, +believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI have just been reading Howorth's paper in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Journal of the Anthropological Institute</span>. How perverse it +is. He throughout confounds "fertility" with "increase +of population," which seems to me to be the main cause of +his errors. His elaborate accumulation of facts in other +papers in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>, on "Subsidence and Elevation of Land," +I believe to be equally full of error, and utterly untrustworthy +as a whole.āA.R.W.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page278">[pg 278]</span><a name="Pg278" id="Pg278" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_141" id="toc_141"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 2,</span> 1872.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI write a line to say that I understoodābut +I may of course have been mistakenāfrom +Huxley that Bastian distinctly stated that he had watched +the development of the scale of Sphagnum: I was astonished, +as I knew the appearance of Sphagnum under a +high power, and asked a second time; but I repeat that +I may have been mistaken. Busk told me that Sharpey +had noticed the appearance of numerous Infusoria in one +of the solutions not containing any nitrogen; and I do not +suppose that any physiologist would admit the possibility +of Infusoria absorbing nitrogen gas. Possibly I ought not +to have mentioned statements made in private conversation, +so please do not repeat them.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I quite agree about the extreme importance of such men +as Cohn [illegible] and Carter having observed apparent +cases of heterogenesis. At present I should prefer any +mad hypothesis, such as that every disintegrated molecule +of the lowest forms can reproduce the parent-form, and +that the molecules are universally distributed, and that +they do not lose their vital power until heated to such +a temperature that they decompose like dead organic +particles.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am extremely grieved to hear about the Museum: it +is a great misfortune.āYours most sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have taken up old botanical work and have given up +all theories.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I quite agree about Howorth's paper: he wrote to me +and I told him that we differed so widely it was of no use +our discussing any point.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As for Galton's paper, I have never yet been able to +fully digest it: as far as I have, it has not cleared my +<span class="tei-pb" id="page279">[pg 279]</span><a name="Pg279" id="Pg279" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ideas, and has only aided in bringing more prominently +forward the large proportion of the latent characters.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_142" id="toc_142"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. October 20,</span> 1872.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have thought that you would perhaps +like to see enclosed specimen and extract from letter +(translated from the German by my son) from Dr. W. +Marshall, Zoological Assistant to Schlegel at Leyden. +Neither the specimen nor extract need be returned; and +you need not acknowledge the receipt. The resemblance +is not so close, now that the fragments are gummed on +card, as I at first thought. Your review of Houzeau was +very good: I skimmed through the whole gigantic book, +but you managed to pick out the plums much better than +I did for myself. You are a born critic. What an <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">admirable</span> +number that was of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am writing this at Sevenoaks, where we have taken +a house for three weeks and have one more week to stay. +We came here that I may get a little rest, of which I stood +in much need.āEver yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With respect to what you say about certain instincts +of ants having been acquired by experience or sense, have +you kept in mind that the neuters have no progeny? I +wish I knew whether the fertile females, or queens, do the +same work (viz. placing the eggs in warm places, etc.) as +the neuters do afterwards; if so the case would be comparatively +simple; but I believe this is not the case, and +I am driven to selection of varying pre-existing instincts.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_143" id="toc_143"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 15,</span> 1872.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI should have written earlier to thank +you for your book,<a name="noteref_95" id="noteref_95"></a><a href="#note_95"><span class="footnoteref">95</span></a> but was hoping to be able to read more +<span class="tei-pb" id="page280">[pg 280]</span><a name="Pg280" id="Pg280" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of it before doing so. I have not, however, found time to +get beyond the first three chapters, but that is quite sufficient +to show me how exceedingly interesting you have made +the subject, and how completely and admirably you have +worked it out. I expect it will be one of the most popular +of your works. I have just been asked to write a review +of it for the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Journal of Science</span>, for which purpose +I shall be in duty bound to seek out some deficiencies, +however minute, so as to give my notice some flavour of +criticism.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The cuts and photos are admirable, and my little boy +and girl seized it at once to look at the naughty babies.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI will take this opportunity of asking you if you +know of any book that will give me a complete catalogue +of vertebrate fossils with some indication of their affinities.āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_144" id="toc_144"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 13,</span> 1873.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have read your review with much +interest, and I thank you sincerely for the very kind spirit +in which it is written. I cannot say that I am convinced +by your criticisms.<a name="noteref_96" id="noteref_96"></a><a href="#note_96"><span class="footnoteref">96</span></a> If you have ever actually observed a +kitten sucking and pounding with extended toes its mother, +and then seen the same kitten when a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">little older</span> doing the +same thing on a soft shawl, and ultimately an old cat (as +I have seen), and do not admit that it is identically the same +action, I am astonished.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page281">[pg 281]</span><a name="Pg281" id="Pg281" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With respect to the decapitated frog,<a name="noteref_97" id="noteref_97"></a><a href="#note_97"><span class="footnoteref">97</span></a> I have always +heard of PflĆ¼ger as a most trustworthy observer. If, +indeed, anyone knows a frog's habits so well as to say +that it never rubs off a bit of leaf or other object, which +may stick to its thigh, in the same manner as it did the +acid, your objection would be valid. Some of Flourens' +experiments, in which he removed the cerebral hemisphere +from a pigeon, indicate that acts <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">apparently</span> performed +consciously can be done without consciousnessāI presume +through the force of habit; in which case it would appear +that intellectual power is not brought into play. Several +persons have made such suggestions and objections as yours +about the hands being held up in astonishment:<a name="noteref_98" id="noteref_98"></a><a href="#note_98"><span class="footnoteref">98</span></a> if there +was any straining of the muscles, as with protruded +arms under fright, I would agree: as it is I must keep +to my old opinion, and I daresay you will say that I am +an obstinate old blockhead.āMy dear Wallace, yours very +sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The book has sold wonderfully; 9,000 copies have now +been printed.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_145" id="toc_145"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">The Dell, Grays, Essex. Wednesday morning, [November, 1873].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āYours just received. Pray act exactly +as if nothing had been said to me on the subject. I do +not particularly <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">wish</span> for the work,<a name="noteref_99" id="noteref_99"></a><a href="#note_99"><span class="footnoteref">99</span></a> as, besides being as +<span class="tei-pb" id="page282">[pg 282]</span><a name="Pg282" id="Pg282" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>you say, tedious work, it involves a considerable amount +of responsibility. Still, I am prepared to do any literary +work of the kind, as I told Bates some time ago, and that +is the reason he wrote to me about it. I certainly think, +however, that it would be in many ways more satisfactory +to you if your son did it, and I therefore hope he may +undertake it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Should he, however, for any reasons, be unable, I am +at your service as a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">dernier ressort</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In case my meaning is not quite clear, I will <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">not do it</span> +unless your son has the offer and declines it.āBelieve me, +dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_146" id="toc_146"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 18,</span> 1873.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āI quite understand what you require, +and would undertake to do it to the best of my ability. +Of course in such work I should not think of offering +criticisms of matter.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I do not think I could form any idea of how long it +would take by seeing the MSS., as it would all depend +upon the amount of revision and working-in required. I +have helped Sir C. Lyell with his last three or four +editions in a somewhat similar though different way, and +for him I have kept an account simply of the hours I was +employed in any way for him, and he paid me 5/- an hour; +but (of course this is confidential) I do not think this quite +enough for the class of work. I should propose for your +work 7/- an hour as a fair remuneration, and I would put +down each day the hours I worked at it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">No doubt you will get it done for very much less by +any literary man accustomed to regular literary work and +nothing else, and perhaps better done, so do not in the +least scruple in saying you decide on employing the gentleman +you had in view if you prefer it. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page283">[pg 283]</span><a name="Pg283" id="Pg283" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +If you send it to me could you let me have <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">all</span> your +MSS. copied out, as it adds considerably to the time required +if there is any difficulty in deciphering the writing, +which in yours (as you are no doubt aware) there often is.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My hasty note to Bates was not intended to be shown +you or anyone. I thought he had heard of it from Murray, +and that the arrangement was to be made by Murray.āBelieve +me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI have been delighted with H. Spencer's "Study +of Sociology." Some of the passages in the latter part +are <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">grand</span>. You have perhaps seen that I am dipping into +politics myself occasionally.āA.R.W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_147" id="toc_147"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenkam, Kent. November 19,</span> 1873.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Wallace,āI thank you for your extremely kind +letter, and I am sorry that I troubled you with that of +yesterday. My wife thinks that my son George would be +so much pleased at undertaking the work for me, that I +will write to him, and so probably shall have no occasion +to trouble you. If on still further reflection, and after +looking over my notes, I think that my son could not do +the work, I will write again and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">gratefully</span> accept your +proposal. But if you do not hear, you will understand +that I can manage the affair myself. I never in my lifetime +regretted an interruption so much as this new edition +of the "Descent." I am deeply immersed in some work +on physiological points with plants.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I fully agree with what you say about H. Spencer's +"Sociology"; I do not believe there is a man in Europe +at all his equal in talents. I did not know that you had +been writing on politics, except so far as your letter on +the coal question, which interested me much and struck +me as a capital letter. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page284">[pg 284]</span><a name="Pg284" id="Pg284" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +I must again thank you for your letter, and remain, +dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope to Heaven that politics will not replace natural +science.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I know too well how atrociously bad my handwriting is.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_148" id="toc_148"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">The Dell, Grays, Essex. December 6,</span> 1874.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your kindness in sending +me a copy of your new edition of the "Descent." I +see you have made a whole host of additions and corrections +which I shall have great pleasure in reading over as +soon as I have got rid of my horrid book on Geographical +Distribution, which is almost driving me mad with the +amount of drudgery required and the often unsatisfactory +nature of the result. However, I must finish with it soon, +or all the part first done will have to be done over again, +every new book, either as a monograph, or a classification, +putting everything wrong (for me).</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you are in good health and able to go on with +your favourite work, I remain yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_149" id="toc_149"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">The Dell, Grays, Essex. July 21,</span> 1875.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your kindness in sending +me a copy of your new book.<a name="noteref_100" id="noteref_100"></a><a href="#note_100"><span class="footnoteref">100</span></a> Being very busy I have +only had time to dip into it yet. The account of Utricularia +is most marvellous, and quite new to me. I'm rather surprised +that you do not make any remarks on the origin +of these extraordinary contrivances for capturing insects. +Did you think they were too obvious? I daresay there is +no difficulty, but I feel sure they will be seized on as inexplicable +by Natural Selection, and your silence on the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page285">[pg 285]</span><a name="Pg285" id="Pg285" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>point will be held to show that you consider them so! +The contrivance in Utricularia and DionƦa, and in fact +in Drosera too, seems fully as great and complex as +in Orchids, but there is not the same motive force. Fertilisation +and cross-fertilisation are important ends enough +to lead to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">any</span> modification, but can we suppose mere +nourishment to be so important, seeing that it is so easily +and almost universally obtained by extrusion of roots and +leaves? Here are plants which lose their roots and leaves +to acquire the same results by infinitely complex modes! +What a wonderful and long-continued series of variations +must have led up to the perfect "trap" in Utricularia, +while at any stage of the process the same end might +have been gained by a little more development of roots +and leaves, as in 9,999 plants out of 10,000!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Is this an imaginary difficulty, or do you mean to deal +with it in future editions of the "Origin"?āBelieve me +yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_150" id="toc_150"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 7,</span> 1875.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your beautiful little +volume on "Climbing Plants," which forms a most interesting +companion to your "Orchids" and "Insectivorous +Plants." I am sorry to see that you have not this time +given us the luxury of cut edges.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am in the midst of printing and proof-sheets, which +are wearisome in the extreme from the mass of names and +statistics I have been obliged to introduce, and which will, +I fear, make my book insufferably dull to all but zoological +specialists.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My trust is in my pictures and maps to catch the public.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping yourself and all your family are quite well, +believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page286">[pg 286]</span><a name="Pg286" id="Pg286" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_151" id="toc_151"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. June 5,</span> 1876.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI must have the pleasure of expressing +to you my unbounded admiration of your book,<a name="noteref_101" id="noteref_101"></a><a href="#note_101"><span class="footnoteref">101</span></a> though +I have read only to page 184āmy object having been to do +as little as possible while resting. I feel sure that you +have laid a broad and safe foundation for all future work +on Distribution. How interesting it will be to see hereafter +plants treated in strict relation to your views; and +then all insects, pulmonate molluscs, and fresh-water fishes, +in greater detail than I suppose you have given to these +lower animals. The point which has interested me most, +but I do not say the most valuable point, is your protest +against sinking imaginary continents in a quite reckless +manner, as was started by Forbes, followed, alas, by +Hooker, and caricatured by Wollaston and Murray. By +the way, the main impression which the latter author has +left on my mind is his utter want of all scientific judgment. +I have lifted up my voice against the above view +with no avail, but I have no doubt that you will succeed, +owing to your new arguments and the coloured chart. Of +a special value, as it seems to me, is the conclusion that +we must determine the areas chiefly by the nature of the +mammals. When I worked many years ago on this subject, +I doubted much whether the now-called Palearctic +and Nearctic regions ought to be separated; and I determined +if I made another region that it should be Madagascar. +I have therefore been able to appreciate the value +of your evidence on these points. What progress PalƦontology +has made during the last 20 years! But if it +advances at the same rate in the future, our views on the +migration and birthplace of the various groups will, I +fear, be greatly altered. I cannot feel quite easy about +<span class="tei-pb" id="page287">[pg 287]</span><a name="Pg287" id="Pg287" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the Glacial period and the extinction of large mammals, +but I much hope that you are right. I think you will have +to modify your belief about the difficulty of dispersal of +land molluscs; I was interrupted when beginning to experimentise +on the just-hatched young adhering to the feet +of ground-roosting birds. I differ on one other point, viz. +in the belief that there must have existed a Tertiary Antarctic +continent, from which various forms radiated to the +southern extremities of our present continents. But I +could go on scribbling for ever. You have written, as I +believe, a grand and memorable work, which will last +for years as the foundation for all future treatises on +Geographical Distribution,āMy dear Wallace, yours very +sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CHARLES DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āYou have paid me the highest conceivable compliment +by what you say of your work in relation to my +chapters on Distribution in the "Origin," and I heartily +thank you for it.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_152" id="toc_152"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">The Dell, Grays, Essex. June 7,</span> 1876.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your very kind letter. +So few people will read my book at all regularly, that a +criticism from one who does so will be very welcome.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If, as I suppose, it is only to p. 184 of Vol. I. that +you have read, you cannot yet quite see my conclusions +on the points you refer to (land molluscs and Antarctic +continent). My own conclusions fluctuated during the +progress of the book, and I have, I know, occasionally +used expressions (the relics of earlier ideas) which are not +quite consistent with what I say further on. I am positively +against any Southern continent as <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">uniting</span> South +America with Australia or New Zealand, as you will see at +Vol. I., pp. 398-403 and 459-466. My general conclusions +<span class="tei-pb" id="page288">[pg 288]</span><a name="Pg288" id="Pg288" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>as to Distribution of Land Mollusca<a name="noteref_102" id="noteref_102"></a><a href="#note_102"><span class="footnoteref">102</span></a> are at Vol. II., pp. +522-529. When you have read these passages and looked at +the general facts which lead to them, I shall be glad to hear +if you still differ from me.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Though, of course, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">present results</span> as to origin and +migrations of genera of mammals will have to be modified +owing to new discoveries, I cannot help thinking that +much will remain unaffected, because in all geographical +and geological discoveries the great outlines are soon +reached; the details alone remain to be modified. I also +think much of the geological evidence is now so accordant +with, and explanatory of, geographical distribution that it +is prima facie correct in outline. Nevertheless, such vast +masses of new facts will come out in the next few years +that I quite dread the labour of incorporating them in a +new edition.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now for a little personal matter. For two years I +have made up my mind to leave this placeāmainly for two +reasons: drought and wind prevent the satisfactory growth +of all delicate plants; and I cannot stand being unable to +attend evening meetings and being obliged to refuse every +invitation in London. But I was obliged to stay till I +had got it into decent order to attract a customer. At +last it is so, and I am offering it for sale, and as soon +as it is disposed of I intend to try the neighbourhood of +Dorking, whence there are late trains from Cannon Street +and Charing Cross.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I see your post-mark was Dorking, so I suppose you +have been staying there. Is it not a lovely country? I +hope your health is improved, and when, quite at your +<span class="tei-pb" id="page289">[pg 289]</span><a name="Pg289" id="Pg289" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>leisure, you have waded through my book, I trust you +will again let me have a few lines of friendly criticism +and advice.āYours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_153" id="toc_153"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham. June 17,</span> 1876.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have now finished the whole of +Vol. I., with the same interest and admiration as before; +and I am convinced that my judgment was right and that +it is a memorable book, the basis of all future work on the +subject. I have nothing particular to say, but perhaps you +would like to hear my impressions on two or three points. +Nothing has struck me more than the admirable and convincing +manner in which you treat Java. To allude to a +very trifling point, it is capital about the unadorned head +of the Argus pheasant.<a name="noteref_103" id="noteref_103"></a><a href="#note_103"><span class="footnoteref">103</span></a> How plain a thing is, when it is +once pointed out! What a wonderful case is that of Celebes! +I am glad that you have slightly modified your views with +respect to Africa,<a name="noteref_104" id="noteref_104"></a><a href="#note_104"><span class="footnoteref">104</span></a> and this leads me to say that I cannot +swallow the so-called continent of Lemuria, i.e. the direct +connection of Africa and Ceylon!<a name="noteref_105" id="noteref_105"></a><a href="#note_105"><span class="footnoteref">105</span></a> The facts do not seem +to me many and strong enough to justify so immense a +change of level. Moreover, Mauritius and the other islands +appear to me oceanic in character. But do not suppose +<span class="tei-pb" id="page290">[pg 290]</span><a name="Pg290" id="Pg290" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>that I place my judgment on this subject on a level with +yours. A wonderfully good paper was published about a +year ago on India in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Geological Journal</span>āI <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">think</span> by +Blandford.<a name="noteref_106" id="noteref_106"></a><a href="#note_106"><span class="footnoteref">106</span></a> Ramsay agreed with me that it was one of +the best published for a long time. The author shows that +India has been a continent with enormous fresh-water lakes +from the Permian period to the present day. If I remember +right he believes in a former connection with South Africa.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am sure that I read, some 20 to 30 years ago, in +a French journal, an account of teeth of mastodon found +in Timor; but the statement may have been an error.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With respect to what you say about the colonising of +New Zealand, I somewhere have an account of a frog +frozen in the ice of a Swiss glacier, and which revived +when thawed. I may add that there is an Indian toad +which can resist salt water and haunts the seaside. +Nothing ever astonished me more than the case of the +Galaxias; but it does not seem known whether it may not +be a migratory fish like the salmon. It seems to me that +you complicate rather too much the successive colonisations +with New Zealand. I should prefer believing that +the Galaxias was a species, like the Emys of the Sewalik +Hills, which has long retained the same form. Your remarks +on the insects and flowers of New Zealand have +greatly interested me; but aromatic leaves I have always +looked at as a protection against their being eaten by +insects or other animals; and as insects are there rare, +such protection would not be much needed. I have written +more than I intended, and I must again say how profoundly +your book has interested me.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Now let me turn to a very different subject. I have +<span class="tei-pb" id="page291">[pg 291]</span><a name="Pg291" id="Pg291" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>only just heard of and procured your two articles in the +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Academy</span>. I thank you most cordially for your generous +defence of me against Mr. Mivart. In the "Origin" I did +not discuss the derivation of any one species; but that I +might not be accused of concealing my opinion I went out +of my way and inserted a sentence which seemed to me +(and still so seems) to declare plainly my belief. This +was quoted in my "Descent of Man." Therefore it is +very unjust, not to say dishonest, of Mr. Mivart to accuse +me of base fraudulent concealment; I care little about +myself; but Mr. Mivart, in an article in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly +Review</span> (which I <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">know</span> was written by him), accused my +son George of encouraging profligacy, and this without the +least foundation.<a name="noteref_107" id="noteref_107"></a><a href="#note_107"><span class="footnoteref">107</span></a> I can assert this positively, as I laid +George's article and the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Review</span> before Hooker, +Huxley and others, and all agreed that the accusation +<span class="tei-pb" id="page292">[pg 292]</span><a name="Pg292" id="Pg292" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>was a deliberate falsification. Huxley wrote to him on +the subject and has almost or quite cut him in consequence; +and so would Hooker, but he was advised not to +do so as President of the Royal Society. Well, he has +gained his object in giving me pain, and, good God, to +think of the flattering, almost fawning speeches which he +has made to me! I wrote, of course, to him to say that I +would never speak to him again. I ought, however, to be +contented, as he is the one man who has ever, as far as I +know, treated me basely.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Forgive me for writing at such length, and believe me +yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āI am very sorry that you have given up sexual +selection. I am not at all shaken, and stick to my colours +like a true Briton. When I think about the unadorned +head of the Argus pheasant, I might exclaim, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Et tu, +Brute!</span></p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_154" id="toc_154"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham. June 25,</span> 1876.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have been able to read rather more +quickly of late and have finished your book. I have not +much to say. Your careful account of the temperate parts +of South America interested me much, and all the more +from knowing something of the country. I like also much +the general remarks towards the end of the volume on the +land molluscs. Now for a few criticisms.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P. 122:<a name="noteref_108" id="noteref_108"></a><a href="#note_108"><span class="footnoteref">108</span></a> I am surprised at your saying that "during +the whole Tertiary period North America was zoologically +far more strongly contrasted with South America than it +is now." But we know hardly anything of the latter +except during the Pliocene period, and then the mastodon, +horse, several great Dentata, etc. etc., were common to +the North and South. If you are right I erred greatly in +<span class="tei-pb" id="page293">[pg 293]</span><a name="Pg293" id="Pg293" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>my Journal, where I insisted on the former close connection +between the two.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P. 252, and elsewhere: I agree thoroughly with the +general principle that a great area with many competing +forms is necessary for much and high development; but +do you not extend this principle too farāI should say +much too far, considering how often several species of the +same genus have been developed on very small islands?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P. 265: You say that the SittidƦ extend to Madagascar, +but there is no number in the tabular heading.<a name="noteref_109" id="noteref_109"></a><a href="#note_109"><span class="footnoteref">109</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P. 359: Rhinochetus is entered in the tabular heading +under No. 3 of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Neotropical</span> sub-regions.<a name="noteref_110" id="noteref_110"></a><a href="#note_110"><span class="footnoteref">110</span></a></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Reviewers think it necessary to find some fault, and if +I were to review you, the sole point which I should blame +is your not giving very numerous references. These would +save whoever follows you great labour. Occasionally I +wished myself to know the authority for certain statements, +and whether you or somebody else had originated +certain subordinate views. Take the case of a man who +had collected largely on some island, for instance St. +Helena, and who wished to work out the geographical relations +of his collection; he would, I think, feel very blank +at not finding in your work precise references to all that +had been written on St. Helena. I hope you will not think +me a confoundedly disagreeable fellow.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I may mention a capital essay which I received a few +mouths ago from Axel Blytt<a name="noteref_111" id="noteref_111"></a><a href="#note_111"><span class="footnoteref">111</span></a> on the distribution of the +plants of Scandinavia; showing the high probability of +there having been secular periods alternately wet and +dry; and of the important part which they have played in +distribution.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page294">[pg 294]</span><a name="Pg294" id="Pg294" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I wrote to Forel, who is always at work on ants, and +told him of your views about the dispersal of the blind +Coleoptera, and asked him to observe.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I spoke to Hooker about your book, and feel sure that +he would like nothing better than to consider the distribution +of plants in relation to your views; but he seemed to +doubt whether he should ever have time.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">And now I have done my jottings, and once again congratulate +you on having brought out so grand a work. I +have been a little disappointed at the review in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span><a name="noteref_112" id="noteref_112"></a><a href="#note_112"><span class="footnoteref">112</span></a>āMy +dear Wallace, yours sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CHARLES DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_155" id="toc_155"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Rose Hill, Dorking. July 23,</span> 1876.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āI should have replied sooner to your +last kind and interesting letters, but they reached me in +the midst of my packing previous to removal here, and I +have only just now got my books and papers in a get-at-able +state.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">And first, many thanks for your close observation in +detecting the two absurd mistakes in the tabular headings.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As to the former greater distinction of the North and +South American faunas, I think I am right. The Edentata, +being proved (as I hold) to have been mere temporary +migrants into North America in the post-Pliocene epoch, +form no part of its Tertiary fauna. Yet in South America +they were so enormously developed in the Pliocene epoch +that we know, if there is any such thing as Evolution, etc., +that strange ancestral forms must have preceded them in +Miocene times.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Mastodon, on the other hand, represented by one or two +species only, appears to have been a late immigrant into +South America from the North.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The immense development of Ungulates (in varied +<span class="tei-pb" id="page295">[pg 295]</span><a name="Pg295" id="Pg295" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>families, genera, and species) in North America during the +whole Tertiary epoch is, however, the great feature, which +assimilates it to Europe and contrasts it with South +America. True camels, hosts of hog-like animals, true +rhinoceroses, and hosts of ancestral horses, all bring +North America much nearer to the Old World than it is +now. Even the horse, represented in all South America +by Equus only, was probably a temporary immigrant from +the North.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As to extending too far the principle (yours) of the +necessity of comparatively large areas for the development +of varied faunas, I may have done so, but I think not. +There is, I think, every probability that most islands, etc., +where a varied fauna now exists have been once more extensive, +e.g. New Zealand, Madagascar. Where there is no +such evidence (e.g. Galapagos), the fauna is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">very restricted</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Lastly as to want of references; I confess the justice of +your criticism. But I am dreadfully unsystematic. It is +my first large work involving much of the labour of others. +I began with the intention of writing a comparatively short +sketch, enlarged it, and added to it, bit by bit; remodelled +the tables, the headings, and almost everything else, more +than once, and got my materials into such confusion that +it is a wonder it has not turned out far more crooked and +confused than it is. I, no doubt, ought to have given references; +but in many cases I found the information so small +and scattered, and so much had to be combined and condensed +from conflicting authorities, that I hardly knew +how to refer to them or where to leave off. Had I referred +to all authors consulted for every fact, I should have greatly +increased the bulk of the book, while a large portion of the +references would be valueless in a few years owing to later +and better authorities. My experience of referring to references +has generally been most unsatisfactory. One finds, +<span class="tei-pb" id="page296">[pg 296]</span><a name="Pg296" id="Pg296" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>nine times out of ten, the fact is stated, and nothing more; +or a reference to some third work not at hand!</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I wish I could get into the habit of giving chapter and +verse for every fact and extract, but I am too lazy and +generally in a hurry, having to consult books against time +when in London for a day.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">However, I will try and do something to mend this +matter should I have to prepare another edition.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I return you Forel's letter. It does not advance the +question much, neither do I think it likely that even the +complete observation he thinks necessary would be of much +use; because it may well be that the ova or larvƦ or imagos +of the beetles are not carried systematically by the ants, +but only occasionally owing to some exceptional circumstances. +This might produce a great effect in distribution, +yet be so rare as never to come under observation.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Several of your remarks in previous letters I shall carefully +consider. I know that, compared with the extent of +the subject, my book is in many parts crude and ill-considered; +but I thought, and still think, it better to make +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">some generalisations</span> wherever possible, as I am not at all +afraid of having to alter my views in many points of detail. +I was so overwhelmed with zoological details that I never +went through the Geological Society's <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Journal</span> as I ought +to have done, and as I mean to do before writing more on +the subject.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_156" id="toc_156"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Rose Hill, Dorking. December 13,</span> 1876.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your new book on +"Crossing Plants," which I have read with much interest. +I hardly expected, however, that there would have been +so many doubtful and exceptional cases. I fancy that the +<span class="tei-pb" id="page297">[pg 297]</span><a name="Pg297" id="Pg297" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>results would have come out better had you always taken +weights instead of heights; and that would have obviated +the objection that will, I daresay, be made, that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">height</span> +proves nothing, because a tall plant may be weaker, less +bulky and less vigorous than a shorter one. Of course no +one who knows you or who takes a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">general</span> view of your +results will say this, but I daresay it will be said. I am +afraid this book will not do much or anything to get rid +of the one great objection, that the physiological characteristic +of species, the infertility of hybrids, has not yet been +produced. Have you ever tried experiments with plants +(if any can be found) which for several centuries have +been grown under very different conditions, as for instance +potatoes on the high Andes and in Ireland? If any approach +to sterility occurred in mongrels between these it would be +a grand step. The most curious point you have brought out +seems to me the slight superiority of self-fertilisation over +fertilisation with another flower of the same plant, and the +most important result, that difference of constitution is the +essence of the benefit of cross-fertilisation. All you now +want is to find the neutral point where the benefit is at its +maximum, any greater difference being prejudicial.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you may yet demonstrate this, believe me yours +very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_157" id="toc_157"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Rose Hill, Dorking. January 17,</span> 1877.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your valuable new +edition of the "Orchids," which I see contains a great deal +of new matter of the greatest interest. I am amazed at your +continuous work, but I suppose, after all these years of it, +it is impossible for you to remain idle. I, on the contrary, +am very idle, and feel inclined to do nothing but stroll about +this beautiful country, and read all kinds of miscellaneous +literature. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page298">[pg 298]</span><a name="Pg298" id="Pg298" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +I have asked my friend Mr. Mott to send you the last +of his remarkable papersāon Haeckel. But the part I hope +you will read with as much interest as I have done is that +on the deposits of Carbon, and the part it has played and +must be playing in geological changes. He seems to have +got the idea from some German book, but it seems to me +very important, and I wonder it never occurred to Sir +Charges Lyell. If the calculations as to the quantity of +undecomposed carbon deposited are anything approaching +to correctness, the results must be important.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you are in pretty good health, believe me yours +very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_158" id="toc_158"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Rose Hill, Dorking. July 23,</span> 1877.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your admirable +volume on "The Forms of Flowers." It would be impertinence +of me to say anything in praise of it, except +that I have read the chapters on "Illegitimate Offspring +of Heterostyled Plants" and on "Cleistogamic Flowers" +with great interest.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am almost afraid to tell you that in going over the +subject of the Colours of Animals, etc., for a small volume +of essays, etc., I am preparing, I have come to conclusions +directly opposed to <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">voluntary sexual selection</span>, and believe +that I can explain (in a general way) <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">all</span> the phenomena of +sexual ornaments and colours by laws of development aided +by simple Natural Selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope you admire as I do Mr. Belt's remarkable series +of papers in support of his terrific "oceanic glacier river-damming" +hypothesis. In awful grandeur it beats everything +"glacial" yet out, and it certainly explains a wonderful +lot of hard facts. The last one, on the "Glacial +Period in the Southern Hemisphere," in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly +Journal of Science</span>, is particularly fine, and I see he has +<span class="tei-pb" id="page299">[pg 299]</span><a name="Pg299" id="Pg299" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>just read a paper at the Geological Society. It seems to +me supported by quite as much evidence as Ramsay's +"Lakes"; but Ramsay, I understand, will have none of itāas +yet.āBelieve me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_159" id="toc_159"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. August 31,</span> 1877.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI am very much obliged to you for +sending your article, which is very interesting and appears +to me as clearly written as it can be. You will not be surprised +that I differ altogether from you about sexual colours. +That the tail of the peacock and his elaborate display of it +should be due merely to the vigour, activity, and vitality +of the male is to me as utterly incredible as my views are +to you. Mantegazza published a few years ago in Italy a +somewhat similar view. I cannot help doubting about recognition +through colour; our horses, dogs, fowls, and +pigeons seem to know their own species, however differently +the individuals may be coloured. I wonder whether +you attribute the odoriferous and sound-producing organs, +when confined to the males, to their greater vigour, etc.? I +could say a good deal in opposition to you, but my arguments +would have no weight in your eyes, and I do not +intend to write for the public anything on this or any other +difficult subject. By the way, I doubt whether the term +voluntary in relation to sexual selection ought to be employed: +when a man is fascinated by a pretty girl it can +hardly be called voluntary, and I suppose that female +animals are charmed or excited in nearly the same manner +by the gaudy males.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Three essays have been published lately in Germany +which would interest you: one by Weismann, who shows +that the coloured stripes on the caterpillars of Sphinx +are beautifully protective: and birds were frightened away +<span class="tei-pb" id="page300">[pg 300]</span><a name="Pg300" id="Pg300" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>from their feeding-place by a caterpillar with large eye-like +spots on the broad anterior segments of the body. +Fritz MĆ¼ller has well discussed the first steps of mimicry +with butterflies, and comes to nearly or quite the same +conclusion as you, but supports it by additional arguments.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Fritz MĆ¼ller also has lately shown that the males alone +of certain butterflies have odoriferous glands on their wings +(distinct from those which secrete matter disgusting to +birds), and where these glands are placed the scales assume +a different shape, making little tufts.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Farewell: I hope that you find Dorking a pleasant place? +I was staying lately at Abinger Hall, and wished to come +over to see you, but driving tires me so much that my +courage failed.āYours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CHAS. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Madeira Villa, Madeira Road, Ventnor, Isle of Wight. +September 3,</span> 1877.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your letter. Of +course I did not expect my paper to have any effect on +your opinions. You have looked at all the facts so long +from your special point of view that it would require conclusive +arguments to influence you, and these, from the +complex nature of the question, are probably not to be +had. We must, I think, leave the case in the hands of +others, and I am in hopes that my paper may call sufficient +attention to the subject to induce some of the great +school of Darwinians to take the question up and work it +out thoroughly. You have brought such a mass of facts +to support your view, and have argued it so fully, that I +hardly think it necessary for you to do more. Truth will +prevail, as you as well as I wish it to do. I will only make +one or two remarks. The word "voluntary" was inserted +in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">my proofs only</span>, in order to distinguish clearly between +<span class="tei-pb" id="page301">[pg 301]</span><a name="Pg301" id="Pg301" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the two radically distinct kinds of "sexual selection." +Perhaps "conscious" would be a better word, to which I +think you will not object, and I will alter it when I republish. +I lay no stress on the word "voluntary."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sound- and scent-producing organs in males are surely +due to "natural" or "automatic" as opposed to "conscious" +selection. If there were gradations in the sounds +produced, from mere noises, up to elaborate musicāthe +case would be analogous to that of "colours" and "ornament." +Being, however, comparatively simple, Natural +Selection, owing to their use as a guide, seems sufficient. +The louder sound, heard at a greater distance, would +attract or be heard by more females, or it may attract +other males and lead to combats <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">for</span> the females, but this +would not imply <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">choice</span> in the sense of rejecting a male +whose stridulation was a trifle less loud than another's, +which is the essence of the theory as applied by you to +colour and ornament. But greater general vigour would +almost certainly lead to greater volume or persistence of +sound, and so the same view will apply to both cases on +my theory.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Thanks for the references you give me. My ignorance of +German prevents me supporting my views by the mass of +observations continually being made abroad, so I can only +advance my own ideas for what they are worth.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I like Dorking much, but can find no house to suit me, +so fear I shall have to move again.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_160" id="toc_160"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 5, [1877].</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,ā"Conscious" seems to me much +better than "voluntary." Conscious action, I presume, +comes into play when two males fight for a female; but I +<span class="tei-pb" id="page302">[pg 302]</span><a name="Pg302" id="Pg302" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>do not know whether you admit that, for instance, the spur +of the cock is due to sexual selection.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am quite willing to admit that the sounds and vocal +organs of some males are used only for challenging, +but I doubt whether this applies to the musical notes +of Hylobates or to the howling (I judge chiefly from +Rengger) of the American monkeys. No account that I +have seen of the stridulation of male insects shows that +it is a challenge. All those who have attended to birds +consider their song as a charm to the females and not as a +challenge. As the males in most cases search for the +females I do not see how their odoriferous organs will +aid them in finding the females. But it is foolish in me +to go on writing, for I believe I have said most of this in +my book: anyhow, I well remember thinking over it. The +"belling" of male stags, if I remember rightly, is a challenge, +and so I daresay is the roaring of the lion during the +breeding season.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I will just add in reference to your former letter that +I fully admit that with birds the fighting of the males +co-operates with their charms; and I remember quoting +Bartlett that gaudy colouring in the males is almost invariably +concomitant with pugnacity. But, thank Heaven, what +little more I can do in science will be confined to observation +on simple points. However much I may have blundered, +I have done my best, and that is my constant comfort.āMost truly yours,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">C. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_161" id="toc_161"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. September 14,</span> 1878.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āAn appointment is soon to be made of +someone to have the superintendence of Epping Forest +under the new Act, and as it is a post which of all others +I should like I am trying very hard to get up interest +enough to secure it. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page303">[pg 303]</span><a name="Pg303" id="Pg303" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +One of the means is the enclosed memorial, which has +been already signed by Sir J. Hooker and Sir J. Lubbock, +and to which I feel sure you will add your name, which I +expect has weight "even in the City."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In want of anything better to do I have been grinding +away at a book on the Geography of Australia for Stanford +for the last six months.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you are in good health, and with my best compliments +to Mrs. Darwin and the rest of your family, believe +me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_162" id="toc_162"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 16,</span> 1878.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI return the paper signed, and most +heartily wish that you may be successful, not only for +your own sake, but for that of Natural Science, as you +would then have more time for new researches.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I keep moderately well, but always feel half-dead, yet +manage to work away on vegetable physiology, as I think +that I should die outright if I had nothing to do.āBelieve +me yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_163" id="toc_163"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Walron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. September 23,</span> 1878.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your signature and good +wishes. I have some hopes of success, but am rather doubtful +of the Committee of the Corporation who will have the +management, for they have just decided after a great struggle +in the Court of Common Council that it is to be a rotatory +Committee, every member of the Council (of whom there are +200) coming on it in succession if they please. They evidently +look upon it as a Committee which will have great opportunities +of excursions, picnics, and dinners, at the expense of the +Corporation, while the improvement of the Forest will be +quite a secondary matter. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page304">[pg 304]</span><a name="Pg304" id="Pg304" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +I am very glad to hear you are tolerably well. It is all +I can say of myself.āBelieve me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_164" id="toc_164"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 5,</span> 1880.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āAs this note requires no sort of +answer, you must allow me to express my lively admiration +of your paper in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nineteenth Century</span>.<a name="noteref_113" id="noteref_113"></a><a href="#note_113"><span class="footnoteref">113</span></a> You certainly +are a master in the difficult art of clear exposition. +It is impossible to urge too often that the selection from +a single varying individual or of a single varying organ +will not suffice. You have worked in capitally Allen's +admirable researches. As usual, you delight to honour +me more than I deserve. When I have written about the +extreme slowness of Natural Selection (in which I hope I +may be wrong), I have chiefly had in my mind the effects +of intercrossing. I subscribe to almost everything you say +excepting the last short sentence.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">And now let me add how grieved I was to hear that the +City of London did not elect you for the Epping office, but +I suppose it was too much to hope that such a body of men +should make a good selection. I wish you could obtain some +quiet post and thus have leisure for moderate scientific work. +I have nothing to tell you about myself; I see few persons, +for conversation fatigues me much; but I daily do some work +in experiments on plants, and hope thus to continue to the +end of my days.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With all good wishes, believe me yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CHARLES DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">P.S.āHave you seen Mr. Farrer's article in the last +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Fortnightly</span>? It reminded me of an article on bequests +by you some years ago which interested and almost converted +me.</p> +<span class="tei-pb" id="page305">[pg 305]</span><a name="Pg305" id="Pg305" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_165" id="toc_165"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. January 9,</span> 1880.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āIt is a great pleasure to receive a +letter from you sometimesāespecially when we do not +differ very much. I am, of course, much pleased and +gratified that you like my article. I wrote it chiefly because +I thought there was something a little fresh still to say on +the subject, and also because I wished to define precisely +my present position, which people continually misunderstand. +The main part of the article forms part of a chapter +of a book I have now almost finished on my favourite +subject of "Geographical Distribution." It will form a +sort of supplement to my former work, and will, I trust, +be more readable and popular. I go pretty fully into the +laws of variation and dispersal; the exact character of +specific and generic areas, and their causes; the growth, +dispersal and extinction of species and groups, illustrated +by maps, etc.; changes of geography and of climate as affecting +dispersal, with a full discussion of the Glacial theory, +adopting Croll's views (part of this has been published as +a separate article in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Review</span> of last July, +and has been highly approved by Croll and Geikie); a discussion +of the theory of permanent continents and oceans, +which I see you were the first to adopt, but which geologists, +I am sorry to say, quite ignore. All this is preliminary. +Then follows a series of chapters on the different kinds of +islands, continental and oceanic, with a pretty full discussion +of the characters, affinities, and origin of their fauna +and flora in typical cases. Among these I am myself quite +pleased with my chapters on New Zealand, as I believe I +have fully explained and accounted for <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">all</span> the main peculiarities +of the New Zealand and Australian floras. I call +the book "Island Life," etc. etc., and I think it will be +interesting. +<span class="tei-pb" id="page306">[pg 306]</span><a name="Pg306" id="Pg306" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +Thanks for your regrets and kind wishes anent Epping. +It was a disappointment, as I had good friends on the +Committee and therefore had too much hope. I may just +mention that I am thinking of making some application +through friends for some post in the new Josiah Mason +College of Science at Birmingham, as Registrar or Curator +and Librarian, etc. The Trustees have advertised for Professors +to begin next October. Should you happen to know +any of the Trustees, or have any influential friends in +Birmingham, perhaps you could help me.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I think this book will be my last, as I have pretty well +said all I have to say in it, and I have never taken to experiment +as you have. But I want some easy occupation +for my declining years, with not too much confinement or +desk-work, which I cannot stand. You see I had some +reason for writing to you; but do not you trouble to write +again unless you have something to communicate.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With best wishes, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have not seen the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Fortnightly</span> yet, but will do so.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_166" id="toc_166"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. October 11,</span> 1880.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āI hope you will have received a copy +of my last book, "Island Life," as I shall be very glad of +your opinion on certain points in it. The first five chapters +you need not read, as they contain nothing fresh to +you, but are necessary to make the work complete in itself. +The next five chapters, however (VII. to X.), I think, will +interest you. As I <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">think</span>, in Chapters VIII. and IX. I have +found the true explanation of geological climates, and on +this I shall be very glad of your candid opinion, as it is +the very foundation-stone of the book. The rest will not +contain much that is fresh to you, except the three chapters +<span class="tei-pb" id="page307">[pg 307]</span><a name="Pg307" id="Pg307" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>on New Zealand. Sir Joseph Hooker thinks my theory of +the Australian and New Zealand floras a decided advance +on anything that has been done before.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In connection with this, the chapter on the Azores should +be read.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Chap. XVI. on the British Fauna may also interest +you.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I mention these points merely that you may not trouble +yourself to read the whole book, unless you like.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping that you are well, believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_167" id="toc_167"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. November 3,</span> 1880.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have now read your book,<a name="noteref_114" id="noteref_114"></a><a href="#note_114"><span class="footnoteref">114</span></a> and it +has interested me deeply. It is quite excellent, and seems +to me the best book which you have ever published; but +this may be merely because I have read it last. As I went +on, I made a few notes,<a name="noteref_115" id="noteref_115"></a><a href="#note_115"><span class="footnoteref">115</span></a> chiefly when I differed strongly +from you; but God knows whether they are worth your +reading. You will be disappointed with many of them; +<span class="tei-pb" id="page308">[pg 308]</span><a name="Pg308" id="Pg308" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>but they will show that I had the will, though I did not +know the way, to do what you wanted.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I have said nothing on the infinitely many passages and +views which I admired and which were new to me. My +notes are badly expressed; but I thought that you would +excuse my taking any pains with my style. I wish that +my confounded handwriting was better.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I had a note the other day from Hooker, and I can see +that he is <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">much</span> pleased with the Dedication.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With all good wishes, believe me yours sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">In two or three weeks you will receive a book from me; +if you care to know what it is about, read the paragraph +in Introduction about new terms and then the last chapter, +and you will know whole contents of book.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_168" id="toc_168"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. November 8,</span> 1880.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your kind remarks +and notes on my book. Several of the latter will be of use +to me if I have to prepare a second edition, which I am not +so sure of as you seem to be.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">1. In your remark as to the doubtfulness of paucity of +fossils being due to coldness of water, I think you overlook +that I am speaking <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">only</span> of waters in the latitude of +the Alps, in Miocene and Eocene times, when icebergs +and glaciers temporarily descended into an otherwise warm +sea; my theory being that there was no glacial epoch at +that time, but merely a local and temporary descent of the +snow-line and glaciers owing to high excentricity and winter +in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">aphelion</span>.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">2. I cannot see the difficulty about the cessation of the +glacial period. Between the Miocene and the Pleistocene +periods geographical changes occurred which rendered a +<span class="tei-pb" id="page309">[pg 309]</span><a name="Pg309" id="Pg309" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>true glacial period possible with high excentricity. When +the high excentricity passed away the glacial epoch also +passed away in the Temperate zone; but it persists in the +Arctic zone, where during the Miocene there were mild +climates, and this is due to the persistence of the changed +geographical conditions. The present Arctic climate is +itself a comparatively new and abnormal state of things +due to geographical modification. As to "epoch" and +"period," I use them as synonyms to avoid repeating the +same word.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">3. Rate of deposit and geological time: there no doubt +I may have gone to an extreme, but my "twenty-eight million +years" may be anything under 100 millions, as I state. +There is an enormous difference between <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">mean</span> and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">maximum</span> +denudation and deposition. In the case of the great faults +the upheaval along a given line would itself facilitate the +denudation (whether subaerial or marine) of the upheaved +portion at a rate perhaps a hundred times faster than plains +and plateaux. So, local subsidence might itself lead to very +rapid deposition. Suppose a portion of the Gulf of Mexico +near the mouth of the Mississippi were to subside for a few +thousand years, it might receive the greater part of the sediment +from the whole Mississippi valley, and thus form strata +at a very rapid rate.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">4. You quote the Pampas thistles, etc., against my +statement of the importance of preoccupation. But I am +referring especially to St. Helena, and to plants naturally +introduced from the adjacent continents. Surely, if a certain +number of African plants reached the island and became +modified into a complete adaptation to its climatic conditions, +they would hardly be expelled by other African plants +arriving subsequently. They might be so conceivably, but +it does not seem probable. The cases of the Pampas, +New Zealand, Tahiti, etc., are very different, where highly +<span class="tei-pb" id="page310">[pg 310]</span><a name="Pg310" id="Pg310" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>developed <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">aggressive</span> plants have been artificially introduced. +Under nature it is these very aggressive species that would +first reach any island in their vicinity, and, being adapted +to the island and colonising it thoroughly, would then hold +their own against other plants from the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">same</span> country, mostly +less aggressive in character. I have not explained this so +fully as I should have done in the book. Your criticism is +therefore useful.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My Chap. XXIII. is no doubt very speculative, and I +cannot wonder at your hesitating at accepting my views. +To me, however, your theory of hosts of existing species +migrating over the tropical lowlands from the North Temperate +to the South Temperate zone appears more speculative +and more improbable. For, where could the rich +lowland <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">equatorial</span> flora have existed during a period of +general refrigeration sufficient for this? and what became +of the wonderfully rich Cape flora which, if the temperature +of Tropical Africa had been so recently lowered, would +certainly have spread northwards and on the return of the +heat could hardly have been driven back into the sharply +defined and <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">very restricted area</span> in which it now exists?</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As to the migration of plants from mountain to mountain +not being so probable as to remote islands, I think +that is fully counterbalanced by two considerations:</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(a) The area and abundance of the mountain stations +along such a range as the Andes are immensely greater +than those of the islands in the North Atlantic, for example.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">(b) The temporary occupation of mountain stations by +migrating plants (which I think I have shown to be probable) +renders <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">time</span> a much more important element in increasing +the number and variety of the plants so dispersed +than in the case of islands, where the flora soon acquires +a fixed and endemic character, and where the number of +species is necessarily limited.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page311">[pg 311]</span><a name="Pg311" id="Pg311" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p">No doubt, direct evidence of seeds being carried great +distances through the air is wanted, but, I am afraid, can +hardly be obtained. Yet I feel the greatest confidence that +they <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">are</span> so carried. Take for instance the two peculiar +orchids of the Azores (Habinaria species): what other mode +of transit is conceivable? The whole subject is one of great +difficulty, but I hope my chapter may call attention to a +hitherto neglected factor in the distribution of plants.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Your references to the Mauritius literature are very interesting, +and will be useful to me; and again thanking you +for your valuable remarks, believe me yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_169" id="toc_169"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. November 21,</span> 1880.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āMany thanks for your new book +containing your wonderful series of experiments and +observations on the movements of plants. I have read the +introduction and conclusion, which shows me the importance +of the research as indicating the common basis of +the infinitely varied habits and mode of growth of plants. +The whole subject becomes thus much simplified, though +the nature of the basic vitality which leads to such wonderful +results remains as mysterious as ever.āYours very +faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_170" id="toc_170"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 1,</span> 1881.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āI have been intending to write to you +for some weeks to call your attention to what seems to me +a striking confirmation (or at all events a support) of my +views of the land migration of plants from mountain to +mountain. In <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span> of Dec. 9th, p. 126, Mr. Baker, of +Kew, describes a number of the alpine plants of Madagascar +as being <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">identical species</span> with some found on the +mountains of Abyssinia, the Cameroons, and other African +<span class="tei-pb" id="page312">[pg 312]</span><a name="Pg312" id="Pg312" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>mountains. Now, if there is one thing more clear than +another it is that Madagascar has been separated from +Africa since the Miocene (probably the early Miocene) +epoch. These plants must therefore have reached the +island either <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">since</span> then, in which case they certainly must +have passed through the air for long distances, or at the +time of the union. But the Miocene and Eocene periods +were certainly warm, and these alpine plants could hardly +have migrated over tropical forest lands, while it is very +improbable that if they had been isolated at so remote a +period, exposed to such distinct climatal and organic environments +as in Madagascar and Abyssinia, they would +have in both places retained their specific characters unchanged. +The presumption is, therefore, that they are +comparatively <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">recent</span> immigrants, and if so must have +passed across the sea from mountain to mountain, for the +richness and speciality of the Madagascar forest vegetation +render it certain that no recent glacial epoch has seriously +affected that island.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping that you are in good health, and wishing you +the compliments of the season, I remain yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_171" id="toc_171"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 2,</span> 1881.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āThe case which you give is a very +striking one, and I had overlooked it in <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature.</span><a name="noteref_116" id="noteref_116"></a><a href="#note_116"><span class="footnoteref">116</span></a> But I +remain as great a heretic as ever. Any supposition seems +to me more probable than that the seeds of plants should +have been blown from the mountains of Abyssinia or other +central mountains of Africa to the mountains of Madagascar. +It seems to me almost infinitely more probable +<span class="tei-pb" id="page313">[pg 313]</span><a name="Pg313" id="Pg313" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>that Madagascar extended far to the south during the +Glacial period, and that the southern hemisphere was, +according to Croll, then more temperate; and that the +whole of Africa was then peopled with some temperate +forms, which crossed chiefly by agency of birds and sea-currents; +and some few by the wind from the shores of +Africa to Madagascar, subsequently ascending to the +mountains.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">How lamentable it is that two men should take such +widely different views, with the same facts before them; +but this seems to be almost regularly our case, and much +do I regret it.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am fairly well, but always feel half dead with fatigue. +I heard but an indifferent account of your health some time +ago, but trust that you are now somewhat stronger.āBelieve +me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_172" id="toc_172"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 7,</span> 1881.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āYou know from Miss Buckley that, +with her assistance, I drew up a memorial to Mr. Gladstone +with respect to your services to science. The memorial +was corrected by Huxley, who has aided me in every possible +way. It was signed by twelve good men, and you would have +been gratified if you had seen how strongly they expressed +themselves on your claims.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The Duke of Argyll, to whom I sent the memorial, wrote +a private note to Mr. Gladstone. The memorial was sent +in only on January 5th, and I have just received a note in +Mr. Gladstone's own handwriting, in which he says: "I +lose no time in apprising you that although the Fund is +moderate and at present poor, I shall recommend Mr. +Wallace for a pension of Ā£200 a year." I will keep this +note carefully, as, if the present Government were to go +<span class="tei-pb" id="page314">[pg 314]</span><a name="Pg314" id="Pg314" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>out, I do not doubt that it would be binding on the next +Government.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope that it will give you some satisfaction to see that +not only every scientific man to whom I applied, but that +also our Government appreciated your lifelong scientific +labour.āBelieve me, my dear Wallace, yours sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I should expect that there will be some delay before you +receive an official announcement.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_173" id="toc_173"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 8,</span> 1881.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āI need not say how very grateful I +am to you for your constant kindness, and especially for +the trouble you have taken in recommending me to Mr. +Gladstone. It is also, of course, very gratifying to hear +that so many eminent men have so good an opinion of the +little scientific work I have done, for I myself feel it to +be very little in comparison with that of many others.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">The amount you say Mr. Gladstone proposes to recommend +is considerably more than I expected would be given, +and it will relieve me from a great deal of the anxieties +under which I have laboured for several years. To-day is +my fifty-eighth birthday, and it is a happy omen that your +letter should have arrived this morning.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I presume after I receive the official communication will +be the proper time to thank the persons who have signed +the memorial in my favour. I do not know whether it is +the proper etiquette to write a private letter of thanks to +Mr. Gladstone, or only a general official one. Whenever +I hear anything from the Government I will let you +know.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Again thanking you for your kindness, believe me yours +very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> + +<span class="tei-pb" id="page315">[pg 315]</span><a name="Pg315" id="Pg315" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_174" id="toc_174"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 10,</span> 1881.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI am heartily glad that you are +pleased about the memorial.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I do not feel that my opinion is worth much on the point +which you mention. A relation who is in a Government office +and whose judgment, I think, may be fully trusted, felt sure +that if you received an official announcement without any +private note, it ought to be answered officially, but if the +case were mine, I would express whatever I thought and +felt in an official document. His reason was that Gladstone +gives or recommends the pension on public grounds +alone.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">If the case were mine I would not write to signers of +the memorial, because I believe that they acted like so many +jurymen in a claim against the Government. Nevertheless, +if I met any of them or was writing to them on any other +subject, I should take the opportunity of expressing my feelings. +I think you might with propriety write to Huxley, as +he entered so heartily into the scheme and aided in the most +important manner in many ways.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Sir J. Lubbock called here yesterday and Mr. F. Balfour +came here with one of my sons, and it would have pleased +you to see how unfeignedly delighted they were at my news +of the success of the memorial.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I wrote also to tell the Duke of Argyll of the success, +and he in answer expressed very sincere pleasure.āMy dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_175" id="toc_175"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 29,</span> 1881.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āYours just received was very welcome, +and the delay in its reaching me is of no importance +whatever, as, having seen the announcement of the Queen's +approval of the pension, of course I felt it was safe. The +<span class="tei-pb" id="page316">[pg 316]</span><a name="Pg316" id="Pg316" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>antedating of the first payment is a very liberal and +thoughtful act; but I do not think it is any way exceptional +as regards myself. I am informed it is the custom +because, as no payment is made after the death of the +person, if the first payment were delayed the proposed +recipient might die before the half-year (or quarter-day) +and thus receive nothing at all.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I suppose you sent the right address to Mr. Seymour. I +have not yet heard from him, but I daresay I shall during +the next week.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">As I am assured both by Miss Buckley and by Prof. +Huxley that it is to you that I owe in the first place this +great kindness, and that you have also taken an <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">immense</span> +amount of trouble to bring it to so successful issue, I must +again return you my best thanks, and assure you that there +is no one living to whose kindness in such a matter I could +feel myself indebted with so much pleasure and satisfaction.āBelieve +me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_176" id="toc_176"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 9.</span></p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āDr. G. Krefft has sent me the enclosed +from Sydney. A nurseryman saw a caterpillar feeding on +a plant and covered the whole up, but, when he searched +for the cocoon [pupa], was long before he could find it, so +good was its imitation, in colour and form, of the leaf to +which it was attached.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I hope that the world goes well with you. Do not trouble +yourself by acknowledging this.āEver yours,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CH. DARWIN.</p> + + +<p class="tei tei-p">Accompanying this letter, which has been published in +"Darwin and Modern Science" (1909), was a photograph +of the chrysalis (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Papilio sarpedon choredon</span>) attached to a +<span class="tei-pb" id="page317">[pg 317]</span><a name="Pg317" id="Pg317" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>leaf of its food-plant. Many butterfly pupƦ are known to +have the power of individual adjustment to the colours of +the particular food-plant or other normal environment; and +it is probable that the Australian <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Papilio</span> referred to by +Darwin possesses this power.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<a name="toc_177" id="toc_177"></a> +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nutwood Cottage, Frith Hill, Godalming, July 9,</span> 1881.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āI am just doing, what I have rarely +if ever done beforeāreading a book through a second time +immediately after the first perusal. I do not think I have +ever been so attracted by a book, with perhaps the exception +of your "Origin of Species" and Spencer's "First Principles" +and "Social Statics." I wish therefore to call +your attention to it, in case you care about books on social +and political subjects, but here there is also an elaborate +discussion of Malthus's "Principles of Population," to +which both you and I have acknowledged ourselves indebted. +The present writer, Mr. George, while admitting +the main principle as self-evident and as actually operating +in the case of animals and plants, denies that it ever +has operated or can operate in the case of man, still less +that it has any bearing whatever on the vast social and +political questions which have been supported by a reference +to it. He illustrates and supports his views with a +wealth of illustrative facts and a cogency of argument +which I have rarely seen equalled, while his style is equal +to that of Buckle, and thus his book is delightful reading. +The title of the book is "Progress and Poverty." It has +gone through six editions in America, and is now published +in England by Kegan Paul. It is devoted mainly to a +brilliant discussion and refutation of some of the most +widely accepted maxims of political economy, such as the +relation of wages and capital, the nature of rent and interest, +the laws of distribution, etc., but all treated as +<span class="tei-pb" id="page318">[pg 318]</span><a name="Pg318" id="Pg318" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>parts of the main problem as stated in the title-page, "An +Enquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of +Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth." It is the +most startling novel and original book of the last twenty +years, and if I mistake not will in the future rank as +making an advance in political and social science equal to +that made by Adam Smith a century ago.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am here settled in my little cottage engaged in the +occupation I most enjoyāmaking a garden, and admiring +the infinite variety and beauty of vegetable life. I am out +of doors all day and hardly read anything. As the long +evenings come on I shall get on with my book on the "Land +Question," in which I have found a powerful ally in Mr. +George.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">Hoping you are well, believe me, yours most faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">The following is the last letter Wallace received from +Darwin, who died on Wednesday, April 19, 1882, in the +seventy-fourth year of his age.</p> + + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 12,</span> 1881.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Wallace,āI have been heartily glad to get your +note and hear some news of you. I will certainly order +"Progress and Poverty," for the subject is a most interesting +one. But I read many years ago some books on +political economy, and they produced a disastrous effect +on my mind, viz. utterly to distrust my own judgment on +the subject and to doubt much everyone else's judgment! +So I feel pretty sure that Mr. George's book will only make +my mind worse confounded than it is at present. I, also, +have just finished a book which has interested me greatly, +but whether it would interest anyone else I know not: it +is "The Creed of Science," by W. Graham, A.M. Who +<span class="tei-pb" id="page319">[pg 319]</span><a name="Pg319" id="Pg319" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and what he is I know not, but he discusses many great +subjects, such as the existence of God, immortality, the +moral sense, the progress of society, etc. I think some of +his propositions rest on very uncertain foundations, and +I could get no clear idea of his notions about God. Notwithstanding +this and other blemishes, the book has interested +me <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">extremely</span>. Perhaps I have been to some extent +deluded, as he manifestly ranks too high what I have done.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I am delighted to hear that you spend so much time +out of doors and in your garden; for with your wonderful +power of observation you will see much which no one +else has seen. From Newman's old book (I forget the +title) about the country near Godalming, it must be +charming.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">We have just returned home after spending five weeks +on Ullswater: the scenery is quite charming; but I cannot +walk, and everything tires me, even seeing scenery, talking +with anyone or reading much. What I shall do with +my few remaining years of life I can hardly tell. I have +everything to make me happy and contented, but life has +become very wearisome to me. I heard lately from Miss +Buckley in relation to Lyell's Life, and she mentioned +that you were thinking of Switzerland, which I should +think and hope you will enjoy much.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I see that you are going to write on the most difficult +political question, the Land. Something ought to be doneābut +what is to rule? I hope that you will [not] turn renegade +to natural history; but I suppose that politics are +very tempting.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">With all good wishes for yourself and family, believe me, +my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">CHARLES DARWIN.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div"> +<p class="tei tei-p">Wallace's last letter to Darwin was written in October, +1881: +<span class="tei-pb" id="page320">[pg 320]</span><a name="Pg320" id="Pg320" class="tei tei-anchor"></a></p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nutwood Cottage, Frith Hill, Godalming. October 18,</span> 1881.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">My dear Darwin,āI have delayed writing to thank you +for your book on Worms till I had been able to read it, +which I have now done with great pleasure and profit, +since it has cleared up many obscure points as to the +apparent sinking or burying of objects on the surface and +the universal covering up of old buildings. I have hitherto +looked upon them chiefly from the gardener's point of viewāas +a nuisance, but I shall tolerate their presence in the +view of their utility and importance. A friend here to +whom I am going to lend your book tells me that an +agriculturist who had been in West Australia, near Swan +River, told him many years ago of the hopelessness of +farming there, illustrating the poverty and dryness of the +soil by saying, "There are no worms in the ground."</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I do not see that you refer to the formation of leaf-mould +by the mere decay of leaves, etc. In favourable +places many inches or even feet of this is formedāI presume +without the agency of worms. If so, would it not +take part in the formation of all mould? and also the +decay of the roots of grasses and of all annual plants, or +do you suppose that <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">all</span> these are devoured by worms? In +reading the book I have not noticed a single erratum.</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p">I enclose you a copy of two letters to the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Mark Lane +Express</span>, written at the request of the editor, and which +will show you the direction in which I am now working, +and in which I hope to do a little good.āBelieve me yours +very faithfully,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right" class="tei tei-p">ALFRED R. WALLACE.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +</div> + <div class="tei tei-back"> + <hr class="doublepage" /> + +<div id="footnotes" class="tei tei-div"><a name="toc_178" id="toc_178"></a><h1 class="tei tei-head">Notes</h1><dl class="footnote"> +<dt><a name="note_1" id="note_1"></a><a href="#noteref_1">1.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"While at Hertford I lived altogether in five different +houses, and in three of these the Silk family lived next door to us, +which involved not only each family having to move about the same time, +but also that two houses adjoining each other should have been vacant +together, and that they should have been of the size required by each, +which after the first was not the same, the Silk family being much the +larger."ā"My Life," i. 32.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_2" id="note_2"></a><a href="#noteref_2">2.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"My Life," i. 191-2.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_3" id="note_3"></a><a href="#noteref_3">3.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"My Life," i. 108-111.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_4" id="note_4"></a><a href="#noteref_4">4.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Darwin makes a similar comment: "I was very successful in +collecting, and invented two new methods ... and thus I got some very +rare species. No poet ever felt more delighted at seeing his first poem +published than I did at seeing, in Stephens' 'Illustrations of British +Insects,' the magic words, 'captured by C. Darwin, Esq.'"āDarwin's +Autobiography, in the one-volume "Life," p. 20.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_5" id="note_5"></a><a href="#noteref_5">5.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"My Life," i. 194-5.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_6" id="note_6"></a><a href="#noteref_6">6.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">There is no record in his autobiography as to the exact +date when he first became acquainted with Lyell's work, though several +times reference is made to it.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_7" id="note_7"></a><a href="#noteref_7">7.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Travels on the Amazon," p. 277.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_8" id="note_8"></a><a href="#noteref_8">8.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Voyage of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span>," pp. 11-12.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_9" id="note_9"></a><a href="#noteref_9">9.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Voyage of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span>," p. 534.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_10" id="note_10"></a><a href="#noteref_10">10.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">It is interesting to note that the careers of Sir Joseph +Hooker, Charles Darwin, H.W. Bates, Alfred Russel Wallace and T.H. +Huxley were all determined by voyages or journeys of exploration.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_11" id="note_11"></a><a href="#noteref_11">11.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Life of Charles Darwin" (one-volume Edit.), p. 29.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_12" id="note_12"></a><a href="#noteref_12">12.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Voyage of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Beagle</span>," p. 535.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_13" id="note_13"></a><a href="#noteref_13">13.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">This letter may have been written for publication.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_14" id="note_14"></a><a href="#noteref_14">14.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">A reference to the loss of his earlier collection (p. 29).</p></dd><dt><a name="note_15" id="note_15"></a><a href="#noteref_15">15.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The original of this letter is in the possession of the +Trustees of the British Museum.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_16" id="note_16"></a><a href="#noteref_16">16.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">For the other part of this letter see "My Life," i. 379.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_17" id="note_17"></a><a href="#noteref_17">17.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"My early letters to Bates suffice to show that the great +problem of the origin of species was already distinctly formulated in my +mind; that I was not satisfied with the more or less vague solutions at +that time offered; that I believed the conception of evolution through +natural law so clearly formulated in the 'Vestiges' to be, so far as it +went, a true one; and that I firmly believed that a full and careful +study of the facts of nature would ultimately lead to a solution of the +mystery."ā"My Life," i. 254-7.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_18" id="note_18"></a><a href="#noteref_18">18.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of +Species."ā<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ann. and Mag. of Natural History</span>, 2nd Series, 1855, xvi. +184.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_19" id="note_19"></a><a href="#noteref_19">19.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Life of Charles Darwin" (one-vol. Edit.), p. 171.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_20" id="note_20"></a><a href="#noteref_20">20.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Life of Charles Darwin," (one-vol. Edit.), p. 40.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_21" id="note_21"></a><a href="#noteref_21">21.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">See post</span>, p. 112.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_22" id="note_22"></a><a href="#noteref_22">22.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"My Life," i. 359.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_23" id="note_23"></a><a href="#noteref_23">23.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"My Life," i. 361-3.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_24" id="note_24"></a><a href="#noteref_24">24.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">It will be remembered, that Darwin died in April, 1882, +twenty-six years previously.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_25" id="note_25"></a><a href="#noteref_25">25.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," ii. 188.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_26" id="note_26"></a><a href="#noteref_26">26.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"The Herbert Spencer Lecture," delivered at the Museum, +December 8, 1910. (Clarendon Press, Oxford.)</p></dd><dt><a name="note_27" id="note_27"></a><a href="#noteref_27">27.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"My Life," ii. 23-4.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_28" id="note_28"></a><a href="#noteref_28">28.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New +Species."ā<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.</span>, 1855. The law is thus stated +by Wallace: "Every species has come into existence coincident both in +time and space with a pre-existing closely-allied species."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_29" id="note_29"></a><a href="#noteref_29">29.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"The Origin of Species."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_30" id="note_30"></a><a href="#noteref_30">30.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"The Origin of Species."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_31" id="note_31"></a><a href="#noteref_31">31.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">First Edit., 1859, pp. 1, 2.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_32" id="note_32"></a><a href="#noteref_32">32.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties and on the +Perpetuation +of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection." By C. Darwin and +A.R. Wallace. Communicated by Sir C. Lyell and J.D. Hooker. <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Journ. +Linn. Soc.</span>, 1859, iii. 45. Read July 1st, 1858.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_33" id="note_33"></a><a href="#noteref_33">33.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New +Species." <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.</span>, 1855, xvi. 184.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_34" id="note_34"></a><a href="#noteref_34">34.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">This seems to refer to Wallace's paper on "The Zoological +Geography of the Malay Archipelago," <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Journ. Linn. Soc.</span>, 1860.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_35" id="note_35"></a><a href="#noteref_35">35.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Dr. Samuel Wilberforce.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_36" id="note_36"></a><a href="#noteref_36">36.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Now Major Leonard Darwin.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_37" id="note_37"></a><a href="#noteref_37">37.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The last sheet of the letter is missing.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_38" id="note_38"></a><a href="#noteref_38">38.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Wallace's paper was entitled "Remarks on the Rev. S. +Haughton's Paper on the Bee's Cells and on the Origin of Species." Prof. +Haughton's paper appeared in the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.</span>, 1863, +xi. 415. Wallace's was published in the same journal.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_39" id="note_39"></a><a href="#noteref_39">39.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">For March, 1864.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_40" id="note_40"></a><a href="#noteref_40">40.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Reader</span>, April 16, 1864. An abstract of Wallace's paper +"On the Phenomena of Variation and Geographical Distribution, as +illustrated by the PapilionidƦ of the Malayan Region," <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Linn. Soc. +Trans.</span>, xxv.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_41" id="note_41"></a><a href="#noteref_41">41.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Anthropolog. Rev.</span>, 1864.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_42" id="note_42"></a><a href="#noteref_42">42.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nat. Hist. Rev.</span>, 1864, p. 328.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_43" id="note_43"></a><a href="#noteref_43">43.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Read June, 1864."āA.R.W.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_44" id="note_44"></a><a href="#noteref_44">44.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"June 8, 1864."āA.R.W.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_45" id="note_45"></a><a href="#noteref_45">45.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Referring to my broken engagement."āA.R.W.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_46" id="note_46"></a><a href="#noteref_46">46.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Paper on the three forms of Lythrum.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_47" id="note_47"></a><a href="#noteref_47">47.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Probably the one on the Distribution of Malayan +Butterflies, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Linn. Soc. Trans.</span>, xxv.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_48" id="note_48"></a><a href="#noteref_48">48.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">E.B. Tylor's "Early History of Mankind," and Lecky's +"Rationalism."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_49" id="note_49"></a><a href="#noteref_49">49.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Prehistoric Times."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_50" id="note_50"></a><a href="#noteref_50">50.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The note speaks of the "characteristic unselfishness" with +which Wallace ascribed the theory of Natural Selection to Darwin</p></dd><dt><a name="note_51" id="note_51"></a><a href="#noteref_51">51.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"FĆ¼r Darwin."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_52" id="note_52"></a><a href="#noteref_52">52.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"On the Pigeons of the Malay Archipelago," <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Ibis</span>, October, +1865. Wallace points out (p. 366) that "the most striking superabundance +of pigeons, as well as of parrots, is confined to the Australo-Malayan +sub-regions in which ... the forest-haunting and fruit-eating mammals, +such as monkeys and squirrels, are totally absent." He points out also +that monkeys are "exceedingly destructive to eggs and young +birds."āNote, "More Letters," i. 265.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_53" id="note_53"></a><a href="#noteref_53">53.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"The Geographical Distribution and Variability of the +Malayan PapilionidƦ," <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Linn. Soc. Trans.</span>, xxv.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_54" id="note_54"></a><a href="#noteref_54">54.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The passage referred to in this letter as needing farther +explanation is the following: "The last six cases of mimicry are +especially instructive, because they seem to indicate one of the +processes by which dimorphic forms have been produced. When, as in these +cases, one sex differs much from the other, and varies greatly itself, +it may be that individual variations will occasionally occur, having a +distant resemblance to groups which are the objects of mimicry, and +which it is therefore advantageous to resemble. Such a variety will have +a better chance of preservation; the individuals possessing it will be +multiplied; and their accidental likeness to the favoured group will be +rendered permanent by hereditary transmission, and each successive +variation which increases the resemblance being preserved, and all +variation departing from the favoured type having less chance of +preservation, there will in time result those singular cases of two or +more isolated and fixed forms bound together by that intimate +relationship which constitutes them the sexes of a single species. The +reason why the females are more subject to this kind of modification +than the males is probably that their slower flight when laden with +eggs, and their exposure to attack while in the act of depositing their +eggs upon leaves, render it especially advantageous for them to have +additional protection. This they at once obtain by acquiring a +resemblance to other species which, from whatever cause, enjoy a +comparative immunity from persecution."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_55" id="note_55"></a><a href="#noteref_55">55.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">This no doubt refers to Janet's "MatĆ©rialisme Contemporain."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_56" id="note_56"></a><a href="#noteref_56">56.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Journal of Science</span>, January 7, 1867. "Ice Marks +in North Wales," by A.R. Wallace.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_57" id="note_57"></a><a href="#noteref_57">57.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">I.e., the suggestion that conspicuous caterpillars or +perfect insects (e.g. white butterflies) which are distasteful to birds +are protected by being easily recognised and avoided.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_58" id="note_58"></a><a href="#noteref_58">58.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">A bearded woman having an irregular double set of teeth. See +"Animals +and Plants," ii. 328.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_59" id="note_59"></a><a href="#noteref_59">59.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The letter to which this is a reply is missing. It +evidently refers to Wallace's belief in the paramount importance of +protection in the evolution of colour. <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">See also</span> Darwin's letter of +February 26, 1867.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_60" id="note_60"></a><a href="#noteref_60">60.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Menura superba.</span> See "The Descent of Man" (1901), p. 687. +RhynchƦa, mentioned on p. 184, is discussed in the "Descent," p. 727. +The female is more brightly coloured than the male and has a convoluted +trachea, elsewhere a masculine character. There seems some reason to +suppose that "the male undertakes the duty of incubation."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_61" id="note_61"></a><a href="#noteref_61">61.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Westminster Review</span>, July, 1867.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_62" id="note_62"></a><a href="#noteref_62">62.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">AngrƦcum sesquipedale</span>, a Madagascar orchid, with a +whip-like nectary, 11 to 12 in. in length, which, according to Darwin +("Fertilisation of Orchids," 2nd Edit., p. 163), is adapted to the +visits of a moth with a proboscis of corresponding length. He points out +that there is no difficulty in believing in the existence of such a moth +as F. MĆ¼ller had described (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>, 1873, p. 223), a Brazilian +sphinx-moth with a trunk 10 to 11 in. in length. Moreover, Forbes had +given evidence to show that such an insect does exist in Madagascar +(<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>, 1873, p. 121). The case of <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">AngrƦcum</span> was put forward by the +Duke of Argyll as being necessarily due to the personal contrivance of +the Deity. Mr. Wallace shows (p. 476, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Journal of Science</span>, +1867) that both proboscis and nectary might be increased in length by +means of Natural Selection. It may be added that Hermann MĆ¼ller has +shown good grounds for believing that mutual specialisation of this kind +is beneficial both to insect and to plant.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_63" id="note_63"></a><a href="#noteref_63">63.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Variation of Animals and Plants," 1st Edit., ii. 431. "Did +He cause the frame and mental qualities of the dog to vary in order that +a breed might be formed of indomitable ferocity, with jaws fitted to pin +down the bull for man's brutal sport?"</p></dd><dt><a name="note_64" id="note_64"></a><a href="#noteref_64">64.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">See</span> Wallace, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Journ. of Sci.</span>, 1867, pp. 477-8. +He imagined an observer examining a great river system, and finding +everywhere adaptations which reveal the design of the Creator. "He would +see special adaptations to the wants of man in the broad, quiet, +navigable rivers, through fertile alluvial plains, that would support a +large population, while the rocky streams and mountain torrents were +confined to those sterile regions suitable for a small population of +shepherds and herdsmen."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_65" id="note_65"></a><a href="#noteref_65">65.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">At p. 485 Wallace deals with Fleeming Jenkin's review in +the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">North British Review</span>, 1867. The review strives to show that there +are strict limitations to variation, since the most rigorous and +long-continued selection does not indefinitely increase such a quality +as the fleetness of a racehorse. On this Wallace remarks that the +argument "fails to meet the real question," which is not whether +indefinite change is possible, but "whether such differences as do occur +in nature could have been produced by the accumulation of variations by +selection."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_66" id="note_66"></a><a href="#noteref_66">66.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Abstract of a paper on "Birds' Nests and Plumage," read +before the British Association. See <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Gard. Chron.</span>, 1867, p. 1047.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_67" id="note_67"></a><a href="#noteref_67">67.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Sir Henry Holland, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., a writer on Mental +Physiology and other scientific subjects (b. 1788, d. 1873).</p></dd><dt><a name="note_68" id="note_68"></a><a href="#noteref_68">68.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"This turns out to be inaccurate, or greatly exaggerated. +There are no true alpines, and the European genera are comparatively +few. <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">See</span> my 'Island Life,' p. 323."āA.R.W.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_69" id="note_69"></a><a href="#noteref_69">69.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"In pigeons" and "lizards" inserted by A.R.W.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_70" id="note_70"></a><a href="#noteref_70">70.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"In pigeons" and "lizards" inserted by A.R.W.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_71" id="note_71"></a><a href="#noteref_71">71.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">See <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Westminster Review</span>, July, 1867, p. 37.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_72" id="note_72"></a><a href="#noteref_72">72.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Proc. Linn. Soc.</span>, 1867-8, p. 57.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_73" id="note_73"></a><a href="#noteref_73">73.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">It is not enough that females should be produced from the +males with red feathers, which should be destitute of red feathers; but +these females must have a <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">latent tendency</span> to produce such feathers, +otherwise they would cause deterioration in the red head-feathers of +their male offspring. Such latent tendency would be shown by their +producing the red feathers when old or diseased in their ovaria.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_74" id="note_74"></a><a href="#noteref_74">74.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The symbols [male symbol], [female symbol] stand for male and +female respectively.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_75" id="note_75"></a><a href="#noteref_75">75.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The fifth.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_76" id="note_76"></a><a href="#noteref_76">76.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Explained in letter of February 2, 1869. <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">See</span> p. 234.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_77" id="note_77"></a><a href="#noteref_77">77.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">June, 1867.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_78" id="note_78"></a><a href="#noteref_78">78.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Malay Archipelago."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_79" id="note_79"></a><a href="#noteref_79">79.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Malay Archipelago."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_80" id="note_80"></a><a href="#noteref_80">80.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The fifth edition, pp. 150-7.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_81" id="note_81"></a><a href="#noteref_81">81.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">In the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Review</span>, April, 1869.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_82" id="note_82"></a><a href="#noteref_82">82.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Inserted by A.R.W.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_83" id="note_83"></a><a href="#noteref_83">83.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"The Descent of Man."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_84" id="note_84"></a><a href="#noteref_84">84.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"The Genesis of Species," by St. G. Mivart. 1871.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_85" id="note_85"></a><a href="#noteref_85">85.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">In the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Academy</span>, March 15, 1871.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_86" id="note_86"></a><a href="#noteref_86">86.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Mr. Wallace says that the pairing of butterflies is +probably determined by the fact that one male is stronger-winged or more +pertinacious than the rest, rather than by the choice of the females. He +quotes the case of caterpillars which are brightly coloured and yet +sexless. Mr. Wallace also makes the good criticism that 'The Descent of +Man' consists of two books mixed together."ā"Life and Letters of +Charles Darwin," iii. 137.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_87" id="note_87"></a><a href="#noteref_87">87.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">G. Crotch was a well-known coleopterist and official in the +University Library at Cambridge.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_88" id="note_88"></a><a href="#noteref_88">88.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Spectator</span>, March 11 and 18, 1871. "With regard to the +evolution of conscience the reviewer thinks that Mr. Darwin comes much +nearer to the 'kernel of the psychological problem' than many of his +predecessors. The second article contains a good discussion of the +bearing of the book on the question of design, and concludes by finding +in it a vindication of Theism more wonderful than that in Paley's +'Natural Theology.'"ā"Life and Letters," iii. 138.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_89" id="note_89"></a><a href="#noteref_89">89.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">North American Review</span>, Vol. 113, pp. 83, 84. Chauncey +Wright points out that the words omitted are "essential to the point on +which he [Mr. Mivart] cites Mr. Darwin's authority." It should be +mentioned that the passage from which words are omitted is not given +within inverted commas by Mr. Mivart.ā<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">See</span> "Life and Letters of +Charles Darwin," iii. 144.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_90" id="note_90"></a><a href="#noteref_90">90.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">July, 1871.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_91" id="note_91"></a><a href="#noteref_91">91.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">A review of Dr. Bree's book, "An Exposition of Fallacies in +the Hypotheses of Mr. Darwin."ā<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>, July 25, 1872.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_92" id="note_92"></a><a href="#noteref_92">92.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Bree on Darwinism," <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>, Aug. 8, 1872. The letter is +as follows: "Permit me to stateāthough the statement is almost +superfluousāthat Mr. Wallace, in his review of Dr. Bree's work, gives +with perfect correctness what I intended to express, and what I believe +was expressed clearly, with respect to the probable position of man in +the early part of his pedigree. As I have not seen Dr. Bree's recent +work, and as his letter is unintelligible to me, I cannot even +conjecture how he has so completely mistaken my meaning; but, perhaps, +no one who has read Mr. Wallace's article, or who has read a work +formerly published by Dr. Bree on the same subject as his recent one, +will be surprised at any amount of misunderstanding on his +part.āCHARLES DARWIN, Aug. 3." <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">See</span> "Life and Letters of Charles +Darwin," iii. 167.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_93" id="note_93"></a><a href="#noteref_93">93.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">That is to say, spontaneous generation. For the distinction +between archebiosis and heterogenesis, <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">see</span> Bastian, Chap. VI. <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">See +also</span> "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," iii. 168.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_94" id="note_94"></a><a href="#noteref_94">94.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B. (1808-80).</p></dd><dt><a name="note_95" id="note_95"></a><a href="#noteref_95">95.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Expression of the Emotions."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_96" id="note_96"></a><a href="#noteref_96">96.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p"><span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Journal of Science</span>, January, 1873, p. 116: "I +can hardly believe that when a cat, lying on a shawl or other soft +material, pats or pounds it with its feet, or sometimes sucks a piece of +it, it is the persistence of the habit of pressing the mammary glands +and sucking during kittenhood." Wallace goes on to say that infantine +habits are generally completely lost in adult life, and that it seems +unlikely that they should persist in a few isolated instances.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_97" id="note_97"></a><a href="#noteref_97">97.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Wallace speaks of "a readiness to accept the most +marvellous conclusions or interpretations of physiologists on what seem +very insufficient grounds," and he goes on to assert that the frog +experiment is either incorrectly recorded, or else that it "demonstrates +volition, and not reflex action."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_98" id="note_98"></a><a href="#noteref_98">98.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The raising of the hands in surprise is explained +("Expression of the Emotions," 1st Edit., p. 287) on the doctrine of +antithesis as being the opposite of listlessness. Mr. Wallace's view +(given in the second edition of "Expression of the Emotions," p. 300) is +that the gesture is appropriate to sudden defence or to the giving of +aid to another person.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_99" id="note_99"></a><a href="#noteref_99">99.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">At this time Darwin, while very busy with other work, had to +prepare a +second edition of "The Descent of Man," and it is probable that he or the +publishers +suggested that Wallace should make the necessary corrections.āEDITOR.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_100" id="note_100"></a><a href="#noteref_100">100.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Insectivorous Plants."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_101" id="note_101"></a><a href="#noteref_101">101.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"The Geographical Distribution of Animals." 1876.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_102" id="note_102"></a><a href="#noteref_102">102.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Wallace points out that "hardly a small island on the globe +but has some land shell peculiar to it," and he goes so far as to say +that probably air-breathing mollusca have been chiefly distributed by +air- or water-carriage, rather than by voluntary dispersal on the land. +<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">See</span> "More Letters," II. 14.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_103" id="note_103"></a><a href="#noteref_103">103.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"The Descent of Man," 1st Edit., pp. 90 and 143, for +drawings of the Argus pheasant and its markings. The ocelli on the wing +feathers were favourite objects of Darwin's, and sometimes formed the +subject of the little lectures which on rare occasions he would give to +a visitor interested in Natural History. In Wallace's book, the meaning +of the ocelli comes in by the way, in the explanation of Plate IX., "A +Malayan Forest with some of its Peculiar Birds." The case is a +"remarkable confirmation of Mr. Darwin's views, that gaily coloured +plumes are developed in the male bird for the purpose of attractive +display."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_104" id="note_104"></a><a href="#noteref_104">104.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Geographical Distribution of Animals," i. 286-7.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_105" id="note_105"></a><a href="#noteref_105">105.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Geographical Distribution," i. 76. The name Lemuria was +proposed by Mr. Sclater for an imaginary submerged continent extending +from Madagascar to Ceylon and Sumatra. Wallace points out that if we +confine ourselves to facts Lemuria is reduced to Madagascar, which he +makes a subdivision of the Ethiopian Region.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_106" id="note_106"></a><a href="#noteref_106">106.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">H.F. Blandford, "On the Age and Correlations of the +Plant-bearing Series of India and the Former Existence of an +Indo-Oceanic Continent" (<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc</span>., 1875, xxxi. 519).</p></dd><dt><a name="note_107" id="note_107"></a><a href="#noteref_107">107.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">In the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Contemporary Review</span> for August, 1873, Mr. George +Darwin wrote an article "On Beneficial Restrictions to Liberty of +Marriage." In the July number of the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly Review</span>, 1874, p. 70, in +an article entitled "Primitive ManāTylor and Lubbock," Mr. Mivart thus +referred to Mr. Darwin's article: "Elsewhere (pp. 424-5) Mr. George +Darwin speaks (1) in an approving strain of the most oppressive laws and +of the encouragement of vice to check population. (2) There is no sexual +criminality of Pagan days that might not be defended on the principles +advocated by the school to which this writer belongs." In the <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Quarterly +Review</span> for October, 1874, p. 587, appeared a letter from Mr. George +Darwin "absolutely denying" charge No. 1, and with respect to charge No. +2 he wrote: "I deny that there is any thought or word in my essay which +could in any way lend itself to the support of the nameless crimes here +referred to." To the letter was appended a note from Mr. Mivart, in +which he said: "Nothing would have been further from our intention than +to tax Mr. Darwin personally (as he seems to have supposed) with the +advocacy of laws or acts which he saw to be oppressive or vicious. We, +therefore, most willingly accept his disclaimer, and are glad to find +that he does not, in fact, apprehend the full tendency of the doctrines +which he has helped to propagate. Nevertheless, we cannot allow that we +have enunciated a single proposition which is either 'false' or +'groundless.' ... But when a writer, according to his own confession, +comes before the public 'to attack the institution of marriage' ... he +must expect searching criticism; and, without implying that Mr. Darwin +has in 'thought' or 'word' approved of anything which he wishes to +disclaim, we must still maintain that the doctrines which he advocates +are most dangerous and pernicious."āEDITOR.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_108" id="note_108"></a><a href="#noteref_108">108.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The pages refer to Vol. II. of Wallace's "Geographical +Distribution."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_109" id="note_109"></a><a href="#noteref_109">109.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">The number (4) was erroneously omitted.āA.R.W.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_110" id="note_110"></a><a href="#noteref_110">110.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">An error: should have been the Australian.āA.R.W.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_111" id="note_111"></a><a href="#noteref_111">111.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">Axel Blytt, "Essay on the Immigration of the Norwegian Flora." +Christiania, 1876.</p></dd><dt><a name="note_112" id="note_112"></a><a href="#noteref_112">112.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">June 22, 1876, p. 165 <span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">et seq.</span></p></dd><dt><a name="note_113" id="note_113"></a><a href="#noteref_113">113.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"The Origin of Species and Genera."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_114" id="note_114"></a><a href="#noteref_114">114.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"Island Life."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_115" id="note_115"></a><a href="#noteref_115">115.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">In "My Life" (ii. 12-13) Wallace writes; "With this came +seven foolscap pages of notes, many giving facts from his extensive +reading which I had not seen. There were also a good many doubts and +suggestions on the very difficult questions in the discussion of the +causes of the glacial epochs. Chapter XXIII., discussing the Arctic +element in South Temperate floras, was the part he most objected to, +saying, 'This is rather too speculative for my old noddle. I must think +that you overrate the importance of new surfaces on mountains and +dispersal from mountain to mountain. I still believe in alpine plants +having lived on the lowlands and in the southern tropical regions having +been cooled during glacial periods, and thus only can I understand +character of floras on the isolated African mountains. It appears to me +that you are not justified in arguing from dispersal to oceanic islands +to mountains. Not only in latter cases currents of sea are absent, but +what is there to make birds fly direct from one alpine summit to +another? There is left only storms of wind, and if it is probable or +possible that seeds may thus be carried for great distances, I do not +believe that there is at present any evidence of their being thus +carried more than a few miles.' This is the most connected piece of +criticism in the notes, and I therefore give it verbatim."</p></dd><dt><a name="note_116" id="note_116"></a><a href="#noteref_116">116.</a></dt><dd><p class="tei tei-p">"<span style="font-style: italic" class="tei tei-hi">Nature</span>, December 9, 1880. The substance of this article +by Mr. Baker, of Kew, is given in 'More Letters,' vol. iii. 25, in a +footnote."ā"My Life," ii. 13.</p></dd></dl></div> + </div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and +Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2), by James Marchant + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE: *** + +***** This file should be named 15997-h.htm or 15997-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/9/9/15997/ + +Produced by Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State +University Libraries., Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Josephine +Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2) + +Author: James Marchant + +Release Date: June 7, 2005 [EBook #15997] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE: *** + + + + +Produced by Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State +University Libraries., Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Josephine +Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: Footnotes moved to end of book.] + +[Illustration] + + + + +Alfred Russel Wallace + +Letters and Reminiscences + + +By + +James Marchant + +_With Two Photogravures and Eight Half-tone Plates_ + +IN TWO VOLUMES + +Volume I + + +CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD + +London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne + +1916 + + + + +To the Memory of + +ANNIE WALLACE + + + + +PREFACE + + +These two volumes consist of a selection from several thousands of +letters entrusted to me by the Wallace family and dating from the dawn +of Darwinism to the second decade of the twentieth century, supplemented +by such biographical particulars and comments as are required for the +elucidation of the correspondence and for giving movement and continuity +to the whole. + +The wealth and variety of Wallace's own correspondence, excluding the +large collection of letters which he received from many eminent men and +women, and the necessity for somewhat lengthy introductions and many +annotations, have expanded the work to two (there was, indeed, enough +good material to make four) volumes. The family has given me unstinted +confidence in using or rejecting letters and reminiscences, and although +I have consulted scientific and literary friends, I alone must be blamed +for sins of omission or commission. Nothing has been suppressed in the +unpublished letters, or in any of the letters which appear in these +volumes, because there was anything to hide. Everything Wallace wrote, +all his private letters, could be published to the world. His life was +an open book--"no weakness, no contempt, dispraise, or blame, nothing +but well and fair." + +The profoundly interesting and now historic correspondence between +Darwin and Wallace, part of which has already appeared in the "Life and +Letters of Charles Darwin" and "More Letters," and part in Wallace's +autobiography, entitled "My Life," is here published, with new +additions, for the first time as a whole, so that the reader now has +before him the necessary material to form a true estimate of the origin +and growth of the theory of Natural Selection, and of the personal +relationships of its noble co-discoverers. + +My warmest thanks are offered to Sir Francis Darwin for permission to +use his father's letters, for his annotations, and for rendering help in +checking the typescript of the Darwin letters; to Mr. John Murray, +C.V.O., for permission to use letters and notes from the "Life and +Letters of Charles Darwin" and from "More Letters"; to Messrs. Chapman +and Hall for their great generosity in allowing the free use of letters +and material in Wallace's "My Life"; to Prof. E.B. Poulton, Prof. Sir +W.F. Barrett, Sir Wm. Thiselton-Dyer, Dr. Henry Forbes, and others for +letters and reminiscences; and to Prof. Poulton for reading the proofs +and for valuable suggestions. An intimate chapter on Wallace's Home Life +has been contributed by his son and daughter, Mr. W.G. Wallace and Miss +Violet Wallace. + +J.M. + +_March, 1916._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Volume I + + +INTRODUCTION + + +PART I + +I. WALLACE AND DARWIN--EARLY YEARS + +II. EARLY LETTERS (1854-62) + + +PART II + +I. THE DISCOVERY OF NATURAL SELECTION + +II. THE COMPLETE EXTANT CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN WALLACE AND DARWIN +(1857-81) + + +Volume II + + +PART III + +I. WALLACE'S WORKS ON BIOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION + +II. CORRESPONDENCE ON BIOLOGY, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, ETC. (1864-93) + +III. CORRESPONDENCE ON BIOLOGY, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, ETC. +(1894-1913) + + +PART IV + +HOME LIFE + + +PART V + +SOCIAL AND POLITICAL VIEWS + + +PART VI + +SOME FURTHER PROBLEMS + +I. ASTRONOMY + +II. SPIRITUALISM + + +PART VII + +CHARACTERISTICS + + +APPENDIX: LISTS OF WALLACE'S WRITINGS + +INDEX + + + + +LIST OF PLATES IN VOLUME I + + +A.R. WALLACE (1912) + +A.R. WALLACE (SINGAPORE, 1862) + +A.R. WALLACE'S MOTHER + +A.R. WALLACE SOON AFTER HIS RETURN FROM THE EAST + + + + +Alfred Russel Wallace + +Letters and Reminiscences + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +In Westminster Abbey there repose, almost side by side, by no conscious +design yet with deep significance, the mortal remains of Isaac Newton +and of Charles Darwin. "'The Origin of Species,'" said Wallace, "will +live as long as the 'Principia' of Newton." Near by are the tombs of Sir +John Herschel, Lord Kelvin and Sir Charles Lyell; and the medallions in +memory of Joule, Darwin, Stokes and Adams have been rearranged so as to +admit similar memorials of Lister, Hooker and Alfred Russel Wallace. Now +that the plan is completed, Darwin and Wallace are together in this +wonderful galaxy of the great men of science of the nineteenth century. +Several illustrious names are missing from this eminent company; +foremost amongst them being that of Herbert Spencer, the lofty master of +that synthetic philosophy which seemed to his disciples to have the +proportions and qualities of an enduring monument, and whose +incomparable fertility of creative thought entitled him to share the +throne with Darwin. It was Spencer, Darwin, Wallace, Hooker, Lyell and +Huxley who led that historic movement which garnered the work of Lamarck +and Buffon, and gave new direction to the ceaseless interrogation of +nature to discover the "how" and the "why" of the august progression of +life. + +Looking over the long list of the departed whose names are enshrined in +our Minster, one has sorrowfully to observe that contemporary opinion of +their place in history and abiding worth was not infrequently astray; +that memory has, indeed, forgotten their works; and their memorials +might be removed to some cloister without loss of respect for the dead, +perhaps even with the silent approval of their own day and generation +could it awake from its endless sleep and review the strange and +eventful course of human life since they left "this bank and shoal of +time." But may it not be safely prophesied that of all the names on the +starry scroll of national fame that of Charles Darwin will, surely, +remain unquestioned? And entwined with his enduring memory, by right of +worth and work, and we know with Darwin's fullest approval, our +successors will discover the name of Alfred Russel Wallace. Darwin and +Wallace were pre-eminent sons of light. + +Among the great men of the Victorian age Wallace occupied a unique +position. He was the co-discoverer of the illuminating theory of Natural +Selection; he watched its struggle for recognition against prejudice, +ignorance, ridicule and misrepresentation; its gradual adoption by its +traditional enemies; and its final supremacy. And he lived beyond the +hour of its signal triumph and witnessed the further advance into the +same field of research of other patient investigators who are disclosing +fresh phases of the same fundamental laws of development, and are +accumulating a vast array of new facts which tell of still richer light +to come to enlighten every man born into the world. To have lived +through that brilliant period and into the second decade of the +twentieth century; to have outlived all contemporaries, having been the +co-revealer of the greatest and most far-reaching generalisation in an +era which abounded in fruitful discoveries and in revolutionary +advances in the application of science to life, is verily to have been +the chosen of the gods. + +Who and what manner of man was Alfred Russel Wallace? Who were his +forbears? How did he obtain his insight into the closest secrets of +nature? What was the extent of his contributions to our stock of human +knowledge? In which directions did he most influence his age? What is +known of his inner life? These are some of the questions which most +present-day readers and all future readers into whose hands this book +may come will ask. + +As to his descent, his upbringing, his education and his estimate of his +own character and work, we can, with rare good fortune, refer them to +his autobiography, in which he tells his own story and relates the +circumstances which, combined with his natural disposition, led him to +be a great naturalist and a courageous social reformer; nay more, his +autobiography is also in part a peculiar revelation of the inner man +such as no biography could approach. We are also able to send inquirers +to the biographies and works of his contemporaries--Darwin, Hooker, +Lyell, Huxley and many others. All this material is already available to +the diligent reader. But there are other sources of information which +the present book discloses--Wallace's home life, the large collection of +his own letters, the reminiscences of friends, communications which he +received from many co-workers and correspondents which, besides being of +interest in themselves, often cast a sidelight upon his own mind and +work. All these are of peculiar and intimate value to those who desire +to form a complete estimate of Wallace. And it is to help the reader to +achieve this desirable result that the present work is published. + +It may be stated here that Wallace had suggested to the present writer +that he should undertake a new work, to be called "Darwin and Wallace," +which was to have been a comparative study of their literary and +scientific writings, with an estimate of the present position of the +theory of Natural Selection as an adequate explanation of the process of +organic evolution. Wallace had promised to give as much assistance as +possible in selecting the material without which the task on such a +scale would obviously have been impossible. Alas! soon after the +agreement with the publishers was signed and in the very month that the +plan of the work was to have been shown to Wallace, his hand was +unexpectedly stilled in death; and the book remains unwritten. But as +the names of Darwin and Wallace are inseparable even by the scythe of +time, a slight attempt is here made, in the first sections of Part I. +and Part II., to take note of their ancestry and the diversities and +similarities in their respective characters and environments--social and +educational; to mark the chief characteristics of their literary works +and the more salient conditions and events which led them, +independently, to the idea of Natural Selection. + +Finally, it may be remarked that up to the present time the unique work +and position of Wallace have not been fully disclosed owing to his great +modesty and to the fact that he outlived all his contemporaries. "I am +afraid," wrote Sir W.T. Thiselton-Dyer to him in one of his letters +(1893), "the splendid modesty of the big men will be a rarer commodity +in the future. No doubt many of the younger ones know an immense deal; +but I doubt if many of them will ever exhibit the grasp of great +principles which we owe to you and your splendid band of +contemporaries." If this work helps to preserve the records of the +influence and achievements of this illustrious and versatile genius and +of the other eminent men who brought the great conception of Evolution +to light, it will surely have justified its existence. + + + + +PART I + + + + +I.--Wallace and Darwin--Early Years + + +As springs burst forth, now here, now there, on the mountain side, and +find their way together to the vast ocean, so, at certain periods of +history, men destined to become great are born within a few years of +each other, and in the course of life meet and mingle their varied gifts +of soul and intellect for the ultimate benefit of mankind. Between the +years 1807 and 1825 at least eight illustrious scientists "saw the +light"--Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Joseph Hooker, T.H. Huxley, Herbert +Spencer, John Tyndall, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Louis +Agassiz; whilst amongst statesmen and authors we recall Bismarck, +Gladstone, Lincoln, Tennyson, Longfellow, Robert and Elizabeth Browning, +Ruskin, John Stuart Blackie and Oliver Wendell Holmes--a wonderful +galaxy of shining names. + +The first group is the one with which we are closely associated in this +section, in which we have brought together the names of Charles Darwin +and Alfred Russel Wallace--between whose births there was a period of +fourteen years, Darwin being born on the 12th of February, 1809, and +Wallace on the 8th of January, 1823. + +In each case we are indebted to an autobiography for an account of their +early life and work, written almost entirely from memory when at an age +which enabled them to take an unbiased view of the past. + +The autobiography of Darwin was written for the benefit of his family +only, when he was 67; while the two large volumes entitled "My Life" +were written by Wallace when he was 82, for the pleasure of reviewing +his long career. These records are characterised by that charming +modesty and simplicity of life and manner which was so marked a feature +of both men. + +In the circumstances surrounding their early days there was very little +to indicate the similarity in character and mental gifts which became so +evident in their later years. A brief outline of the hereditary +influences immediately affecting them will enable us to trace something +of the essential differences as well as the similarities which marked +their scientific and literary attainments. + +The earliest records of the Darwin family show that in 1500 an ancestor +of that name (though spelt differently) was a substantial yeoman living +on the borders of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. In the reign of James I. +the post of Yeoman of the Royal Armoury of Greenwich was granted to +William Darwin, whose son served with the Royalist Army under Charles I. +During the Commonwealth, however, he became a barrister of Lincoln's +Inn, and later the Recorder of the City of Lincoln. + +Passing over a generation, we find that a brother of Dr. Erasmus Darwin +"cultivated botany," and, when far advanced in years, published a volume +entitled "Principia Botanica," while Erasmus developed into a poet and +philosopher. The eldest son of the latter "inherited a strong taste for +various branches of science ... and at a very early age collected +specimens of all kinds." The youngest son, Robert Waring, father of +Charles Darwin, became a successful physician, "a man of genial +temperament, strong character, fond of society," and was the possessor +of great psychic power by which he could readily sum up the characters +of others, and even occasionally read their thoughts. A judicious use of +this gift was frequently found to be more efficacious than actual +medicine! To the end of his life Charles Darwin entertained the greatest +affection and reverence for his father, and frequently spoke of him to +his own children. + +From this brief summary of the family history it is easy to perceive the +inherited traits which were combined in the attractive personality of +the great scientist. From his early forbears came the keen love of sport +and outdoor exercise (to which considerable reference is made in his +youth and early manhood); the close application of the philosopher; and +the natural aptitude for collecting specimens of all kinds. To his +grandfather he was doubtless indebted for his poetic imagination, which, +consciously or unconsciously, pervaded his thoughts and writings, saving +them from the cold scientific atmosphere which often chills the lay +mind. Lastly, the geniality of his father was strongly evidenced by his +own love of social intercourse, his courtesy and ready wit, whilst the +gentleness of his mother--who unfortunately died when he was 7 years +old--left a delicacy of feeling which pervaded his character to the very +last. + +No such sure mental influences, reaching back through several +generations, can be traced in the records of the Wallace family, +although what is known reveals the source of the dogged perseverance +with which Wallace faced the immense difficulties met with by all early +pioneer travellers, of that happy diversity of mental interests which +helped to relieve his periods of loneliness and inactivity, and of that +quiet determination to pursue to the utmost limit every idea which +impressed his mind as containing the germ of a wider and more +comprehensive truth than had yet been generally recognised and accepted. + +The innate reticence and shyness of manner which were noticeable all +through his life covered a large-heartedness even in the most careful +observation of facts, and produced a tolerant disposition towards his +fellow-men even when he most disagreed with their views or dogmas. He +was one of those of whom it may be truly said in hackneyed phrases that +he was "born great," whilst destined to have "greatness thrust upon him" +in the shape of honours which he received with hesitation. + +From his autobiography we gather that his father, though dimly tracing +his descent from the famous Wallace of Stirling, was born at Hanworth, +in Middlesex, where there appears to have been a small colony of +residents bearing the same name but occupying varied social positions, +from admiral to hotel-keeper--the grandfather of Alfred Russel Wallace +being known as a victualler. Thomas Vere Wallace was the only son of +this worthy innkeeper; and, being possessed of somewhat wider ambitions +than a country life offered, was articled to a solicitor in London, and +eventually became an attorney-at-law. On his father's death he inherited +a small private income, and, not being of an energetic disposition, he +preferred to live quietly on it instead of continuing his practice. His +main interests were somewhat literary and artistic, but without any +definite aim; and this lack of natural energy, mental and physical, +reappeared in most of the nine children subsequently born to him, +including Alfred Russel, who realised that had it not been for the one +definite interest which gradually determined his course in life (an +interest demanding steady perseverance and concentrated thought as well +as physical enterprise), his career might easily have been much less +useful. + +It was undoubtedly from his father that he acquired an appreciation of +good literature, as they were in the habit of hearing Shakespeare and +similar works read aloud round the fireside on winter nights; whilst +from his mother came artistic and business-like instincts--several of +her relatives having been architects of no mean skill, combining with +their art sound business qualities which placed them in positions of +civic authority and brought them the respect due to men of upright +character and good parts. + +During the chequered experiences which followed the marriage of Thomas +Vere Wallace and Mary Ann Greenell there appears to have been complete +mutual affection and understanding. Although Wallace makes but slight +reference to his mother's character and habits, one may readily conclude +that her disposition and influence were such as to leave an indelible +impression for good on the minds of her children, amongst her qualities +being a talent for not merely accepting circumstances but in a quiet way +making the most of each experience as it came--a talent which we find +repeated on many occasions in the life of her son Alfred. + +It is a little curious that each of these great scientists should have +been born in a house overlooking a well-known river--the home of the +Darwins standing on the banks of the Severn, at Shrewsbury, and that of +the Wallaces a stone's throw from the waters of the romantic and +beautiful Usk, of Monmouthshire. + +With remarkable clearness Dr. Wallace could recall events and scenes +back to the time when he was only 4 years of age. His first childish +experiment occurred about that time, due to his being greatly impressed +by the story of the "Fox and the Pitcher" in AEsop's Fables. Finding a +jar standing in the yard outside their house, he promptly proceeded to +pour a small quantity of water into it, and then added a handful of +small stones. The water not rising to the surface, as it did in the +fable, he found a spade and scraped up a mixture of earth and pebbles +which he added to the stones already in the jar. The result, however, +proving quite unsatisfactory, he gave up the experiment in disgust and +refused to believe in the truth of the fable. His restless brain and +vivid imagination at this early period is shown by some dreams which he +could still recall when 82 years of age; whilst the strong impression +left on his mind by certain localities, with all their graphic detail of +form and colour, enabled him to enjoy over again many of the simple +pleasures that made up his early life in the beautiful grounds of the +ancient castle in which he used to play. + +The first great event in his life was the journey undertaken by +ferry-boat and stage-coach from Usk to Hertford, to which town the +family removed when he was 6 years old, and where they remained for the +next eight years, until he left school. + +The morning after their arrival an incident occurred which left its +trace as of a slender golden thread running throughout the fabric of his +long life. Alfred, with child-like curiosity about his new surroundings, +wandered into the yard behind their house, and presently heard a voice +coming from the other side of the low wall, saying, "Hallo! who are +you?" and saw a boy about his own age peering over the top. Explanations +followed, and soon, by the aid of two water-butts, the small boys found +themselves sitting side by side on the top of the wall, holding a long +and intimate conversation. Thus began his friendship with George Silk, +and by some curious trend of circumstances the two families became +neighbours on several subsequent occasions,[1] so that the friendship +was maintained until in due course the boys separated each to his own +way in life--the one to wander in foreign lands, the other to occupy a +responsible position at home. + +After spending about a year at private schools, Alfred Wallace was sent +with his brother John to Hertford Grammar School. His recollections of +these school days are full of interest, especially as contrasted with +the school life of to-day. He says: "We went to school even in the +winter at seven in the morning, and three days a week remained till five +in the afternoon; some artificial light was necessary, and this was +effected by the primitive method of every boy bringing his own candle or +candle-ends with any kind of candlestick he liked. An empty ink-bottle +was often used, or the candle was even stuck on to the desk with a +little of its own grease. So that it enabled us to learn our lessons or +do our sums, no one seemed to trouble about how we provided the light." + +Though never robust in health, he enjoyed all the usual boyish sports, +especially such as appealed to his imagination and love of adventure. +Not far from the school a natural cave, formed in a chalky slope and +partially concealed by undergrowth, made an excellent resort for +"brigands"; and to this hiding place were brought potatoes and other +provisions which could be cooked and eaten in primitive fashion, with an +air of secrecy which added to the mystery and attraction of the boyish +adventure. + +It is curious to note that one destined to become a great traveller and +explorer should have found the study of geography "a painful subject." +But this was, as he afterwards understood, entirely due to the method of +teaching then, and sometimes now, in vogue, which made no appeal +whatever to the imagination by creating a mental picture of the peoples +and nations, or the varied wonders and beauties of nature which +distinguish one country from another. "No interesting facts were ever +given, no accounts of the country by travellers were ever read, no good +maps ever given us, nothing but the horrid stream of unintelligible +place names to be learnt." The only subjects in which he considered that +he gained some valuable grounding at school were Latin, arithmetic, and +writing. + +This estimate of the value of the grammar-school teaching is echoed in +Darwin's own words when describing his school days at precisely the same +age at Shrewsbury Grammar School, where, he says, "the school as a means +of education to me was simply a blank." It is therefore interesting to +notice, side by side, as it were, the occupation which each boy found +for himself out of school hours, and which in both instances proved of +immense value in their respective careers in later life. + +Darwin, even at this early age, found his "taste for natural history, +and more especially for collecting," well developed. "I tried," he says, +"to make out the names of plants, and collected all sorts of things, +shells, seals, franks, coins and minerals. The passion for collecting +which leads a man to be a systematic naturalist ... was very strong in +me, and was clearly innate, as none of my sisters or brothers ever had +this taste." + +He also speaks of himself as having been a very "simple little fellow" +by the manner in which he was either himself deceived or tried to +deceive others in a harmless way. As an instance of this, he remembered +declaring that he could "produce variously coloured polyanthuses and +primroses by watering them with certain coloured fluids," though he knew +all the time it was untrue. His feeling of tenderness towards all +animals and insects is revealed in the fact that he could not +remember--except on one occasion--ever taking more than one egg out of a +bird's nest; and though a keen angler, as soon as he heard that he +could kill the worms with salt and water he never afterwards "spitted a +living worm, though at the expense, probably, of some loss of success!" + +Nothing thwarted young Darwin's intense joy and interest in collecting +minerals and insects, and in watching and making notes upon the habits +of birds. In addition to this wholesome outdoor hobby, the tedium of +school lessons was relieved for him by reading Shakespeare, Byron and +Scott--also a copy of "Wonders of the World" which belonged to one of +the boys, and to which he always attributed his first desire to travel +in remote countries, little thinking how his dreams would be fulfilled. + +Whilst Charles Darwin occupied himself with outdoor sport and +collecting, with a very moderate amount of reading thrown in at +intervals, Wallace, on the contrary, devoured all the books he could +get; and fortunately for him, his father having been appointed Librarian +to the Hertford Town Library, Alfred had access to all the books that +appealed to his mental appetite; and these, especially the historical +novels, supplemented the lack of interesting history lessons at school, +besides giving him an insight into many kinds of literature suited to +his varied tastes and temperament. In addition, however, to the hours +spent in reading, he and his brother John found endless delight in +turning the loft of an outhouse adjoining their yard into a sort of +mechanical factory. Here they contrived, by saving up all their pence +(the only pocket-money that came to them), to make crackers and other +simple fireworks, and to turn old keys into toy cannon, besides making a +large variety of articles for practical domestic purposes. Thus he +cultivated the gift of resourcefulness and self-reliance on which he had +so often to depend when far removed from all civilisation during his +travels on the Amazon and in the Malay Archipelago. + +A somewhat amusing instance of this is found in a letter to his sister, +dated June 25th, 1855, at a time when he wanted a really capable man for +his companion, in place of the good-natured but incapable boy Charles, +whom he had brought with him from London to teach collecting. In reply +to some remarks by his sister about a young man who she thought would be +suitable, he wrote: "Do not tell me merely that he is 'a very nice young +man.' Of course he is.... I should like to know whether he can live on +rice and salt fish for a week on occasion.... Can he sleep on a +board?... Can he walk twenty miles a day? Whether he can work, for there +is sometimes as hard work in collecting as in anything. Can he saw a +piece of wood straight? Ask him to make you anything--a little card box, +a wooden peg or bottle-stopper, and see if he makes them neat and +square." + +In another letter he describes the garden and live stock he had been +able to obtain where he was living; and in yet another he gives a long +list of his domestic woes and tribulations--which, however, were +overcome with the patience inculcated in early life by his hobbies, and +also by the fact that the family was always more or less in straitened +circumstances, so that the children were taught to make themselves +useful in various ways in order to assist their mother in the home. + +As he grew from childhood into youth, Alfred Wallace's extreme +sensitiveness developed to an almost painful degree. He grew rapidly, +and his unusual height made him still more shy when forced to occupy any +prominent position amongst boys of his own age. During the latter part +of his time at Hertford Grammar School his father was unable to pay the +usual fees, and it was agreed that Alfred should act as pupil teacher +in return for the lessons received. This arrangement, while acceptable +on the one hand, caused him actual mental and physical pain on the +other, as it increased his consciousness of the disabilities under which +he laboured in contrast with most of the other boys of his own age. + +At the age of 14 Wallace was taken away from school, and until something +could be definitely decided about his future--as up to the present he +had no particular bent in any one direction--he was sent to London to +live with his brother John, who was then working for a master builder in +the vicinity of Tottenham Court Road. This was in January, 1837, and it +was during the following summer that he joined his other brother, +William, at Barton-on-the-Clay, Bedfordshire, and began land surveying. +In the meantime, while in London, he had been brought very closely into +contact with the economics and ethics of Robert Owen, the well-known +Socialist; and although very young in years he was so deeply impressed +with the reasonableness and practical outcome of these theories that, +though considerably modified as time went on, they formed the foundation +for his own writings on Socialism and allied subjects in after years. + +As one of our aims in this section is to suggest an outline of the +contrasting influences governing the early lives of Wallace and Darwin, +it is interesting to note that at the ages of 14 and 16 respectively, +and immediately on leaving school, they came under the first definite +mental influence which was to shape their future thought and action. Yet +how totally different from Wallace's trials as a pupil teacher was the +removal of Darwin from Dr. Butler's school at Shrewsbury because "he was +doing no good" there, and his father thought it was "time he settled +down to his medical study in Edinburgh," never heeding the fact that +his son had already one passion in life, apart from "shooting, dogs, and +rat-catching," which stood a very good chance of saving him from +becoming the disgrace to the family that his good father feared. So that +while Wallace was imbibing his first lessons in Socialism at 14 years of +age, Darwin at 16 found himself merely enduring, with a feeling of +disgust, Dr. Duncan's lectures, which were "something fearful to +remember," on materia medica at eight o'clock on a winter's morning, +and, worse still, Dr. Munro's lectures on human anatomy, which were "as +dull as he was himself." Yet he always deeply regretted not having been +urged to practise dissection, because of the invaluable aid it would +have been to him as a naturalist. + +By mental instinct, however, Darwin soon found himself studying marine +zoology and other branches of natural science. This was in a large +measure due to his intimacy with Dr. Grant, who, in a later article on +Flustra, made some allusion to a paper read by Darwin before the Linnean +Society on a small discovery which he had made by the aid of a "wretched +microscope" to the effect that the so-called ova of Flustra were really +larvae and had the power of independent action by means of cilia. + +During his second year in Edinburgh he attended Jameson's lectures on +geology and zoology, but found them so "incredibly dull" that he +determined never to study the science. + +Then came the final move which, all unknowingly, was to lead Darwin into +the pursuit of a science which up to that time had only been a hobby and +not in any sense the serious profession of his life. But again how wide +the difference between his change from Edinburgh to Cambridge, and that +of Wallace from a month's association with a working-class Socialistic +community in London to land surveying under the simplest rural +conditions prevalent amongst the respectable labouring farmers of +Bedfordshire--Darwin to the culture and privileges of a great University +with the object of becoming a clergyman, and Wallace taking the first +road that offered towards earning a living, with no thought as to the +ultimate outcome of this life in the open and the systematic observation +of soils and land formation. + +But the inherent tendencies of Darwin's nature drew him away from +theology to the study of geology, entomology and botany. The ensuing +four years at Cambridge were very happy ones. While fortunate in being +able to follow his various mental and scientific pursuits with the +freedom which a good social and financial position secured for him, he +found himself by a natural seriousness of manner, balanced by a cheerful +temperament and love of sport, the friend and companion of men many +years his seniors and holding positions of authority in the world of +science. Amongst these the name of Professor Henslow will always take +precedence. "This friendship," says Darwin, "influenced my whole career +more than any other." Henslow's extensive knowledge of botany, geology, +entomology, chemistry and mineralogy, added to his sincere and +attractive personality, well-balanced mind and excellent judgment, +formed a strong and effective bias in the direction Darwin was destined +to follow. + +Apart, however, from the strong personal influence of Henslow, Sedgwick +and others with whom he came much in contact, two books which he read at +this time aroused his "burning zeal to add the most humble contribution +to the noble structure of Natural Science"; these were Sir J. Herschel's +"Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy," and Humboldt's +"Personal Narrative." Indeed, so fascinated was he by the description +given of Teneriffe in the latter that he at once set about a plan +whereby he might spend a holiday, with Henslow, in that locality, a +holiday which was, indeed, to form part of his famous voyage. + +By means of his explorations in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and one +or two visits to North Wales, Darwin's experimental knowledge of geology +and allied sciences was considerably increased. In his zeal for +collecting beetles he employed a labourer to "scrape the moss off old +trees in winter, and place it in a bag, and likewise to collect the +rubbish at the bottom of the barges in which reeds were brought from the +fens, and thus ... got some very rare species." + +During the summer vacation of 1831, at the personal request of Henslow, +he accompanied Professor Sedgwick on a geological tour in North Wales. +In order, no doubt, to give him some independent experience, Sedgwick +sent Darwin on a line parallel with his own, telling him to bring back +specimens of the rocks and to mark the stratification on a map. In later +years Darwin was amazed to find how much both of them had failed to +observe, "yet these phenomena were so conspicuous that ... a house burnt +down by fire could not tell its story more plainly than did the valley +of Cwm Idwal." + +This tour was the introduction to a momentous change in his life. On +returning to Shrewsbury he found a letter awaiting him which contained +the offer of a voyage in H.M.S. _Beagle_. But owing to several +objections raised by Dr. Darwin, he wrote and declined the offer; and if +it had not been for the immediate intervention of his uncle, Mr. Josiah +Wedgwood (to whose house he went the following day to begin the shooting +season), who took quite a different view of the proposition, the +"Journal of Researches during the Voyage of H.M.S. _Beagle_," by Charles +Darwin, would never have been written. + +At length, however, after much preparation and many delays, the +_Beagle_ sailed from Plymouth on December 27th, 1831, and five years +elapsed before Darwin set foot again on English soil. The period, +therefore, in Darwin's life which we find covered by his term at +Edinburgh and Cambridge, until at the age of 22 he found himself +suddenly launched on an entirely new experience full of adventure and +fresh association, was spent by Wallace in a somewhat similar manner in +so far as his outward objective in life was more or less distinct from +the pursuits which gradually dawned upon his horizon, though they were +followed as a "thing apart" and not as an ultimate end. + +With Wallace's removal into Bedfordshire an entirely new life opened up +before him. His health, never very good, rapidly improved; both brain +and eye were trained to practical observations which proved eminently +valuable. His descriptions of the people with whom he came in contact +during these years of country life reveal the quiet toleration of the +faults and foibles of others, not devoid of the keen sense of humour and +justice which characterised his lifelong attitude towards his +fellow-men. + +The many interests of his new life, together with the use of a pocket +sextant, prompted him to make various experiments for himself. The only +sources from which he could obtain helpful information, however, were +some cheap elementary books on mechanics and optics which he procured +from the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; these he studied +and "puzzled over" for several years. "Having no friends of my own age," +he wrote, "I occupied myself with various pursuits in which I had begun +to take an interest. Having learnt the use of the sextant in surveying, +and my brother having a book on Nautical Astronomy, I practised a few of +the simpler observations. Among these were determining the meridian by +equal altitudes of the sun, and also by the pole-star at its upper or +lower culmination; finding the latitude by the meridian altitude of the +sun, or of some of the principal stars; and making a rude sundial by +erecting a gnomon towards the pole. For these simple calculations I had +Hannay and Dietrichsen's Almanac, a copious publication which gave all +the important data in the Nautical Almanac, besides much other +interesting matter useful for the astronomical amateur or the ordinary +navigator. I also tried to make a telescope by purchasing a lens of +about 2 ft. focus at an optician's in Swansea, fixing it in a paper tube +and using the eye-piece of a small opera-glass. With it I was able to +observe the moon and Jupiter's satellites, and some of the larger +star-clusters; but, of course, very imperfectly. Yet it served to +increase my interest in astronomy, and to induce me to study with some +care the various methods of construction of the more important +astronomical instruments; and it also led me throughout my life to be +deeply interested in the grand onward march of astronomical +discovery."[2] + +At the same time Wallace became attracted by, and interested in, the +flowers, shrubs and trees growing in that part of Bedfordshire, and he +acquired some elementary knowledge of zoology. "It was," he writes, +"while living at Barton that I obtained my first information that there +was such a science as geology.... My brother, like most land-surveyors, +was something of a geologist, and he showed me the fossil oysters of the +genus Gryphaea and the Belemnites ... and several other fossils which +were abundant in the chalk and gravel around Barton.... It was here, +too, that during my solitary rambles I first began to feel the influence +of nature and to wish to know more of the various flowers, shrubs and +trees I daily met with, but of which for the most part I did not even +know the English names. At that time I hardly realised that there was +such a science as systematic botany, that every flower and every meanest +and most insignificant weed had been accurately described and +classified, and that there was any kind of system or order in the +endless variety of plants and animals which I knew existed. This wish to +know the names of wild plants, to be able to speak ... about them, had +arisen from a chance remark I had overheard about a year before. A lady +... whom we knew at Hertford, was talking to some friends in the street +when I and my father met them ... [and] I heard the lady say, 'We found +quite a rarity the other day--the Monotropa; it had not been found here +before.' This I pondered over, and wondered what the Monotropa was. All +my father could tell me was that it was a rare plant; and I thought how +nice it must be to know the names of rare plants when you found +them."[3] + +One can picture the tall quiet boy going on these solitary rambles, his +eye becoming gradually quickened to perceive new forms in nature, +contrasting them one with another, and beginning to ponder over the +_cause_ which led to the diverse formation and colouring of leaves +apparently of the same family. + +It was in 1841, four years later, that he heard of, and at once +procured, a book published at a shilling by the S.P.C.K. (the title of +which he could not recall in after years), to which he owed his first +scientific glimmerings of the vast study of botany. The next step was to +procure, at much self-sacrifice, Lindley's "Elements of Botany," +published at half a guinea, which to his immense disappointment he found +of very little use, as it did not deal with British plants! His +disappointment was lessened, however, by the loan from a Mr. Hayward of +London's "Encyclopedia of Plants," and it was with the help of these two +books that he made his first classification of the specimens which he +had collected and carefully kept during the few preceding years. + +"It must be remembered," he says in "My Life," "that my ignorance of +plants at this time was extreme. I knew the wild rose, bramble, +hawthorn, buttercup, poppy, daisy and foxglove, and a very few others +equally common.... I knew nothing whatever as to genera and species, nor +of the large number of distinct forms related to each and grouped into +natural orders. My delight, therefore, was great when I was ... able to +identify the charming little eyebright, the strange-looking cow-wheat +and louse-wort, the handsome mullein and the pretty creeping toad-flax, +and to find that all of them, as well as the lordly foxglove, formed +parts of one great natural order, and that under all their superficial +diversity of form was a similarity of structure which, when once clearly +understood, enabled me to locate each fresh species with greater ease." +This, however, was not sufficient, and the last step was to form a +herbarium. + +"I soon found," he wrote, "that by merely identifying the plants I found +in my walks I lost much time in gathering the same species several +times, and even then not being always quite sure that I had found the +same plant before. I therefore began to form a herbarium, collecting +good specimens and drying them carefully between drying papers and a +couple of boards weighted with books or stones.... I first named the +species as nearly as I could do so, and then laid them out to be pressed +and dried. At such times," he continues--and I have quoted the passage +for the sake of this revealing confession--"I experienced the joy which +every discovery of a new form of life gives to the lover of nature, +almost equal to those raptures which I afterwards felt at every capture +of new butterflies on the Amazon, or at the constant stream of new +species of birds, beetles and butterflies in Borneo, the Moluccas, and +the Aru Islands."[4] + +Anything in the shape of gardening papers and catalogues which came in +his way was eagerly read, and to this source he owed his first interest +in the fascinating orchid. + +"A catalogue published by a great nurseryman in Bristol ... contained a +number of tropical orchids, of whose wonderful variety and beauty I had +obtained some idea from the woodcuts in Loudon's 'Encyclopedia.' The +first epiphytal orchid I ever saw was at a flower show in Swansea ... +which caused in me a thrill of enjoyment which no other plant in the +show produced. My interest in this wonderful order of plants was further +enhanced by reading in the _Gardener's Chronicle_ an article by Dr. +Lindley on one of the London flower shows, where there was a good +display of orchids, in which ... he added, 'and _Dendrobium Devonianum_, +too delicate and beautiful for a flower of earth.' This and other +references ... gave them, in my mind, a weird and mysterious charm ... +which, I believe, had its share in producing that longing for the +tropics which a few years later was satisfied in the equatorial forests +of the Amazon."[5] + +For a brief period, when there was a lull in the surveying business and +his prospects of continuing in this profession looked uncertain, he +tried watchmaking, and would probably--though not by choice--have been +apprenticed to it but for an unexpected circumstance which caused his +master to give up his business. Alfred gladly, when the occasion +offered, returned to his outdoor life, which had begun to make the +strongest appeal to him, stronger, perhaps, than he was really aware. + +Early in 1844 another break occurred, due to the sudden falling off of +land surveying as a profitable business. His brother could no longer +afford to keep him as assistant, finding it indeed difficult to obtain +sufficient employment for himself. As Wallace knew no other trade or +profession, the only course which occurred to his mind as possible by +which to earn a living was to get a post as school teacher. + +After one or two rather amusing experiences, he eventually found himself +in very congenial surroundings under the Rev. Abraham Hill, headmaster +of the Collegiate School at Leicester. Here he stayed for a little more +than a year, during which time--in addition to his school work and a +considerable amount of hard reading on subjects to which he had not +hitherto been able to devote himself--he was led to become greatly +interested in phrenology and mesmerism, and before long found himself +something of an expert in giving mesmeric demonstrations before small +audiences. Phrenology, he believed, proved of much value in determining +his own characteristics, good and bad, and in guiding him to a wise use +of the faculties which made for his ultimate success; while his +introduction to mesmerism had not a little to do with his becoming +interested and finally convinced of the part played by spiritualistic +forces and agencies in human life. + +The most important event, however, during this year at Leicester was his +meeting with H.W. Bates, through whom he was introduced to the absorbing +study of beetles and butterflies, the link which culminated in their +mutual exploration of the Amazon. It is curious that Wallace retained no +distinct recollection of how or when he met Bates for the first time, +but thought that "he heard him mentioned as an enthusiastic +entomologist and met him at the Library." Bates was at this time +employed by his father, who was a hosiery manufacturer, and he could +therefore only devote his spare time to collecting beetles in the +surrounding neighbourhood. The friendship brought new interests into +both lives, and though Wallace was obliged a few months later to leave +Leicester and return to his old work of surveying (owing to the sudden +death of his brother William, whose business affairs were left in an +unsatisfactory condition and needed personal attention), he no longer +found in it the satisfaction he had previously experienced, and his +letters to Bates expressed the desire to strike out on some new line, +one which would satisfy his craving for a definite pursuit in the +direction of natural science. + +Somewhere about the autumn of 1847, Bates paid a visit to Wallace at +Neath, and the plan to go to the Amazon which had been slowly forming +itself at length took shape, due to the perusal of a little book +entitled "A Voyage up the River Amazon," by W.H. Edwards. Further +investigations showed that this would be particularly advantageous, as +the district had only been explored by the German zoologist, von Spix, +and the botanist von Martins, in 1817-20, and subsequently by Count de +Castelnau. + +During this interval we find, in a letter to Bates, the following +allusion to Darwin, which is the first record of Wallace's high estimate +of the man with whom his own name was to be dramatically associated ten +years later. "I first," he says, "read Darwin's Journal three or four +years ago, and have lately re-read it. As the journal of a scientific +traveller it is second only to Humboldt's Narrative; as a work of +general interest, perhaps superior to it. He is an ardent admirer and +most able supporter of Mr. Lyell's views. His style of writing I very +much admire, so free from all labour, or egotism, yet so full of +interest and original thought."[6] + +The early part of 1848 was occupied in making arrangements with Mr. +Samuel Stevens, of King Street, Covent Garden, to act as their agent in +disposing of a duplicate collection of specimens which they proposed +sending home; by this means paying their expenses during the time they +were away, any surplus being invested against their return. This and +other matters being satisfactorily settled, they eventually sailed from +Liverpool on April 20th in a barque of 192 tons, said to be "a very fast +sailer," which proved to be correct. On arriving at Para about a month +later, they immediately set about finding a house, learning something of +the language, the habits of the people amongst whom they had come to +live, and making short excursions into the forest before starting on +longer and more trying explorations up country. + +Wallace's previous vivid imaginings of what life in the tropics would +mean, so far as the surpassing beauty of nature was concerned, were not +immediately fulfilled. As a starting-point, however, Para had many +advantages. Besides the pleasant climate, the country for some hundreds +of miles was found to be nearly level at an elevation of about 30 or 40 +ft. above the river; the first distinct rise occurring some 150 miles up +the river Tocantins, south-west of Para; the whole district was +intersected by streams, with cross channels connecting them, access by +this means being comparatively easy to villages and estates lying +farther inland. + +Before making an extensive excursion into the interior, he spent some +time on the larger islands at the mouth of the Amazon, on one of which +he immediately noticed the scarcity of trees, while "the abundance of +every kind of animal life crowded into a small space was here very +striking, compared with the sparse manner in which it is scattered in +the virgin forests. It seems to force us to the conclusion that the +luxuriance of tropical vegetation is not favourable to the production of +animal life. The plains are always more thickly peopled than the forest; +and a temperate zone, as has been pointed out by Mr. Darwin, seems +better adapted to the support of large land animals than the tropics." + +We have already referred to the fact that at the very early age of 14 +Wallace had imbibed his first ideas of Socialism, or how the +"commonwealth" of a people or nation was the outcome of cause and +effect, largely due to the form of government, political economy and +progressive commerce best suited to any individual State or country. The +seed took deep root, and during the years spent for the most part +amongst an agricultural people in England and Wales his interest in +these questions had been quickened by observation and intelligent +inquiry. It is no wonder, therefore, that during the whole of his +travels we find many intimate references to such matters regarding the +locality in which he happened to find himself, but which can only be +noticed in a very casual manner in this section. For instance, he soon +discovered that the climate and soil round Para conduced to the +cultivation of almost every kind of food, such as cocoa, coffee, sugar, +farinha (the universal bread of the country) from the mandioca plant, +with vegetables and fruits in inexhaustible variety; while the articles +of export included india-rubber, Brazil nuts, and piassaba (the coarse, +stiff fibre of a palm, used for making brooms for street sweeping), as +well as sarsaparilla, balsam-capivi, and a few other drugs. + +The utter lack of initiative, or even ordinary interest, in making the +most of the opportunities lying at hand, struck him again and again as +he went from place to place and was entertained hospitably by hosts of +various nationalities; until at times the impression is conveyed that +apart from his initial interest as a naturalist, a longing seized him to +arouse those who were primarily responsible for these conditions out of +the apathy into which they had fallen, and to make them realise the +larger pleasure which life offers to those who recognise the +opportunities at hand, not only for their own advancement but also for +the benefit of those placed under their control. All of which we find +happily illustrated during his visit to Sarawak, in the Malay +Archipelago. + +The whole of these four years was crowded with valuable experiences of +one sort and another. Some of the most toilsome journeys proved only a +disappointment, while others brought success beyond his most sanguine +dreams. At the end of two years it was agreed between himself and Bates +that they should separate, Wallace doing the northern parts and +tributaries of the Amazon, and Bates the main stream, which, from the +fork of the Rio Negro, is called the Upper Amazon, or the Solimoes. By +this arrangement they were able to cover more ground, besides devoting +themselves to the special goal of research on which each was bent. + +In the meantime, Wallace's younger brother, Herbert, had come out to +join him, and for some time their journeys were made conjointly; but +finding that his brother was not temperamentally fitted to become a +naturalist, it was decided that he should return to England. +Accordingly, they parted at Barra when Wallace started on his long +journey up the Rio Negro, the duration of which was uncertain; and it +was not until many months after the sad event that he heard the +distressing news that Herbert had died of yellow fever on the eve of his +departure from Para for home. Fortunately, Bates was in Para at the +time, and did what he could for the boy until stricken down himself with +the same sickness, from which, however, his stronger constitution +enabled him to recover. + +Perhaps the most eventful and memorable journey during this period was +the exploration of the Uaupes River, of which Wallace wrote nearly sixty +years later: "So far as I have heard, no English traveller has to this +day ascended the Uaupes River so far as I did, and no collector has +stayed at any time at Javita, or has even passed through it." + +From a communication received from the Royal Geographical Society it +appears that the first complete survey of this river (a compass traverse +supplemented by astronomical observations) was made (1907-8) by Dr. +Hamilton Rice, starting from the side of Colombia, and tracing the whole +course of the river from a point near the source of its head-stream. The +result showed that the general course of the lower river was much as +represented by Wallace, though considerable corrections were necessary +both in latitude and longitude. "I am assured by authorities on the Rio +Negro region," writes Dr. Scott Keltie to Mr. W.G. Wallace, under date +May 21, 1915, "that your father's work still holds good." + +In May, 1852, Wallace returned to Para, and sailed for England the +following July. The ship took fire at sea, and all his treasures (not +previously sent to England) were unhappily lost. Ten days and nights +were spent in an open boat before another vessel picked them up, and in +describing this terrible experience he says: "When the danger appeared +past I began to feel the greatness of my loss. With what pleasure had I +looked upon every rare and curious insect I had added to my collection! +How many times, when almost overcome by the ague, had I crawled into the +forest and been rewarded by some unknown and beautiful species! How +many places, which no European foot but my own had trodden, would have +been recalled to my memory by the rare birds and insects they had +furnished to my collection! How many weary days and weeks had I passed, +upheld only by the fond hope of bringing home many new and beautiful +forms from these wild regions ... which would prove that I had not +wasted the advantage I had enjoyed, and would give me occupation and +amusement for many years to come! And now ... I had not one specimen to +illustrate the unknown lands I had trod, or to call back the +recollection of the wild scenes I had beheld! But such regrets were vain +... and I tried to occupy myself with the state of things which actually +existed."[7] + +On reaching London, Wallace took a house in Upper Albany Street, where +his mother and his married sister (Mrs. Sims), with her husband, a +photographer, came to live with him. The next eighteen months were fully +occupied with sorting and arranging such collections as had previously +reached England; writing his book of travels up the Amazon and Rio Negro +(published in the autumn of 1853), and a little book on the palm trees +based on a number of fine pencil sketches he had preserved in a tin box, +the only thing saved from the wreck. + +In summing up the most vivid impressions left on his mind, apart from +purely scientific results, after his four years in South America, he +wrote that the feature which he could never think of without delight was +"the wonderful variety and exquisite beauty of the butterflies and birds +... ever new and beautiful, strange and even mysterious," so that he +could "hardly recall them without a thrill of admiration and wonder." +But "the most unexpected sensation of surprise and delight was my first +meeting and living with man in a state of nature--with absolute +uncontaminated savages!... and the surprise of it was that I did not +expect to be at all so surprised.... These true wild Indians of the +Uaupes ... had nothing that we call clothes; they had peculiar +ornaments, tribal marks, etc.; they all carried tools or weapons of +their own manufacture.... But more than all, their whole aspect and +manner was different--they were all going about their own work or +pleasure, which had nothing to do with white men or their ways; they +walked with the free step of the independent forest-dweller, and, except +the few that were known to my companion, paid no attention whatever to +us, mere strangers of an alien race! In every detail they were original +and self-sustaining as are the wild animals of the forest, absolutely +independent of civilisation.... I could not have believed that there +would have been so much difference in the aspect of the same people in +their native state and when living under European supervision. The true +denizen of the Amazonian forest, like the forest itself, is unique and +not to be forgotten." + +The foregoing "impressions" recall forcibly those expressed by Darwin in +similar terms at the close of his "Journal": "Delight ... is a weak term +to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has +wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, +the novelty of the parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the +glossy green of the foliage ... the general luxuriance of the +vegetation, filled me with admiration. A paradoxical mixture of sound +and silence pervades the shady parts of the wood ... yet within the +recesses ... a universal silence appears to reign ... such a day as this +brings with it a deeper pleasure than he (a naturalist) can ever hope to +experience again,"[8] And in another place: "Among the scenes which are +deeply impressed on my mind, none can exceed in sublimity the primeval +forests undefaced by the hand of man; ... temples filled with the +various productions of the God of Nature; ... no one can stand in these +solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere +breath of his body."[9] + +In complete contrast to the forest, the bare, treeless, and uninhabited +plains of Patagonia "frequently crossed before" Darwin's eyes. Why, he +could not understand, except that, being so "boundless," they left "free +scope for the imagination." + +As these travels,[10] undertaken at comparatively the same age, represent +the foundation upon which their scientific work and theories were based +during the long years which followed, a glance at the conditions +governing the separate expeditions--both mental and physical--may be of +some value. The most obvious difference lies, perhaps, in the fact that +Darwin was free from the thought of having to "pay his way" by the +immediate result of his efforts, and likewise from all care and anxiety +regarding domestic concerns; the latter being provided for him when on +board the _Beagle_, or arranged by those who accompanied him on his +travels overland and by river. The elimination of these minor cares +tended to leave his mind free and open to absorb and speculate at +comparative leisure upon all the strange phenomena which presented +themselves throughout the long voyage. + +A further point of interest in determining the ultimate gain or loss +lies in the fact that Darwin's private excursions had to be somewhat +subservient to the movements of the _Beagle_ under the command of +Captain Fitz-Roy. This, in all probability, was beneficial to one of his +temperament--unaccustomed to be greatly restricted by outward +circumstances or conditions, though never flagrantly (or, perhaps, +consciously) going against them. The same applies in a measure to +Wallace, who, on more than one occasion, confessed his tendency to a +feeling of semi-idleness and dislike to any form of enforced physical +exertion; but as every detail, involving constant forethought and +arrangement, as well as the execution, devolved upon himself, the latent +powers of methodical perseverance, which never failed him, no matter +what difficulties barred his way, were called forth. Darwin's estimate +of the "habit of mind" forced upon himself during this period may not +inaptly be applied to both men: "Everything about which I thought or +read was made to bear directly on what I had seen, or was likely to see; +and this habit of mind was continued during the five years of the +voyage. I feel sure that it was this training which enabled me to do +whatever I have done in science." + +It may be further assumed that Darwin was better equipped mentally--from +a scientific point of view--owing to his personal intercourse with +eminent scientific men previous to his assuming this responsible +position. Wallace, on the contrary, had practically little beyond +book-knowledge and such experience as he had been able to gain by +solitary wanderings in the localities in which he had, by circumstances, +been forced to reside. His plan of operations must, therefore, have been +largely modified and adapted as time went on, and as his finances +allowed. To both, therefore, credit is due for the adaptability evinced +under conditions not always congenial or conducive to the pursuits they +had undertaken. + +Although the fact is not definitely stated by Wallace, it may readily be +inferred that the idea of making this the starting-point of a new life +was clearly in his mind; while Darwin simply accepted the opportunity +when it came, and was only brought to a consciousness of its full +meaning and bearing on his future career whilst studying the geological +aspect of Santiago when "the line of white rock revealed a new and +important fact," namely, that there had been afterwards subsidence round +the craters, which had since been in action and had poured forth lava. +"It then," he says, "first dawned on me that I might perhaps write a +book on the geology of the various countries visited, and this made me +thrill with delight. That was a memorable hour to me; and how distinctly +I can call to mind the low cliff of lava, beneath which I rested, with +the sun glaring hot, a few strange desert plants growing near, and with +living corals in the tidal pools at my feet!"[11] + +Another point of comparison lies in the fact that at no time did the +study of man or human nature, from the metaphysical and psychological +point of view, appeal to Darwin as it did to Wallace; and this being so, +the similarity between the impression made on them individually by their +first contact with primitive human beings is of some interest. + +Wallace's words have already been quoted; here are Darwin's: "Nothing is +more certain to create astonishment than the first sight in his native +haunt of a barbarian, of man in his lowest and most savage state. One +asks: 'Could our progenitors have been men like these--men whose very +signs and expressions are less intelligible to us than those of the +domesticated animals; men who do not possess the instinct of those +animals, nor yet appear to boast of human reason, or at least of arts +consequent on that reason?' I do not believe it is possible to describe +or paint the difference between a savage and civilised man. It is the +difference between a wild and tame animal."[12] + +The last words suggest the seed-thought eventually to be enlarged in +"The Descent of Man," and there is also perhaps a subtle suggestion of +the points in which Wallace differed from Darwin when the time came for +them to discuss this important section of the theory of Evolution. It +needed, however, the further eight years spent by Wallace in the Malay +Archipelago to bring about a much wider knowledge of nature-science +before he was prepared in any way to assume the position of exponent of +theories not seriously thought of previously in the scientific world. + +In the autumn of 1853, on the completion of his "Travels on the Amazon +and Rio Negro," Wallace paid his first visit to Switzerland, on a +walking tour in company with his friend George Silk. On his return, and +during the winter months, he was constant in his attendance at the +meetings of the Entomological and Zoological Societies. It was at one of +these evening gatherings that he first met Huxley, and he also had a +vague recollection of once meeting and speaking to Darwin at the British +Museum. Had it not been for his extreme shyness of disposition, and +(according to his own estimation) "lack of conversational powers," he +would doubtless have become far more widely known, and have enjoyed the +friendship of not a few of the eminent men who shared his interests, +during this interval before starting on his journey to Singapore. + +It was due to his close study of the Insect and Bird Departments of the +British Museum that he decided on Singapore as a new starting-point for +his natural history collections. As the region was generally healthy, +and no part of it (with the exception of the Island of Java) had been +explored, it offered unlimited attractions for his special work. But as +the journey out would be an expensive one, he was advised to lay his +plans before Sir Roderick Murchison, then President of the Royal +Geographical Society, and it was through his kindly interest and +personal application to the Government that a passage was provided in +one of the P. and O. boats going to Singapore. He left early in 1854. +Arrived at Singapore, an entirely new world opened up before him. New +peoples and customs thronged on all hands, a medley of nationalities +such as can only be seen in the East, where, even to-day, and though +forming part of one large community, each section preserves its native +dress, customs and religious habits. After spending some time at +Singapore he moved from place to place, but finally decided upon making +Ternate his head-quarters, as he discovered a comfortable bungalow, not +too large, and adaptable in every way as a place in which to collect and +prepare his specimens between the many excursions to other parts of the +Archipelago. The name is now indelibly associated with that particular +visit which ended after a trying journey in an attack of intermittent +fever and general prostration, during which he first conceived the idea +which has made Ternate famous in the history of natural science. + +[Illustration: A.R. WALLACE Singapore, 1862] + +One or two points in the following letters recall certain contrasts +similar to those already drawn between Darwin's impression of places and +people and those made on the mind of Wallace by practically the same +conditions. A typical instance is found in their estimate of the life +and work of the missionaries whom they met and from whom they received +the warmest hospitality. Their experience included both Protestant and +Roman Catholic, and from Darwin's account the former appeared to him to +have the more civilising effect on the people, not only from a +religious but also from the economic and industrial points of view. + +In the "Journal" (p. 419) we find a detailed account of a visit to the +missionary settlement at Waimate, New Zealand. After describing the +familiar English appearance of the whole surroundings, he adds: "All +this is very surprising when it is considered that five years ago +nothing but the fern flourished here. Moreover, native workmanship, +taught by these missionaries, has effected this change--the lesson of +the missionary is the enchanter's wand. The house had been built, the +windows framed, the fields ploughed, and even the trees grafted, by the +New Zealander. When I looked at the whole scene it was admirable. It was +not that England was brought vividly before my mind; ... nor was it the +triumphant feeling at seeing what Englishmen could effect; but rather +the high hopes thus inspired for the future progress of this fine +island." + +No such feeling was inspired by the conditions surrounding the Roman +Catholic missionaries whom he met from time to time. In an earlier part +of the "Journal" he records an evening spent with one living in a lonely +place in South America who, "coming from Santiago, had contrived to +surround himself with some few comforts. Being a man of some little +education, he bitterly complained of the total want of society. With no +particular zeal for religion, no business or pursuit, how completely +must this man's life be wasted." + +In complete opposition to these views, passages occur in the following +letters which show that Wallace thought more highly of the Roman +Catholic than of the Protestant missionaries. In one place, speaking of +the former, he says: "Most are Frenchmen ... well-educated men who give +up their lives for the good of the people they live among, I think +Catholics and Protestants are equally wrong, but as missionaries I think +Catholics are the best, and I would gladly see none others rather than +have, as in New Zealand, sects of native Dissenters more rancorous +against each other than in England. The unity of the Catholics is their +strength, and an unmarried clergy can do as missionaries what married +men never can undertake." + +As a sidelight on these contradictory estimates of the same work, it +should be borne in mind that Darwin had but recently given up the idea +of becoming a clergyman, and doubtless retained some of the instinctive +regard for sincere Christian Protestantism (whether represented by the +Church of England or by Nonconformists), while Wallace had long since +relinquished all doctrinal ideas on religion and all belief in the +beneficial effect produced by forms of worship on the individual. + +Among the regions Wallace visited was Sarawak. Of one of his sojourns +here some interesting reminiscences have been sent to me by Mr. L.V. +Helmes. He says: + + It was in 1854 that Wallace came to Sarawak. I was there then, + sent by a private firm, which later became the Borneo Company, to + open up, by mining, manufacture and trade, the resources of the + country, and amongst these enterprises was coal-mining on the + west. Wallace came in search of new specimens of animal and + especially insect life. The clearing of ancient forests at these + mines offered a naturalist great opportunities, and I gave Wallace + an introduction to our engineer in charge there. His collections + of beetles and butterflies there were phenomenal; but the district + was also the special home of the great ape, the orang-utan, or + meias, as the natives called them, of which he obtained so many + valuable specimens. Many notes must at that time have passed + between us, for I took much interest in his work. We had put up a + temporary hut for him at the mines, and on my occasional visits + there I saw him and his young assistant, Charles Allen, at work, + admired his beautiful collections, and gave my help in forwarding + them. + + But it was mainly in social intercourse that we met, when Wallace, + in intervals of his labours, came to Ku-ching, and was the Rajah's + guest. Then occurred those interesting discussions at social + gatherings to which he refers in a letter to me in 1909, when he + wrote: "I was pleased to receive your letter, with reminiscences + of old times. I often recall those pleasant evenings with Rajah + Brooke and our little circle, but since the old Rajah's death I + have not met any of the party." + + Wallace was in Sarawak at the happy period in the country's + history. It was beginning to emerge from barbarism. The Borneo + Company was just formed, and the seed of the country's future + prosperity was sown. Wallace, therefore, found us all sanguine and + cheerful; yet we were on the brink of a disaster which brought + many sorrows in its train. But the misfortunes of the Chinese + revolt had not yet cast their shadows before them. The Rajah's + white guests round his hospitable table; the Malay chiefs and + office-holders, who made evening calls from curiosity or to pay + their respects; Dyaks squatting in dusky groups in corners of the + hall, with petitions to make or advice to seek from their white + ruler--such would be the gathering of which Wallace would form a + part. No suspicion or foreboding would trouble the company; yet + within a few months that hall would be given to the flames of an + enemy's torch, and the Rajah himself and many of those who formed + that company would be fugitives in the jungle.... + + The Malay Archipelago, in the unregenerated days when Wallace + roamed the forests, and sailed the Straits in native boats and + canoes, was full of danger to wanderers of the white race. Anarchy + prevailed in many parts; usurping nobles enslaved the people in + their houses; and piratical fleets scoured the sea, capturing and + enslaving yearly thousands of peaceful traders, women and + children. The writer was himself in 1862 besieged in a Bornean + river by a pirate fleet, which was eventually destroyed by a + Sarawak Government steamer with the following result of the fight: + 190 pirates and 140 captives were killed or drowned, and 250 of + the latter were liberated and sent to their homes; showing how + formidable these pirates were. But Wallace, absorbed in his + scientific pursuits, minded not these dangers, nor the hardships + of any kind which a roving life in untrodden jungles and feverish + swamps brings. + + When Wallace left Sarawak after his fifteen months' residence in + the country, he left his young assistant, Charles Allen, there. He + entered my service, and remained some time after the formation of + the Borneo Company. Later, he again joined Wallace, and then went + to New Guinea, doing valuable collecting and exploring work. He + finally settled in Singapore, where I met him in 1899. He had + married and was doing well; but died not long after my interview + with him. He had come to the East with Wallace as a lad of 16, and + had been his faithful companion and assistant during years of + arduous work.--L.V.H. + +The eight years spent by Wallace in this almost unknown part of the +world were times of strenuous mental and physical exertion, resulting in +the gathering together of an enormous amount of matter for future +scientific investigation, but counterbalanced unfortunately by more or +less continuous ill-health--which at times made the effort of clear +reasoning and close application to scientific pursuits extremely +difficult. + +An indication of the unwearying application with which he went about his +task is seen in the fact that during this period he collected 125,660 +specimens of natural history, travelled about 14,000 miles within the +Archipelago, and made sixty or seventy journeys, "each involving some +preparation and loss of time," so that "not more than six years were +really occupied in collecting." + +A faint idea of this long and solitary sojourn in lonely places is +given in a letter to his old friend Bates, dated December 24th, 1860, in +which he says: "Many thanks for your long and interesting letter. I have +myself suffered much in the same way as you describe, and I think more +severely. The kind of _taedium vitae_ you mention I also occasionally +experience here. I impute it to a too monotonous existence." And again +when he begs his friend to write, as he is "half froze for news." + +As already stated, Wallace, at no time during these wanderings, had any +escort or protection, having to rely entirely upon his own tact and +patience, combined with firmness, in his dealings with the natives. On +one occasion he was taken ill, and had to remain six weeks with none but +native Papuans around him, and he became so attached to them that when +saying good-bye it was with the full intention of returning amongst them +at a later period. In another place he speaks of sleeping under cover of +an open palm-leaf hut as calmly as under the protection of the +Metropolitan Police! + +Up to that time, also, he was the only Englishman who had actually seen +the beautiful "birds of paradise in their native forests," this success +being achieved after "five voyages to different parts of the district +they inhabit, each occupying in its preparation and execution the larger +part of a year." And then only five species out of a possible fourteen +were procured. His enthusiasm as a naturalist and collector knew no +bounds, butterflies especially calling into play all his feelings of joy +and satisfaction. Describing his first sight of the _Ornithoptera +croesus_, he says that the blood rushed to his head and he felt much +more like fainting than he had done when in apprehension of immediate +death; a similar sensation being experienced when he came across another +large bird-winged butterfly, _Ornithoptera poseidon_. + +"It is one thing," he says, "to see such beauty in a cabinet, and quite +another to feel it struggling between one's fingers, and to gaze upon +its fresh and living beauty, a bright-green gem shining out amid the +silent gloom of a dark and tangled forest. The village of Dobbo held +that evening at least one contented man." + +These thrills of joy may be considered as some compensation for such +experiences as those contained in his graphic account of a single +journey in a "prau," or native boat. "My first crew," he wrote, "ran +away; two men were lost for a month on a desert island; we were ten +times aground on coral reefs; we lost four anchors; our sails were +devoured by rats; the small boat was lost astern; we were thirty-eight +days on the voyage home which should have taken twelve; we were many +times short of food and water; we had no compass-lamp owing to there not +being a drop of oil in Waigiou when we left; and to crown it all, during +the whole of our voyage, occupying in all seventy-eight days (all in +what was supposed to be the favourable season), we had not one single +day of fair wind." + +The scientific discoveries arising out of these eight years of laborious +work and physical hardship were first--with the exception of the +memorable Essay on Natural Selection--included in his books on the Malay +Archipelago, the Geographical Distribution of Animals, Island Life, and +Australasia, besides a number of papers contributed to various +scientific journals. + +A bare catalogue of the places visited and explored includes Sumatra, +Java, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, Timor, New Guinea, the Aru and Ke +Islands. Comparing this list with that given by Darwin at the close of +the "Journal," we find that though in some respects the ground covered +by the two men was similar, it never actually overlapped. The countries +and islands visited by the _Beagle_ came in the following order: Cape de +Verde Islands, St. Paul's Rocks, Fernando Noronha, South America +(including the Galapagos Archipelago, the Falkland Isles, and Tierra del +Fuego), Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, Keeling Island, +Maldive coral atolls, Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension. Brazil was +revisited for a short time, and the _Beagle_ touched at the Cape de +Verde Islands and the Azores on the homeward voyage. + +The very nature of this voyage did not permit Darwin to give unlimited +time to the study of any particular spot or locality; but his accurate +observation of every detail, together with his carefully kept journal, +afforded ample scope and foundation for future contemplation. To +Wallace, the outstanding result may be summed up in the fact that he +discovered that the Malay Archipelago is divided into a western group of +islands, which in their zoological affinities are Asiatic, and an +eastern, which are Australian. The Oriental Borneo and Bali are +respectively divided from the Australian Celebes and Lombok by a narrow +belt of sea known as "Wallace's line," on the opposite side of which the +indigenous mammalia are as widely divergent as in any two parts of the +world. + +To both men Darwin's estimate of the influence of travel may aptly apply +in the sense that from a geographical point of view "the map of the +world ceases to be a blank ... each part assumes its proper dimensions," +continents are no longer considered islands, nor islands as mere specks. + +Wallace's homeward journey was not so eventful as the previous one had +been, except for the unsuccessful efforts to bring back several species +of live birds, which, with the exception of his birds of paradise, died +on the way. On reaching London in the spring of 1862, he again made his +home with his married sister, Mrs. Sims (who was living in Westbourne +Grove). In a large empty room at the top of the house he found himself +surrounded with packing-cases which he had not seen for five or six +years, and which, together with his recent collections, absorbed his +time and interest for the first few weeks. Later, he settled down to his +literary work, and, with the exception of one or two visits to the +Continent and America, spent the remainder of his life in England--a +life full of activity, the results of which still permeate scientific +research. + + + + +PART I (_Continued_) + + + + +II.--Early Letters + +[1854--62] + + +Of the few letters which have been preserved relating to this period, a +number have already been published in "My Life," and need not be +reprinted here. But in some cases portions of these letters have been +given because they bring out aspects of Wallace's character which are +not revealed elsewhere. The various omissions which have been made in +other letters refer either to unimportant personal matters or to +technical scientific details. The first of the letters was written +during Wallace's voyage to the Malay Archipelago. + + * * * * * + +TO G. SILK + + +_Steamer "Bengal," Red Sea. March 26, [1854]._ + +My dear George,-- ... Of all the eventful days of my life my first in +Alexandria was the most striking. Imagine my feelings when, coming out +of the hotel (whither I had been conveyed in an omnibus) for the purpose +of taking a quiet stroll through the city, I found myself in the midst +of a vast crowd of donkeys and their drivers, all thoroughly determined +to appropriate my person to their own use and interest, without in the +least consulting my inclinations. In vain with rapid strides and waving +arms I endeavoured to clear a way and move forward; arms and legs were +seized upon, and even the Christian coat-tails were not sacred from the +profane Mahometans. One would hold together two donkeys by their tails +while I was struggling between them, and another, forcing together their +heads, would thus hope to compel me to mount upon one or both of them; +and one fellow more impudent than the rest I laid flat upon the ground, +and sending the donkey staggering after him, I escaped a moment midst +hideous yells and most unearthly cries. I now beckoned to a fellow more +sensible-looking than the rest, and told him that I wished to walk and +would take him for a guide, and hoped now to be at rest; but vain +thought! I was in the hands of the Philistines, and getting us up +against a wall, they formed an impenetrable phalanx of men and brutes +thoroughly determined that I should only get away from the spot on the +legs of a donkey. Bethinking myself now that donkey-riding was a +national institution, and seeing a fat Yankee (very like my Paris +friend) mounted, being like myself hopeless of any other means of +escape, I seized upon a bridle in hopes that I should then be left in +peace. But this was the signal for a more furious onset, for, seeing +that I would at length ride, each one was determined that he alone +should profit by the transaction, and a dozen animals were forced +suddenly upon me and a dozen hands tried to lift me upon their +respective beasts. But now my patience was exhausted, so, keeping firm +hold of the bridle I had first taken with one hand, I hit right and left +with the other, and calling upon my guide to do the same, we succeeded +in clearing a little space around us. Now then behold your friend +mounted upon a jackass in the streets of Alexandria, a boy behind +holding by his tail and whipping him up, Charles (who had been lost +sight of in the crowd) upon another, and my guide upon a third, and off +we go among a crowd of Jews and Greeks, Turks and Arabs, and veiled +women and yelling donkey-boys to see the city. We saw the bazaars and +the slave market, where I was again nearly pulled to pieces for +"backsheesh" (money), the mosques with their elegant minarets, and then +the Pasha's new palace, the interior of which is most gorgeous. + +We have seen lots of Turkish soldiers walking in comfortable +irregularity; and, after feeling ourselves to be dreadful guys for two +hours, returned to the hotel whence we were to start for the canal +boats. You may think this account is exaggerated, but it is not; the +pertinacity, vigour and screams of the Alexandrian donkey-drivers no +description can do justice to....--Yours sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_Singapore, April 30, 1854_. + +My dear Mother,--We arrived here safe on the 20th of this month, having +had very fine weather all the voyage. On shore I was obliged to go to a +hotel, which was very expensive, so I tried to get out into the country +as soon as I could, which, however, I did not manage in less than a +week, when I at last got permission to stay with a French Roman Catholic +missionary who lives about eight miles out of the town and close to the +jungle. The greater part of the inhabitants of Singapore are Chinese, +many of whom are very rich, and all the villages about are almost +entirely of Chinese, who cultivate pepper and gambir. Some of the +English merchants here have splendid country houses. I dined with one to +whom I brought an introduction. His house was most elegant, and full of +magnificent Chinese and Japanese furniture. We are now at the Mission of +Bukit Tima. The missionary speaks English, Malay and Chinese, as well as +French, and is a very pleasant man. He has built a very pretty church +here, and has about 300 Chinese converts. Having only been here four +days, I cannot tell much about my collections yet. Insects, however, +are plentiful.... + +Charles gets on pretty well in health, and catches a few insects; but he +is very untidy, as you may imagine by his clothes being all torn to +pieces by the time we arrived here. He will no doubt improve and will +soon be useful. + +Malay is the universal language, in which all business is carried on. It +is easy, and I am beginning to pick up a little, but when we go to +Malacca shall learn it most, as there they speak nothing else. + +I am very unfortunate with my watch. I dropped it on board and broke the +balance-spring, and have now sent it home to Mr. Matthews to repair, as +I cannot trust anyone here to do it.... + +Love to Fanny and Thomas,--I remain your affectionate son, + +ALFRED B. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_Bukit Tama, Singapore. May 28, 1854._ + +My dear Mother,--I send you a few lines through G. Silk as I thought you +would like to hear from me. I am very comfortable here living with a +Roman Catholic missionary.... I send by this mail a small box of insects +for Mr. Stevens--I think a very valuable one--and I hope it will go +safely. I expected a letter from you by the last mail, but received only +two _Athenoeums_ of March 18 and 25.... + +The forest here is very similar to that of South America. Palms are very +numerous, but they are generally small and horridly spiny. There are +none of the large and majestic species so abundant on the Amazon. I am +so busy with insects now that I have no time for anything else, I send +now about a thousand beetles to Mr. Stevens, and I have as many other +insects still on hand which will form part of my next and principal +consignment. Singapore is very rich in beetles, and before I leave I +think I shall have a most beautiful collection. + +[Illustration: A.R. WALLACE'S MOTHER] + +I will tell you how my day is now occupied. Get up at half-past five. +Bath and coffee. Sit down to arrange and put away my insects of the day +before, and set them safe out to dry. Charles mending nets, filling +pincushions, and getting ready for the day. Breakfast at eight. Out to +the jungle at nine. We have to walk up a steep hill to get to it, and +always arrive dripping with perspiration. Then we wander about till two +or three, generally returning with about 50 or 60 beetles, some very +rare and beautiful. Bathe, change clothes, and sit down to kill and pin +insects. Charles ditto with flies, bugs and wasps; I do not trust him +yet with beetles. Dinner at four. Then to work again till six. Coffee. +Read. If very numerous, work at insects till eight or nine. Then to bed. + +Adieu, with love to all.--Your affectionate son, + +ALFRED E. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_In the Jungle near Malacca. July, 1854._ + +My dear Mother,--As this letter may be delayed getting to Singapore I +write at once, having an opportunity of sending to Malacca to-morrow. We +have been here a week, living in a Chinese house or shed, which reminds +me remarkably of my old Rio Negro habitation. I have now for the first +time brought my "rede" into use, and find it very comfortable. + +We came from Singapore in a small schooner with about fifty Chinese, +Hindoos and Portuguese passengers, and were two days on the voyage, +with nothing but rice and curry to eat, not having made any provision, +it being our first experience of these country vessels. Malacca is an +old Dutch city, but the Portuguese have left the strongest mark of their +possession in the common language of the place being still theirs. I +have now two Portuguese servants, a cook and a hunter, and find myself +thus almost brought back again to Brazil by the similarity of language, +the people, and the jungle life. In Malacca we stayed only two days, +being anxious to get into the country as soon as possible. I stayed with +a Roman Catholic missionary; there are several here, each devoted to a +particular part of the population, Portuguese, Chinese and wild Malays +of the jungle. The gentleman we were with is building a large church, of +which he is architect himself, and superintends the laying of every +brick and the cutting of every piece of timber. Money enough could not +be raised here, so he took a voyage _round the world!_ and in the United +States, California, and India got subscriptions sufficient to complete +it. + +It is a curious and not very creditable thing that in the English +colonies of Singapore and Malacca there is not a single Protestant +missionary; while the conversion, education and physical and moral +improvement of the inhabitants (non-European) is entirely left to these +French missionaries, who without the slightest assistance from our +Government devote their lives to the Christianising and civilising of +the varied populations which we rule over. + +Here the birds are abundant and most beautiful, more so than on the +Amazon, and I think I shall soon form a most beautiful collection. They +are, however, almost all common, and so are of little value except that +I hope they will be better specimens than usually come to England. My +guns are both very good, but I find powder and shot in Singapore +cheaper than in London, so I need not have troubled myself to take any. +So far both I and Charles have enjoyed excellent health. He can now +shoot pretty well, and is so fond of it that I can hardly get him to do +anything else. He will soon be very useful, if I can cure him of his +incorrigible carelessness. At present I cannot trust him to do the +smallest thing without watching that he does it properly, so that I +might generally as well do it myself. I shall remain here probably two +months, and then return to Singapore to prepare for a voyage to Cambodia +or somewhere else, so do not be alarmed if you do not hear from me +regularly. Love to all.--Your affectionate son, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_Singapore. September 30, 1854._ + +My dear Mother,--I last wrote to you from Malacca in July. I have now +just returned to Singapore after two months' hard work. At Malacca I had +a pretty strong touch of fever with the old Rio Negro symptoms, but the +Government doctor made me take a great quantity of quinine every day for +a week together and so killed it, and in less than a fortnight I was +quite well and off to the jungle again. I see now how to treat the +fever, and shall commence at once when the symptoms again appear. I +never took half enough quinine in America to cure me. Malacca is a +pretty place, and I worked very hard. Insects are not very abundant +there, still by perseverance I got a good number and many rare ones. Of +birds, too, I made a good collection. I went to the celebrated Mount +Ophir and ascended to the top. The walk was terrible--thirty miles +through jungle, a succession of mud holes. My boots did good service. We +lived there a week at the foot of the mountain, in a little hut built +by our men, and I got some fine new butterflies there and hundreds of +other new and rare insects. We had only rice and a little fish and tea, +but came home quite well. The height of the mountain is about 4,000 +feet.... Elephants and rhinoceroses, as well as tigers, are abundant +there, but we had our usual bad luck in not seeing any of them. + +On returning to Malacca I found the accumulations of two or three posts, +a dozen letters and fifty newspapers.... + +I am glad to be safe in Singapore with my collections, as from here they +can be insured. I have now a fortnight's work to arrange, examine, and +pack them, and then in four months hence there will be some work for Mr. +Stevens. + +Sir James Brooke is here. I have called on him. He received me most +cordially, and offered me every assistance at Sarawak. I shall go there +next, as the missionary does not go to Cambodia for some months. +Besides, I shall have some pleasant society at Sarawak, and shall get on +in Malay, which is very easy, but I have had no practice--though still I +can ask for most common things. My books and instruments arrived in +beautiful condition. They looked as if they had been packed up but a +day. Not so the unfortunate eatables....--I remain your affectionate +son, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO G. SILK + + +_Singapore. October 15, 1854._ + +Dear G.,--To-morrow I sail for Sarawak. Sir J. Brooke has given me a +letter to his nephew, Capt. Brooke, to make me at home till he arrives, +which may be a month, perhaps. I look forward with much interest to see +what he has done and how he governs. I look forward to spending a very +pleasant time at Sarawak.... + +Sir W. Hooker's remarks are encouraging, but I cannot afford to collect +plants. I have to work for a living, and plants would not pay unless I +collect nothing else, which I cannot do, being too much interested in +zoology. I should like a botanical companion like Mr. Spruce very much. +We are anxiously expecting accounts of the taking of Sebastopol. + +I am much obliged to Latham for quoting me, and hope to see it soon. +That ought to make my name a little known. I have not your talent at +making acquaintances, and find Singapore very dull. I have not found a +single companion. I long for you to walk about with and observe the +queer things in the streets of Singapore. The Chinamen and their ways +are inexhaustibly amusing. My revolver is too heavy for daily use. I +wish I had had a small one.--Yours sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO AN UNKNOWN CORRESPONDENT[13] + + +_Si Munjon Coal Works, Borneo. May, 1855._ + +One of the principal reasons which induced me to come here was that it +is the country of those most strange and interesting animals, the +orang-utans, or "mias" of the Dyaks. In the Sarawak district, though +scarce twenty miles distant, they are quite unknown, there being some +boundary line in this short space which, obeying the inexplicable laws +of distribution, they never pass. The Dyaks distinguish three different +kinds, which are known in Europe by skulls or skeletons only, much +confusion still existing in their synonymy, and the external characters +of the adult animals being almost or quite unknown. I have already been +fortunate enough to shoot two young animals of two of the species, +which were easily distinguishable from each other, and I hope by staying +here some time to get adult specimens of all the species, and also to +obtain much valuable information as to their habits. The jungle here is +exceedingly monotonous; palms are scarce and flowers almost wanting, +except some species of dwarf gingerwort. It is high on the trees that +flowers are alone to be found.... Oak trees are rather plentiful, as I +have already found three species with red, brown, and black acorns. This +is confirmatory of Dr. Hooker's statement that, contrary to the +generally received opinion, oaks are equally characteristic of a +tropical as of a temperate climate. I must make an exception to the +scarcity of flowers, however, tall slender trees occurring not +unfrequently, whose stems are flower-bearing. One is a magnificent +object, 12 or 15 ft. of the stem being almost hidden by rich +orange-coloured flowers, which in the gloomy forest have, as I have +before remarked of tropical insects under similar circumstances, an +almost magical effect of brilliancy. Not less beautiful is another tree +similarly clothed with spikes of pink and white berries. + +The only striking features of the animal world are the hornbills, which +are very abundant and take the place of the toucans of Brazil, though I +believe they have no real affinity with them; and the immense flights of +fruit-eating bats which frequently pass over us. They extend as far as +the eye can reach, and continue passing for hours. By counting and +estimation I calculated that at least 30,000 passed one evening while we +could see them, and they continued on some time after dark. The species +is probably the _Pteropus edulis_; its expanded wings are near 5 ft. +across, and it flies with great ease and rapidity. Fruit seems so scarce +in these jungles that it is a mystery where they find enough to supply +such vast multitudes. + +Our mode of life here is very simple--rather too much so, as we have a +continual struggle to get enough to eat. The Sarawak market is to a +great extent supplied with rice, fowls, and sweet potatoes from this +river, yet I have been obliged to send to Sarawak to purchase these very +articles. The reason is that the Dyaks are almost all in debt to the +Malay traders, and will therefore not sell anything, fearful of not +having sufficient to satisfy their creditors. They have now just got in +their rice harvest, and though it is not a very abundant one there is no +immediate pressure of hunger to induce them to earn anything by hunting +or snaring birds, etc. This also prevents them from being very +industrious in seeking for the "mias," though I have offered a high +price for full-grown animals. The old men here relate with pride how +many heads they have taken in their youth, and though they all +acknowledge the goodness of the present Rajah's government, yet they +think that if they could still take a few heads they would have better +harvests. The more I see of uncivilised people, the better I think of +human nature on the whole, and the essential differences between +so-called civilised and savage man seem to disappear. Here are we, two +Europeans surrounded by a population of Chinese, Malays, and Dyaks. The +Chinese are generally considered, and with some truth, to be thieves, +liars, and careless of human life, and these Chinese are coolies of the +very lowest and least educated class. The Malays are invariably +characterised as treacherous and bloodthirsty, and the Dyaks have only +recently ceased to think head-taking an absolute necessity. We are two +days' journey from Sarawak, where, though the Government is European, +yet it only exists by the consent and support of the native population. +Now I can safely say that in any part of Europe, if the same facilities +for crime and disturbance existed, things would not go on so smoothly +as they do here. We sleep with open doors and go about constantly +unarmed; one or two petty robberies and a little private fighting have +taken place among the Chinese, but the great proportion of them are +quiet, honest, decent sort of men. They did not at first like the +strictness and punctuality with which the English manager kept them to +their work, and two or three ringleaders tried to get up a strike for +short hours and higher wages, but Mr. G.'s energy and decision soon +stopped this by sending off the ringleaders at once, and summoning all +the Dyaks and Malays in the neighbourhood to his assistance in case of +any resistance being attempted. It was very gratifying to see how +rapidly they came up at his summons, and this display of power did much +good, for since then everything has gone on smoothly. Preparations are +now making for building a "joss house," a sure sign that the Chinese +have settled to the work, and giving every promise of success in an +undertaking which must have a vast influence on the progress of commerce +and civilisation of Borneo and the surrounding countries. India, +Australia, and every country with which they have communication must +also be incalculably benefited by an abundant supply of good coal within +two days' steam of Singapore. Let us wish success, then, to the Si +Munjon Coal Works!--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS + + +_Sadong River Borneo]. June 25, 1855._ + +My dear Fanny,-- ... I am now obliged to keep fowls and pigs, or we +should get nothing to eat. I have three pigs now and a China boy to +attend to them, who also assists in skinning "orang-utans," which he and +Charles are doing at this moment. I have also planted some onions and +pumpkins, which were above ground in three days and are growing +vigorously. I have been practising salting pork, and find I can make +excellent pickled pork here, which I thought was impossible, as everyone +I have seen try has failed. It is because they leave it to servants, who +will not take the necessary trouble. I do it myself. I shall therefore +always keep pigs in the future. I find there will not be time for +another box round the Cape, so must have a small parcel overland. I +should much like my _lasts_, but nothing else, unless some canvas shoes +are made. + +If the young man my mother and Mr. Stevens mentioned comes, he can bring +them. I shall write to Mr. Stevens about the terms on which I can take +him. I am, however, rather shy about it, having hitherto had no one to +suit me. As you seem to know him, I suppose he comes to see you +sometimes. Let me know what you think of him. Do not tell me merely that +he is "a very nice young man." Of course he is. So is Charles a very +nice boy, but I could not be troubled with another like him for any +consideration whatever. I have written to Mr. Stevens to let me know his +character, as regards _neatness_ and _perseverance_ in doing anything he +is set about. From you I should like to know whether he is quiet or +boisterous, forward or shy, talkative or silent, sensible or frivolous, +delicate or strong. Ask him whether he can live on rice and salt fish +for a week on an occasion--whether he can do without wine or beer, and +sometimes without tea, coffee or sugar--whether he can sleep on a +board--whether he likes the hottest weather in England--whether he is +too delicate to skin a stinking animal--whether he can walk twenty miles +a day--whether he can work, for there is sometimes as hard work in +collecting as in anything. Can he draw (not copy)? Can he speak French? +Does he write a good hand? Can he make anything? Can he saw a piece of +board straight? (Charles cannot, and every bit of carpenter work I have +to do myself.) Ask him to make you anything--a little card box, a +wooden peg or bottle-stopper, and see if he makes them neat, straight +and square. Charles never does anything the one or the other. Charles +has now been with me more than a year, and every day some such +conversation as this ensues: "Charles, look at these butterflies that +you set out yesterday." "Yes, sir." "Look at that one--is it set out +evenly?" "No, sir." "Put it right then, and all the others that want +it." In five minutes he brings me the box to look at. "Have you put them +all right?" "Yes, sir." "There's one with the wings uneven, there's +another with the body on one side, then another with the pin crooked. +Put them all right this time." It most frequently happens that they have +to go back a third time. Then all is right. If he puts up a bird, the +head is on one side, there is a great lump of cotton on one side of the +neck like a wen, the feet are twisted soles uppermost, or something +else. In everything it is the same, what ought to be straight is always +put crooked. This after twelve months' constant practice and constant +teaching! And not the slightest sign of improvement. I believe he never +will improve. Day after day I have to look over everything he does and +tell him of the same faults. Another with a similar incapacity would +drive me mad. He never, too, by any chance, puts anything away after +him. When done with, everything is thrown on the floor. Every other day +an hour is lost looking for knife, scissors, pliers, hammer, pins, or +something he has mislaid. Yet out of doors he does very well--he +collects insects well, and if I could get a neat, orderly person in the +house I would keep him almost entirely at out-of-door work and at +skinning, which he does also well, but cannot put into shape....--Your +affectionate brother, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_Sarawak. Christmas Day, 1855._ + +My dear Mother,--You will see I am spending a second Christmas Day with +the Rajah.... I have lived a month with the Dyaks and have been a +journey about sixty miles into the interior. I have been very much +pleased with the Dyaks. They are a very kind, simple and hospitable +people, and I do not wonder at the great interest Sir J. Brooke takes in +them. They are more communicative and lively than the American Indians, +and it is therefore more agreeable to live with them. In moral character +they are far superior to either Malays or Chinese, for though +head-taking has been a custom among them it is only as a trophy of war. +In their own villages crimes are very rare. Ever since Sir J. has been +here, more than twelve years, in a large population there has been but +one case of murder in a Dyak tribe, and that one was committed by a +stranger who had been adopted into the tribe. One wet day I got a piece +of string to show them how to play "scratch cradle," and was quite +astonished to find that they knew it better than I did and could make +all sorts of new figures I had never seen. They were also very clever +with tricks with string on their fingers, which seemed to be a favourite +amusement. Many of the distant tribes think the Rajah cannot be a man. +They ask all sorts of curious questions about him, whether he is not as +old as the mountains, whether he cannot bring the dead to life, and I +have no doubt for many years after his death he will be looked upon as a +deity and expected to come back again. I have now seen a good deal of +Sir James, and the more I see of him the more I admire him. With the +highest talents for government he combines the greatest goodness of +heart and gentleness of manner. At the same time he has such confidence +and determination, that he has put down with the greatest ease some +conspiracies of one or two Malay chiefs against him. It is a unique case +in the history of the world, for a European gentleman to rule over two +conflicting races of semi-savages with their own consent, without any +means of coercion, and depending solely upon them for protection and +support, and at the same time to introduce the benefits of civilisation +and check all crime and semi-barbarous practices. Under his government, +"running amuck," so frequent in all other Malay countries, has never +taken place, and with a population of 30,000 Malays, all of whom carry +their "creese" and revenge an insult by a stab, murders do not occur +more than once in five or six years. + +The people are never taxed but with their own consent, and Sir J.'s +private fortune has been spent in the government and improvement of the +country; yet this is the man who has been accused of injuring other +parties for his own private interests, and of wholesale murder and +butchery to secure his government!...--Your ever affectionate son, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS + + +_Singapore.. February 20, 1856._ + +My dear Fanny,-- ... I have now left Sarawak, where I began to feel +quite at home, and may perhaps never return to it again; but I shall +always look back with pleasure to my residence there and to my +acquaintance with Sir James Brooke, who is a gentleman and a nobleman in +the noblest sense of both words.... + +Charles has left me. He has stayed with the Bishop of Sarawak, who wants +teachers and is going to try to educate him for one. I offered to take +him on with me, paying him a fair price for all the insects, etc., he +collected, but he preferred to stay. I hardly know whether to be glad +or sorry he has left. It saves me a great deal of trouble and annoyance, +and I feel it quite a relief to be without him. On the other hand, it is +a considerable loss for me, as he had just begun to be valuable in +collecting. I must now try and teach a China boy to collect and pin +insects. My collections in Borneo have been very good, but some of them +will, I fear, be injured by the long voyages of the ships. I have +collected upwards of 25,000 insects, besides birds, shells, quadrupeds, +and plants. The day I arrived here a vessel sailed for Macassar, and I +fear I shall not have another chance for two months unless I go a +roundabout way, and perhaps not then, so I have hardly made up my mind +what to do,--Your affectionate brother, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, THOMAS SIMS + + +_Singapore. [Probably about March, 1856.]_ + +Dear Thomas,-- ... You and Fanny talk of my coming back for a trifling +sore as if I was within an omnibus ride of Conduit St. I am now +perfectly well, and only waiting to go eastward. The far east is to me +what the far west is to the Americans. They both meet in California, +where I hope to arrive some day. I quite enjoy being a few days at +Singapore now. The scene is at once so familiar and strange. The +half-naked Chinese coolies, the neat shopkeepers, the clean, fat, old, +long-tailed merchants, all as busy and full of business as any +Londoners. Then the handsome Klings, who always ask double what they +take, and with whom it is most amusing to bargain. The crowd of boatmen +at the ferry, a dozer begging and disputing for a farthing fare, the +Americans, the Malays, and the Portuguese make up a scene doubly +interesting to me now that I know something about them and can talk to +them in the general language of the place. The streets of Singapore on a +fine day are as crowded and busy as Tottenham Court Road, and from the +variety of nations and occupations far more interesting. I am more +convinced than ever that no one can appreciate a new country in a short +visit. After two years in the country I only now begin to understand +Singapore and to marvel at the life and bustle, the varied occupations, +and strange population, on a spot which so short a time ago was an +uninhabited jungle....--Yours affectionately, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS + + +_Singapore. April 21, 1856._ + +My dear Fanny,--I believe I wrote to you last mail, and have now little +to say except that I am still a prisoner in Singapore and unable to get +away to my land of promise, Macassar, with whose celebrated oil you are +doubtless acquainted. I have been spending three weeks with my old +friend the French missionary, going daily into the jungle, and fasting +on Fridays on omelet and vegetables, a most wholesome custom which I +think the Protestants were wrong to leave off. I have been reading Huc's +travels in China in French, and talking with a French missionary just +arrived from Tonquin. I have thus obtained a great deal of information +about these countries and about the extent of the Catholic missions in +them, which is astonishing. How is it that they do their work so much +more thoroughly than the Protestant missionaries? In Cochin China, +Tonquin, and China, where all Christian missionaries are obliged to live +in secret and are subject to persecution, expulsion, and often death, +yet every province, even those farthest in the interior of China, have +their regular establishment of missionaries constantly kept up by fresh +supplies who are taught the languages of the countries they are going to +at Penang or Singapore. In China there are near a million Catholics, in +Tonquin and Cochin China more than half a million! One secret of their +success is the cheapness of their establishments. A missionary is +allowed about L30 a year, on which he lives, in whatever country he may +be. This has two good effects. A large number of missionaries can be +employed with limited funds, and the people of the countries in which +they reside, seeing they live in poverty and with none of the luxuries +of life, are convinced they are sincere. Most are Frenchmen, and those I +have seen or heard of are well-educated men, who give up their lives to +the good of the people they live among. No wonder they make converts, +among the lower orders principally. For it must be a great comfort to +these poor people to have a man among them to whom they can go in any +trouble or distress, whose sole object is to comfort and advise them, +who visits them in sickness, who relieves them in want, and whom they +see living in daily danger of persecution and death only for their +benefit. + +You will think they have converted me, but in point of doctrine I think +Catholics and Protestants are equally wrong. As missionaries I think +Catholics are best, and I would gladly see none others, rather than +have, as in New Zealand, sects of native Dissenters more rancorous +against each other than in England. The unity of the Catholics is their +strength, and an unmarried clergy can do as missionaries what married +men can never undertake. I have written on this subject because I have +nothing else to write about. Love to Thomas and Edward.--Believe me, +dear Fanny, your ever affectionate brother, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS + + +_Macassar. December 10, 1856._ + +My dear Fanny,--I have received yours of September, and my mother's of +October, and as I am now going out of reach of letters for six months I +must send you a few lines to let you know that I am well and in good +spirits, though rather disappointed with the celebrated Macassar.... For +the last fortnight, since I came in from the country, I have been living +here rather luxuriously, getting good rich cow's milk to my tea and +coffee, very good bread and excellent Dutch butter (3s. a lb.). The +bread here is raised with toddy just as it is fermenting, and it imparts +a peculiar sweet taste to the bread which is very nice. At last, too, +there is some fruit here. The mangoes have just come in, and they are +certainly magnificent. The flavour is something between a peach and a +melon, with the slightest possible flavour of turpentine, and very +juicy. They say they are unwholesome, and it is a good thing for me I am +going away now. When I come back there will be not one to be had....--I +remain, dear Fanny, your ever affectionate brother, + +A.R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +H.W. BATES TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Tunantins, Upper Amazon. November 19, 1856._ + +Dear Wallace,-- ... I received about six months ago a copy of your paper +in the _Annals_ on "The Laws which have Governed the Introduction of New +Species." I was startled at first to see you already ripe for the +enunciation of the theory. You can imagine with what interest I read and +studied it, and I must say that it is perfectly well done. The idea is +like truth itself, so simple and obvious that those who read and +understand it will be struck by its simplicity; and yet it is perfectly +original. The reasoning is close and clear, and although so brief an +essay, it is quite complete, embraces the whole difficulty, and +anticipates and annihilates all objections. + +Few men will be in a condition to comprehend and appreciate the paper, +but it will infallibly create for you a high and sound reputation. The +theory I quite assent to, and, you know, was conceived by me also, but I +profess that I could not have propounded it with so much force and +completeness. + +Many details I could supply, in fact a great deal remains to be done to +illustrate and confirm the theory: a new method of investigating and +propounding zoology and botany inductively is necessitated, and new +libraries will have to be written; in part of this task I hope to be a +labourer for many happy and profitable years. What a noble subject would +be that of a monograph of a group of beings peculiar to one region but +offering different species in each province of it--tracing the laws +which connect together the modifications of forms and colour with the +_local_ circumstances of a province or station--tracing as far as +possible the actual _affiliation_ of the species. + +Two of such groups occur to me at once, in entomology, in Heliconiidae +and Erotylidae of South America; the latter I think more interesting than +the former for one reason--the species are more local, having feebler +means of locomotion than the Heliconiidae....--Yours very truly, + +HENRY WALTER BATES. + + * * * * * + +TO H.W. BATES + + +_Amboyna. January 4, 1858._ + +My dear Bates,--My delay of six months in answering your very +interesting and most acceptable letter dated an ideal absurdity put +forth when such a simple hypothesis will explain _all the facts_. + +I have been much gratified by a letter from Darwin, in which he says +that he agrees with "almost every word" of my paper. He is now preparing +for publication his great work on species and varieties, for which he +has been collecting information twenty years. He may save me the trouble +of writing the second part of my hypothesis by proving that there is no +difference in nature between the origin of species and varieties, or he +may give me trouble by arriving at another conclusion, but at all events +his facts will be given for me to work upon. Your collections and my own +will furnish most valuable material to illustrate and prove the +universal applicability of the hypothesis. The connection between the +succession of affinities and the geographical distribution of a group, +worked out species by species, has never yet been shown as we shall be +able to show it. In this Archipelago there are two distinct faunas +rigidly circumscribed, which differ as much as those of South America +and Africa, and more than those of Europe and North America: yet there +is nothing on the map or on the face of the islands to mark their +limits. The boundary line often passes between islands closer than +others in the same group. I believe the western part to be a separated +portion of continental Asia, the eastern the fragmentary prolongation of +a former Pacific continent. In mammalia and birds the distinction is +marked by genera, families, and even orders confined to one region; in +_insects_ by a number of genera and little groups of peculiar species, +the _families_ of insects having generally a universal distribution. + + * * * * * + + +_Ternate, January 25, 1858._ + +I have not done much here yet, having been much occupied in getting a +house repaired and put in order. This island is a volcano with a sloping +spur on which the town is situated. About ten miles to the east is the +coast of the large Island of Gilolo, perhaps the most perfect +entomological _terra incognita_ now to be found. I am not aware that a +single insect has ever been collected there, and cannot find it given as +the locality of any insects in my catalogues or descriptions. In about a +week I go for a month collecting there, and then return to prepare for a +voyage to New Guinea. I think I shall stay in this place two or three +years, as it is the centre of a most interesting and almost unknown +region. Every house here was destroyed in 1840 by an earthquake during +an eruption of the volcano.... + +What great political events have passed since we left England together! +And the most eventful for England, and perhaps the most glorious, is the +present mutiny in India, which has proved British courage and pluck as +much as did the famed battles of Balaclava and Inker-man. I believe that +both India and England will gain in the end by the fearful ordeal. When +do you mean returning for good? If you go to the Andes you will, I +think, be disappointed, at least in the number of species, especially of +Coleoptera. My experience here is that the low grounds are much the most +productive, though the mountains generally produce a few striking and +brilliant species....--Yours sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO F. BATES + + +_Ternate. March 2, 1858._ + +My dear Mr. Bates,--When I received your very acceptable letter (a month +ago) I had just written one to your brother, which I thought I could not +do better than send to you to forward to him, as I shall thereby be able +to confine myself solely to the group you are studying and to other +matters touched upon in your letter. I had heard from Mr. Stevens some +time ago that you had begun collecting exotic Geodephaga, but were +confining yourself to one or two illustrations of each genus. I was +sure, however, that you would soon find this unsatisfactory. Nature must +be studied in detail, and it is the wonderful variety of the species of +a group, their complicated relations and their endless modification of +form, size and colours, which constitute the pre-eminent charm of the +entomologist's study. It is with the greatest satisfaction, too, I hail +your accession to the very limited number of collectors and students of +exotic insects, and sincerely hope you may be sufficiently favoured by +fortune to enable you to form an extensive collection and to devote the +necessary time to its study and ultimately to the preparation of a +complete and useful work. Though I cannot but be pleased that you are +able to do so, I am certainly surprised to find that you indulge in the +expensive luxury of from three to seven specimens of a species. I should +have thought that in such a very extensive group you would have found +one or, at most, a pair quite sufficient. I fancy very few collectors of +exotic insects do more than this, except where they can obtain +additional specimens by gift or by exchange. Your remarks on my +collections are very interesting to me, especially as I have kept +descriptions with many outline figures of my Malacca and Sarawak +Geodephaga, so that with one or two exceptions I can recognise and +perfectly remember every species you mention.... + +Now with regard to your request for notes of habits, etc. I shall be +most willing to comply with it to some extent, first informing you that +I look forward to undertaking on my return to England a "Coleoptera +Malayana," to contain descriptions of the known species of the whole +Archipelago, with an essay on their geographical distribution, and an +account of the habits of the genera and species from my own +observations. Of course, therefore, I do not wish any part of my notes +to be published, as this will be a distinctive feature of the work, so +little being known of the habits, stations and modes of collecting +exotic Coleoptera, ... + +You appear to consider the state of entomological literature flourishing +and satisfactory: to _me_ it seems quite the contrary. The number of +unfinished works and of others with false titles is disgraceful to +science.... + +I think ... on the whole we may say that the Archipelago is _very rich_, +and will bear a comparison even with the richest part of South America. +In the country between Ega and Peru there is work for fifty collectors +for fifty years. There are hundreds and thousands of Andean valleys +every one of which would bear exploring. Here it is the same with +islands. I could spend twenty years here were life long enough, but feel +I cannot stand it, away from home and books and collections and +comforts, more than four or five, and then I shall have work to do for +the rest of my life. What would be the use of accumulating materials +which one could not have time to work up? I trust your brother may give +us a grand and complete work on the Coleoptera of the Amazon Valley, if +not of all South America....--Yours faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_October 6, 1858._ + +My dear Mother,-- ... I have just returned from a short trip, and am now +about to start on a longer one, but to a place where there are some +soldiers, a doctor and engineer who speak English, so if it is good for +collecting I shall stay there some months. It is Batchian, an island on +the south-west side of Gilolo, about three or four days' sail from +Ternate. I am now quite recovered from my New Guinea voyage and am in +good health. + +I have received letters from Mr. Darwin and Dr. Hooker, two of the most +eminent naturalists in England, which has highly gratified me. I sent +Mr. Darwin an essay on a subject on which he is now writing a great +work. He showed it to Dr. Hooker and Sir C. Lyell, who thought so highly +of it that they immediately read it before the Linnean Society. This +assures me the acquaintance and assistance of these eminent men on my +return home. + +Mr. Stevens also tells me of the great success of the Aru collection, of +which L1,000 worth has actually been sold. This makes me hope I may soon +realise enough to live upon and carry out my long cherished plans of a +country life in old England. + +If I had sent the large and handsome shells from Aru, which are what you +expected to see, they would not have paid expenses, whereas the cigar +box of small ones has sold for L50. You must not think I shall always do +so well as at Aru; perhaps never again, because no other collections +will have the novelty, all the neighbouring countries producing birds +and insects very similar, and many even the very same. Still, if I have +health I fear not to do very well. I feel little inclined now to go to +California; as soon as I have finished my exploration of this region I +shall be glad to return home as quickly and cheaply as possible. It +will certainly be by way of the Cape or by second class overland. May I +meet you, dear old Mother, and all my other relatives and friends, in +good health. Perhaps John and his trio will have had the start of me.... + + * * * * * + +TO H.W. BATES + + +_Ceram, November 25, 1859._ + +Dear Bates,--Allow me to congratulate you on your safe arrival home with +all your treasures; a good fortune which I trust is this time[14] +reserved for me. I hope you will write to me and tell me your projects. +Stevens hinted at your undertaking a "Fauna of the Amazon Valley." It +would be a noble work, but one requiring years of labour, as of course +you would wish to incorporate all existing materials and would have to +spend months in Berlin and Milan and Paris to study the collections of +Spix, Natterer, Oscolati, Castituan and others, as well as most of the +chief private collections of Europe. I hope you may undertake it and +bring it to a glorious conclusion. I have long been contemplating such a +work for this Archipelago, but am convinced that the plan must be very +limited to be capable of completion....--I remain, dear Bates, yours +very sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO H.W. BATES + + +_Ternate. December 24, 1860._ + +Dear Bates,--Many thanks for your long and interesting letter. I have +myself suffered much in the same way as you describe, and I think more +severely. The kind of _taedium vitae_ you mention I also occasionally +experience here. I impute it to a too monotonous existence. + +I know not how or to whom to express fully my admiration of Darwin's +book. To him it would seem flattery, to others self-praise; but I do +honestly believe that with however much patience I had worked up and +experimented on the subject, I could never have _approached_ the +completeness of his book--its vast accumulation of evidence, its +overwhelming argument, and its admirable tone and spirit. I really feel +thankful that it has not been left to me to give the theory to the +public. Mr. Darwin has created a new science and a new philosophy, and I +believe that never has such a complete illustration of a new branch of +human knowledge been due to the labours and researches of a single man. +Never have such vast masses of widely scattered and hitherto utterly +disconnected facts been combined into a system, and brought to bear upon +the establishment of such a grand and new and simple philosophy!...--In +haste, yours faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, THOMAS SIMS + + +_Delli, Timor. March 15, 1861_[15] + +My dear Thomas,--I will now try and write you a few lines in reply to +your last three letters, which I have not before had time and +inclination to do. First, about your _one-eyed_ and _two-eyed_ theory of +art, etc. etc. I do not altogether agree with you. We do not see _all +objects_ wider with two eyes than with one. A spherical or curved object +we do see so, because our right and left eye each see a portion of the +surface not seen by the other, but for that very reason the portion seen +perfectly with both eyes is _less_ than with one. Thus [_see_ diagram on +next page] we only see from A to A with both our eyes, the two side +portions Ab Ab being seen with but one eye, and therefore (when we are +using both eyes) being seen obscurely. But if we look at a flat object, +whether square or oblique to the line of vision, we see it of exactly +the same size with two eyes as with one because the one eye can see no +part of it that the other does not see also. But in painting I believe +that this difference of proportion, where it does exist, is far too +small to be _given_ by any artist and also too small to affect the +picture if given. + +[Illustration] + +Again, I entirely deny that by _any means_ the exact effect of a +landscape with objects at various distances from the eye can be given on +a fiat surface; and moreover that the monocular clear outlined view is +quite as true and good on the whole as the binocular hazy outlined view, +and for this reason: we cannot and do not see clearly or look at two +objects at once, if at different distances from us. In a real view our +eyes are directed successively at every object, which we then see +clearly and with distinct outlines, everything else--nearer and +farther--being indistinct; but being able to change the focal angle of +our two eyes and their angle of direction with great rapidity, we are +enabled to glance rapidly at each object in succession and thus obtain a +general and detailed view of the whole. A house, a tree, a spire, the +leaves of a shrub in the foreground, are each seen (while we direct our +eyes to them) with perfect definition and sharpness of outline. Now a +monocular photo gives the clearness of outline and accuracy of +definition, and thus represents every individual part of a landscape +just as we see it when looking at that part. Now I maintain that this is +_right_, because no painting can represent an object both distinct and +indistinct. The only question is, Shall a painting show us objects as we +see them when looking at them, or as we see them when looking at +_something else_ near them? The only approach painters can make to this +varying effect of binocular vision, and what they often do, is to give +the most important and main feature of their painting _distinct_ as we +should see it when looking at it in nature, while all around has a +subdued tone and haziness of outline like that produced by seeing the +real objects when our vision is not absolutely directed to them. But +then if, as in nature, when you turn your gaze to one of these objects +in order to see it clearly, you cannot do so, this is a defect. Again, I +believe that we actually see in a good photograph better than in nature, +because the best camera lenses are more perfectly adjusted than our +eyes, and give objects at varying distances with better definition. Thus +in a picture we see at the same time near and distinct objects easily +and clearly, which in reality we cannot do. If we could do so, everyone +must acknowledge that our vision would be so much the more perfect and +our appreciation of the beauties of nature more intense and complete; +and in so far as a good landscape painting gives us this power it is +better than nature itself; and I think this may account for that +excessive and entrancing beauty of a good landscape or of a good +panorama. You will think these ideas horribly heterodox, but if we all +thought alike there would be nothing to write about and nothing to +learn. I quite agree with you, however, as to artists using both eyes to +paint and to see their paintings, but I think you quite mistake the +theory of looking through the "catalogue"; it is not because the picture +can be seen better with one eye, but because its effect can be better +seen when all lateral objects are hidden--the catalogue does this. A +double tube would be better, but that cannot be extemporised so easily. +Have you ever tried a stereograph taken with the camera only the +distance apart of the eyes? That must give _nature_. When the angle is +greater the views in the stereoscope show us, not nature, but a perfect +reduced model of nature seen nearer the eye. + +It is curious that you should put Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites as +_opposed_ and representing _binocular_ and _monocular_ painting when +Turner himself praises up the Pre-Raphaelites and calls Holman Hunt the +greatest living painter!!... + +Now for Mr. Darwin's book. You quite misunderstand Mr. D.'s statement in +the preface and his sentiments. I have, of course, been in +correspondence with him since I first sent him my little essay. His +conduct has been most liberal and disinterested. I think anyone who +reads the Linnean Society papers and his book will see it. I _do_ back +him up in his whole round of conclusions and look upon him as the +_Newton of Natural History_. + +You begin by criticising the _title_. Now, though I consider the title +admirable, I believe it is not Mr. Darwin's but the Publisher's, as you +are no doubt aware that publishers _will_ have a taking title, and +authors must and do give way to them. Mr. D. gave me a different title +before the book came out. Again, you misquote and misunderstand Huxley, +who is a complete convert. Prof. Asa Gray and Dr. Hooker, the two first +botanists of Europe and America, are converts. And Lyell, the first +geologist living, who has all his life written against such conclusions +as Darwin arrives at, is a convert and is about to declare or already +has declared his conversion--a noble and almost unique example of a man +yielding to conviction on a subject which he has taught as a master all +his life, and confessing that he has all his life been wrong. + +It is clear that you have not yet sufficiently read the book to enable +you to criticise it. It is a book in which every page and almost every +line has a bearing on the main argument, and it is very difficult to +bear in mind such a variety of facts, arguments and indications as are +brought forward. It was only on the _fifth_ perusal that I fully +appreciated the whole strength of the work, and as I had been long +before familiar with the same subjects I cannot but think that persons +less familiar with them cannot have any clear idea of the accumulated +argument by a single perusal. + +Your objections, so far as I can see anything definite in them, are so +fully and clearly anticipated and answered in the book itself that it is +perfectly useless my saying anything about them. It seems to me, +however, as clear as daylight that the principle of Natural Selection +_must_ act in nature. It is almost as necessary a truth as any of +mathematics. Next, the effects produced by this action _cannot be +limited._ It cannot be shown that there _is_ any limit to them in +nature. Again, the millions of facts in the numerical relations of +organic beings, their geographical distribution, their relations of +affinity, the modification of their parts and organs, the phenomena of +intercrossing, embryology and morphology--all are in accordance with his +theory, and almost all are necessary results from it; while on the other +theory they are all isolated facts having no connection with each other +and as utterly inexplicable and confusing as fossils are on the theory +that they are special creations and are not the remains of animals that +have once lived. It is the vast _chaos_ of facts, which are explicable +and fall into beautiful order on the one theory, which are inexplicable +and remain a chaos on the other, which I think must ultimately force +Darwin's views on any and every reflecting mind. Isolated difficulties +and objections are nothing against this vast cumulative argument. The +human mind cannot go on for ever accumulating facts which remain +unconnected and without any mutual bearing and bound together by no law. +The evidence for the production of the organic world by the simple laws +of inheritance is exactly of the same nature as that for the production +of the present surface of the earth--hills and valleys, plains, rocks, +strata, volcanoes, and all their fossil remains--by the slow and natural +action of natural causes now in operation. The mind that will ultimately +reject Darwin must (to be consistent) reject Lyell also. The same +arguments of apparent stability which are thought to disprove that +organic species can change will also disprove any change in the +inorganic world, and you must believe with your forefathers that each +hill and each river, each inland lake and continent, were created as +they stand, with their various strata and their various fossils--all +appearances and arguments to the contrary notwithstanding. I can only +recommend you to read again Darwin's account of the horse family and its +comparison with pigeons; and if that does not convince and stagger you, +then you are unconvertible. I do not expect Mr. Darwin's larger work +will add anything to the general strength of his argument. It will +consist chiefly of the details (often numerical) and experiments and +calculations of which he has already given the summaries and results. It +will therefore be more confusing and less interesting to the general +reader. It will prove to scientific men the accuracy of his details, and +point out the sources of his information, but as not one in a thousand +readers will ever test these details and references the smaller work +will remain for general purposes the best.... + +I see that the Great Exhibition for 1862 seems determined on. If so it +will be a great inducement to me to cut short the period of my +banishment and get home in time to see it. I assure you I now feel at +times very great longings for the peace and quiet of home--very much +weariness of this troublesome, wearisome, wandering life. I have lost +some of that elasticity and freshness which made the overcoming of +difficulties a pleasure, and the country and people are now too familiar +to me to retain any of the charms of novelty which gild over so much +that is really monotonous and disagreeable. My health, too, gives way, +and I cannot now put up so well with fatigue and privations as at first. +All these causes will induce me to come home as soon as possible, and I +think I may promise, if no accident happens, to come back to dear and +beautiful England in the summer of next year. C. Allen will stay a year +longer and complete the work which I shall not be able to do. + +I have been pretty comfortable here, having for two months had the +society of Mr. Geach, a Cornish mining engineer who has been looking for +copper here. He is a very intelligent and pleasant fellow, but has now +left. Another Englishman, Capt. Hart, is a resident here. He has a +little house on the foot of the hills two miles out of town; I have a +cottage (which was Mr. Geach's) a quarter of a mile farther. He is what +you may call a _speculative_ man: he reads a good deal, knows a little +and wants to know more, and is fond of speculating on the most abstruse +and unattainable points of science and philosophy. You would be +astonished at the number of men among the captains and traders of these +parts who have more than an average amount of literary and scientific +taste; whereas among the naval and military officers and various +Government officials very few have any such taste, but find their only +amusements in card-playing and dissipation. Some of the most +intelligent and best informed Dutchmen I have met with are trading +captains and merchants. + +This country much resembles Australia in its physical features, and is +very barren compared with most of the other islands.... It is very +rugged and mountainous, having no true forests, but a scanty vegetation +of gum trees with a few thickets in moist places. It is consequently +very poor in insects, and in fact will hardly pay my expenses; but +having once come here I may as well give it a fair trial. Birds are +tolerably abundant, but with few exceptions very dull coloured. I really +believe the whole series of birds of the tropical island of Timor are +less beautiful and bright-coloured than those of Great Britain. In the +mountains potatoes, cabbages and wheat are grown in abundance, and so we +get excellent pure bread made by Chinamen in Delli. Fowls, sheep, pigs +and onions are also always to be had, so that it is the easiest country +to live in I have yet met with, as in most other places one is always +doubtful whether a dinner can be obtained. I have been a trip to the +hills and stayed ten days in the clouds, but it was very wet, being the +wrong season.... + +Having now paid you off my literary debts, I trust you will give me +credit again for some long letters on things in general. Address now to +care of Hamilton, Gray and Co., Singapore, and with love and +remembrances to all friends, I remain, my dear Thomas, yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.-- ... Will you, next time you visit my mother, make me a little +plan of her cottage, showing the rooms and their dimensions, so that I +may see if there will be room enough for me on my return? I shall want a +good-sized room for my collections, and when I can decide exactly on my +return it would be as well to get a little larger house beforehand if +necessary. Please do not forget this.--Yours, A.R.W. + +P.S.--Write by next mail, as circumstances have occurred which make it +possible I may return home this year.--A.R.W. + +P.S.--You allude in your last letter to a subject I never touch upon +because I know we cannot agree upon it. However, I will now say a few +words, that you may know my opinions, and if you wish to convert me to +your way of thinking, take more vigorous measures to effect it. You +intimate that the happiness to be enjoyed in a future state will depend +upon, and be a reward for, our belief in certain doctrines which you +believe to constitute the essence of true religion. You must think, +therefore, that belief is _voluntary_ and also that it is _meritorious_. +But I think that a little consideration will show you that belief is +quite independent of our will, and our common expressions show it. We +say, "I wish I could believe him innocent, but the evidence is too clear +"; or, "Whatever people may say, I can never believe he can do such a +mean action." Now, suppose in any similar case the evidence on both +sides leads you to a certain belief or disbelief, and then a reward is +offered you for changing your opinion. Can you really change your +opinion and belief, for the hope of reward or the fear of punishment? +Will you not say, "As the matter stands I can't change my belief. You +must give me proofs that I am wrong or show that the evidence I have +heard is false, and then I may change my belief "? It may be that you do +get more and do change your belief. But this change is not voluntary on +your part. It depends upon the force of evidence upon your individual +mind, and the evidence remaining the same and your mental faculties +remaining unimpaired--you cannot believe otherwise any more than you can +fly. + +Belief, then, is not voluntary. How, then, can it be meritorious? When +a jury try a case, all hear the same evidence, but nine say "Guilty" and +three "Not guilty," according to the honest belief of each. Are either +of these more worthy of reward on that account than the others? +Certainly you will say No! But suppose beforehand they all know or +suspect that those who say "Not guilty" will be punished and the rest +rewarded: what is likely to be the result? Why, perhaps six will say +"Guilty" honestly believing it, and glad they can with a clear +conscience escape punishment; three will say "Not guilty" boldly, and +rather bear the punishment than be false or dishonest; the other three, +fearful of being convinced against their will, will carefully stop their +ears while the witnesses for the defence are being examined, and delude +themselves with the idea they give an honest verdict because they have +heard only one side of the evidence. If any out of the dozen deserve +punishment, you will surely agree with me it is these. Belief or +disbelief is therefore not meritorious, and when founded on an unfair +balance of evidence is blameable. + +Now to apply the principles to my own case. In my early youth I heard, +as ninety-nine-hundredths of the world do, only the evidence on one +side, and became impressed with a veneration for religion which has left +some traces even to this day. I have since heard and read much on both +sides, and pondered much upon the matter in all its bearings. I spent, +as you know, a year and a half in a clergyman's family and heard almost +every Tuesday the very best, most earnest and most impressive preacher +it has ever been my fortune to meet with, but it produced no effect +whatever on my mind. I have since wandered among men of many races and +many religions. I have studied man, and nature in all its aspects, and I +have sought after truth. In my solitude I have pondered much on the +incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and death. I think I +have fairly heard and fairly weighed the evidence on both sides, and I +remain an _utter disbeliever_ in almost all that you consider the most +sacred truths. I will pass over as utterly contemptible the oft-repeated +accusation that sceptics shut out evidence because they will not be +governed by the morality of Christianity. You I know will not believe +that in my case, and _I_ know its falsehood as a general rule. I only +ask, Do you think I can change the self-formed convictions of +twenty-five years, and could you think such a change would have anything +in it to merit _reward_ from _justice_? I am thankful I can see much to +admire in all religions. To the mass of mankind religion of some kind is +a necessity. But whether there be a God and whatever be His nature; +whether we have an immortal soul or not, or whatever may be our state +after death, I can have no fear of having to suffer for the study of +nature and the search for truth, or believe that those will be better +off in a future state who have lived in the belief of doctrines +inculcated from childhood, and which are to them rather a matter of +blind faith than intelligent conviction.--A.R.W. + +This for yourself; show the _letter only_ to my mother. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS MOTHER + + +_Sourabaya, Java. July 20, 1861._ + +My dear Mother,--I am, as you will see, now commencing my retreat +westwards, and have left the wild and savage Moluccas and New Guinea for +Java, the Garden of the East, and probably without any exception the +finest island in the world. My plans are to visit the interior and +collect till November, and then work my way to Singapore so as to return +home and arrive in the spring. Travelling here will be a much pleasanter +business than in any other country I have visited, as there are good +roads, regular posting stages, and regular inns or lodging-houses all +over the interior, and I shall no more be obliged to carry about with me +that miscellaneous lot of household furniture--bed, blankets, pots, +kettles and frying pan, plates, dishes and wash-basin, coffee-pots and +coffee, tea, sugar and butter, salt, pickles, rice, bread and wine, +pepper and curry powder, and half a hundred more odds and ends, the +constant looking after which, packing and repacking, calculating and +contriving, have been the standing plague of my life for the last seven +years. You will better understand this when I tell you that I have made +in that time about eighty movements, averaging one a month, at every one +of which all of these articles have had to be rearranged and repacked by +myself according to the length of the trip, besides a constant personal +supervision to prevent waste or destruction of stores in places where it +is impossible to supply them. + +Fanny wrote me last month to know about how I should like to live on my +return. Of course, my dear mother, I should not think of living anywhere +but with you, after such a long absence, if you feel yourself equal to +housekeeping for us both; and I have always understood that your cottage +would be large enough. The accommodation I should require is, besides a +small bedroom, one large room, or a small one if there is, besides, a +kind of lumber room where I could keep my cases and do rough and dirty +work. I expect soon from Thomas a sketch-plan of your cottage, by which +I can at once tell if it will do. If not, I must leave you and Fanny to +arrange as you like about a new residence. I should prefer being a +little way out of town in a quiet neighbourhood and with a garden, but +near an omnibus route, and if necessary I could lodge at any time for a +week in London. This, I think, will be better and much cheaper than +living close to town, and rents anywhere in the West End are sure now to +rise owing to the approaching Great Exhibition. I must of course study +economy, as the little money I have made will not be all got in for a +year or two after my return.... + +You must remember to write to me by the middle of November mail, as that +is probably the last letter I can receive from you. + +I send the letter to Fanny, who will most likely call on you and talk +over matters. I am a little confused arriving in a new place with a +great deal to do and living in a noisy hotel, so different to my usual +solitary life, so that I cannot well collect my ideas to write any more, +but must remain, my dear mother, your ever affectionate son, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS + + +_In the Mountains of Java. October 10, 1861._ + +My dear Fanny,--I have just received your second letter in praise of +your new house. As I have said my say about it in my last, I shall now +send you a few lines on other subjects. + +I have been staying here a fortnight 4,000 feet above the sea in a fine +cool climate, but it is unfortunately dreadfully wet and cloudy. I have +just returned from a three days' excursion to one of the great Java +volcanoes 10,000 feet high. I slept two nights in a house 7,500 feet +above the sea. It was bitterly cold at night, as the hut was merely of +plaited bamboo, like a sieve, so that the wind came in on all sides. I +had flannel jackets and blankets and still was cold, and my poor men, +with nothing but their usual thin cotton clothes, passed miserable +nights lying on a mat on the ground round the fire which could only warm +one side at a time. The highest peak is an extinct volcano with the +crater nearly filled up, forming merely a saucer on the top, in which +is a good house built by the Government for the old Dutch naturalists +who surveyed and explored the mountain. There are a lot of strawberries +planted there, which do very well, but there were not many ripe. The +common weeds and plants of the top were very like English ones, such as +buttercups, sow-thistle, plantain, wormwood, chickweed, charlock, St. +John's wort, violets and many others, all closely allied to our common +plants of those names, but of distinct species. There was also a +honey-suckle, and a tall and very pretty kind of cowslip. None of these +are found in the low tropical lands, and most of them only on the tops +of these high mountains. Mr. Darwin supposed them to have come there +during a glacial or very cold period, when they could have spread over +the tropics and, as the heat increased, gradually rose up the mountains. +They were, as you may imagine, most interesting to me, and I am very +glad that I have ascended _one_ lofty mountain in the tropics, though I +had miserable wet weather and had no view, owing to constant clouds and +mist. + +I also visited a semi-active volcano close by continually sending out +steam with a noise like a blast-furnace--quite enough to give me a +conception of all other descriptions of volcanoes. + +The lower parts of the mountains of Java, from 3,000 to 6,000 feet, have +the most beautiful tropical vegetation I have ever seen. Abundance of +splendid tree ferns, some 50 ft. high, and some hundreds of varieties of +other ferns, beautiful-leaved plants as begonias, melastomas, and many +others, and more flowers than are generally seen in the tropics. In +fact, this region exhibits all the beauty the tropics can produce, but +still I consider and will always maintain that our own meadows and woods +and mountains are more beautiful. Our own weeds and wayside flowers are +far prettier and more varied than those of the tropics. It is only the +great leaves and the curious-looking plants, and the deep gloom of the +forests and the mass of tangled vegetation that astonish and delight +Europeans, and it is certainly grand and interesting and in a certain +sense beautiful, but not the calm, sweet, warm beauty of our own fields, +and there is none of the brightness of our own flowers; a field of +buttercups, a hill of gorse or of heather, a bank of foxgloves and a +hedge of wild roses and purple vetches surpass in _beauty_ anything I +have ever seen in the tropics. This is a favourite subject with me, but +I cannot go into it now. + +Send the accompanying note to Mr. Stevens immediately. You will see what +I say to him about my collections here. Java is the richest of all the +islands in birds, but they are as well known as those of Europe, and it +is almost impossible to get a new one. However, I am adding fine +specimens to my collection, which will be altogether the finest known of +the birds of the Archipelago, except perhaps that of the Leyden Museum, +who have had naturalists collecting for them in all the chief islands +for many years with unlimited means. + +Give my kind love to mother, to whom I will write next time.--Your +affectionate brother, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +TO G. SILK[16] + + +_Singapore. January 20, 1862._ + +My dear George,-- ... On the question of marriage we probably differ +much. I believe a good wife to be the greatest blessing a man can enjoy, +and the only road to happiness, but the qualifications I should look for +are probably not such as would satisfy you. My opinions have changed +much on this point: I now look at intellectual companionship as quite a +secondary matter, and should my good stars ever send me an affectionate, +good-tempered and domestic wife, I shall care not one iota for +accomplishments or even for education. + +I cannot write more now. I do not yet know how long I shall be here, +perhaps a month. Then ho! for England!--In haste, yours most +affectionately, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + + + +PART II + + + + +I.--The Discovery of Natural Selection + + "There are not many joys in human life equal to the joy of the + sudden birth of a generalisation, illuminating the mind after a + long period of patient research. What has seemed for years so + chaotic, so contradictory, and so problematic takes at once its + proper position within an harmonious whole. Out of the wild + confusion of facts and from behind the fog of + guesses--contradicted almost as soon as they are born--a stately + picture makes its appearance, like an Alpine chain suddenly + emerging in all its grandeur from the mists which concealed it the + moment before, glittering under the rays of the sun in all its + simplicity and variety, in all its mightiness and beauty. And when + the generalisation is put to a test, by applying it to hundreds of + separate facts which seemed to be hopelessly contradictory the + moment before, each of them assumes its due position, increasing + the impressiveness of the picture, accentuating some + characteristic outline, or adding an unsuspected detail full of + meaning. The generalisation gains in strength and extent; its + foundations grow in width and solidity; while in the distance, + through the far-off mist on the horizon, the eye detects the + outlines of new and still wider generalisations. He who has once + in his life experienced this joy of scientific creation will never + forget it; he will be longing to renew it; and he cannot but feel + with pain that this sort of happiness is the lot of so few of us, + while so many could also live through it--on a small or on a grand + scale--if scientific methods and leisure were not limited to a + handful of men."--PRINCE KROPOTKIN, "Memoirs of a Revolutionist." + + + + +The social and scientific atmosphere in which Wallace found himself on +his return from his eight years' exile in the Malay Archipelago was +considerably more genial than that which he had enjoyed during his +previous stay in London following his exploration of the Amazon. His +position as one of the leading scientists of the day was already +recognised, dating from the memorable 1st of July, 1858, when the two +Papers, his own and Darwin's, on the theory of Natural Selection had +been read before the Linnean Society. + +During the four years which had elapsed since that date the storm of +criticism had waxed and waned; subsiding for a time only to burst out +afresh from some new quarter where the theory bade fair to jeopardise +some ancient belief in which scientist or theologian had rested with +comparative satisfaction until so rudely disturbed. + +During this period Wallace had been quietly pursuing his researches in +the Malay Archipelago, though not without a keen interest in all that +was taking place at home in so far as this reached him by means of +correspondence and newspaper reports--his only means of keeping in touch +with the world beyond the boundaries of the semi-civilised countries in +which he was then living. + +In order to follow the story of how the conception of the theory of +Natural Selection grew and eventually took definite form in Wallace's +mind, independently of the same development in the mind of Darwin, we +must go back to a much earlier period in his life, and as nearly as +possible link up, the scattered remarks which here and there act as +signposts pointing towards the supreme solution which has made his name +famous for all time. + +In Part I., Section I., many passages occur which clearly reveal his +awakening to the study of nature. A chance remark overheard in +conversation in the quiet street of Hertford touched the hidden spring +of interest in a subject which was to become the one great purpose of +his life. Then his enthusiastic yielding to the simple and natural +attraction which flowers and trees have always exerted upon the +sympathetic observer led step by step to the study of groups and +families, until, on his second sojourn at Neath, and about a year before +his journey to South America with H.W. Bates, we find him deliberately +pondering over the problem which many years later he described by saying +that he "had in fact been bitten by the passion for species and their +description." + +In a letter to Bates dated November 9th, 1847, he concludes by asking, +"Have you read 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,' or is it +out of your line?" and in the next (dated December 28th), in reply to +one from his friend, he continues, "I have a rather more favourable +opinion of the 'Vestiges' than you appear to have, I do not consider it +a hasty generalisation, but rather an ingenious hypothesis strongly +supported by some striking facts and analogies, but which remains to be +proved by more facts and the additional light which more research may +throw upon the problem.... It furnishes a subject for every observer of +nature to attend to; every fact," he observes, "will make either for or +against it, and it thus serves both as an incitement to the collection +of facts, and an object to which they can be applied when collected. +Many eminent writers support the theory of the progressive development +of animals and plants. There is a very philosophical work bearing +directly on the question--Lawrence's 'Lectures on Man'.... The great +object of these 'Lectures' is to illustrate the different races of +mankind, and the manner in which they probably originated, and he +arrives at the conclusion (as also does Prichard in his work on the +'Physical History of Man') that the varieties of the human race have not +been produced by any external causes, but are due to the development of +certain distinctive peculiarities in some individuals which have +thereafter become propagated through an entire race. Now, I should say +that a permanent peculiarity not produced by external causes is a +characteristic of 'species' and not of mere 'variety,' and thus, if the +theory of the 'Vestiges' is accepted, the Negro, the Red Indian, and the +European are distinct species of the genus Homo. + +"An animal which differs from another by some decided and permanent +character, however slight, which difference is undiminished by +propagation and unchanged by climate and external circumstances, is +universally held to be a distinct _species_; while one which is not +regularly transmitted so as to form a distinct race, but is occasionally +reproduced from the parent stock (like albinoes), is generally, if the +difference is not very considerable, classed as a _variety_. But I would +class both these as distinct _species_, and I would only consider those +to be _varieties_ whose differences are produced by external causes, and +which, therefore, are not propagated as distinct races." + +Again, writing about the same period, he adds: "I begin to feel rather +dissatisfied with a mere local collection; little is to be learnt by it. +I should like to take some one family to study thoroughly, principally +with a view to the theory of the origin of species. By that means I am +strongly of opinion that some definite results might be arrived at." And +he further alludes to "my favourite subject--the variations, +arrangements, distribution, etc., of species."[17] + +It is evident that in Bates Wallace found his first real friend and +companion in matters scientific; for in another letter he says: "I quite +envy you, who have friends near you attracted to the same pursuits. I +know not a single person in this little town who studies any one branch +of natural history, so that I am quite alone in this respect." In fact, +except for a little friendly help now and then, as in the case of Mr. +Hayward lending him a copy of Loudon's Encyclopedia of Plants, he had +always pondered over his nature studies without any assistance up to the +time of his meeting Bates at Leicester. + +From the date of the above letter (1847) on to the early part of +1855--nearly eight years later--no reference is found either in his Life +or correspondence to the one absorbing idea towards which all his +reflective powers were being directed. Then, during a quiet time at +Sarawak, the accumulation of thought and observation found expression in +an essay entitled "The Law which has regulated the Introduction of +Species," which appeared in the _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_ +in the following September (1855). + +From November, 1854, the year of his arrival in the East, until January +or February, 1856, Sarawak was the centre from which Wallace made his +explorations inland, including some adventurous excursions on the Sadong +River. During the wet season--or spring--of 1855, while living in a +small house at the foot of the Santubong Mountains (with one Malay boy +who acted as cook and general companion), he tells us how he occupied +his time in looking over his books and pondering "over the problem which +was rarely absent from [his] thoughts." In addition to the knowledge he +had acquired from reading such books as those by Swainson and Humboldt, +also Lucien Bonaparte's "Conspectus," and several catalogues of insects +and reptiles in the British Museum "giving a mass of facts" as to the +distribution of animals over the whole world, and having by his own +efforts accumulated a vast store of information and facts direct from +nature while in South America and since coming out East, he arrived at +the conclusion that this "mass of facts" had never been properly +utilised as an indication of the way in which species had come into +existence. Having no fellow-traveller to whom he could confide these +conclusions, he was almost driven to put his thoughts and ideas on +paper--weighing each argument with studious care and open-eyed +consideration as to its bearing on the whole theory. As the "result +seemed to be of some importance," it was sent, as already mentioned, to +the _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_ as one of the leading +scientific journals in England. + +In the light of future events it is not surprising that Huxley (many +years later), in referring to this "powerful essay," adds: "On reading +it afresh I have been astonished to recollect how small was the +impression it made." + +As this earliest contribution by Wallace to the doctrine of Evolution[18] +is of peculiar historical value, and has not been so fully recognised as +it undoubtedly deserves, and is now almost inaccessible, it will be +useful to indicate in his own words the clear line of argument put forth +by him two years before his second essay with which many readers are +more familiar. He begins: + + Every naturalist who has directed his attention to the subject of + the geographical distribution of animals and plants must have been + interested in the singular facts which it presents. Many of these + facts are quite different from what would have been anticipated, + and have hitherto been considered as highly curious but quite + inexplicable. None of the explanations attempted from the time of + Linnaeus are now considered at all satisfactory; none of them have + given a cause sufficient to account for the facts known at the + time, or comprehensive enough to include all the new facts which + have since been and are daily being added. Of late years, however, + a great light has been thrown upon the subject by geological + investigations, which have shown that the present state of the + earth, and the organisms now inhabiting it, are but the last stage + of a long and uninterrupted series of changes which it has + undergone, and consequently, that to endeavour to explain and + account for its present condition without any reference to those + changes (as has frequently been done) must lead to very imperfect + and erroneous conclusions.... The following propositions in + Organic Geography and Geology give the main facts on which the + hypothesis [_see_ p. 96] is founded. + + GEOGRAPHY + + (1) Large groups, such as classes and orders, are generally spread + over the whole earth, while smaller ones, such as families and + genera, are frequently confined to one portion, often to a very + limited district. + + (2) In widely distributed families the genera are often limited in + range; in widely distributed genera, well-marked groups of species + are peculiar to each geographical district. + + (3) When a group is confined to one district and is rich in + species, it is almost invariably the case that the most closely + allied species are found in the same locality or in closely + adjoining localities, and that therefore the natural sequence of + the species by affinity is also geographical. + + (4) In countries of a similar climate, but separated by a wide sea + or lofty mountains, the families, genera and species of the one + are often represented by closely allied families, genera and + species peculiar to the other. + + GEOLOGY + + (5) The distribution of the organic world in time is very similar + to its present distribution in space. + + (6) Most of the larger and some of the smaller groups extend + through several geological periods. + + (7) In each period, however, there are peculiar groups, found + nowhere else, and extending through one or several formations. + + (8) Species of one genus, or genera of one family, occurring in + the same geological time are more closely allied than those + separated in time. + + (9) As generally in geography no species or genus occurs in two + very distant localities without being also found in intermediate + places, so in geology the life of a species or genus has not been + interrupted. In other words, no group or species has come into + existence twice. + + (10) The following law may be deduced from these facts: _Every + species has come into existence coincident both in time and space + with a pre-existing closely allied species_. + + This law agrees with, explains and illustrates all the facts + connected with the following branches of the subject: 1st, the + system of natural affinities; 2nd, the distribution of animals and + plants in space; 3rd, the same in time, including all the + phenomena of representative groups, and those which Prof. Forbes + supposed to manifest polarity; 4th, the phenomena of rudimentary + organs. We will briefly endeavour to show its bearing upon each of + these. + + If [this] law be true, it follows that the natural series of + affinities will also represent the order in which the several + species came into existence, each one having had for its immediate + antetype a clearly allied species existing at the time of its + origin.... If two or more species have been independently formed + on the plan of a common antetype, then the series of affinities + will be compound, and can only be represented by a forked or + many-branched line.... Sometimes the series of affinities can be + well represented for a space by a direct progression from species + to species or from group to group, but it is generally found + impossible so to continue. There constantly occur two or more + modifications of an organ or modifications of two distinct organs, + leading us on to two distinct series of species, which at length + differ so much from each other as to form distinct genera or + families. These are the parallel series or representative groups + of naturalists, and they often occur in different countries, or + are found fossil in different formations.... We thus see how + difficult it is to determine in every case whether a given + relation is an analogy or an affinity, for it is evident that as + we go back along the parallel or divergent series, towards the + common antetype, the analogy which existed between the two groups + becomes an affinity.... Again, if we consider that we have only + the fragments of this vast system, the stems and main branches + being represented by extinct species of which we have no + knowledge, while a vast mass of limbs and boughs and minute twigs + and scattered leaves is what we have to place in order, and + determine the true position each originally occupied with regard + to the others, the whole difficulty of the true Natural System of + classification becomes apparent to us. + + We shall thus find ourselves obliged to reject all those systems + of classification which arrange species or groups in circles, as + well as those which fix a definite number for the division of each + group.... We have ... never been able to find a case in which the + circle has been closed by a direct affinity. In most cases a + palpable analogy has been substituted, in others the affinity is + very obscure or altogether doubtful.... + + If we now consider the geographical distribution of animals and + plants upon the earth, we shall find all the facts beautifully in + accordance with, and readily explained by, the present hypothesis. + A country having species, genera, and whole families peculiar to + it will be the necessary result of its having been isolated for a + long period, sufficient for many series of species to have been + created on the type of pre-existing ones, which, as well as many + of the earlier-formed species, have become extinct, and made the + groups appear isolated.... + + Such phenomena as are exhibited by the Galapagos Islands, which + contain little groups of plants and animals peculiar to + themselves, but most nearly allied to those of South America, have + not hitherto received any, even a conjectural explanation. The + Galapagos are a volcanic group of high antiquity and have probably + never been more closely connected with the continent than they are + at present. + +He then proceeds at some length to explain how the Galapagos must have +been at first "peopled ... by the action of winds and currents," and +that the modified prototypes remaining are the "new species" which have +been "created in each on the plan of the pre-existing ones." This is +followed by a graphic sketch of the general effect of volcanic and +other action as affecting the distribution of species, and the exact +form in which they are found, even fishes giving "evidence of a similar +kind: each great river [having] its peculiar genera, and in more +extensive genera its groups of closely allied species." + +After stating a number of practical examples he continues: + + The question forces itself upon every thinking mind--Why are these + things so? They could not be as they are, had no law regulated + their creation and dispersion. The law here enunciated not merely + explains, but necessitates the facts we see to exist, while the + vast and long-continued geological changes of the earth readily + account for the exceptions and apparent discrepancies that here + and there occur. The writer's object in putting forward his views + in the present imperfect manner is to submit them to the tests of + other minds, and to be made aware of all the facts supposed to be + inconsistent with them. As his hypothesis is one which claims + acceptance solely as explaining and connecting facts which exist + in nature, he expects facts alone to be brought forward to + disprove it, not _a priori_ arguments against its probability. + +He then refers to some of the geological "principles" expounded by Sir +Charles Lyell on the "extinction of species," and follows this up by +saying: + + To discover how the extinct species have from time to time been + replaced by new ones down to the very latest geological period, is + the most difficult, and at the same time the most interesting, + problem in the natural history of the earth. The present inquiry, + which seeks to eliminate from known facts a law which has + determined, to a certain degree, what species could and did appear + at a given epoch, may, it is hoped, be considered as one step in + the right direction towards a complete solution of it.... Admitted + facts seem to show ... a general, but not a detailed + progression.... It is, however, by no means difficult to show + that a real progression in the scale of organisation is perfectly + consistent with all the appearances, and even with apparent + retrogression should such occur. + +Using once more the analogy of a branching tree to illustrate the +natural arrangement of species and their successive creation, he clearly +shows how "apparent retrogression may be in reality a progress, though +an interrupted one"; as "when some monarch of the forest loses a limb, +it may be replaced by a feeble and sickly substitute." As an instance he +mentions the Mollusca, which at an early period had reached a high state +of development of forms and species, while in each succeeding age +modified species and genera replaced the former ones which had become +extinct, and "as we approach the present era but few and small +representatives of the group remain, while the Gasteropods and Bivalves +have acquired an immense preponderance." In the long series of changes +the earth had undergone, the process of peopling it with organic beings +had been continually going on, and whenever any of the higher groups had +become nearly or quite extinct, the lower forms which better resisted +the modified physical conditions served as the antetype on which to +found new races. In this manner alone, it was believed, could the +representative groups of successive periods, and the risings and +fallings in the scale of organisations, be in every case explained. + +Again, attending to a recent article by Prof. Forbes, he points out +certain inaccuracies and how they may be proved to be so; and continues: + + We have no reason for believing that the number of species on the + earth at any former period was much less than at present; at all + events the aquatic portion, with which the geologists have most + acquaintance, was probably often as great or greater. Now we know + that there have been many complete changes of species, new sets of + organisms have many times been introduced in place of old ones + which have become extinct, so that the total amount which have + existed on the earth from the earliest geological period must have + borne about the same proportion to those now living as the whole + human race who have lived and died upon the earth to the + population at the present time.... Records of vast geological + periods are entirely buried beneath the ocean ... beyond our + reach. Most of the gaps in the geological series may thus be + filled up, and vast numbers of unknown and unimaginable animals + which might help to elucidate the affinities of the numerous + isolated groups which are a perpetual puzzle to the zoologist may + be buried there, till future revolutions may raise them in turn + above the water, to afford materials for the study of whatever + race of intelligent beings may then have succeeded us. These + considerations must lead us to the conclusion that our knowledge + of the whole series of the former inhabitants of the earth is + necessarily most imperfect and fragmentary--as much as our + knowledge of the present organic world would be, were we forced to + make our collections and observations only in spots equally + limited in area and in number with those actually laid open for + the collection of fossils.... The hypothesis of Prof. Forbes is + essentially one that assumes to a great extent the _completeness_ + of our knowledge of the _whole series_ of organic beings which + have existed on earth.... The hypothesis put forward in this paper + depends in no degree upon the completeness of our knowledge of the + former condition of the organic world, but takes what facts we + have as fragments of a vast whole, and deduces from them something + of the nature and proportion of that whole which we can never know + in detail.... + + Another important series of facts, quite in accordance with, and + even necessary deductions from, the law now developed, are those + of _rudimentary organs_. That these really do exist, and in most + cases have no special function in the animal economy, is admitted + by the first authorities in comparative anatomy. The minute limbs + hidden beneath the skin in many of the snake-like lizards, the + anal hooks of the boa constrictor, the complete series of jointed + finger-bones in the paddle of the manatee and the whale, are a few + of the most familiar instances. In botany a similar class of facts + has been long recognised. Abortive stamens, rudimentary floral + envelope and undeveloped carpels are of the most frequent + occurrence. To every thoughtful naturalist the question must + arise, What are these for? What have they to do with the great + laws of creation? Do they not teach us something of the system of + nature? If each species has been created independently, and + without any necessary relation with pre-existing species, what do + these rudiments, these apparent imperfections, mean? There must be + a cause for them; they must be the necessary result of some great + natural law. Now, if ... the great law which has regulated the + peopling of the earth with animal and vegetable life is, that + every change shall be gradual; that no new creature shall be + formed widely different from anything before existing; that in + this, as in everything else in nature, there shall be gradation + and harmony--then these rudimentary organs are necessary and are + an essential part of the system of nature. Ere the higher + vertebrates were formed, for instance, many steps were required, + and many organs had to undergo modifications from the rudimental + condition in which only they had as yet existed.... Many more of + these modifications should we behold, and more complete series of + them, had we a view of all the forms which have ceased to live. + The great gaps that exist ... would be softened down by + intermediate groups, and the whole organic world would be seen to + be an unbroken and harmonious system. + +The article, in which we can see a great generalisation struggling to be +born, ends thus: + + It has now been shown, though most briefly and imperfectly, how + the law that "every species has come into existence coincident + both in time and space with a pre-existing closely allied + species," connects together and renders intelligible a vast number + of independent and hitherto unexplained facts. The natural system + of arrangement of organic beings, their geographical distribution, + their geological sequence, the phenomena of representative and + substituted groups in all their modifications, and the most + singular peculiarities of anatomical structure, are all explained + and illustrated by it, in perfect accordance with the vast mass of + facts which the researches of modern naturalists have brought + together, and, it is believed, not materially opposed to any of + them. It also claims a superiority over previous hypotheses, on + the ground that it not merely explains but necessitates what + exists. Granted the law, and many of the most important facts in + nature could not have been otherwise, but are almost as necessary + deductions from it as are the elliptic orbits of the planets from + the law of gravitation. + +Some time after the appearance of this article, Wallace was informed by +his friend and agent, Mr. Stevens, that several naturalists had +expressed regret that he was "theorising," when what "was wanted was to +collect more facts." Apart from this the only recognition which reached +him in his remote solitude was a remark in an approving letter from +Darwin (_see_ p. 129). + +As Wallace wrote nothing further of importance until the second essay +which more fully disclosed his view of the origin of species, we will +now briefly trace the growth of the theory of Natural Selection up to +1858, as it came to Darwin. + +It is well known that during Darwin's voyage in the _Beagle_ he was +deeply impressed by discovering extinct armadillo-like fossil forms in +South America, the home of armadilloes, and by observing the +relationship of the plants and animals of each island in the Galapagos +group to those of the other islands and of South America, the nearest +continent. These facts suggested evolution, and without evolution +appeared to be meaningless. + +Evolution and its motive cause were the problems which "haunted" him for +the next twenty years. The first step towards a possible solution was +the "opening of a notebook for facts in relation to the origin of +species" in 1837, two years before the publication of his Journal. From +the very commencement of his literary and scientific work, a rule +rigidly adhered to was that of interspersing his main line of thought +and research by reading books touching on widely diverging subjects; and +it was thus, no doubt, that during October, 1838, he read "for +amusement" Malthus's "Essay on Population"; not, as he himself affirms, +with any definite idea as to its intimate bearing on the subject so near +his heart. But the immediate result was that the idea of Natural +Selection at once arose in his mind, and, in his own words, he "had a +theory by which to work." + +In May and June, 1842, during a visit to Maer and Shrewsbury, he wrote +his first "pencil sketch of Species theory," but not until two years +later (1844) did he venture to enlarge this to one of 230 folio pages, +"a wonderfully complete presentation of the arguments familiar to us in +the 'Origin.'"[19] + +Already, in addition to the mass of facts collected, Darwin was busy +with some of the experiments which he described in a letter to Sir +Joseph Hooker (in 1855) as affording the latter a "good right to sneer, +for they are so _absurd_, even in _my_ opinion, that I dare not tell +you." While a sentence in another letter (dated 1849) throws a sidelight +on all this preparatory work: "In your letter you wonder what +'ornamental poultry' has to do with barnacles; but do not flatter +yourself that I shall not yet live to finish the barnacles, and then +make a fool of myself on the subject of species, under which head +ornamental poultry are very interesting." + +Somewhere about this time (1842-44), Darwin, referring to the idea of +Natural Selection which arose in his mind after reading Malthus on +"Population" four years earlier, continues: "But at that time I +overlooked one problem of great importance ... the tendency in organic +beings descended from the same stock to diverge in character as they +become modified ... and I can remember the very spot in the road, whilst +in my carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me.... The +solution, as I believe, is that the modified offspring of all dominant +and increasing forms tend to become adapted to many and highly +diversified places in the economy of nature."[20] + +So convinced was he of the truth of his ideas as expressed in the 1844 +MS., that immediately after its completion he wrote the memorable letter +to Mrs. Darwin telling her what he would wish done regarding its +publication in the event of his death. + +It was probably about two years later (1846) that he first confided his +completed work--up to that date--to Sir Joseph Hooker, and later to Sir +Charles Lyell; refraining, however, except in general conversation with +other scientists, from informing anyone of the progress he was making +towards a positive solution of the problem. His attitude of mind and +manner at this period is happily illustrated by Huxley, who, speaking of +his early acquaintance with Darwin, says: "I remember in the course of +my first interview with Darwin expressing my belief in the sharpness of +the line of demarcation between natural groups and in the absence of +transitional forms, with all the confidence of youth and imperfect +knowledge. I was not aware, at that time, that he had then been many +years brooding over the Species question; and the humorous smile which +accompanied his gentle answer, that such was not altogether his view, +long haunted and puzzled me." + +Little did Charles Darwin dream that, only three years after this first +MS. was written (in 1844), a youthful naturalist--known only as a +surveyor at Neath--was deliberately pondering over the same issue, and +writing to his only scientific friend on the subject. As, however, the +different methods of thought by which they arrived at the same +conclusion is so aptly related by Wallace himself, we will leave it for +him to tell the story in its appointed place.[21] + +In 1856, the year following the appearance of Wallace's essay in the +_Annals and Magazine of Natural History_, both Hooker and Lyell urged +Darwin to publish the result of his long and patient research. But he +was still reluctant to do so, not having as yet satisfied himself with +regard to certain conclusions which, he felt, must be stoutly maintained +in face of the enormous amount of criticism which would arise +immediately his theory was launched on the scientific world. And thus +the event was postponed until the memorable year 1858. + +Up to the year 1856 no correspondence had passed between Wallace and +Darwin, so far, at least, as the former could remember, for he says, in +a letter dated Frith Hill, Godalming, December 3, 1887 (written to Mr. +A. Newton): "I had hardly heard of Darwin before going to the East, +except as connected with the voyage of the _Beagle_.... I saw him _once_ +for a few minutes in the British Museum before I sailed. Through +Stevens, my agent, I heard that he wanted curious _varieties_ which he +was studying. I _think_ I wrote about some varieties of ducks I had +sent, and he must have written once to me.... But at that time I had +not the remotest notion that he had already arrived at a definite +theory--still less that it was the same as occurred to me, suddenly, in +Ternate in 1858." It is clear, therefore, that the essay written at +Sarawak formed the first real link with Darwin, although not fully +recognised at the time. In May, 1857, Darwin wrote to Wallace: "I am +much obliged for your letter ... and even still more by your paper in +the _Annals_, a year or more ago. I can plainly see that we have thought +much alike and to a certain extent have come to similar conclusions.... +I agree to almost every word of your paper; and I dare say that you will +agree with me that it is very rare to find oneself agreeing pretty +closely with any theoretical paper." He concludes: "You have my very +sincere and cordial good wishes for success of all kinds, and may all +your theories succeed, except that on Oceanic Islands, on which subject +I will do battle to the death." + +The three years from 1855 to 1858 were for Wallace crowded with hard +work, and perilous voyages by sea and hardships by land. January, 1858, +found him at Amboyna, where, in all probability, he found a pile of +long-delayed correspondence awaiting him, and among this a letter from +Bates referring to the article which had appeared in print September, +1855. In reply he says: "To persons who have not thought much on the +subject I fear my paper on the 'Succession of Species' will not appear +so clear as it does to you. That paper is, of course, merely the +announcement of the theory, not its development. I have prepared the +plan and written portions of a work embracing the whole subject, and +have endeavoured to prove in detail what I have as yet only +indicated.... I have been much gratified by a letter from Darwin, in +which he says that he agrees with 'almost every word' of my paper. He +is now preparing his great work on 'Species and Varieties,' for which he +has been preparing materials for twenty years. He may save me the +trouble of writing more on my hypothesis, by proving that there is no +difference in nature between the origin of species and of varieties; or +he may give me trouble by arriving at another conclusion; but, at all +events, his facts will be given for me to work upon. Your collections +and my own will furnish most valuable material to illustrate and prove +the universal application of the hypothesis. The connection between the +succession of affinities and the geographical distribution of a group, +worked out species by species, has never yet been shown as we shall be +able to show it." + +"This letter proves," writes Wallace,[22] "that at this time I had not +the least idea of the nature of Darwin's proposed work nor of the +definite conclusions he had arrived at, nor had I myself any +expectations of a complete solution of the great problem to which my +paper was merely the prelude. Yet less than two months later that +solution flashed upon me, and to a large extent marked out a different +line of work from that which I had up to this time anticipated.... In +other parts of this letter I refer to the work I hoped to do myself in +describing, cataloguing, and working out the distribution of my insects. +I had in fact been bitten by the passion for species and their +description, and if neither Darwin nor myself had hit upon 'Natural +Selection,' I might have spent the best years of my life in this +comparatively profitless work. But the new ideas swept all this away." + +This letter was finished after his arrival at Ternate, and a few weeks +later he was prostrated by a sharp attack of intermittent fever which +obliged him to take a prolonged rest each day, owing to the exhausting +hot and cold fits which rapidly succeeded one another. + +The little bungalow at Ternate had now come to be regarded as "home" for +it was here that he stored all his treasured collections, besides making +it the goal of all his wanderings in the Archipelago. One can +understand, therefore, that, in spite of the fever, there was a sense of +satisfaction in the feeling that he was surrounded with the trophies of +his arduous labours as a naturalist, and this passion for species and +their descriptions being an ever-present speculation in his mind, his +very surroundings would unconsciously conduce towards the line of +thought which brought to memory the argument of "positive checks" set +forth by Malthus in his "Principles of Population" (read twelve years +earlier) as applied to savage and civilised races. "It then," he says, +"occurred to me that these causes or their equivalents are continually +acting in the case of animals also; and as animals usually breed much +more rapidly than does mankind, the destruction every year from these +causes must be enormous in order to keep down the numbers of each +species, since they evidently do not increase regularly from year to +year, as otherwise the world would have been densely crowded with those +that breed most quickly.... Then it suddenly flashed upon me that this +self-acting process would necessarily _improve the race_, because in +every generation the inferior would inevitably be killed off and the +superior would remain--that is, the _fittest would survive_. Then at +once I seemed to see the whole effect of this, that when changes of land +and sea, or of climate, or of food-supply, or of enemies occurred--and +we know that such changes have always been taking place--and considering +the amount of individual variation that my experience as a collector had +shown me to exist, then it followed that all the changes necessary for +the adaptation of the species to the changing conditions would be +brought about; and as great changes in the environment are always slow, +there would be ample time for the change to be effected by the survival +of the best fitted in every generation. In this way every part of an +animal's organism could be modified as required, and in the very process +of this modification the unmodified would die out, and thus the +_definite_ characters and the clear _isolation_ of each new species +would be explained. The more I thought over it the more I became +convinced that I had at length found the long-sought-for law of nature +that solved the problem of the origin of species. For the next hour I +thought over the deficiencies in the theories of Lamarck and of the +author of the 'Vestiges,' and I saw that my new theory supplemented +these views and obviated every important difficulty. I waited anxiously +for the termination of my fit (of fever) so that I might at once make +notes for a paper on the subject. The same evening I did this pretty +fully, and on the two succeeding evenings wrote it out carefully in +order to send it to Darwin by the next post, which would leave in a day +or two."[23] + +The story of the arrival of this letter at Down, and of the swift +passage of events between the date on which Darwin received it and the +reading of the "joint communications" before the Linnean Society, has +been often told. But few, perhaps, have enjoyed the privilege of reading +the account of this memorable proceeding as related by Sir Joseph Hooker +at the celebration of the event held by the Linnean Society in 1908. + +As, therefore, the correspondence (pp. 127-320) between Wallace and +Darwin during a long series of years conveys many expressions of their +mutual appreciation of each other's work in connection with the origin +of species, it will avoid a possible repetition of these if we take a +long leap forward and give the notable speeches made by Wallace, Sir +Joseph Hooker, Sir E. Ray Lankester, and others at this historical +ceremony, which have not been published except in the _Proceedings_ of +the Society, now out of print. + +The gathering was held on July 1, 1908, at the Institute of Civil +Engineers, Great George Street, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of +the joint communication made by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace +to the Linnean Society, "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; +and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of +Selection." The large gathering included the President, Dr. Dukinfield +H. Scott, distinguished representatives of many scientific Societies and +Universities, the Danish and Swedish Ministers, and a representative +from the German Embassy. Most of the members of Dr. Wallace's and Mr. +Darwin's family were also present.[24] The President opened with some +explanatory observations, and then invited Wallace to come forward in +order to receive the first Darwin-Wallace Medal. In presenting it he +said: + + Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace,--We rejoice that we are so happy as to + have with us to-day the survivor of the two great naturalists + whose crowning work we are here to commemorate. + + Your brilliant work in natural history and geography, and as one + of the founders of the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, + is universally honoured and has often received public recognition, + as in the awards of the Darwin and Royal Medals of the Royal + Society, and of our Medal in 1892. + + To-day, in asking you to accept the first Darwin-Wallace Medal, we + are offering you of your own, for it is you, equally with your + great colleague, who created the occasion we celebrate. + + There is nothing in the history of science more delightful or more + noble than the story of the relations between yourself and Mr. + Darwin, as told in the correspondence now so fully published--the + story of a generous rivalry in which each discoverer strives to + exalt the claims of the other. We know that Mr. Darwin wrote + (April 6th, 1859): "You cannot tell how much I admire your spirit + in the manner in which you have taken all that was done about + publishing our papers. I had actually written a letter to you + stating that I would not publish anything before you had + published." Then came the letters of Hooker and Lyell, leading to + the publication of the joint papers which they communicated. + + You, on your side, always gave the credit to him, and + underestimated your own position as the co-discoverer. I need only + refer to your calling your great exposition of the joint theory + "Darwinism," as the typical example of your generous emphasising + of the claims of your illustrious fellow-worker. + + It was a remarkable and momentous coincidence that both you and he + should have independently arrived at the idea of Natural Selection + after reading Malthus's book, and a most happy inspiration that + you should have selected Mr. Darwin as the naturalist to whom to + communicate your discovery. That theory, in spite of changes in + the scientific fashion of the moment, you have always + unflinchingly maintained, and still uphold as unshaken by all + attacks. + + Like Mr. Darwin, you, if I may say so, are above all a naturalist, + a student and lover of living animals and plants, as shown in + later years by your enthusiasm and success in gardening. It is to + such men, those who have learnt the ways of Nature, as Nature + really is in the open, to whom your doctrine of Natural Selection + specially appeals, and therein lies its great and lasting + strength. + + Finally, you must allow me to allude to the generous interest you + have always shown, and continue to show, in the careers of + younger men who are endeavouring to follow in your steps. + + I ask you, Dr. Wallace, to accept this Medal, struck in your + honour and in that of the great work inaugurated fifty years ago + by Mr. Darwin and yourself. + +Wallace began his reply by thanking the Council of the Society for the +Honour they had done him, and then proceeded: + + Since the death of Darwin, in 1882, I have found myself in the + somewhat unusual position of receiving credit and praise from + popular writers under a complete misapprehension of what my share + in Darwin's work really amounted to. It has been stated (not + unfrequently) in the daily and weekly press, that Darwin and + myself discovered "Natural Selection" simultaneously, while a more + daring few have declared that I was _the first_ to discover it, + and I gave way to Darwin! + + In order to avoid further errors of this kind (which this + Celebration may possibly encourage), I think it will be well to + give the actual facts as simply and clearly as possible. + + The _one fact_ that connects me with Darwin, and which, I am happy + to say, has never been doubted, is that the idea of what is now + termed "natural selection" or "survival of the fittest," together + with its far-reaching consequences, occurred to us + _independently_, and was first jointly announced before this + Society fifty years ago. + + But, what is often forgotten by the Press and the public is, that + the idea occurred to Darwin in 1838, nearly twenty years earlier + than to myself (in February, 1858); and that during the whole of + that twenty years he had been laboriously collecting evidence from + the vast mass of literature of biology, of horticulture, and of + agriculture; as well as himself carrying out ingenious experiments + and original observations, the extent of which is indicated by the + range of subjects discussed in his "Origin of Species," and + especially in that wonderful storehouse of knowledge, his "Animals + and Plants under Domestication," almost the whole materials for + which work had been collected, and to a large extent systematised, + during that twenty years. + + So far back as 1844, at a time when I had hardly thought of any + serious study of nature, Darwin had written an outline of his + views, which he communicated to his friends Sir Charles Lyell and + Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker. The former strongly urged him to + publish an abstract of his theory as soon as possible, lest some + other person might precede him; but he always refused till he had + got together the whole of the materials for his intended great + work. Then, at last, Lyell's prediction was fulfilled, and, + without any apparent warning, my letter, with the enclosed essay, + came upon him, like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky! This + forced him to what he considered a premature publicity, and his + two friends undertook to have our two papers read before this + Society. + + How different from this long study and preparation--this + philosophical caution--this determination not to make known his + fruitful conception till he could back it up by overwhelming + proofs--was my own conduct. + + The idea came to me as it had come to Darwin, in a sudden flash of + insight; it was thought out in a few hours--was written down with + such a sketch of its various applications and developments as + occurred to me at the moment--then copied on thin letter paper and + sent off to Darwin--all within one week. _I_ was then (as often + since) the "young man in a hurry": _he_, the painstaking and + patient student seeking ever the full demonstration of the truth + that he had discovered, rather than to achieve immediate personal + fame. + + Such being the actual facts of the case, I should have had no + cause for complaint if the respective shares of Darwin and myself + in regard to the elucidation of Nature's method of organic + development had been henceforth estimated as being, roughly, + proportional to the time we had each bestowed upon it when it was + thus first given to the world--that is to say, as twenty years is + to one week. For, he had already made it his own. If the + persuasion of his friends had prevailed with him, and he had + published his theory after ten years'--fifteen years'--or even + eighteen years' elaboration of it--_I_ should have had no part in + it whatever, and _he_ would have been at once recognised as the + sole and undisputed discoverer and patient investigator of this + great law of "Natural Selection" in all its far-reaching + consequences. + + It was really a singular piece of good luck that gave to me any + share whatever in the discovery. During the first half of the + nineteenth century (and even earlier) many great biological + thinkers and workers had been pondering over the problem and had + even suggested ingenious but inadequate solutions. Some of these + men were among the greatest intellects of our time, yet, till + Darwin, all had failed; and it was only Darwin's extreme desire to + perfect his work that allowed me to come in, as a very bad second, + in the truly Olympian race in which all philosophical biologists, + from Buffon and Erasmus Darwin to Richard Owen and Robert + Chambers, were more or less actively engaged. + + And this brings me to the very interesting question: Why did so + many of the greatest intellects fail, while Darwin and myself hit + upon the solution of this problem--a solution which this + Celebration proves to have been (and still to be) a satisfying one + to a large number of those best able to form a judgment on its + merits? As I have found what seems to me a good and precise answer + to this question, and one which is of some psychological interest, + I will, with your permission, briefly state what it is. + + On a careful consideration, we find a curious series of + correspondences, both in mind and in environment, which led Darwin + and myself, alone among our contemporaries, to reach identically + the same theory. + + First (and most important, as I believe), in early life both + Darwin and myself became ardent beetle-hunters. Now there is + certainly no group of organisms that so impresses the collector by + the almost infinite number of its specific forms, the endless + modifications of structure, shape, colour, and surface-markings + that distinguish them from each other, and their innumerable + adaptations to diverse environments. These interesting features + are exhibited almost as strikingly in temperate as in tropical + regions, our own comparatively limited island-fauna possessing + more than 3,000 species of this one order of insects. + + Again, both Darwin and myself had what he terms "the mere passion + for collecting," not that of studying the minutiae of structure, + either internal or external. I should describe it rather as an + intense interest in the variety of living things--the variety that + catches the eye of the observer even among those which are very + much alike, but which are soon found to differ in several distinct + characters. + + Now it is this superficial and almost child-like interest in the + outward forms of living things which, though often despised as + unscientific, happened to be _the only one_ which would lead us + towards a solution of the problem of species. For Nature herself + distinguishes her species by just such characters--often + exclusively so, always in some degree--very small changes in + outline, or in the proportions of appendages--as give a quite + distinct and recognisable facies to each, often aided by slight + peculiarities in motion or habit; while in a larger number of + cases differences of surface-texture, of colour, or in the details + of the same general scheme of colour-pattern or of shading, give + an unmistakable individuality to closely allied species. + + It is the constant search for and detection of these often + unexpected differences between very similar creatures that gives + such an intellectual charm and fascination to the mere collection + of these insects; and when, as in the case of Darwin and myself, + the collectors were of a speculative turn of mind, they were + constantly led to think upon the "why" and the "how" of all this + wonderful variety in nature--this overwhelming and, at first + sight, purposeless wealth of specific forms among the very + humblest forms of life. + + Then, a little later (and with both of us almost accidentally) we + became travellers, collectors, and observers, in some of the + richest and most interesting portions of the earth; and we thus + had forced upon our attention all the strange phenomena of local + and geographical distribution, with the numerous problems to + which they give rise. Thenceforward our interest in the great + mystery of _how_ species came into existence was intensified, + and--again to use Darwin's expression--"haunted" us. + + Finally, both Darwin and myself, at the critical period when our + minds were freshly stored with a considerable body of personal + observation and reflection bearing upon the problem to be solved, + had our attention directed to the system of _positive checks_ as + expounded by Malthus in his "Principles of Population." The effect + of that was analogous to that of friction upon the specially + prepared match, producing that flash of insight which led us + immediately to the simple but universal law of the "survival of + the fittest," as the long-sought _effective_ cause of the + continuous modification and adaptations of living things. + + It is an unimportant detail that Darwin read this book two years + _after_ his return from his voyage, while I read it _before_ I + went abroad, and it was a sudden recollection of its teachings + that caused the solution to flash upon me. I attach much + importance, however, to the large amount of solitude we both + enjoyed during our travels, which, at the most impressionable + period of our lives, gave us ample time for reflection on the + phenomena we were daily observing. + + This view, of the combination of certain mental faculties and + external conditions that led Darwin and myself to an identical + conception, also serves to explain why none of our precursors or + contemporaries hit upon what is really so very simple a solution + of the great problem. Such evolutionists as Robert Chambers, + Herbert Spencer, and Huxley, though of great intellect, wide + knowledge, and immense power of work, had none of them the special + turn of mind that makes the collector and the species-man; while + they all--as well as the equally great thinker on similar lines, + Sir Charles Lyell--became in early life immersed in different + lines of research which engaged their chief attention. + + Neither did the actual precursors of Darwin in the statement of + the principle--Wells, Matthews and Prichard--possess any adequate + knowledge of the class of facts above referred to, or sufficient + antecedent interest in the problem itself, which were both needed + in order to perceive the application of the principle to the mode + of development of the varied forms of life. + + And now, to recur to my own position, I may be allowed to make a + final remark. I have long since come to see that no one deserves + either praise or blame for the _ideas_ that come to him, but only + for the actions resulting therefrom. Ideas and beliefs are + certainly not voluntary acts. They come to us--we hardly know + _how_ or _whence_, and once they have got possession of us we + cannot reject or change them at will. It is for the common good + that the promulgation of ideas should be free--uninfluenced either + by praise or blame, reward or punishment. + + But the _actions_ which result from our ideas may properly be so + treated, because it is only by patient thought and work that new + ideas, if good and true, become adapted and utilised; while if + untrue, or if not adequately presented to the world, they are + rejected or forgotten. + + I therefore accept the crowning honour you have conferred on me + to-day, not for the happy chance through which I became an + independent originator of the doctrine of "survival of the + fittest," but as a too liberal recognition by you of the moderate + amount of time and work I have given to explain and elucidate the + theory, to point out some novel applications of it, and (I hope I + may add) for my attempts to extend those applications, even in + directions which somewhat diverged from those accepted by my + honoured friend and teacher Charles Darwin. + +Sir Joseph Hooker was now called upon by the President to receive the +Darwin-Wallace Medal. In acknowledging the honour that had been paid +him, he said: + + No thesis or subject was vouchsafed to me by the Council, but, + having gratefully accepted the honour, I was bound to find one for + myself. It soon dawned upon me that the object sought by my + selection might have been that, considering the intimate terms + upon which Mr. Darwin extended to me his friendship, I could from + my memory contribute to the knowledge of some important events in + his career. It having been intimated to me that this was in a + measure true, I have selected as such an event one germane to this + Celebration and also engraven on my memory, namely, the + considerations which determined Mr. Darwin to assent to the course + which Sir Charles Lyell and myself had suggested to him, that of + presenting to the Society, in one communication, his own and Mr. + Wallace's theories on the effect of variation and the struggle for + existence on the evolution of species. + + You have all read Francis Darwin's fascinating work as editor of + his father's "Life and Letters," where you will find (Vol. II., p. + 116) a letter addressed, on the 18th of June, 1858, to Sir Charles + Lyell by Mr. Darwin, who states that he had on that day received a + communication from Mr. Wallace written from the Celebes Islands + requesting that it might be sent to him (Sir Charles). + + In a covering letter Mr. Darwin pointed out that the enclosure + contained a sketch of a theory of Natural Selection as depending + on the struggle for existence so identical with one he himself + entertained and fully described in MS. in 1842 that he never saw a + more striking coincidence: had Mr. Wallace seen his sketch he + could not have made a better short abstract, even his terms + standing "as heads of chapters." He goes on to say that he would + at once write to Mr. Wallace offering to send his MS. to any + journal; and concludes: "So my originality is smashed, though my + book [the forthcoming 'Origin of Species'], if it will have any + value will not be deteriorated, as all know the labour consists in + the application of the theory." + + After writing to Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. Darwin informed me of Mr. + Wallace's letter and its enclosure, in a similar strain, only more + explicitly announcing his resolve to abandon all claim to priority + for his own sketch. I could not but protest against such a course, + no doubt reminding him that I had read it and that Sir Charles + knew its contents some years before the arrival of Mr. Wallace's + letter; and that our withholding our knowledge of its priority + would be unjustifiable. I further suggested the simultaneous + publication of the two, and offered--should he agree to such a + compromise--to write to Mr. Wallace fully informing him of the + motives of the course adopted. + + In answer Mr. Darwin thanked me warmly for my offer to explain all + to Mr. Wallace, and in a later letter he informed me that he was + disposed to look favourably on my suggested compromise, but that + before making up his mind he desired a second opinion as to + whether he could honourably claim priority, and that he proposed + applying to Sir Charles Lyell for this. I need not say that this + was a relief to me, knowing as I did what Sir Charles's answer + must be. + + In Vol. II., pp. 117-18, of the "Life and Letters," Mr. Darwin's + application to Sir Charles Lyell is given, dated June 26th, with a + postscript dated June 27th. In it he requests that the answer + shall be sent to me to be forwarded to himself. I have no + recollection of reading the answer, which is not to be found + either in Darwin's or my own correspondence; it was no doubt + satisfactory. + + Further action was now left in the hands of Sir Charles and + myself, we all agreeing that, whatever action was taken, the + result should be offered for publication to the Linnean Society. + + On June 29th Mr. Darwin wrote to me in acute distress, being + himself very ill, and scarlet fever raging in the family, to which + one infant son had succumbed on the previous day, and a daughter + was ill with diphtheria. He acknowledged the receipt of the letter + from me, adding, "I cannot think now of the subject, but soon + will: you shall hear as soon as I can think"; and on the night of + the same day he writes again, telling me that he is quite + prostrated and can do nothing but send certain papers for which I + had asked as essential for completing the prefatory statement to + the communication to the Linnean Society of Mr. Wallace's + essay.... + + The communications were read, as was the custom in those days, by + the Secretary to the Society. Mr. Darwin himself, owing to his + illness and distress, could not be present. Sir Charles Lyell and + myself said a few words to emphasise the importance of the + subject, but, as recorded in the "Life and Letters" (Vol. II., p. + 126), although intense interest was excited, no discussion took + place: "the subject was too novel, too ominous, for the old school + to enter the lists before armouring." ... + + It must also be noticed that for the detailed history given above + there is no documentary evidence beyond what Francis Darwin has + produced in the "Life and Letters." There are no letters from + Lyell relating to it, not even answers to Mr. Darwin's of the + 18th, 25th, and 26th of June; and Sir Leonard Lyell has at my + request very kindly but vainly searched his uncle's correspondence + for any relating to this subject beyond the two above mentioned. + There are none of my letters to either Lyell or Darwin, nor other + evidence of their having existed beyond the latter's + acknowledgment of the receipt of some of them; and, most + surprising of all, Mr. Wallace's letter and its enclosure have + disappeared. Such is my recollection of this day, the fiftieth + anniversary of which we are now celebrating, and of the fortnight + that immediately preceded it. + + It remains for me to ask your forgiveness for intruding upon your + time and attention with the half-century-old real or fancied + memories of a nonagenarian as contributions to the history of the + most notable event in the annals of Biology that had followed the + appearance in 1735 of the "Systema Naturae" of Linnaeus. + +Following Sir J. Hooker, the President, referring to Prof. Haeckel, who +was unable to be present, said that he was "the great apostle of the +Darwin-Wallace theory in Germany ... his enthusiastic and gallant +advocacy [having] chiefly contributed to its success in that country.... +A man of world-wide reputation, the leader on the Continent of the 'Old +Guard' of evolutionary biologists, Prof. Haeckel was one whom the +Linnean Society delighted to honour." Two more German scientists were +honoured with the Medal, namely Prof. August Weismann (who was also +absent), and Prof. Eduard Strasburger, the latter paying a special +tribute to Wallace in saying: "When I was young the investigations and +the thought of Alfred Russel Wallace brought me a great stimulus. +Through his 'Malay Archipelago' a new world of scientific knowledge was +unfolded before me. On this occasion I feel it my duty to proclaim it +with gratitude." The Medal was then presented to Sir Francis Galton, who +delivered a notable speech in responding. The last on this occasion to +receive the Medal was Sir E. Ray Lankester, who, in replying to the +President's graceful speech, referred to the happy relationships which +had existed between the contemporary men of science of his own time, but +with special reference to Darwin and Wallace he said: + + Never was there a more beautiful example of modesty, of unselfish + admiration for another's work, of loyal determination that the + other should receive the full merit of his independent labours and + thoughts, than was shown by Charles Darwin on that occasion.... + + Subsequently, throughout all their arduous work and varied + publications upon the great doctrine which they on that day + unfolded to humanity ... the same complete absence of rivalry + characterised these high-minded Englishmen, even when in some + outcomes of their doctrine they were not in perfect agreement.... + I think I am able to say that great as was the interest excited by + the new doctrine in the scientific world, and wild and angry as + was the opposition to it in some quarters, few, if any, who took + part in the scenes attending the birth and earlier reception of + Darwin's "Origin of Species" had a prevision of the enormous and + all-important influence which that doctrine was destined to + exercise upon every line of human thought.... It is in its + application to the problems of human society that there still + remains an enormous field of work and discovery for the + Darwin-Wallace doctrine. + + In the special branch of study which Wallace himself set + going--the inquiry into the local variations, races, and species + of insects as evidence of descent with modification, and of the + mechanism by which that modification is brought about--there is + still great work in progress, still an abundant field to be + reaped.... Several able observers and experimenters have set + themselves the task of improving, if possible, the theoretical + structure raised by Darwin and Wallace.... But I venture to + express the opinion that they have none of them resulted in any + serious modification of the great doctrine submitted to the + Linnean Society on July 1st, 1858, by Charles Darwin and Alfred + Russel Wallace. Not only do the main lines of the theory of Darwin + and Wallace remain unchanged, but the more it is challenged by new + suggestions and new hypotheses the more brilliantly do the + novelty, the importance, and the permanent value of the work by + those great men, to-day commemorated by us, shine forth as the one + great epoch-making effort of human thought on this subject. + +Sir Francis Darwin and Sir William Thiselton-Dyer spoke on behalf of +Schools which had sent representatives to the meeting; Prof. Loennberg +and Sir Archibald Geikie on behalf of the Academies and Societies; while +Lord Avebury delivered the concluding address. + +Any summary of this period in the lives of Darwin and Wallace would be +incomplete without some distinct reference to one other name, namely, +that of Herbert Spencer, whom I have linked with them in the +Introduction. + +While we owe to Darwin and Wallace a definite theory of organic +development, it must be remembered that Spencer included this in the +general scheme of Evolution which grew as slowly but surely in his +mind--and as independently as did that of the origin of species in the +minds of Darwin and Wallace. Huxley recalls: "Within the ranks of +biologists, at that time, I met with nobody except Dr. Grant, of +University College, who had a word to say for Evolution--and his +advocacy was not calculated to advance the cause. Outside these ranks, +the only person known to me whose knowledge and capacity compelled +respect, and who was, at the same time, a thorough-going evolutionist, +was Mr. Herbert Spencer.... Many and prolonged were the battles we +fought on this topic.... I took my stand upon two grounds: first, that +up to that time the evidence in favour of transmutation was wholly +insufficient; and, secondly, that no suggestions respecting the causes +of the transmutations assumed ... were in any war adequate to explain +the phenomena. Looking back at the state of knowledge at that time, I +really do not see that any other conclusion was justifiable."[25] + +And Prof. Raphael Meldola, in a lecture on Evolution wherein he compares +the impression left by each of these great founders of that school upon +the current of modern thought, says: "Through all ... his [Spencer's] +writings the underlying idea of development can be traced with +increasing depth and breadth, expanding in 1850 in his 'Social Statics' +to a foreshadowing of the general doctrine of Evolution. In 1852 his +views on organic evolution had become so definite that he gave public +expression to them in that well-known and powerful essay on 'The +Development Hypothesis.' ... In the 'Principles of Psychology,' the +first edition of which was published in 1855, the evolutionary principle +was dominant. By 1858--the year of the announcement of Natural Selection +by Darwin and Wallace--he had conceived the great general scheme and had +sketched out the first draft of the prospectus of the Synthetic +Philosophy, the final and amended syllabus [being] issued in 1860. The +work of Darwin and Spencer from that period, although moving along +independent lines, was directed towards the same end, notwithstanding +the diversity of materials which they made use of and the differences in +their methods of attack; that end was the establishment of Evolution as +a great natural principle or law."[26] + +In this connection it is especially interesting to note how near Spencer +had come to the conception of Natural Selection without grasping its +full significance. In an article on a "Theory of Population" (published +in the _Westminster Review_ for April, 1852) he wrote: "And here, +indeed, without further illustration, it will be seen that premature +death, under all its forms and from all its causes, cannot fail to work +in the same direction. For as those prematurely carried off must, in the +average of cases, be those in whom the power of self-preservation is the +least, it unavoidably follows that those left behind to continue the +race must be those in whom the power of self-preservation is the +greatest--must be the select of their generation. So that whether the +dangers of existence be of the kind produced by excess of fertility, or +of any other kind, it is clear that by the ceaseless exercise of the +faculties needed to contend with them, and by the death of all men who +fail to contend with them successfully, there is ensured a constant +progress towards a higher degree of skill, intelligence, +self-regulation--a better co-ordinance of actions--a more complete +life." + +Up to the period of the publication of the "Origin of Species" and the +first conception of the scheme of the Synthetic Philosophy there had +been no communication between Darwin and Spencer beyond the presentation +by Spencer of a copy of his Essays to Darwin in 1858, which was duly +acknowledged. But by the time the "Origin of Species" had been before +the public for eight years, the Darwinian principle of selection had +become an integral part of the Spencerian mechanism of organic +evolution. Indeed the term "survival of the fittest," approved by both +Darwin and Wallace as an alternative for "natural selection," was, as is +well known, introduced by Spencer. + +Wallace's relations with Spencer, though somewhat controversial at +times, were nevertheless cordial and sympathetic. In "My Life" he tells +of his first visit, and the impression left upon his mind by their +conversation. It occurred somewhere about 1862-3, shortly after he and +Bates had read, and been greatly impressed by, Spencer's "First +Principles." "Our thoughts," he says, "were full of the great unsolved +problem of the origin of life--a problem which Darwin's 'Origin of +Species' left in as much obscurity as ever--and we looked to Spencer as +the one man living who could give us some clue to it. His wonderful +exposition of the fundamental laws and conditions, actions and +interactions of the material universe seemed to penetrate so deeply into +that 'nature of things' after which the early philosophers searched in +vain ... that we hoped he would throw some light on that great problem +of problems.... He was very pleasant, spoke appreciatively of what we +had both done for the practical exposition of evolution, and hoped we +would continue to work at the subject. But when we touched upon the +great problem, and whether he had arrived at even one of the first steps +towards its solution, our hopes were dashed at once. That, he said, was +too fundamental a problem to even think of solving at present. We did +not yet know enough of matter in its essential constitution nor of the +various forces of nature; and all he could say was that everything +pointed to its having been a development out of matter--a phase of that +continuous process of evolution by which the whole universe had been +brought to its present condition. And so we had to wait and work +contentedly at minor problems. And now, after forty years, though +Spencer and Darwin and Weismann have thrown floods of light on the +phenomena of life, its essential nature and its origin remain as great a +mystery as ever. Whatever light we do possess is from a source which +Spencer and Darwin neglected or ignored."[27] + +In his presidential address to the Entomological Society in 1872 Wallace +made some special allusion to Spencer's theory of the origin of +instincts, and on receiving a copy of the address Spencer wrote: "It is +gratifying to me to find that your extended knowledge does not lead you +to scepticism respecting the speculation of mine which you quote, but +rather enables you to cite further facts in justification of it. +Possibly your exposition will lead some of those, in whose lines of +investigation the question lies, to give deliberate attention to it." A +further proof of his confidence was shown by asking Wallace (in 1874) to +look over the proofs of the first six chapters of his "Principles of +Sociology" in order that he might have the benefit of his criticisms +alike as naturalist, anthropologist, and traveller. + +This brief reference to the illustrious group of men to whom we owe the +foundations of this new epoch of evolutionary thought--and not the +foundations only, but also the patient building up of the structure upon +which each one continued to perform his allotted task--and the prefatory +notes and the footnotes attached to the letters will serve to elucidate +the historical correspondence between Darwin and Wallace which follows. + + + + +PART II (_Continued_) + + + + +II.--The Complete Extant Correspondence between Wallace and Darwin + +[1857--81] + + "I hope it is a satisfaction to you to reflect--and very few + things in my life have been more satisfactory to me--that we have + never felt any jealousy towards each other, though in some senses + rivals. I believe I can say this of myself with truth, and I am + absolutely sure that it is true of you."--DARWIN to Wallace. + + "To have thus inspired and retained this friendly feeling, + notwithstanding our many differences of opinion, I feel to be one + of the greatest honours of my life."--WALLACE to Darwin. + + "I think the way he [Wallace] carries on controversy is perfectly + beautiful, and in future histories of science the Wallace-Darwin + episode will form one of the few bright points among rival + claimants."--ERASMUS DARWIN to his niece, Henrietta Darwin, 1871. + + +The first eight letters from Darwin to Wallace were found amongst the +latter's papers, carefully preserved in an envelope on the outside of +which he had written the words reproduced on the next page. Neither +Wallace's part of this correspondence, nor the original MS. of his essay +"On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original +Type," which he sent to Darwin from Ternate, has been discovered. But +these eight letters from Darwin explain themselves and reveal the inner +story of the independent discovery of the theory of Natural Selection. + +With respect to the letters which follow the first eight, both sides of +the correspondence, with few exceptions, have been brought together. +Some of the letters have already appeared in "The Life and Letters of +Charles Darwin" and "More Letters," others in "My Life," by A.R. +Wallace, whilst many have not before been published. + +Some of these letters, in themselves, have little more than ephemeral +interest, and parts of other letters could have been eliminated, from +the point of view of lightening this volume and of economising the +reader's attention. But I decided, with the fullest approval of the +Wallace and Darwin families, that the letters of these illustrious +correspondents should be here presented as a whole, without mutilation. + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF INSCRIPTION BY WALLACE ON THE ENVELOPE IN +WHICH HE KEPT THE FIRST EIGHT LETTERS HE RECEIVED FROM DARWIN.] + +Many of the notes of explanation to the Wallace letters have been +gathered from his own writings, and are mainly in his own words, and in +such cases the reader has the advantage of perusing letters annotated by +their author, while most of the notes to the Darwin letters are by Sir +F. Darwin. + + * * * * * + +LETTER I + +C. DARWIN to A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, May 1, 1857._ + +My dear Sir,--I am much obliged for your letter of Oct. 10th from +Celebes, received a few days ago: in a laborious undertaking, sympathy +is a valuable and real encouragement. By your letter, and even still +more by your paper in the _Annals_,[28] a year or more ago, I can plainly +see that we have thought much alike and to a certain extent have come to +similar conclusions. In regard to the paper in the _Annals_, I agree to +the truth of almost every word of your paper; and I daresay that you +will agree with me that it is very rare to find oneself agreeing pretty +closely with any theoretical paper; for it is lamentable how each man +draws his own different conclusions from the very same fact. This summer +will make the twentieth year (!) since I opened my first note-book on +the question how and in what way do species and varieties differ from +each other. I am now preparing my work for publication, but I find the +subject so very large, that though I have written many chapters, I do +not suppose I shall go to press for two years. + +I have never heard how long you intend staying in the Malay Archipelago; +I wish I might profit by the publication of your Travels there before my +work appears, for no doubt you will reap a large harvest of facts. + +I have acted already in accordance with your advice of keeping domestic +varieties, and those appearing in a state of nature, distinct; but I +have sometimes doubted of the wisdom of this, and therefore I am glad to +be backed by your opinion. I must confess, however, I rather doubt the +truth of the now very prevalent doctrine of all our domestic animals +having descended from several wild stocks; though I do not doubt that it +is so in some cases. I think there is rather better evidence on the +sterility of hybrid animals than you seem to admit: and in regard to +plants, the collection of carefully recorded facts by Koelreuter and +Gaertner (and Herbert) is _enormous_. I most entirely agree with you on +the little effect of "climatic conditions" which one sees referred to +_ad nauseam_ in all books: I suppose some very little effect must be +attributed to such influences, but I fully believe that they are very +slight. It is really _impossible_ to explain my views in the compass of +a letter as to causes and means of variation in a state of nature; but I +have slowly adopted a distinct and tangible idea--whether true or false +others must judge; for the firmest conviction of the truth of a doctrine +by its author seems, alas, not to be the slightest guarantee of truth. + +I have been rather disappointed at my results in the poultry line; but +if you should, after receiving this, stumble on any curious domestic +breed, I should be very glad to have it; but I can plainly see that the +result will not be at all worth the trouble which I have taken. The case +is different with the domestic pigeons; from its study I have learned +much. The Rajah has sent me some of his pigeons and fowls and _cats'_ +skins from the interior of Borneo and from Singapore. Can you tell me +positively that black jaguars or leopards are believed generally or +always to pair with black? I do not think colour of offspring good +evidence. Is the case of parrots fed on fat of fish turning colour +mentioned in your Travels? I remember a case of parrots with (I think) +poison from some toad put into hollow whence primaries had been removed. + +One of the subjects on which I have been experimenting, and which cost +me much trouble, is the means of distribution of all organic beings +found on oceanic islands; and any facts on this subject would be most +gratefully received. + +Land-molluscs are a great perplexity to me. This is a very dull letter, +but I am a good deal out of health, and am writing this, not from my +home, as dated, but from a water-cure establishment. + +With most sincere good wishes for your success in every way, I remain, +my dear Sir, yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +LETTER II + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. December 22, 1867._ + +My dear Sir,--I thank you for your letter of Sept. 27th. I am extremely +glad to hear that you are attending to distribution in accordance with +theoretical ideas. I am a firm believer that without speculation there +is no good and original observation. Few travellers have attended to +such points as you are now at work on; and indeed the whole subject of +distribution of animals is dreadfully behind that of plants. You say +that you have been somewhat surprised at no notice having been taken of +your paper in the _Annals_. I cannot say that I am; for so very few +naturalists care for anything beyond the mere description of species. +But you must not suppose that your paper has not been attended to: two +very good men, Sir C. Lyell, and Mr. E. Blyth at Calcutta, specially +called my attention to it. Though agreeing with you on your conclusions +in the paper, I believe I go much further than you; but it is too long a +subject to enter on my speculative notions. I have not yet seen your +paper on distribution of animals in the Aru Islands: I shall read it +with the _utmost_ interest; for I think that the most interesting +quarter of the whole globe in respect to distribution; and I have long +been very imperfectly trying to collect data from the Malay Archipelago. +I shall be quite prepared to subscribe to your doctrine of subsidence: +indeed from the quite independent evidence of the coral reefs I coloured +my original map in my Coral volumes colours [_sic_] of the Aru Islands +as one of subsidence, but got frightened and left it uncoloured. But I +can see that you are inclined to go _much_ further than I am in regard +to the former connection of oceanic islands with continents. Ever since +poor E. Forbes propounded this doctrine, it has been eagerly followed; +and Hooker elaborately discusses the former connection of all the +Antarctic islands and New Zealand and South America. About a year ago I +discussed the subject much with Lyell and Hooker (for I shall have to +treat of it) and wrote out my arguments in opposition; but you will be +glad to hear that neither Lyell nor Hooker thought much of my arguments; +nevertheless, for once in my life I dare withstand the almost +preternatural sagacity of Lyell. You ask about land-shells on islands +far distant from continents: Madeira has a few identical with those of +Europe, and here the evidence is really good, as some of them are +sub-fossil. In the Pacific islands there are cases of identity, which I +cannot at present persuade myself to account for by introduction through +man's agency; although Dr. Aug. Gould has conclusively shown that many +land-shells have thus been distributed over the Pacific by man's agency. +These cases of introduction are most plaguing. Have you not found it so +in the Malay Archipelago? It has seemed to me, in the lists of mammals +of Timor and other islands, that _several_ in all probability have been +naturalised. + +Since writing before, I have experimented a little on some +land-molluscs, and have found sea-water not quite so deadly as I +anticipated. You ask whether I shall discuss Man: I think I shall avoid +the whole subject, as so surrounded with prejudices, though I fully +admit that it is the highest and most interesting problem for the +naturalist. My work, on which I have now been at work more or less for +twenty years, will _not_ fix or settle anything; but I hope it will aid +by giving a large collection of facts with one definite end. I get on +very slowly, partly from ill-health, partly from being a very slow +worker. I have got about half written; but I do not suppose I shall +publish under a couple of years. I have now been three whole months on +one chapter on hybridism! + +I am astonished to see that you expect to remain out three or four years +more: what a wonderful deal you will have seen; and what an interesting +area, the grand Malay Archipelago and the richest parts of South +America! I infinitely admire and honour your zeal and courage in the +good cause of natural science; and you have my very sincere and cordial +good wishes for success of all kinds; and may all your theories succeed, +except that on oceanic islands, on which subject I will do battle to the +death.--Pray believe me, my dear Sir, yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +LETTER III + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. January 25, 1859._ + +My dear Sir,--I was extremely much pleased at receiving three days ago +your letter to me and that to Dr. Hooker. Permit me to say how heartily +I admire the spirit in which they are written. Though I had absolutely +nothing whatever to do in leading Lyell and Hooker to what they thought +a fair course of action, yet I naturally could not but feel anxious to +hear what your impression would be. I owe indirectly much to you and +them; for I almost think that Lyell would have proved right and I should +never have completed my larger work, for I have found my abstract[29] +hard enough with my poor health; but now, thank God, I am in my last +chapter but one. My abstract will make a small volume of 400 or 500 +pages. Whenever published, I will of course send you a copy, and then +you will see what I mean about the part which I believe selection has +played with domestic productions. It is a very different part, as you +suppose, from that played by "natural selection." + +I sent off, by same address as this note, a copy of the _Journal of the +Linnean Society_, and subsequently I have sent some half-dozen copies of +the Paper. I have many other copies at your disposal; and I sent two to +your friend Dr. Davies (?), author of works on men's skulls. + +I am glad to hear that you have been attending to birds' nests; I have +done so, though almost exclusively under one point of view, viz. to show +that instincts vary, so that selection could work on and improve them. +Few other instincts, so to speak, can be preserved in a museum. + +Many thanks for your offer to look after horses' stripes; if there are +any donkeys', pray add them. + +I am delighted to hear that you have collected bees' combs; when next in +London I will inquire of F. Smith and Mr. Saunders. This is an especial +hobby of mine, and I think I can throw light on the subject. If you can +collect duplicates at no very great expense, I should be glad of +specimens for myself, with some bees of each kind. Young growing and +irregular combs, and those which have not had pupae, are most valuable +for measurements and examination; their edges should be well protected +against abrasion. + +Everyone whom I have seen has thought your paper very well written and +interesting. It puts my extracts (written in 1839, now just twenty years +ago!), which I must say in apology were never for an instant intended +for publication, in the shade. + +You ask about Lyell's frame of mind. I think he is somewhat staggered, +but does not give in, and speaks with horror often to me of what a thing +it would be and what a job it would be for the next edition of the +Principles if he were "perverted." But he is most candid and honest, and +I think will end by being perverted. Dr. Hooker has become almost as +heterodox as you or I--and I look at Hooker as _by far_ the most capable +judge in Europe. + +Most cordially do I wish you health and entire success in all your +pursuits; and God knows, if admirable zeal and energy deserve success, +most amply do you deserve it. I look at my own career as nearly run out; +if I can publish my abstract, and perhaps my greater work on the same +subject, I shall look at my course as done.--Believe me, my dear Sir, +yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +LETTER IV + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. April 6, 1859._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--I this morning received your pleasant and friendly +note of Nov. 30th. The first part of my MS.[30] is in Murray's hands, to +see if he likes to publish it. There is no Preface, but a short +Introduction, which must be read by everyone who reads my book. The +second paragraph in the Introduction[31] I have had copied _verbatim_ +from my foul copy, and you will, I hope, think that I have fairly +noticed your papers in the _Linnean Transactions_.[32] You must remember +that I am now publishing only an Abstract, and I give no references. I +shall of course allude to your paper on Distribution;[33] and I have +added that I know from correspondence that your explanation of your law +is the same as that which I offer. You are right, that I came to the +conclusion that Selection was the principle of change from study of +domesticated productions; and then reading Malthus I saw at once how to +apply this principle. Geographical distribution and geographical +relations of extinct to recent inhabitants of South America first led me +to the subject. Especially the case of the Galapagos Islands. + +I hope to go to press in early part of next month. It will be a small +volume of about 500 pages or so. I will, of course, send you a copy. + +I forget whether I told you that Hooker, who is our best British +botanist, and perhaps the best in the world, is a _full_ convert, and is +now going immediately to publish his confession of faith; and I expect +daily to see the proof-sheets. Huxley is changed and believes in +mutation of species: whether a _convert_ to us, I do not quite know. We +shall live to see all the _younger_ men converts. My neighbour and +excellent naturalist, J. Lubbock, is an enthusiastic convert. I see by +Natural History notices that you are doing great work in the +Archipelago; and most heartily do I sympathise with you. For God's sake +take care of your health. There have been few such noble labourers in +the cause of natural science as you are. Farewell, with every good +wish.--Yours sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + +P.S.--You cannot tell how I admire your spirit, in the manner in which +you have taken all that was done about publishing our papers. I had +actually written a letter to you, stating that I would _not_ publish +anything before you had published. I had not sent that letter to the +post when I received one from Lyell and Hooker, _urging_ me to send some +MS. to them, and allow them to act as they thought fair and honourably +to both of us. I did so. + + * * * * * + +LETTER V + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. August 9, 1859._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--I received your letter and memoir[34] on the 7th, +and will forward it to-morrow to the Linnean Society. But you will be +aware that there is no meeting till beginning of November. Your paper +seems to me _admirable_ in matter, style and reasoning; and I thank you +for allowing me to read it. Had I read it some months ago I should have +profited by it for my forthcoming volume. But my two chapters on this +subject are in type; and though not yet corrected, I am so wearied out +and weak in health that I am fully resolved not to add one word, and +merely improve style. So you will see that my views are nearly the same +with yours, and you may rely on it that not one word shall be altered +owing to my having read your ideas. Are you aware that Mr. W. Earl +published several years ago the view of distribution of animals in the +Malay Archipelago in relation to the depth of the sea between the +islands? I was much struck with this, and have been in habit of noting +all facts on distribution in the Archipelago and elsewhere in this +relation. I have been led to conclude that there has been a good deal of +naturalisation in the different Malay islands, and which I have thought +to certain extent would account for anomalies. Timor has been my +greatest puzzle. What do you say to the peculiar _Felis_ there? I wish +that you had visited Timor: it has been asserted that a fossil mastodon +or elephant's tooth (I forget which) had been found there, which would +be a grand fact. I was aware that Celebes was very peculiar; but the +relation to Africa is quite new to me and marvellous, and almost passes +belief. It is as anomalous as the relation of plants in South-West +Australia to the Cape of Good Hope. + +I differ _wholly_ from you on colonisation of _oceanic_ islands, but you +will have _everyone_ else on your side. I quite agree with respect to +all islands not situated far in ocean. I quite agree on little +occasional internavigation between lands when once pretty well stocked +with inhabitants, but think this does not apply to rising and +ill-stocked islands. + +Are you aware that _annually_ birds are blown to Madeira, to Azores (and +to Bermuda from America). I wish I had given fuller abstract of my +reasons for not believing in Forbes's great continental extensions; but +it is too late, for I will alter nothing. I am worn out, and must have +rest. + +Owen, I do not doubt, will bitterly oppose us; but I regard that very +little, as he is a poor reasoner and deeply considers the good opinion +of the world, especially the aristocratic world. + +Hooker is publishing a grand Introduction to the Flora of Australia, and +goes the whole length. I have seen proofs of about half.--With every +good wish, believe me yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + +Excuse this brief note, but I am far from well. + + * * * * * + +LETTER VI + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Ilkley. November 13, 1859._ + +My dear Sir,--I have told Murray to send you by post (if possible) a +copy of my book, and I hope that you will receive it at nearly the same +time with this note. (N.B.--I have got a bad finger, which makes me +write extra badly.) If you are so inclined, I should very much like to +hear your general impression of the book, as you have thought so +profoundly on the subject and in so nearly the same channel with myself. +I hope there will be some little new to you, but I fear not much. +Remember, it is only an abstract, and very much condensed. God knows +what the public will think. No one has read it, except Lyell, with whom +I have had much correspondence. Hooker thinks him a complete convert, +but he does not seem so in his letters to me. But he is evidently deeply +interested in the subject. I do not think your share in the theory will +be overlooked by the real judges, as Hooker, Lyell, Asa Gray, etc. + +I have heard from Mr. Sclater that your paper on the Malay Archipelago +has been read at the Linnean Society, and that he was _extremely_ much +interested by it. + +I have not seen one naturalist for six or nine months owing to the state +of my health, and therefore I really have no news to tell you. I am +writing this at Ilkley Wells, where I have been with my family for the +last six weeks, and shall stay for some few weeks longer. As yet I have +profited very little. God knows when I shall have strength for my bigger +book. + +I sincerely hope that you keep your health: I suppose that you will be +thinking of returning soon with your magnificent collection and still +grander mental materials. You will be puzzled how to publish. The Royal +Society Fund will be worth your consideration.--With every good wish, +pray believe me yours very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + +I think that I told you before that Hooker is a complete convert. If I +can convert Huxley I shall be content. + + * * * * * + +LETTER VII + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 7, 1860._ + +My dear Wallace,--The addresses which you have sent me are capital, +especially that to the Rajah; and I have dispatched two sets of queries. +I now enclose a copy to you, and should be very glad of any answers; you +must not suppose the P.S. about memory has lately been inserted; please +return these queries, as it is my standard copy. The subject is a +curious one; I fancy I shall make a rather interesting appendix to my +Essay on Man. + +I fully admit the probability of "protective adaptation" having come +into play with female butterflies as well as with female birds. I have a +good many facts which make me believe in sexual selection as applied to +man, but whether I shall convince anyone else is very doubtful.--Dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +LETTER VIII + +C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. May 18, 1860._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--I received this morning your letter from Amboyna +dated Feb. 16th, containing some remarks and your too high approbation +of my book. Your letter has pleased me very much, and I most completely +agree with you on the parts which are strongest and which are weakest. +The imperfection of the geological record is, as you say, the weakest of +all; but yet I am pleased to find that there are almost more geological +converts than of pursuers of other branches of natural science. I may +mention Lyell, Ramsay, Jukes, Rogers, Keyerling, all good men and true. +Pictet of Geneva is not a convert, but is evidently staggered (as I +think is Bronn of Heidelberg), and he has written a perfectly fair +review in the _Bib. Universelle_ of Geneva. Old Bronn has translated my +book, well done also into German, and his well-known name will give it +circulation. I think geologists are more converted than simple +naturalists because more accustomed to reasoning. + +Before telling you about the progress of opinion on the subject, you +must let me say how I admire the generous manner in which you speak of +my book: most persons would in your position have felt bitter envy and +jealousy. How nobly free you seem to be of this common failing of +mankind. But you speak far too modestly of yourself; you would, if you +had had my leisure, have done the work just as well, perhaps better, +than I have done it. Talking of envy, you never read anything more +envious and spiteful (with numerous misrepresentations) than Owen is in +the _Edinburgh Review_. I must give one instance; he throws doubts and +sneers at my saying that the ovigerous frena of cirripedes have been +converted into branchiae, because I have not found them to be branchiae; +whereas _he himself_ admits, before I wrote on cirripedes, without the +least hesitation, that their organs are branchiae. The attacks have been +heavy and incessant of late. Sedgwick and Prof. Clarke attacked me +savagely at the Cambridge Philosophical Society, but Henslow defended me +well, though not a convert. Phillips has since attacked me in a lecture +at Cambridge; Sir W. Jardine in the _Edinburgh New Philosophical +Journal_, Wollaston in the _Annals of Nat. History_, A. Murray before +the Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, Haughton at the Geological Society of +Dublin, Dawson in the _Canadian Nat. Magazine_, and _many others_. But I +am getting case-hardened, and all these attacks will make me only more +determinedly fight. Agassiz sends me personal civil messages, but +incessantly attacks me; but Asa Gray fights like a hero in defence. +Lyell keeps as firm as a tower, and this autumn will publish on the +Geological History of Man, and will then declare his conversion, which +now is universally known. I hope that you have received Hooker's +splendid essay. So far is bigotry carried that I can name three +botanists who will not even read Hooker's essay!! Here is a curious +thing: a Mr. Pat. Matthews, a Scotchman, published in 1830 a work on +Naval Timber and Arboriculture, and in the appendix to this he gives +_most clearly_ but very briefly in half-dozen paragraphs our view of +Natural Selection. It is a most complete case of anticipation. He +published extracts in the _Gardeners' Chronicle_. I got the book, and +have since published a letter acknowledging that I am fairly +forestalled. Yesterday I heard from Lyell that a German, Dr. +Schaffhausen, has sent him a pamphlet published some years ago, in +which the same view is nearly anticipated, but I have not yet seen this +pamphlet. My brother, who is a very sagacious man, always said, "You +will find that someone will have been before you." I am at work at my +larger work, which I shall publish in separate volumes. But for +ill-health and swarms of letters I get on very, very slowly. I hope that +I shall not have wearied you with these details. + +[Illustration: A.R. WALLACE SOON AFTER HIS RETURN FROM THE EAST] + +With sincere thanks for your letter, and with most deeply-felt wishes +for your success in science and in every way, believe me your sincere +well-wisher, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +Of the letters from Wallace to Darwin which have been preserved, the +earliest is the following: + + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. April 7, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Darwin,--I was much pleased to receive your note this +morning. I have not yet begun work, but hope to be soon busy. As I am +being doctored a little I do not think I shall be able to accept your +kind invitation at present, but trust to be able to do so during the +summer. + +I beg you to accept a wild honeycomb from the island of Timor, not quite +perfect but the best I could get. It is of a small size, but of +characteristic form, and I think will be interesting to you. I was quite +unable to get the honey out of it, so fear you will find it somewhat in +a mess; but no doubt you will know how to clean it. I have told Stevens +to send it to you. + +Hoping your health is now quite restored and with best wishes, I remain, +my dear Mr. Darwin, yours very sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 23, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Darwin,--Many thanks for your most interesting book on the +Orchids. I have read it through most attentively, and have really been +quite as much staggered by the wonderful adaptations you show to exist +in them as by the _Eye_ in animals or any other complicated organs. I +long to get into the country and have a look at some orchids guided by +your new lights, but I have been now for ten days confined to my room +with what is disagreeable though far from dangerous--boils. + +I have been reading several of the Reviews on the "Origin," and it seems +to me that you have assisted those who want to criticise you by your +overstating the difficulties and objections. Several of them quote your +own words as the strongest arguments against you. + +I think you told me Owen wrote the article in the _Quarterly_. This +seems to me hardly credible, as he speaks so much of Owen, quotes him as +such a great authority, and I believe even calls him a profound +philosopher, etc. etc. Would Owen thus speak of himself? + +Trusting your health is good, I remain, my dear Mr. Darwin, yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 24, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--I write one line to thank you for your note and to +say that the Bishop of Oxford[35] wrote the _Quarterly Review_ (paid +L60), aided by Owen. In the _Edinburgh_ Owen no doubt praised himself. +Mr. Maw's Review in the _Zoologist_ is one of the best, and staggered me +in parts, for I did not see the sophistry of parts. I could lend you any +which you might wish to see; but you would soon be tired. Hopkins and +Pictet in France are two of the best. + +I am glad you approve of my little Orchid book; but it has not been +worth, I fear, the ten months it has cost me: it was a hobby-horse, and +so beguiled me. + +I am sorry to hear that you are suffering from boils; I have often had +fearful crops: I hope that the doctors are right in saying that they are +serviceable. + +How puzzled you must be to know what to begin at. You will do grand +work, I do not doubt. + +My health is, and always will be, very poor: I am that miserable animal +a regular valetudinarian.--Yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. August 8, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Darwin,--I sincerely trust that your little boy is by this +time convalescent, and that you are therefore enabled to follow your +favourite investigations with a more tranquil mind. + +I heard a remark the other day which may not perhaps be new to you, but +seemed to me a fact, if true, in your favour. Mr. Ward (I think it was), +a member of the Microscopical Society, mentioned as a fact noticed by +himself with much surprise that "the muscular fibres of the whale were +no larger than those of the bee!"--an excellent indication of community +of origin. + +While looking at the ostriches the other day at the Gardens, it occurred +to me that they were a case of special difficulty, as, inhabiting an +ancient continent, surrounded by numerous enemies, how did their wings +ever become abortive, and if they did so before the birds had attained +their present gigantic size, strength and speed, how could they in the +transition have maintained their existence? I see Westwood in the +_Annals_ brings forward the same case, arguing that the ostriches should +have acquired better wings within the historic period; but as they are +now the swiftest of animals they evidently do not want their wings, +which in their present state may serve some other trifling purpose in +their economy such as fans, or balancers, which may have prevented their +being reduced to such rudiments as in the cassowaries. The difficulty +to me seems to be, how, if they once had flight, could they have lost +it, surrounded by swift and powerful carnivora against whom it must have +been the only defence? + +This probably is all clear to you, but I think it is a point you might +touch upon, as I think the objection will seem a strong one to most +people. + +In a day or two I go to Devonshire for a few weeks and hope to lay in a +stock of health to enable me to stick to work at my collections during +the winter. I begin to find that large collections involve a heavy +amount of manual labour which is not very agreeable. + +Present my compliments to Mrs. and Miss Darwin, and believe me yours +very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_1 Carlton Terrace, Southampton. August 20, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--You will not be surprised that I have been slow in +answering when I tell you that my poor boy[36] became frightfully worse +after you were at Down; and that during our journey to Bournemouth he +had a slight relapse here and my wife took the scarlet fever rather +severely. She is over the crisis. I have had a horrid time of it, and +God only knows when we shall be all safe at home again--half my family +are at Bournemouth. + +I have given a piece of the comb from Timor to a Mr. Woodbury (who is +working at the subject), and he is _extremely_ interested by it (I was +sure the specimen would be valuable) and has requested me to ascertain +whether the bee (_A. testacea_) is domesticated when it makes its combs. +Will you kindly inform me? + +Your remarks on ostriches have interested me, and I have alluded to the +case in the Third Edition. The difficulty does not seem to me so great +as to you. Think of bustards, which inhabit wide open plains, and which +so seldom take flight: a very little increase in size of body would make +them incapable of flight. The idea of ostriches acquiring flight is +worthy of Westwood; think of the food required in these inhabitants of +the desert to work the pectoral muscles! In the rhea the wings seem of +considerable service in the first start and in turning.[37] ... + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. September 30, 1862._ + +My dear Mr. Darwin,--Many thanks for the third edition of the "Origin," +which I found here on my return from Devonshire on Saturday. I have not +had time yet to read more than the Historical Sketch, which is very +interesting, and shows that the time had quite come for your book. + +I am now reading Herbert Spencer's "First Principles," which seems to me +a truly great work, which goes to the root of everything. + +I hope you will be well enough to come to Cambridge. + +I remain, my dear Mr. Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 14 [1863?]._ + +My dear Mr. Darwin,--I am very sorry indeed to hear you are still in +weak health. Have you ever tried mountain air? A residence at 2,000 or +3,000 ft. elevation is very invigorating. + +I trust your family are now all in good health, and that you may be +spared any anxiety on that score for some time. If you come to town I +shall hope to have the pleasure of seeing you. + +I am now in much better health, but find sudden changes of weather +affect me very much, bringing on ague and fever fits. I am now working a +little, but having fresh collections still arriving from correspondents +in the East, it is principally the drudgery of cleaning, packing, and +arrangement. + +On the opposite page I give all the information I can about the Timor +fossils, so that you can send it entire to Dr. Falconer. + +With best wishes for the speedy recovery of your health, I remain, my +dear Mr. Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 1, 1864._ + +Dear Wallace,--I am still unable to write otherwise than by dictation. +In a letter received two or three weeks ago from Asa Gray he writes: "I +read lately with gusto Wallace's expose of the Dublin man on Bee cells, +etc."[38] + +Now though I cannot read at present, I much want to know where this is +published, that I may procure a copy. Further on Asa Gray says (after +speaking of Agassiz's paper on Glaciers in the _Atlantic Magazine_ and +his recent book entitled "Method of Study"): "Pray set Wallace upon +these articles." So Asa Gray seems to think much of your powers of +reviewing, and I mention this as it assuredly is _laudari a laudato_. + +I hope you are hard at work, and if you are inclined to tell me I should +much like to know what you are doing. + +It will be many months, I fear, before I shall do anything. + +Pray believe me yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 2, 1864._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your kind letter. I was afraid to write +because I heard such sad accounts of your health, but I am glad to find +that you can write, and I presume read, by deputy. My little article on +Haughton's paper was published in the _Annals of Natural History_ about +August or September last, I think, but I have not a copy to refer to. I +am sure it does not deserve Asa Gray's praises, for though the matter +may be true enough, the manner I know is very inferior. It was written +hastily, and when I read it in the _Annals_ I was rather ashamed of it, +as I knew so many could have done it so much better. + +I will try and see Agassiz's paper and book. What I have hitherto seen +of his on Glacial subjects seems very good, but in all his Natural +History _theories_, he seems so utterly wrong and so totally blind to +the plainest deduction from facts, and at the same time so vague and +obscure in his language, that it would be a very long and wearisome task +to answer him. + +With regard to work, I am doing but little--I am afraid I have no good +habit of systematic work. I have been gradually getting parts of my +collections in order, but the obscurities of synonymy and descriptions, +the difficulty of examining specimens, and my very limited library, make +it wearisome work. + +I have been lately getting the first groups of my butterflies in order, +and they offer some most interesting facts in variation and +distribution--in variation some very puzzling ones. Though I have very +fine series of specimens, I find in many cases I want more; in fact if I +could have afforded to have all my collections kept till my return I +should, I think, have found it necessary to retain twice as many as I +now have. + +I am at last making a beginning of a small book on my Eastern journey, +which, if I can persevere, I hope to have ready by next Christmas. I am +a very bad hand at writing anything like narrative. I want something to +argue on, and then I find it much easier to go ahead. I rather despair, +therefore, of making so good a book as Bates's, though I think my +subject is better. Like every other traveller, I suppose, I feel +dreadfully the want of copious notes on common everyday objects, sights +and sounds and incidents, which I imagined I could never forget but +which I now find it impossible to recall with any accuracy. + +I have just had a long and most interesting letter from my old companion +Spruce. He says he has had a letter from you about Melastoma, but has +not, he says, for three years seen a single melastomaceous plant! They +are totally absent from the Pacific plains of tropical America, though +so abundant on the Eastern plains. Poor fellow, he seems to be in a +worse state than you are. Life has been a burden to him for three years +owing to lung and heart disease, and rheumatism, brought on by exposure +in high, hot, and cold damp valleys of the Andes. He went down to the +dry climate of the Pacific coast to die more at ease, but the change +improved him, and he thinks to come home, though he is sure he will not +survive the first winter in England. He had never been able to get a +copy of your book, though I am sure no one would have enjoyed or +appreciated it more. + +If you are able to bear reading, will you allow me to take the liberty +of recommending you a book? The fact is I have been so astonished and +delighted with the perusal of Spencer's works that I think it a duty to +society to recommend them to all my friends who I think can appreciate +them. The one I particularly refer to now is "Social Statics," a book +which is by no means hard to read; it is even amusing, and owing to the +wonderful clearness of its style may be read and understood by anyone. I +think, therefore, as it is quite distinct from your special studies at +present, you might consider it as "light literature," and I am pretty +sure it would interest you more than a great deal of what is now +considered very good. I am utterly astonished that so few people seem to +read Spencer, and the utter ignorance there seems to be among +politicians and political economists of the grand views and logical +stability of his works. He appears to me as far ahead of John Stuart +Mill as J.S.M. is of the rest of the world, and, I may add, as Darwin is +of Agassiz. The range of his knowledge is no less than its accuracy. His +nebular hypothesis in the last volume of his essays is the most masterly +astronomical paper I have ever read, and in his forthcoming volume on +Biology he is I understand going to show that there is something else +besides Natural Selection at work in nature. So you must look out for a +"foeman worthy of your steel"! But perhaps all this time you have read +his books. If so, excuse me, and pray give me your opinion of him, as I +have hitherto only met with one man (Huxley) who has read and +appreciated him. + +Allow me to say in conclusion how much I regret that unavoidable +circumstances have caused me to see so little of you since my return +home, and how earnestly I pray for the speedy restoration of your +health.--Yours most sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Malvern Wells. Tuesday, March, 1864._ + +My dear Mr. Wallace,--Your kindness is neverfailing. I got worse and +worse at home and was sick every day for two months; so came here, when +I suddenly broke down and could do nothing; but I hope I am now very +slowly recovering, but am very weak. + +Sincere thanks about Melastoma: these flowers have baffled me, and I +have caused several friends much useless labour; though, Heaven knows, I +have thrown away time enough on them myself. + +The gorse case is very valuable, and I will quote it, as I presume I +may. + +I was very glad to see in the _Reader_ that you have been giving a +grand paper (as I infer from remarks in discussion) on Geographical +Distribution. + +I am very weak, so will say no more.--Yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +In Vol. I., p. 93, of the "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," Darwin +states the circumstances which led to his writing the "Descent of Man." +He says that his collection of facts, begun in 1837 or 1838, was +continued for many years without any definite idea of publishing on the +subject. The letter to Wallace of May 28, 1864, in reply to the latter's +of May 10, shows that in the period of ill-health and depression about +1864 he despaired of ever being able to do so. + + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 10, 1864._ + +My dear Darwin,--I was very much gratified to hear by your letter of a +month back that you were a little better, and I have since heard +occasionally through Huxley and Lubbock that you are not worse. I +sincerely hope the summer weather and repose may do you real good. + +The Borneo Cave exploration is to go on at present without a +subscription. The new British consul who is going out to Sarawak this +month will undertake to explore some of the caves nearest the town, and +if anything of interest is obtained a good large sum can no doubt be +raised for a thorough exploration of the whole country. Sir J. Brooke +will give every assistance, and will supply men for the preliminary +work. + +I send you now my little contribution to the _theory_ of the origin of +man. I hope you will be able to agree with me. If you are able, I shall +be glad to have your criticisms. + +I was led to the subject by the necessity of explaining the vast mental +and cranial differences between man and the apes combined with such +small structural differences in other parts of the body, and also by an +endeavour to account for the diversity of human races combined with +man's almost perfect stability of form during all historical epochs. + +It has given me a settled opinion on these subjects, if nobody can show +a fallacy in the argument. + +The Anthropologicals did not seem to appreciate it much, but we had a +long discussion which appears almost verbatim in the _Anthropological +Review_.[39] + +As the _Linnean Transactions_ will not be out till the end of the year I +sent a pretty full abstract of the more interesting parts of my +Papilionidae paper[40] to the _Reader_, which, as you say, is a splendid +paper. + +Trusting Mrs. Darwin and all your family are well, and that you are +improving, believe me yours most sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. May 28, 1864._ + +Dear Wallace,--I am so much better that I have just finished a paper for +the Linnean Society; but as I am not yet at all strong I felt much +disinclination to write, and therefore you must forgive me for not +having sooner thanked you for your paper on Man received on the 11th. +But first let me say that I have hardly ever in my life been more struck +by any paper than that on variation, etc. etc., in the _Reader_. I feel +sure that such papers will do more for the spreading of our views on the +modification of species than any separate treatises on the single +subject itself. It is really admirable; but you ought not in the Man +paper to speak of the theory as mine; it is just as much yours as mine. +One correspondent has already noticed to me your "high-minded" conduct +on this head. + +But now for your Man paper, about which I should like to write more than +I can. The great leading idea is quite new to me, viz. that during late +ages the mind will have been modified more than the body; yet I had got +as far as to see with you that the struggle between the races of man +depended entirely on intellectual and _moral_ qualities. The latter part +of the paper I can designate only as grand and most eloquently done. I +have shown your paper to two or three persons who have been here, and +they have been equally struck with it. + +I am not sure that I go with you on all minor points. When reading Sir +G. Grey's account of the constant battles of Australian savages, I +remember thinking that Natural Selection would come in, and likewise +with the Esquimaux, with whom the art of fishing and managing canoes is +said to be hereditary. I rather differ on the rank under the +classificatory point of view which you assign to Man: I do not think any +character simply in excess ought ever to be used for the higher +division. Ants would not be separated from other hymenopterous insects, +however high the instinct of the one and however low the instincts of +the other. + +With respect to the differences of race, a conjecture has occurred to me +that much may be due to the correlation of complexion (and consequently +hair) with constitution. Assume that a dusky individual best escaped +miasma and you will readily see what I mean. I persuaded the +Director-General of the Medical Department of the Army to send printed +forms to the surgeons of all regiments in tropical countries to +ascertain this point, but I daresay I shall never get any returns. +Secondly, I suspect that a sort of sexual selection has been the most +powerful means of changing the races of man. I can show that the +different races have a widely different standard of beauty. Among +savages the most powerful men will have the pick of the women, and they +will generally leave the most descendants. + +I have collected a few notes on Man, but I do not suppose I shall ever +use them. Do you intend to follow out your views, and if so would you +like at some future time to have my few references and notes? + +I am sure I hardly know whether they are of any value, and they are at +present in a state of chaos. + +There is much more that I should like to write but I have not +strength.--Believe me, dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +Our aristocracy is handsomer? (more hideous according to a Chinese or +negro) than the middle classes, from pick of women; but oh what a scheme +is primogeniture for destroying Natural Selection! I fear my letter will +be barely intelligible to you. + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. May 29 [1864]._ + +My dear Darwin,--You are always so ready to appreciate what others do, +and especially to overestimate my desultory efforts, that I cannot be +surprised at your very kind and flattering remarks on my papers. I am +glad, however, that you have made a few critical observations, and am +only sorry you were not well enough to make more, as that enables me to +say a few words in explanation. + +My great fault is haste. An idea strikes me, I think over it for a few +days, and then write away with such illustrations as occur to me while +going on. I therefore look at the subject almost solely from one point +of view. Thus in my paper on Man[41] I aim solely at showing that brutes +are modified in a _great variety_ of ways by Natural Selection, but that +in _none of these particular_ ways can man be modified, because of the +superiority of his intellect. I therefore no doubt overlook a few +smaller points in which Natural Selection may still act on men and +brutes alike. Colour is one of them, and I have alluded to this in +correlation to constitution in an abstract I have made at Sclater's +request for the _Natural History Review_.[42] At the same time, there is +so much evidence of migrations and displacements of races of man, and so +many cases of peoples of distinct physical characters inhabiting the +same or similar regions, and also of races of uniform physical +characters inhabiting widely dissimilar regions, that the external +characteristics of the chief races of man must I think be older than his +present geographical distribution, and the modifications produced by +correlation to favourable variations of constitution be only a secondary +cause of external modification. + +I hope you may get the returns from the Army. They would be very +interesting, but I do not expect the results would be favourable to your +view. + +With regard to the constant battles of savages leading to selection of +physical superiority, I think it would be very imperfect, and subject to +so many exceptions and irregularities that it could produce no +_definite_ result. For instance, the strongest and bravest men would +lead, and expose themselves most, and would therefore be most subject to +wounds and death. And the physical energy which led to any one tribe +delighting in war might lead to its extermination by inducing quarrels +with all surrounding tribes and leading them to combine against it. +Again, superior cunning, stealth and swiftness of foot, or even better +weapons, would often lead to victory as well as mere physical strength. +Moreover this kind of more or less perpetual war goes on among all +savage peoples. It could lead therefore to no differential characters, +but merely to the keeping up of a certain average standard of bodily and +mental health and vigour. So with selection of variations adapted to +special habits of life, as fishing, paddling, riding, climbing, etc. +etc., in different races: no doubt it must act to some extent, but will +it be ever so rigid as to induce a definite physical modification, and +can we imagine it to have had any part in producing the distinct races +that now exist? + +The sexual selection you allude to will also, I think, have been equally +uncertain in its results. In the very lowest tribes there is rarely much +polygamy, and women are more or less a matter of purchase. There is also +little difference of social condition, and I think it rarely happens +that any healthy and undeformed man remains without wife and children. I +very much doubt the often-repeated assertion that our aristocracy are +more beautiful than the middle classes. I allow that they present +_specimens_ of the highest kind of beauty, but I doubt the average. I +have noticed in country places a greater average amount of good looks +among the middle classes, and besides, we unavoidably combine in our +idea of beauty, intellectual expression and refinement of _manner_, +which often make the less appear the more beautiful. Mere physical +beauty--that is, a healthy and regular development of the body and +features approaching to the _mean_ or _type_ of European man--I believe +is quite as frequent in one class of society as the other, and much more +frequent in rural districts than in cities. + +With regard to the rank of man in zoological classification, I fear I +have not made myself intelligible. I never meant to adopt Owen's or any +other such views, but only to point out that from _one_ point of view he +was right. I hold that a distinct _family_ for man, as Huxley allows, is +all that can possibly be given him zoologically. But at the same time, +if my theory is true--that while the animals which surrounded him have +been undergoing modification in _all_ parts of their bodies to a +_generic_ or even _family_ degree of difference, he has been changing +almost wholly in the brain and head--then, in geological antiquity the +_species_ of man may be as old as many mammalian _families_, and the +origin of the _family_ man may date back to a period when some of the +orders first originated. + +As to the theory of Natural Selection itself, I shall always maintain it +to be actually yours and yours only. You had worked it out in details I +had never thought of, years before I had a ray of light on the subject, +and my paper would never have convinced anybody or been noticed as more +than an ingenious speculation, whereas your book has revolutionised the +study of natural history, and carried away captive the best men of the +present age. All the merit I claim is the having been the means of +inducing _you_ to write and publish at once. + +I may possibly some day go a little more into this subject (of Man), +and, if I do, will accept the kind offer of your notes. I am now, +however, beginning to write the "Narrative of my Travels" which will +occupy me a long time, as I hate writing narrative, and after Bates's +brilliant success rather fear to fail. I shall introduce a few chapters +on geographical distribution and other such topics. + +Sir C. Lyell, while agreeing with my main argument on Man, thinks I am +wrong in wanting to put him back into Miocene times, and thinks I do not +appreciate the immense interval even to the later Pliocene. But I still +maintain my view, which in fact is a logical result of my theory, for if +man originated in later Pliocene times, when almost all mammalia were of +closely allied species to those now living, and many even identical, +then man has _not_ been stationary in bodily structure while animals +have been varying, and my theory will be proved to be all wrong. + +In Murchison's address to the Geographical Society just delivered he +points out Africa, as being the _oldest_ existing land. He says there is +_no_ evidence of its having been ever submerged during the tertiary +epoch. Here, then, is evidently the place to find _early man_. I hope +something good may be found in Borneo, and that then means may be found +to explore the still more promising regions of tropical Africa, for we +can expect nothing of man _very_ early in Europe. + +It has given me great pleasure to find that there are symptoms of +improvement in your health. I hope you will not exert yourself too soon +or write more than is quite agreeable to you. I think I made out every +word of your letter though it was not always easy.--Believe me, my dear +Darwin, yours very sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. June 15, 1864._ + +Dear Wallace,--You must not suppose from my delay that I have not been +much interested by your long letter. I write now merely to thank you, +and just to say that probably you are right on all the points you touch +on except, as I think, about sexual selection, which I will not give up. + +My belief in it, however, is contingent on my general beliefs in sexual +selection. It is an awful stretcher to believe that a peacock's tail was +thus formed; but believing it, I believe in the same principle somewhat +modified applied to man. + +I doubt whether my notes would be of any use to you, and as far as I +remember they are chiefly on sexual selection. + +I am very glad to hear that you are on your Travels. I believe you will +find it a very convenient vehicle for miscellaneous discussion. With +your admirable powers of writing, I cannot doubt that you will make an +excellent book.--Believe me, dear Wallace, yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--A great gun, Flourens, has written a little dull book against me; +which pleases me much, for it is plain that our good work is spreading +in France. He speaks of the _engouement_ about this book, "so full of +empty and presumptuous thoughts." + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 29, 1865._ + +My dear Wallace,--I must ease my mind by saying how much I admire the +two papers you have sent me. + +That on parrots[43] contained most new matter to me, and interested me +_extremely_; that in the _Geographical Journal_[44] strikes me as an +epitome of the whole theory of geographical distribution: the comparison +of Borneo and New Guinea, the relation of the volcanic outbursts and the +required subsidence, and the comparison of the supposed conversion of +the Atlantic into a great archipelago, seemed to me the three best hits. +They are both indeed excellent papers.--Believe me yours very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + +Do try what hard work will do to banish painful thoughts.[45] + +P.S.--During one of the later French voyages, a _wild_ pig was killed +and brought from the Aru Islands to Paris. Am I not right in inferring +that this must have been introduced and run wild? If you have a clear +opinion on this head, may I quote you? + + * * * * * + +_5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W. January 31, [1865?]._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your kind letter. I send you now a few +more papers. One on Man is not much in your line. The other three are +bird lists, but in the introductory remarks are a few facts of +distribution that may be of use to you, and as you have them already in +the _Zoological Proceedings_, you can cut these up if you want +"extracts." + +I hope you do not very much want the Aru pig to be a domestic animal run +wild, because I have no doubt myself it was the species peculiar to the +New Guinea fauna (_Sus papuensis_, Less.), a very distinct form. I have +no doubt it is this species, though I did not get it myself there, +because I was told that on a small island near, called there Pulo babi +(Pig Island), was a race of pigs (different from and larger than those +of the large islands) which had originated from the wreck of a large +ship near a century ago. The productions of the Aru Islands closely +resemble those of New Guinea, more than half the species of birds being +identical, as well as about half of the few known mammals. + +I am beginning to work at some semi-mechanical work, drawing up +catalogues of parts of my collection for publication. + +I enclose my "carte." Have you a photograph of yourself of any kind you +can send me? When you come to town next, may I beg the honour of a +sitting for my brother-in-law, Mr. Sims, 73 Westbourne Grove?--Yours +very sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--Your paper on _Lythrum salicaria_[46] is most beautiful. What a +wonderful plant it is! I long to hear your paper on Tendrils and hear +what you have got out of them. My old friend Spruce, a good botanist and +close observer, could probably supply you with some facts on that or +other botanical subjects if you would write to him. He is now at Kew, +but almost as ill as yourself.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 1, 1865._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am much obliged for your photograph, for I have +lately set up a scientific album; and for the papers, which I will read +before long. I enclose my own photo, taken by my son, and I have no +other. + +I fear it will be a long time before I shall be able to sit to a +photographer, otherwise I should be happy to sit to Mr. Sims. + +Thanks for information about the Aru pig, which will make me very +cautious. + +It is a perplexing case, for Nathusius says the skull of the Aru +resembles that of the Chinese breed, and he thinks that _Sus papuensis_ +has been founded on a young skull; D. Blainville stating that an old +skull from New Guinea resembles that of the wild pigs of Malabar, and +these belong to the _S. scrofa_ type, which is different from the +Chinese domestic breed. The latter has not been found in a wild +condition.--Believe me, dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. Sept. 18, 1865._ + +Dear Darwin,--I should have written before to thank you for the copy of +your paper on climbing plants, which I read with great interest; I can +imagine how much pleasure the working out must have given you. I was +afraid you were too ill to make it advisable that you should be bothered +with letters. + +I write now, in hopes you are better, to communicate a curious case of +_variation_ becoming at once _hereditary_, which was brought forward at +the British Association. I send a note of it on the other side, but if +you would like more exact particulars, with names and dates and a +drawing of the bird, I am sure Mr. O'Callaghan would send them to you. + +I hope to hear that you are better, and that your new book is really to +come out next winter.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +NOTE.--Last spring Mr. O'Callaghan was told by a country boy that he had +seen a blackbird with a topknot; on which Mr. O'C. very judiciously told +him to watch it and communicate further with him. After a time the boy +told him he had found a blackbird's nest, and had seen this crested bird +near it and believed he belonged to it. He continued watching the nest +till the young were hatched. After a time he told Mr. O'C. that two of +the young birds seemed as if they would have topknots. He was told to +get one of them as soon as it was fledged. However, he was too late, and +they left the nest, but luckily he found them near and knocked one down +with a stone, which Mr. O'C. had stuffed and exhibited. It has a fine +crest, something like that of a Polish fowl, but _larger_ in proportion +to the bird, and very regular and well formed. The male must have been +almost like the Umbrella bird in miniature, the crest is so large and +expanded.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. September 22, 1865._ + +Dear Wallace,--I am much obliged for your extract; I never heard of such +a case, though such a variation is perhaps the most likely of any to +occur in a state of nature and be inherited, inasmuch as all +domesticated birds present races with a tuft or with reversed feathers +on their heads. I have sometimes thought that the progenitor of the +whole class must have been a crested animal. + +Do you make any progress with your Journal of travels? I am the more +anxious that you should do so as I have lately read with much interest +some papers by you on the ouran-outang, etc., in the _Annals_, of which +I have lately been reading the latter volumes, I have always thought +that Journals of this nature do considerable good by advancing the taste +for natural history; I know in my own case that nothing ever stimulated +my zeal so much as reading Humboldt's Personal Narrative. I have not yet +received the last part of _Linnean Transactions_, but your paper[47] at +present will be rather beyond my strength, for though somewhat better I +can as yet do hardly anything but lie on the sofa and be read aloud to. +By the way, have you read Tylor and Lecky?[48] Both these books have +interested me much. I suppose you have read Lubbock?[49] In the last +chapter there is a note about you in which I most cordially concur.[50] I +see you were at the British Association, but I have heard nothing of it +except what I have picked up in the _Reader_. I have heard a rumour that +the _Reader_ is sold to the Anthropological Society. If you do not +begrudge the trouble of another note (for my sole channel of news +through Hooker is closed by his illness), I should much like to hear +whether the _Reader_ is thus sold. I should be very sorry for it, as the +paper would thus become sectional in its tendency. If you write, tell me +what you are doing yourself. + +The only news which I have about the "Origin" is that Fritz Mueller +published a few months ago a remarkable book[51] in its favour, and +secondly that a second French edition is just coming out.--Believe me, +dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regents Park. October 2, 1865._ + +Dear Darwin,--I was just leaving town for a few days when I received +your letter, or should have replied at once. + +The _Reader_ has no doubt changed hands, and I am inclined to think for +the better. It is purchased, I believe, by a gentleman who is a Fellow +of the Anthropological Society, but I see no signs of its being made a +special organ of that Society. The Editor (and, I believe, proprietor) +is a Mr. Bendyshe, the most talented man in the Society, and, judging +from his speaking, which I have often heard, I should say the articles +on "Simeon and Simony," "Metropolitan Sewage," and "France and Mexico," +are his, and these are in my opinion superior to anything that has been +in the _Reader_ for a long time; they have the point and brilliancy +which are wanted to make leading articles readable and popular. The +articles on Mill's Political Economy and on Mazzini are also first-rate. +He has introduced also the plan of having two, and now three, important +articles in each number--one political or social, one literary, and one +scientific. Under the old regime they never had an editor above +mediocrity, except Masson (? Musson); there was a want of unity among +the proprietors as to the aims and objects of the journal; and there was +a want of capital to secure the services of good writers. This seems to +me to be now all changed for the better, and I only hope the rumour of +that _bete noire_, the Anthropological Society, having anything to do +with it may not cause our best men of science to withdraw their support +and contributions. + +I have read Tylor, and am reading Lecky. I found the former somewhat +disconnected and unsatisfactory from the absence of any definite result +or any decided opinion on most of the matters treated of. + +Lecky I like much, though he is rather tedious and obscure at times. +Most of what he says has been said so much more forcibly by Buckle, +whose work I have read for the second time with increased admiration, +although with a clear view of some of his errors. Nevertheless, his is I +think unapproachably the grandest work of the present century, and the +one most likely to liberalise opinion. Lubbock's book is very good, but +his concluding chapter very weak. Why are men of science so dreadfully +afraid to say what they think and believe? + +In reply to your kind inquiries about myself, I can only say that I am +ashamed of my laziness. I have done nothing lately but write a paper on +Pigeons for the _Ibis_, and am drawing up a Catalogue of my Collection +of Birds. + +As to my "Travels," I cannot bring myself to undertake them yet, and +perhaps never shall, unless I should be fortunate enough to get a wife +who would incite me thereto and assist me therein--which is not likely. + +I am glad to hear that the "Origin" is still working its revolutionary +way on the Continent. Will Mueller's book on it be translated? + +I am glad to hear you are a little better. My poor friend Spruce is +still worse than you are, and I fear now will not recover. He wants to +write a book if he gets well enough.--With best wishes, believe me yours +very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 22, 1866._ + +My dear Wallace,--I thank you for your paper on Pigeons,[52] which +interested me, as everything that you write does. Who would ever have +dreamed that monkeys influenced the distribution of pigeons and parrots! +But I have had a still higher satisfaction; for I finished yesterday +your paper in the _Linnean Transactions_.[53] It is admirably done. I +cannot conceive that the most firm believer in Species could read it +without being staggered. Such papers will make many more converts among +naturalists than long-winded books such as I shall write if I have +strength. + +I have been particularly struck with your remarks on dimorphism; but I +cannot quite understand one point (p. 22), and should be grateful for an +explanation, for I want fully to understand you.[54] How can one female +form be selected and the intermediate forms die out, without also the +other extreme form also dying out from not having the advantages of the +first selected form? for, as I understand, both female forms occur on +the same island. I quite agree with your distinction between dimorphic +forms and varieties; but I doubt whether your criterion of dimorphic +forms not producing intermediate offspring will suffice; for I know of +a good many varieties, which must be so called, that will not blend or +intermix, but produce offspring quite like either parent. + +I have been particularly struck with your remarks on geological +distribution in Celebes. It is impossible that anything could be better +put, and [it] would give a cold shudder to the immutable naturalists. + +And now I am going to ask a question which you will not like. How does +your Journal get on? It will be a shame if you do not popularise your +researches. + +My health is so far improved that I am able to work one or two hours a +day.--Believe me, dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. February 4, 1866._ + +My dear Darwin,--I am very glad to hear you are a little better, and +hope we shall soon have the pleasure of seeing your volume on "Variation +under Domestication." I do not see the difficulty you seem to feel about +two or more female forms of one species. The _most common_ or _typical_ +female form must have certain characters or qualities which are +sufficiently advantageous to it to enable it to maintain its existence; +in general, such as vary much from it die out. But occasionally a +variation may occur which has special advantageous characters of its own +(such as mimicking a protected species), and then this variation will +maintain itself by selection. In no less than three of my _polymorphic_ +species of Papilio, one of the female forms mimics the _Polydorus_ +group, which, like the _AEneas_ group in America, seems to have some +special protection. In two or three other cases one of the female forms +is confined to a restricted locality, to the conditions of which it is +probably specially adapted. In other cases one of the female forms +resembles the male, and perhaps receives a protection from the +abundance of the males, in the crowd of which it is passed over. I think +these considerations render the production of two or three forms of +female very conceivable. The physiological difficulty is to me greater, +of how each of two forms of female produces offspring like the other +female as well as like itself, but no intermediates? + +If you "know varieties that will not blend or intermix, but produce +offspring quite like either parents," is not that the very physiological +test of a species which is wanting for the _complete proof_ of the +origin of species? + +I have by no means given up the idea of writing my Travels, but I think +I shall be able to do it better for the delay, as I can introduce +chapters giving popular sketches of the subjects treated of in my +various papers. + +I hope, if things go as I wish this summer, to begin work at it next +winter. But I feel myself incorrigibly lazy, and have no such system of +collecting and arranging facts or of making the most of my materials as +you and many of our hard-working naturalists possess in +perfection.--With best wishes, believe me, dear Darwin, yours most +sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, S.E. Tuesday, February, 1866._ + +My dear Wallace,--After I had dispatched my last note, the simple +explanation which you give had occurred to me, and seems satisfactory. I +do not think you understand what I mean by the non-blending of certain +varieties. It does not refer to fertility. An instance will explain. I +crossed the Painted Lady and Purple sweet peas, which are very +differently coloured varieties, and got, even out of the same pod, both +varieties perfect, but none intermediate. Something of this kind, I +should think, must occur at first with your butterflies and the three +forms of Lythrum; though these cases are in appearance so wonderful, I +do not know that they are really more so than every female in the world +producing distinct male and female offspring. + +I am heartily glad that you mean to go on preparing your +Journal.--Believe me yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. July 2, 1866._ + +My dear Darwin,--I have been so repeatedly struck by the utter inability +of numbers of intelligent persons to see clearly, or at all, the +self-acting and necessary effects of Natural Selection, that I am led to +conclude that the term itself, and your mode of illustrating it, however +clear and beautiful to many of us, are yet not the best adapted to +impress it on the general naturalist public. The two last cases of this +misunderstanding are (1) the article on "Darwin and his Teachings" in +the last _Quarterly Journal of Science_, which, though very well written +and on the whole appreciative, yet concludes with a charge of something +like blindness, in your not seeing that Natural Selection requires the +constant watching of an intelligent "chooser," like man's selection to +which you so often compare it; and (2) in Janet's recent work on the +"Materialism of the Present Day," reviewed in last Saturday's _Reader_, +by an extract from which I see that he considers your weak point to be +that you do not see that "thought and direction are essential to the +action of Natural Selection." The same objection has been made a score +of times by your chief opponents, and I have heard it as often stated +myself in conversation. Now, I think this arises almost entirely from +your choice of the term Natural Selection, and so constantly comparing +it in its effects to man's selection, and also to your so frequently +personifying nature as "selecting," as "preferring," as "seeking only +the good of the species," etc., etc. To the few this is as clear as +daylight, and beautifully suggestive, but to many it is evidently a +stumbling-block. I wish, therefore, to suggest to you the possibility of +entirely avoiding this source of misconception in your great work (if +not now too late), and also in any future editions of the "Origin," and +I think it may be done without difficulty and very effectually by +adopting Spencer's term (which he generally uses in preference to +Natural Selection), viz. "Survival of the Fittest." This term is the +plain expression of the _fact_; "Natural Selection" is a metaphorical +expression of it, and to a certain degree _indirect_ and _incorrect_, +since, even personifying Nature, she does not so much select special +variations as exterminate the most unfavourable ones. + +Combined with the enormous multiplying powers of all organisms, and the +"struggle for existence," leading to the constant destruction of by far +the largest proportion--facts which no one of your opponents, as far as +I am aware, has denied or misunderstood--"the survival of the fittest," +rather than of those which were less fit, could not possibly be denied +or misunderstood. Neither would it be possible to say that to ensure the +"survival of the fittest" any _intelligent chooser_ was necessary, +whereas when you say "Natural Selection" acts so as to choose those that +are fittest it _is_ misunderstood, and apparently always will be. +Referring to your book, I find such expressions as "Man selects only for +his own good; Nature only for that of the being which she tends." This, +it seems, will always be misunderstood; but if you had said, "Man +selects only for his own good; Nature, by the inevitable survival of the +fittest, only for that of the being she tends," it would have been less +liable to be so. + +I find you use the term Natural Selection in two senses--(1) for the +simple preservation of favourable and rejection of unfavourable +variations, in which case it is equivalent to "survival of the fittest"; +(2) for the _effect or change_ produced by this preservation, as when +you say, "To sum up the circumstances favourable or unfavourable to +natural selection," and, again, "Isolation, also, is an important +element in the process of natural selection": here it is not merely +"survival of the fittest," but _change_ produced by survival of the +fittest, that is meant. On looking over your fourth chapter, I find that +these alterations of terms can be in most cases easily made, while in +some cases the addition of "or survival of the fittest" after "natural +selection" would be best; and in others, less likely to be +misunderstood, the original term might stand alone. + +I could not venture to propose to any other person so great an +alteration of terms, but you, I am sure, will give it an impartial +consideration, and, if you really think the change will produce a better +understanding of your work, will not hesitate to adopt it. It is +evidently also necessary not to personify "nature" too much, though I am +very apt to do it myself, since people will not understand that all such +phrases are metaphors. Natural Selection is, when understood, so +necessary and self-evident a principle that it is a pity it should be in +any way obscured; and it therefore occurs to me that the free use of +"survival of the fittest", which is a compact and accurate definition of +it, would tend much to its being more widely accepted and prevent its +being so much misrepresented and misunderstood. + +There is another objection made by Janet which is also a very common +one. It is that the chances are almost infinite against the particular +kind of variation required being coincident with each change of external +conditions, to enable an animal to become modified by Natural Selection +in harmony with such changed conditions; especially when we consider +that, to have produced the almost infinite modifications of organic +beings, this coincidence must have taken place an almost infinite number +of times. + +Now it seems to me that you have yourself led to this objection being +made by so often stating the case too strongly against yourself. For +example, at the commencement of Chapter IV. you ask if it is "improbable +that useful variations should sometimes occur in the course of thousands +of generations"; and a little further on you say, "unless profitable +variations do occur, natural selection can do nothing." Now, such +expressions have given your opponents the advantage of assuming that +_favourable_ variations are _rare accidents_, or may even for long +periods never occur at all, and thus Janet's argument would appear to +many to have great force. I think it would be better to do away with all +such qualifying expressions, and constantly maintain (what I certainly +believe to be the fact) that _variations of every kind_ are _always +occurring_ in _every part_ of _every species_, and therefore that +favourable variations are _always ready_ when wanted. You have, I am +sure, abundant materials to prove this, and it is, I believe, the grand +fact that renders modification and adaptation to conditions almost +always possible. I would put the burthen of proof on my opponents to +show that any one organ, structure, or faculty does _not vary_, even +during one generation, among all the individuals of a species; and also +to show any _mode or way_ in which any such organ, etc., does not vary. +I would ask them to give any reason for supposing that any organ, etc., +is ever _absolutely identical_ at any _one time in all the individuals_ +of a species, and if not, then it is always varying, and there are +always materials which, from the simple fact that the "fittest survive," +will tend to the modification of the race into harmony with changed +conditions. + +I hope these remarks may be intelligible to you, and that you will be so +kind as to let me know what you think of them. + +I have not heard for some time how you are getting on. I hope you are +still improving in health, and that you will be able now to get on with +your great work, for which so many thousands are looking with +interest.--With best wishes, believe me, my dear Darwin, yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. July 5, [1866]._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been much interested by your letter, which is +as clear as daylight. I fully agree with all that you say on the +advantages of H. Spencer's excellent expression of "the survival of the +fittest." This, however, had not occurred to me till reading your +letter. It is, however, a great objection to this term that it cannot be +used as a substantive governing a verb; and that this is a real +objection I infer from H. Spencer continually using the words "Natural +Selection." + +I formerly thought, probably in an exaggerated degree, that it was a +great advantage to bring into connection natural and artificial +selection; this indeed led me to use a term in common, and I still think +it some advantage. I wish I had received your letter two months ago, for +I would have worked in "the survival," etc., often in the new edition of +the "Origin," which is now almost printed off, and of which I will, of +course, send you a copy. I will use the term in my next book on Domestic +Animals, etc., from which, by the way, I plainly see that you expect +_much_ too much. The term Natural Selection has now been so largely used +abroad and at home that I doubt whether it could be given up, and with +all its faults I should be sorry to see the attempt made. Whether it +will be rejected must now depend on the "survival of the fittest." + +As in time the term must grow intelligible, the objections to its use +will grow weaker and weaker. I doubt whether the use of any term would +have made the subject intelligible to some minds, clear as it is to +others; for do we not see, even to the present day, Malthus on +Population absurdly misunderstood? This reflection about Malthus has +often comforted me when I have been vexed at the misstatement of my +views. + +As for M. Janet,[55] he is a metaphysician, and such gentlemen are so +acute that I think they often misunderstand common folk. Your criticism +on the double sense in which I have used Natural Selection is new to me +and unanswerable; but my blunder has done no harm, for I do not believe +that anyone excepting you has ever observed it. Again, I agree that I +have said too much about "favourable variations," but I am inclined to +think you put the opposite side too strongly; if every part of every +being varied, I do not think we should see the same end or object gained +by such wonderfully diversified means. + +I hope you are enjoying the country and are in good health, and are +working hard at your Malay Archipelago book, for I will always put this +wish in every note I write to you, like some good people always put in a +text. My health keeps much the same, or rather improves, and I am able +to work some hours daily.--With many thanks for your interesting letter, +believe me, my dear Wallace, yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--I suppose you have read the last number of H. Spencer; I have been +struck with astonishment at the prodigality of original thought in it. +But how unfortunate it is that it seems scarcely ever possible to +discriminate between the direct effect of external influences and the +"survival of the fittest." + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. Nov. 19, 1866._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for the fourth edition of the "Origin," which +I am glad to see grows so vigorously at each moult, although it +undergoes no metamorphosis. How curious it is that Dr. Wells should so +clearly have seen the principle of Natural Selection fifty years ago, +and that it should have struck no one that it was a great principle of +universal application in nature! + +We are going to have a discussion on "Mimicry, as producing Abnormal +Sexual Characters," at the Entomological to-night. I have a butterfly +(Diadema) of which the female is metallic blue, the male dusky brown, +contrary to the rule in all other species of the genus, and in almost +all insects; but the explanation is easy--it mimics a metallic +_Euploea_, and so gets a protection perhaps more efficient than its +allies derive from their sombre colours, and which females require much +more than males. I read a paper on this at the British Association. Have +you the report published at Nottingham in a volume by Dr. Robertson? If +so, you can tell me if my paper is printed in full. + +I suppose you have read Agassiz's marvellous theory of the Great +Amazonian glacier, 2,000 miles long! I presume that will be a _little_ +too much, even for you. I have been writing a little popular paper on +"Glacial Theories" for the _Quarterly Journal of Science_ of January +next, in which I stick up for glaciers in North America and icebergs in +the Amazon! + +I was very glad to hear from Lubbock that your health is permanently +improved. I hope therefore you will be able to give us a volume per +annum of your _magnum opus_, with all the facts as you now have them, +leaving additions to come in new editions. + +I am working a little at another family of my butterflies, and find the +usual interesting and puzzling cases of variation, but no such phenomena +as in the Papilionidae.--With best wishes, believe me, my dear Darwin, +yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_6 Queen Anne Street, W. Monday, January, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--I return by this post the _Journal_.[56] Your resume of +glacier action seems to me very good, and has interested my brother +much, and as the subject is new to him he is a better judge. That is +quite a new and perplexing point which you specify about the freshwater +fishes during the glacial period. + +I have also been very glad to see the article on Lyell, which seems to +me to be done by some good man. + +I forgot to say when with you--but I then indeed did not know so much as +I do now--that the sexual, i.e. _ornamental_, differences in fishes, +which differences are sometimes very great, offer a difficulty in the +wide extension of the view that the female is not brightly coloured on +account of the danger which she would incur in the propagation of the +species. + +I very much enjoyed my long conversation with you; and to-day we return +home, and I to my horrid dull work of correcting proof-sheets.--Believe +me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + +P.S.--I had arranged to go and see your collection on Saturday evening, +but my head suddenly failed after luncheon, and I was forced to lie down +all the rest of the day. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 23, 1867._ + +Dear Wallace,--I much regretted that I was unable to call on you, but +after Monday I was unable even to leave the house. On Monday evening I +called on Bates and put a difficulty before him, which he could not +answer, and, as on some former similar occasion, his first suggestion +was, "You had better ask Wallace." My difficulty is, why are +caterpillars sometimes so beautifully and artistically coloured? Seeing +that many are coloured to escape danger, I can hardly attribute their +bright colour in other cases to mere physical conditions. Bates says the +most gaudy caterpillar he ever saw in Amazonia (of a Sphinx) was +conspicuous at the distance of yards from its black and red colouring +whilst feeding on large green leaves. If anyone objected to male +butterflies having been made beautiful by sexual selection, and asked +why should they not have been made beautiful as well as their +caterpillars, what would you answer? I could not answer, but should +maintain my ground. Will you think over this, and some time, either by +letter or when we meet, tell me what you think? Also, I want to know +whether your _female_ mimetic butterfly is more beautiful and brighter +than the male? + +When next in London I must get you to show me your Kingfishers. + +My health is a dreadful evil; I failed in half my engagements during +this last visit to London.--Believe me, yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +The answer to this letter is missing, but in Vol. II. of "My Life," p. +3, Wallace writes: + + "On reading this letter I almost at once saw what seemed to be a + very easy and probable explanation of the facts. I had then just + been preparing for publication (in the _Westminster Review_) my + rather elaborate paper on 'Mimicry and Protective Colouring,' and + the numerous cases in which specially showy and slow-flying + butterflies were known to have a peculiar odour and taste which + protected them from the attacks of insect-eating birds and other + animals led me at once to suppose that the gaudily coloured + caterpillars must have a similar protection. I had just + ascertained from Mr. Jenner Weir that one of our common white + moths (_Spilosoma menthastri_) would not be eaten by most of the + small birds in his aviary, nor by young turkeys. Now, as a _white_ + moth is as conspicuous in the dusk as a coloured caterpillar in + the daylight, this case seemed to me so much on a par with the + other that I felt almost sure my explanation would turn out + correct. I at once wrote to Mr. Darwin to this effect." + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 26, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--Bates was quite right, you are the man to apply to in +a difficulty. I never heard anything more ingenious than your +suggestion, and I hope you may be able to prove it true. That is a +splendid fact about the white moths; it warms one's very blood to see a +theory thus almost proved to be true.[57] With respect to the beauty of +male butterflies, I must as yet think that it is due to sexual +selection; there is some evidence that dragonflies are attracted by +bright colours; but what leads me to the above belief is so many male +Orthoptera and Cicadas having musical instruments. This being the case, +the analogy of birds makes me believe in sexual selection with respect +to colour in insects. I wish I had strength and time to make some of the +experiments suggested by you; but I thought butterflies would not pair +in confinement; I am sure I have heard of some such difficulty. Many +years ago I had a dragonfly painted with gorgeous colours, but I never +had an opportunity of fairly trying it. + +The reason of my being so much interested just at present about sexual +selection is that I have almost resolved to publish a little essay on +the Origin of Mankind, and I still strongly think (though I failed to +convince you, and this to me is the heaviest blow possible) that sexual +selection has been the main agent in forming the races of man. + +By the way, there is another subject which I shall introduce in my +essay, viz. expression of countenance. Now, do you happen to know by any +odd chance a very good-natured and acute observer in the Malay +Archipelago who, you think, would make a few easy observations for me on +the expression of the Malays when excited by various emotions. For in +this case I would send to such person a list of queries.--I thank you +for your most interesting letters, and remain yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. March 11, 1867._ + +Dear Darwin,--I return your queries, but cannot answer them with any +certainty. For the Malays I should say Yes to 1, 3, 8, 9, 10 and 17, and +No to 12, 13 and 16; but I cannot be _certain_ in any one. But do you +think these things are of much importance? I am inclined to think that +if you could get good direct observations you would find some of them +often differ from tribe to tribe, from island to island, and sometimes +from village to village. Some no doubt may be deep-seated, and would +imply organic differences; but can you tell beforehand which these are? +I presume the Frenchman shrugs his shoulders whether he is of the +Norman, Breton, or Gaulish stock. Would it not be a good thing to send +your List of Queries to some of the Bombay and Calcutta papers? as there +must be numbers of Indian judges and other officers who would be +interested and would send you hosts of replies. The Australian papers +and New Zealand might also publish them, and then you would have a fine +basis to go on. + +Is your essay on Variation in Man to be a supplement to your volume on +Domesticated Animals and Cultivated Plants? I would rather see your +second volume on "The Struggle for Existence, etc.," for I doubt if we +have a sufficiency of fair and accurate facts to do anything with man. +Huxley, I believe, is at work upon it. + +I have been reading Murray's volume on the Geographical Distribution of +Mammals. He has some good ideas here and there, but is quite unable to +understand Natural Selection, and makes a most absurd mess of his +criticism of your views on oceanic islands. + +By the bye, what an interesting volume the whole of your materials on +that subject would, I am sure, make.--Yours very sincerely, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--I thank you much for your two notes. The case of Julia +Pastrana[58] is a splendid addition to my other cases of correlated teeth +and hair, and I will add it in correcting the proof of my present +volume. Pray let me hear in course of the summer if you get any evidence +about the gaudy caterpillars. I should much like to give (or quote if +published) this idea of yours, if in any way supported, as suggested by +you. It will, however, be a long time hence, for I can see that sexual +selection is growing into quite a large subject, which I shall introduce +into my essay on Man, supposing that I ever publish it. + +I had intended giving a chapter on Man, inasmuch as many call him (not +_quite_ truly) an eminently _domesticated_ animal; but I found the +subject too large for a chapter. Nor shall I be capable of treating the +subject well, and my sole reason for taking it up is that I am pretty +well convinced that sexual selection has played an important part in the +formation of races, and sexual selection has always been a subject which +has interested me much. + +I have been very glad to see your impression from memory on the +expressions of Malays. I fully agree with you that the subject is in no +way an important one: it is simply a "hobby-horse" with me about +twenty-seven years old; and after thinking that I would write an essay +on Man, it flashed on me that I could work in some "supplemental remarks +on expression." After the horrid, tedious, dull work of my present huge +and, I fear, unreadable book, I thought I would amuse myself with my +hobby-horse. The subject is, I think, more curious and more amenable to +scientific treatment than you seem willing to allow. I want, anyhow, to +upset Sir C. Bell's view, given in his most interesting work, "The +Anatomy of Expression," that certain muscles have been given to man +solely that he may reveal to other men his feelings. I want to try and +show how expressions have arisen. + +That is a good suggestion about newspapers; but my experience tells me +that private applications are generally most fruitful. I will, however, +see if I can get the queries inserted in some Indian paper. I do not +know names or addresses of any other papers. + +I have just ordered, but not yet received, Murray's book: Lindley used +to call him a blunder-headed man. It is very doubtful whether I shall +ever have strength to publish the latter part of my materials. + +My two female amanuenses are busy with friends, and I fear this scrawl +will give you much trouble to read.--With many thanks, yours very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 29, 1867._ + +Dear Wallace,--I have been greatly interested by your letter;[59] but +your view is not new to me. If you will look at p. 240 of the fourth +edition of the "Origin," you will find it very briefly given with two +extremes of the peacock and black grouse. A more general statement is +given at p. 101, or at p. 89 of the first edition, for I have long +entertained this view, though I have never had space to develop it. But +I had not sufficient knowledge to generalise as far as you do about +colouring and nesting. In your paper, perhaps you will just allude to my +scanty remark in the fourth edition, because in my essay upon Man I +intend to discuss the whole subject of sexual selection, explaining, as +I believe it does, much with respect to man. I have collected all my old +notes and partly written my discussion, and it would be flat work for me +to give the leading idea as exclusively from you. But as I am sure from +your greater knowledge of ornithology and entomology that you will write +a much better discussion than I could, your paper will be of great use +to me. Nevertheless, I must discuss the subject fully in my essay on +Man. When we met at the Zoological Society and I asked you about the +sexual differences in kingfishers, I had this subject in view; as I had +when I suggested to Bates the difficulty about gaudy caterpillars which +you have so admirably (as I believe it will prove) explained. I have got +one capital case (genus forgotten) of an [Australian] bird in which the +female has long-tailed plumes and which consequently builds a different +nest from all her allies.[60] With respect to certain female birds being +more brightly coloured than the males, and the latter incubating, I have +gone a little into the subject and cannot say that I am fully satisfied. +I remember mentioning to you the case of Rhynchaea, but its nesting seems +unknown. In some other cases the difference in brightness seemed to me +hardly sufficiently accounted for by the principle of protection. At the +Falkland Islands there is a carrion hawk in which the female (as I +ascertained by dissection) is the brightest coloured, and I doubt +whether protection will here apply; but I wrote several months ago to +the Falklands to make inquiries. The conclusion to which I have been +leaning is that in some of these abnormal cases the colour happened to +vary in the female alone, and was transmitted to females alone, and that +her variations have been selected through the admiration of the male. + +It is a very interesting subject, but I shall not be able to go on with +it for the next five or six months, as I am fully employed in correcting +dull proof-sheets; when I return to the work I shall find it much better +done by you than I could have succeeded in doing. + +With many thanks for your very interesting note, believe me, dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +It is curious how we hit on the same ideas. I have endeavoured to show +in my MS. discussion that nearly the same principles account for young +birds _not_ being gaily coloured in many cases--but this is too complex +a point for a note. + +_Postscript. Down. April 29._ + +My dear Wallace,--On reading over your letter again, and on further +reflection, I do not think (as far as I remember my words) that I +expressed myself _nearly strongly_ enough as to the value and beauty of +your generalisation, viz. that all birds in which the female is +conspicuously or brightly coloured build in holes or under domes. I +thought that this was the explanation in many, perhaps most cases, but +do not think I should ever have extended my view to your generalisation. +Forgive me troubling you with this P.S.--Yours, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 5, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--The offer of your valuable notes is _most_ generous, +but it would vex me to take so much from you, as it is certain that you +could work up the subject very much better than I could. Therefore I +earnestly and without any reservation hope that you will proceed with +your paper, so that I return your notes. + +You seem already to have well investigated the subject. I confess on +receiving your note that I felt rather flat at my recent work being +almost thrown away, but I did not intend to show this feeling. As a +proof how little advance I had made on the subject, I may mention that +though I had been collecting facts on the colouring and other sexual +differences in mammals, your explanation with respect to the females had +not occurred to me. I am surprised at my own stupidity, but I have long +recognised how much clearer and deeper your insight into matters is than +mine. + +I do not know how far you have attended to the laws of inheritance, so +what follows may be obvious to you. I have begun my discussion on sexual +selection by showing that new characters often appear in one sex and are +transmitted to that sex alone, and that from some unknown cause such +characters apparently appear oftener in the male than in the female. +Secondly, characters may be developed and be confined to the male, and +long afterwards be transferred to the female. Thirdly, characters may, +again, arise in either sex and be transmitted to both sexes, either in +an equal or unequal degree. In this latter case I have supposed that the +survival of the fittest has come into play with female birds and kept +the female dull-coloured. With respect to the absence of spurs in female +gallinaceous birds, I presume that they would be in the way during +incubation; at least, I have got the case of a German breed of fowls in +which the hens were spurred, and were found to disturb and break their +eggs much. + +With respect to the females of deer not having horns, I presume it is to +save the loss of organised matter. + +In your note you speak of sexual selection and protection as sufficient +to account for the colouring of all animals; but it seems to me doubtful +how far this will come into play with some of the lower animals, such as +sea anemones, some corals, etc. etc. + +On the other hand, Haeckel has recently well shown that the transparency +and absence of colour in the lower oceanic animals, belonging to the +most different classes, may be well accounted for on the principle of +protection. + +Some time or other I should like much to know where your paper on the +nests of birds has appeared, and I shall be extremely anxious to read +your paper in the _Westminster Review_. + +Your paper on the sexual colouring of birds will, I have no doubt, be +very striking. + +Forgive me, if you can, for a touch of illiberality about your paper, +and believe me yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. July 6, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am very much obliged for your article on Mimicry,[61] +the whole of which I have read with the greatest interest. You certainly +have the art of putting your ideas with remarkable force and clearness; +now that I am slaving over proof-sheets it makes me almost envious. + +I have been particularly glad to read about the birds' nests, and I must +procure the _Intellectual Observer_; but the point which I think struck +me most was about its being of no use to the Heliconias to acquire in a +slight degree a disagreeable taste. What a curious case is that about +the coral snakes. The summary, and indeed the whole, is excellent, and I +have enjoyed it much.--With many thanks, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. Wednesday, [August or September, 1867]._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am very sorry I was out when you called yesterday. I had +just gone to the Zoological Gardens, and I met Sir C. Lyell, who told me +you were in town. + +If you should have time to go to Bayswater, I think you would be pleased +to see the collections which I have displayed there in the form of an +_exhibition_ (though the public will not go to see it). + +If you can go, with any friends, I should like to meet you there if you +can appoint a time. + +I am glad to find you continue in tolerable health.--Believe me yours +very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +What do you think of the Duke of Argyll's criticisms, and the more +pretentious one in the last number of the _North British Review_? + +I have written a little article answering them both, but I do not yet +know where to get it published.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_76-1/2 Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, W. October 1, 1867._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am sorry I was not in town when your note came. I took a +short trip to Scotland after the British Association Meeting, and went +up Ben Lawers. It was very cold and wet, and I could not find a +companion or I should have gone as far as Glen Roy. + +My article on "Creation by Law," in reply to the Duke of Argyll and the +_North British_ reviewer, is in the present month's number of the +_Quarterly Journal of Science_. I cannot send you a copy because they do +not allow separate copies to be printed. + +There is a nice illustration of the _predicted_ Madagascar moth and +_Angraecum sesquipedale_. + +I shall be glad to know whether I have done it satisfactorily to you, +and hope you will not be so very sparing of criticism as you usually +are. + +I hope you are getting on well with your great book. I hear a rumour +that we are to have _one_ vol. of it about Christmas. + +I quite forget whether I told you that I have a little boy, now three +months old, and have named him Herbert Spencer (having had a brother +Herbert). I am now staying chiefly in the country, at Hurstpierpoint, +but come up to town once a month at least. You may address simply, +"Hurstpierpoint, Sussex." + +Hoping your health is tolerable and that all your family are well, +believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. October 12 and 13, 1867._ + +My dear Wallace,--I ordered the journal a long time ago, but by some +oversight received it only yesterday and read it. You will think my +praise not worth having from being so indiscriminate, but if I am to +speak the truth, I must say I admire every word. + +You have just touched on the points which I particularly wished to see +noticed. I am glad you had the courage to take up _Angraecum_[62] after +the Duke's attack; for I believe the principle in this case may be +widely applied. I like the figure, but I wish the artist had drawn a +better sphinx. + +With respect to beauty, your remarks on hideous objects and on flowers +not being made beautiful except when of practical use to them strike me +as very good. + +On this one point of beauty, I can hardly think that the Duke was quite +candid. I have used in the concluding paragraph of my present book +precisely the same argument as you have, even bringing in the +bulldog,[63] with respect to variations not having been specially +ordained. Your metaphor of the river[64] is new to me, and admirable; +but your other metaphor, in which you compare classification and complex +machines, does not seem to me quite appropriate, though I cannot point +out what seems deficient. The point which seems to me strong is that all +naturalists admit that there is a _natural_ classification, and it is +this which descent explains. I wish you had insisted a little more +against the _North British_[65] reviewer assuming that each variation +which appears is a strongly marked one; though by implication you have +made this _very_, plain. Nothing in your whole article has struck me +more than your view with respect to the limit of fleetness in the +racehorse and other such cases; I shall try and quote you on this head +in the proof of my concluding chapter. I quite missed this explanation, +though in the case of wheat I hit upon something analogous. I am glad +you praise the Duke's book, for I was much struck with it. The part +about flight seemed to me at first very good, but as the wing is +articulated by a ball-and-socket joint, I suspect the Duke would find it +very difficult to give any reason against the belief that the wing +strikes the air more or less obliquely. I have been very glad to see +your article and the drawing of the butterfly in _Science Gossip_. By +the way, I cannot but think that you push protection too far in some +cases, as with the stripes on the tiger. I have also this morning read +an excellent abstract in the _Gardeners' Chronicle_ of your paper on +nests;[66] I was not by any means fully converted by your letter, but I +think now I am so; and I hope it will be published somewhere _in +extenso_. It strikes me as a capital generalisation, and appears to me +even more original than it did at first. + +I have had an excellent and cautious letter from Mr. Geach of Singapore +with some valuable answers on expression, which I owe to you. + +I heartily congratulate you on the birth of "Herbert Spencer," and may +he deserve his name, but I hope he will copy his father's style and not +his namesake's. Pray observe, though I fear I am a month too late, when +tears are first secreted enough to overflow; and write down date. + +I have finished Vol. I. of my book, and I hope the whole will be out by +the end of November; if you have the patience to read it through, which +is very doubtful, you will find, I think, a large accumulation of facts +which will be of service to you in your future papers, and they could +not be put to better use, for you certainly are a master in the noble +art of reasoning. + +Have you changed your house to Westbourne Grove? + +Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +This letter is so badly expressed that it is barely intelligible, but I +am tired with proofs. + +P.S.--Mr. Warington has lately read an excellent and spirited abstract +of the "Origin" before the Victoria Institute, and as this is a most +orthodox body he has gained the name of the devil's advocate. The +discussion which followed during three consecutive meetings is very rich +from the nonsense talked. If you would care to see the number I could +lend it you. + +I forgot to remark how capitally you turn the table on the Duke, when +you make him create the _Angraecum_ and moth by special creation. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. October 22, 1867._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am very glad you approve of my article on "Creation by +Law" as a whole. + +The "machine metaphor" is not mine, but the _North British_ reviewer's. +I merely accept it and show that it is on our side and not against us, +but I do not think it at all a good metaphor to be used as an _argument_ +either way. I did not half develop the argument on the limits of +variation, being myself limited in space; but I feel satisfied that it +is the true answer to the very common and very strong objection, that +"variation has strict limits." The fallacy is the requiring variation in +domesticity to go beyond the limits of the same variation under nature. +It does do so sometimes, however, because the conditions of existence +are so different. I do not think a case can be pointed out in which the +limits of variation under domestication are not up to or beyond those +already marked out in nature, only we generally get in the _species_ an +amount of change which in nature occurs only in the whole range of the +_genus_ or _family_. + +The many cases, however, in which variation has gone far beyond nature +and has not yet stopped are ignored. For instance, no wild pomaceous +fruit is, I believe, so large as our apples, and no doubt they could be +got much larger if flavour, etc., were entirely neglected. + +I may perhaps push "protection" too far sometimes, for it is my hobby +just now, but as the lion and the tiger are, I think, the only two +non-arboreal cats, I think the tiger stripe agreeing so well with its +usual habitat is at least a probable case. + +I am rewriting my article on Birds' Nests for the new _Natural History +Review_. + +I cannot tell you about the first appearance of _tears_, but it is very +early--the first week or two, I think. I can see the _Victoria Institute +Magazine_ at the London Library. + +I shall read your book, _every word_. I hear from Sir C. Lyell that you +come out with a grand new theory at the end, which even the _cautious_ +(!) Huxley is afraid of! Sir C. said he could think of nothing else +since he read it. I long to see it. + +My address is Hurstpierpoint during the winter, and, when in town, +76-1/2 Westbourne Grove. + +I suppose you will now be going on with your book on Sexual Selection +and Man, by way of relaxation! It is a glorious subject, but will +require delicate handling,--Yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_10 Duchess Street, W. February 7, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--I have to thank you for signing the Memorial as to the +East London Museum, and also for your kindness in sending me a copy of +your great book, which I have only just received. I shall take it down +in the country with me next week, and enjoy every line at my leisure. + +Allow me also to congratulate you on the splendid position obtained by +your second son at Cambridge. + +You will perhaps be glad to hear that I have been for some time +hammering away at my Travels, but I fear I shall make a mess of it. I +shall leave most of the Natural History generalisation, etc., for +another work, as if I wait to incorporate all, I may wait for +years.--Hoping you are quite well, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 22, [1868?]._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am hard at work on sexual selection and am driven +half mad by the number of collateral points which require investigation, +such as the relative numbers of the two sexes, and especially on +polygamy. Can you aid me with respect to birds which have strongly +marked secondary sexual characters, such as birds of paradise, +humming-birds, the rupicola or rock-thrush, or any other such cases? +Many gallinaceous birds certainly are polygamous. I suppose that birds +may be known not to be polygamous if they are seen during the whole +breeding season to associate in pairs, or if the male incubates, or aids +in feeding the young. Will you have the kindness to turn this in your +mind? but it is a shame to trouble you now that, as I am _heartily_ glad +to hear, you are at work on your Malayan Travels. I am fearfully puzzled +how far to extend your protective views with respect to the females in +various classes. The more I work, the more important sexual selection +apparently comes out. + +Can butterflies be polygamous?--i.e. will one male impregnate more than +one female? + +Forgive me troubling you, and I daresay I shall have to ask your +forgiveness again, and believe me, my dear Wallace, yours most +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--Baker has had the kindness to set the Entomological Society +discussing the relative numbers of the sexes in insects, and has brought +out some very curious results. + +Is the orang polygamous? But I daresay I shall find that in your papers +in (I think) the _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_. + + * * * * * + +The following group of letters deals with the causes of the sterility of +hybrids (_see_ note in "More Letters," p. 287). Darwin's final view is +given in the "Origin," 6th edit., 1900, p. 384. He acknowledges that it +would be advantageous to two incipient species if, by physiological +isolation due to mutual sterility, they could be kept from blending; but +he continues: "After mature reflection, it seems to me that this could +not have been effected through Natural Selection." And finally he +concludes (p. 386): "But it would be superfluous to discuss this +question in detail; for with plants we have conclusive evidence that the +sterility of crossed species must be due to some principle quite +independent of Natural Selection. Both Gaeartner and Kolreuter have +proved that in genera including numerous species a series can be formed +from species which, when crossed, yield fewer and fewer seeds, to +species which never produce a single seed, but yet are affected by the +pollen of certain other species, for the germen swells. It is here +manifestly impossible to select the more sterile individuals, which have +already ceased to yield seeds; so that this acme of sterility, when the +germen alone is affected, cannot have been gained through selection; and +from the laws governing the various grades of sterility being so uniform +throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms, we may infer that the +cause, whatever it may be, is the same or nearly the same in all cases." + +Wallace still adhered to his view (_see_ "Darwinism," 1889, p. 174, +_also_ p. 292 of "More Letters," note 1, and Letter 211, p. 299). The +discussion of 1868 began with a letter from Wallace, written towards the +end of February, giving his opinion on the "Variation of Animals and +Plants"; the discussion on the sterility of hybrids is at p. 185, Vol. +II., 1st edit. + + * * * * * + +(_Second and third sheets of a letter from Wallace, apparently of +February, 1868._) + +I am in the second volume of your book, and I have been astonished at +the immense number of interesting facts you have brought together. I +read the chapter on Pangenesis first, for I could not wait. I can hardly +tell you how much I admire it. It is a positive _comfort_ to me to have +any feasible explanation of a difficulty that has always been haunting +me, and I shall never be able to give it up till a better one supplies +its place, and that I think hardly possible. You have now fairly beaten +Spencer on his own ground, for he really offered no solution of the +difficulties of the problem. The incomprehensible minuteness and vast +numbers of the physiological germs or atoms (Which themselves must be +compounded of numbers of Spencer's physiological units) is the only +difficulty, but that is only on a par with the difficulties in all +conceptions of matter, space, motion, force, etc. As I understood +Spencer, his physiological units were identical throughout each species, +but slightly different in each different species; but no attempt was +made to show how the identical form of the parent or ancestors came to +be built up of such units. + +The only parts I have yet met with where I somewhat differ from your +views are in the chapter on the Causes of Variability, in which I think +several of your arguments are unsound: but this is too long a subject to +go into now. + +Also, I do not see your objection to _sterility_ between allied species +having been aided by Natural Selection. It appears to me that, given a +differentiation of a species into two forms, each of which was adapted +to a special sphere of existence, every slight degree of sterility would +be a positive advantage, not to the _individuals_ who were sterile, but +to _each form_. If you work it out, and suppose the two incipient +species A, B to be divided into two groups, one of which contains those +which are fertile when the two are crossed, the other being slightly +sterile, you will find that the latter will certainly supplant the +former in the struggle for existence, remembering that you have shown +that in such a cross the offspring would be _more vigorous_ than the +pure breed, and would therefore certainly soon supplant them, and as +these would not be so well adapted to any special sphere of existence as +the pure species A and B, they would certainly in their turn give way to +A and B. + +I am sure all naturalists will be disgusted at the malicious and +ignorant article in the _Athenaeum_. It is a disgrace to the paper, and I +hope someone will publicly express the general opinion of it. We can +expect no good reviews of your book till the quarterlies or best +monthlies come out.... I shall be anxious to see how Pangenesis is +received.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 27, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--You cannot well imagine how much I have been pleased +by what you say about Pangenesis. None of my friends will speak out, +except, to a certain extent, Sir H. Holland,[67] who found it very tough +reading, but admits that some view "closely akin to it" will have to be +admitted. Hooker, as far as I understand him, which I hardly do at +present, seems to think that the hypothesis is little more than saying +that organisms have such and such potentialities. What you say exactly +and fully expresses my feeling, viz. that it is a relief to have some +feasible explanation of the various facts, which can be given up as soon +as any better hypothesis is found. It has certainly been an immense +relief to my mind; for I have been stumbling over the subject for years, +dimly seeing that some relation existed between the various classes of +facts. I now hear from H. Spencer that his views quoted in my footnote +refer to something quite distinct, as you seem to have perceived. + +I shall be very glad to hear, at some future day, your criticisms on the +causes of variability. + +Indeed, I feel sure that I am right about sterility and Natural +Selection. Two of my grown-up children who are acute reasoners have two +or three times at intervals tried to prove me wrong, and when your +letter came they had another try, but ended by coming back to my side. I +do not quite understand your case, and we think that a word or two is +misplaced. I wish some time you would consider the case under the +following point of view. If sterility is caused or accumulated through +Natural Selection, then, as every degree exists up to absolute +barrenness, Natural Selection must have the power of increasing it. Now +take two species, A and B, and assume that they are (by any means) +half-sterile, i.e. produce half the full number of offspring. Now try +and make (by Natural Selection) A and B absolutely sterile when crossed, +and you will find how difficult it is. I grant, indeed it is certain, +that the degree of sterility of the individuals of A and B will vary, +but any such extra-sterile individuals of, we will say, A, if they +should hereafter breed with other individuals of A, will bequeath no +advantage to their progeny, by which these families will tend to +increase in number over other families of A, which are not more sterile +when crossed with B. But I do not know that I have made this any clearer +than in the chapter in my book. It is a most difficult bit of reasoning, +which I have gone over and over again on paper with diagrams. + +I shall be intensely curious to see your article in the _Journal of +Travel_. + +Many thanks for such answers as you could give. From what you say I +should have inferred that birds of paradise were probably polygamous. +But after all, perhaps it is not so important as I thought. I have been +going through the whole animal kingdom in reference to sexual selection, +and I have just got to the beginning of Lepidoptera, i.e. to end of +insects, and shall then pass on to Vertebrata. But my ladies next week +are going (ill-luck to it) to take me nolens-volens to London for a +whole month. + +I suspect Owen wrote the article in the _Athenaeum_, but I have been told +that it is Berthold Seeman. The writer despises and hates me. + +Hearty thanks for your letter--you have indeed pleased me, for I had +given up the great god Pan as a stillborn deity. I wish you could be +induced to make it clear with your admirable powers of elucidation in +one of the scientific journals. + +I think we almost entirely agree about sexual selection, as I now follow +you to large extent about protection to females, having always believed +that colour was often transmitted to both sexes; but I do not go quite +so far about protection.--Always yours most sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. March 1, 1868._ + +My dear Darwin,--I beg to enclose what appears to me a demonstration, +_on your own principles_, that Natural Selection _could_ produce +_sterility of hybrids_. + +If it does not convince you I shall be glad if you will point out where +the fallacy lies. I have taken the two cases of a slight sterility +overcoming a perfect fertility, and of a perfect sterility overcoming a +partial fertility--the beginning and end of the process. You admit that +variations in fertility and sterility occur, and I think you will also +admit that if I demonstrate that a considerable amount of sterility +would be advantageous to a variety, that is sufficient proof that the +slightest variation in that direction would be useful also, and would go +on accumulating. + +Sir C. Lyell spoke to me as if he greatly admired pangenesis. I am very +glad H. Spencer at once acknowledges that his view was something quite +distinct from yours. Although, as you know, I am a great admirer of his, +I feel how completely his view failed to go to the root of the matter, +as yours does. His explained nothing, though he was evidently struggling +hard to find an explanation. Yours, as far as I can see, explains +everything in _growth and reproduction_, though of course the mystery of +_life_ and _consciousness_ remains as great as ever. + +Parts of the chapter on Pangenesis I found hard reading, and have not +quite mastered yet, and there are also throughout the discussions in +Vol. II. many bits of hard reading on minute points which we, who have +not worked experimentally at cultivation and crossing as you have done, +can hardly see the importance of, or their bearing on the general +question. + +If I am asked, I may perhaps write an article on the book for some +periodical, and if so shall do what I can to make pangenesis +appreciated. + +I suppose Mrs. Darwin thinks you _must_ have a holiday, after the +enormous labour of bringing out such a book as that. I am sorry I am not +now staying in town. I shall, however, be up for two days on Thursday, +and shall hope to see you at the Linnean, where Mr. Trimen has a paper +on some of his wonderful South African mimetic butterflies. + +I hope this will reach you before you leave.--Believe me yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. March 8, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am very sorry your letter came back here while I was +going to town, or I should have been very pleased to have seen you. + +Trimen's paper at the Linnean was a very good one, but the only +opponents were Andrew Murray and B. Seeman. The former talked utter +nonsense about the "harmony of nature" produced by "polarisation," alike +in "rocks, plants and animals," etc. etc. etc. And Seeman objected that +there was mimicry among plants, and that our theory would not explain +it. + +Lubbock answered them both in his best manner. + +Pray take your rest, and put my last notes by till you return to Down, +or let your son discover the fallacies in them. + +Would you like to see the specimens of pupae of butterflies whose colours +have changed in accordance with the colour of the surrounding objects? +They are very curious, and Mr. T.W. Wood, who bred them, would, I am +sure, be delighted to bring them to show you. His address is 89 Stanhope +Street, Hampstead Road, N.W.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + +Darwin had already written a short note to Wallace expressing a general +dissent from his views. + + * * * * * + +_4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 17, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--Many thanks about Pieridae. I have no photographs up +here, but will remember to send one from Down. Should you care to have a +large one, of treble or quadruple common size, I will with pleasure send +you one under glass cover, to any address you like in London, either now +or hereafter. I grieve to say we shall not be here on April 2nd, as we +return home on the 31st. In summer I hope that Mrs. Wallace and +yourself will pay us a visit at Down, soon after you return to London; +for I am sure you will allow me the freedom of an invalid. + +My paper to-morrow at the Linnean Society is simply to prove, alas! that +primrose and cowslip are as good species as any in the world, and that +there is no trustworthy evidence of one producing the other. The only +interesting point is the frequency of the production of natural hybrids, +i.e. oxlips, and the existence of one kind of oxlip which constitutes a +third good and distinct species. I do not suppose that I shall be able +to attend the Linnean Society to-morrow. + +I have been working hard in collecting facts on sexual selection every +morning in London, and have done a good deal; but the subject grows more +and more complex, and in many respects more difficult and doubtful. I +have had grand success this morning in tracing gradational steps by +which the peacock tail has been developed: I quite feel as if I had seen +a long line of its progenitors. + +I do not feel that I shall grapple with the sterility argument till my +return home; I have tried once or twice and it has made my stomach feel +as if it had been placed in a vice. Your paper has driven three of my +children half-mad--one sat up to twelve o'clock over it. My second son, +the mathematician, thinks that you have omitted one almost inevitable +deduction which apparently would modify the result. He has written out +what he thinks, but I have not tried fully to understand him. I suppose +that you do not care enough about the subject to like to see what he has +written? + +I hope your book progresses. + +I am intensely anxious to see your paper in _Murray's Journal_.--My dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. March 19, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--I should very much value a _large_ photograph of you, and +also a carte for my album, though it is too bad to ask you for both, as +you must have so many applicants. + +I am sorry I shall not see you in town, but shall look forward with +pleasure to paying you a visit in the summer. + +I am sorry about the Primulas, but I feel sure some such equally good +case will some day be discovered, for it seems impossible to understand +how all natural species whatever should have acquired sterility. Closely +allied forms from adjacent islands would, I should think, offer the best +chance of finding good species fertile _inter se_; since even if Natural +Selection induces sterility I do not see how it could affect them, or +why they should _always_ be sterile, and varieties _never_. + +I am glad you have got good materials on sexual selection. It is no +doubt a difficult subject. One difficulty to me is, that I do not see +how the constant _minute_ variations, which are sufficient for Natural +Selection to work with, could be _sexually_ selected. We seem to require +a series of bold and abrupt variations. How can we imagine that an inch +in the tail of a peacock, or a quarter of an inch in that of the bird of +paradise, would be noticed and preferred by the female? + +Pray let me see what your son says about the sterility selection +question. I am deeply interested in all that concerns the powers of +Natural Selection, but, though I admit there are a few things it cannot +do, I do not yet believe sterility to be one of them. + +In case your son has turned his attention to mathematical physics, will +you ask him to look at the enclosed question, which I have vainly +attempted to get an answer to?--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 19-24, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have sent your query to Cambridge to my son. He +ought to answer it, for he got his place of Second Wrangler chiefly by +solving very difficult problems. I enclose his remarks on two of your +paragraphs: I should like them returned some time, for I have not +studied them, and let me have your impression. + +I have told E. Edwards to send one of my large photographs to you +addressed to 76-1/2 Westbourne Grove, not to be forwarded. When at home +I will send my carte. + +The sterility is a most [? puzzling] problem. I can see so far, but I am +hardly willing to admit all your assumptions, and even if they were all +admitted, the process is so complex and the sterility (as you remark in +your note) so universal, even with species inhabiting quite distinct +countries (as I remarked in my chapter), together with the frequency of +a difference in reciprocal unions, that I cannot persuade myself that it +has been gained by Natural Selection, any more than the difficulty of +grafting distinct genera and the impossibility of grafting distinct +families. You will allow, I suppose, that the capacity of grafting has +not been directly acquired through Natural Selection. + +I think that you will be pleased with the second volume or part of +Lyell's Principles, just out. + +In regard to sexual selection. A girl sees a handsome man, and without +observing whether his nose or whiskers are the tenth of an inch longer +or shorter than in some other man, admires his appearance and says she +will marry him. So, I suppose, with the pea-hen; and the tail has been +increased in length merely by, on the whole, presenting a more gorgeous +appearance. Jenner Weir, however, has given me some facts showing that +birds apparently admire details of plumage.--Yours most sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. March 24, [1868?]._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for the photo, which I shall get when I go to +town. + +I return your son's notes with my notes on them. + +Without going into any details, is not this a strong general argument?-- + +1. A species varies occasionally in two directions, but owing to their +free intercrossing they (the variations) never increase. + +2. A change of conditions occurs which threatens the existence of the +species, but the _two varieties_ are adapted to the changing conditions, +and, if accumulated, will form two new _species adapted to the new +conditions_. + +3. Free crossing, however, renders this impossible, and so the species +is in danger of extinction. + +4. If _sterility_ could be induced, then the pure races would increase +more rapidly and replace the old species. + +5. It is admitted that _partial sterility_ between _varieties_ does +occasionally occur. It is admitted the _degree_ of this sterility +_varies_. Is it not probable that Natural Selection can accumulate these +variations and thus save the species? + +If Natural Selection can _not_ do this, how do species ever arise, +except when a variety is isolated? + +Closely allied species in distinct countries being sterile is no +difficulty, for either they diverged from a common ancestor in contact, +and Natural Selection increased the sterility, or they were isolated, +and have varied since, in which case they have been for ages influenced +by distinct conditions which may well produce sterility. + +If the difficulty of _grafting_ was as great as the difficulty of +_crossing_, and as _regular_, I admit it would be a most serious +objection. But it is not. I believe many distinct species can be grafted +while others less distinct cannot. The regularity with which natural +species are sterile together, even when _very much alike_, I think is an +argument in favour of the sterility having been generally produced by +Natural Selection for the good of the species. + +The other difficulty, of unequal sterility of reciprocal crosses, seems +none to me; for it is a step to more complete sterility, and as such +would be useful and would be increased by selection. + +I have read Sir C. Lyell's second volume with great pleasure. He is, as +usual, very cautious, and hardly ever expresses a positive opinion, but +the general effect of the whole book is very strong, as the argument is +all on our side. + +I am in hopes it will bring in a new set of converts to Natural +Selection, and will at all events lead to a fresh ventilation of the +subject.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, N.W. March 27, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--My son has failed in your problem, and says that it is +"excessively difficult": he says you will find something about it in +Thomson and Tait, "Natural Philosophy" (art. 649). He has, however, sent +the solution, if the plate rested on a square rim, but he supposes this +will not answer your purpose; nevertheless, I have forwarded it by this +same post. It seems that the rim being round makes the problem much more +difficult. + +I enclose my photograph, which I have received from Down. I sent your +answer to George on his objection to your argument on sterility, but +have not yet heard from him. I dread beginning to think over this +fearful problem, which I believe beats the plate on the circular rim; +but I will sometime. I foresee, however, that there are so many doubtful +points that we shall never agree. As far as a glance serves it seems to +me, perhaps falsely, that you sometimes argue that hybrids have an +advantage from greater vigour, and sometimes a disadvantage from not +being so well fitted to their conditions. Heaven protect my stomach +whenever I attempt following your argument!--Yours most sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. April 6, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been considering the terrible problem. Let me +first say that no man could have more earnestly wished for the success +of Natural Selection in regard to sterility than I did, and when I +considered a general statement (as in your last note) I always felt sure +it could be worked out, but always failed in detail, the cause being, as +I believe, that Natural Selection cannot effect what is not good for the +individual, including in this term a social community. It would take a +volume to discuss all the points; and nothing is so humiliating to me as +to agree with a man like you (or Hooker) on the premises and disagree +about the result. + +I agree with my son's argument and not with rejoinder. The cause of our +difference, I think, is that I look at the number of offspring as an +important element (all circumstances remaining the same) in keeping up +the average number of individuals within any area. I do not believe that +the amount of food by any means is the sole determining cause of number. +Lessened fertility is equivalent to a new source of destruction. I +believe if in one district a species produce _from any cause_ fewer +young, the deficiency would be supplied from surrounding districts. This +applies to your par. 5. If the species produced fewer young from any +cause in _every_ district, it would become extinct unless its fertility +were augmented through Natural Selection (_see_ H. Spencer). + +I demur to the probability and almost to the possibility of par. 1, as +you start with two forms, within the same area, which are not mutually +sterile, and which yet have supplanted the parent-form (par. 6). I know +of no ghost of a fact supporting belief that disinclination to cross +accompanies sterility. It cannot hold with plants, or the lower fixed +aquatic animals. I saw clearly what an immense aid this would be, but +gave it up. Disinclination to cross seems to have been independently +acquired, probably by Natural Selection; and I do not see why it would +not have sufficed to have prevented incipient species from blending to +have simply increased sexual disinclination to cross. + +Par. 11: I demur to a certain extent to amount of sterility and +structural dissimilarity necessarily going together, except indirectly +and by no means strictly. Look at the case of pigeons, fowls, and +cabbages. + +I overlooked the advantage of the half-sterility of reciprocal crosses; +yet, perhaps from novelty, I do not feel inclined to admit the +probability of Natural Selection having done its work so clearly. + +I will not discuss the second case of utter sterility; but your +assumptions in par. 13 seem to me much too complicated. I cannot believe +so universal an attribute as utter sterility between remote species was +acquired in so complex a manner. I do not agree with your rejoinder on +grafting; I fully admit that it is not so closely restricted as +crossing; but this does not seem to me to weaken the case as one of +analogy. The incapacity of grafting is likewise an invariable attribute +of plants sufficiently remote from each other, and sometimes of plants +pretty closely allied. + +The difficulty of increasing the sterility, through Natural Selection, +of two already sterile species seems to me best brought home by +considering an actual case. The cowslip and primrose are moderately +sterile, yet occasionally produce hybrids: now these hybrids, two or +three or a dozen in a whole parish, occupy ground which _might_ have +been occupied by either pure species, and no doubt the latter suffer to +this small extent. But can you conceive that any individual plants of +the primrose and cowslip, which happened to be mutually rather more +sterile (i.e. which when crossed yielded a few less seeds) than usual, +would profit to such a degree as to increase in number to the ultimate +exclusion of the present primrose and cowslip? I cannot. + +My son, I am sorry to say, cannot see the full force of your rejoinder +in regard to the second head of continually augmented sterility. You +speak in this rejoinder, and in par. 5, of all the individuals becoming +in some slight degree sterile in certain districts; if you were to admit +that by continued exposure to these same conditions the sterility would +inevitably increase, there would be no need of Natural Selection. But I +suspect that the sterility is not caused so much by any particular +conditions, as by long habituation to conditions of any kind. To speak +according to pangenesis, the gemmules of hybrids are not injured, for +hybrids propagate freely by buds; but their reproductive organs are +somehow affected, so that they cannot accumulate the proper gemmules, in +nearly the same manner as the reproductive organs of a pure species +become affected when exposed to unnatural conditions. + +This is a very ill-expressed and ill-written letter. Do not answer it, +unless the spirit urges you. Life is too short for so long a discussion. +We shall, I _greatly_ fear, never agree.--My dear Wallace, most +sincerely yours, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Hurstpierpoint. [?] April 8, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am sorry you should have given yourself the trouble to +answer my ideas on Sterility. If you are not convinced, I have little +doubt but that I am wrong; and in fact I was only _half convinced_ by my +own arguments, and I now think there is about an even chance that +Natural Selection may or not be able to accumulate sterility. If my +first proposition is modified to _the existence of a species and a +variety in the same area_, it will do just as well for my argument. Such +certainly do exist. They are fertile together, and yet each maintains +itself tolerably distinct. How can this be, if there is no +disinclination to crossing? My belief certainly is that number of +offspring is not so important an element in keeping up population of a +species as supply of food and other favourable conditions, because the +numbers of a species constantly vary greatly in different parts of its +area, whereas the average number of offspring is not a very variable +element. + +However, I will say no more but leave the problem as insoluble, only +fearing that it will become a formidable weapon in the hands of the +enemies of Natural Selection. + +While writing a few pages on the northern alpine forms of plants on the +Java mountains I wanted a few cases to refer to like Teneriffe, where +there are no _northern_ forms, and scarcely any alpine. I expected the +volcanoes of Hawaii would be a good case, and asked Dr. Seeman about +them. It seems a man has lately published a list of Hawaiian plants, and +the mountains swarm with European alpine genera and some species![68] Is +not this most extraordinary and a puzzler? They are, I believe, truly +oceanic islands in the absence of mammals and the extreme poverty of +birds and insects, and they are within the tropics. Will not that be a +hard nut for you when you come to treat in detail on geographical +distribution? + +I enclose Seeman's note, which please return when you have copied the +list, if of any use to you. + +Many thanks for your carte, which I think very good. The large one had +not arrived when I was in town last week. + +Sir C. Lyell's chapter on Oceanic Islands I think very good.--Believe +me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 9, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--You allude in your note to several points which I +should much enjoy discussing with you did time and strength permit. I +know Dr. Seeman is a good botanist, but I most strongly advise you to +show the list to Hooker before you make use of the materials in print. +Hooker seems much overworked, and is now gone a tour, but I suppose you +will be in town before very long, and could see him. The list is quite +unintelligible to me; it is not pretended that the same species exist in +the Sandwich Islands and Arctic regions; and as far as the genera are +concerned, I know that in almost every one of them species inhabit such +countries as Florida, North Africa, New Holland, etc. Therefore these, +genera seem to me almost mundane, and their presence in the Sandwich +Islands will not, as I suspect in my ignorance, show any relation to the +Arctic regions. The Sandwich Islands, though I have never considered +them much, have long been a sore perplexity to me: they are eminently +oceanic in position and productions; they have long been separated from +each other; and there are only slight signs of subsidence in the islets +to the westward. I remember, however, speculating that there must have +been some immigration during the glacial period from North America or +Japan; but I cannot remember what my grounds were. Some of the plants, I +think, show an affinity with Australia. I am very glad that you like +Lyell's chapter on Oceanic Islands, for I thought it one of the best in +the part which I have read. If you do not receive the big photo of me in +due time, let me hear.--Yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +The following refers to Wallace's article, "A Theory of Birds' Nests," +in Andrew Murray's _Journal of Travel_, i. 73. He here treats in fuller +detail the view already published in the _Westminster Review_ for July, +1867, p. 38. The rule which Wallace believes, with very few exceptions, +to hold good is, "that when both sexes are of strikingly gay and +conspicuous colours, the nest is ... such as to conceal the sitting +bird; while, whenever there is a striking contrast of colours, the male +being gay and conspicuous, the female dull and obscure, the nest is open +and the sitting bird exposed to view." At this time Wallace allowed +considerably more influence to _sexual_ selection (in combination with +the need of protection) than in his later writings. See his letter to +Darwin of July 23, 1877 (p. 298), which fixes the period at which the +change in his views occurred. He finally rejected Darwin's theory that +colours "have been developed by the preference of the females, the more +ornamented males becoming the parents of each successive generation." +(_See_ "Darwinism," 1889, p. 285.) + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 15, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been deeply interested by your admirable +article on Birds' Nests. I am delighted to see that we really differ +very little--not more than two men almost always will. You do not lay +much or any stress on new characters spontaneously appearing in one sex +(generally the male) and being transmitted exclusively, or more commonly +only in excess, to that sex. I, on the other hand, formerly paid far too +little attention to protection. I had only a glimpse of the truth. But +even now I do not go quite as far as you. I cannot avoid thinking rather +more than you do about the exceptions in nesting to the rule, especially +the partial exceptions, i.e. when there is some little difference +between the sexes in species which build concealed nests. I am now quite +satisfied about the incubating males; there is so little difference in +conspicuousness between the sexes. I wish with all my heart I could go +the whole length with you. You seem to think that such birds probably +select the most beautiful females: I must feel some doubt on this head, +for I can find no evidence of it. Though I am writing so carping a note, +I admire the article _thoroughly_. + +And now I want to ask a question. When female butterflies are more +brilliant than their males, you believe that they have in most cases, or +in all cases, been rendered brilliant so as to mimic some other species +and thus escape danger. But can you account for the males not having +been rendered equally brilliant and equally protected? Although it may +be most for the welfare of the species that the female should be +protected, yet it would be some advantage, certainly no disadvantage, +for the unfortunate male to enjoy an equal immunity from danger. For my +part, I should say that the female alone had happened to vary in the +right manner, and that the beneficial variations had been transmitted to +the same sex alone. Believing in this, I can see no improbability (but +from analogy of domestic animals a strong probability): the variations +leading to beauty must _often_ have occurred in the males alone, and +been transmitted to that sex alone. Thus I should account in many cases +for the greater beauty of the male over the female, without the need of +the protective principle. I should be grateful for an answer on this +point. + +I hope that your Eastern book progresses well.--My dear Wallace, yours +sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +Sir Clifford Allbutt's view, referred to in the following letter, +probably had reference to the fact that the sperm-cell goes, or is +carried, to the germ-cell, never vice versa. In this letter Darwin gives +the reason for the "law" referred to. Wallace has been good enough to +supply the following note (May 27, 1902): "It was at this time that my +paper on 'Protective Resemblance' first appeared in the _Westminster +Review_, in which I adduced the greater, or, rather, the more +continuous, importance of the female (in the lower animals) for the +race, and my 'Theory of Birds' Nests' (_Journal of Travel and Natural +History_, No. 2), in which I applied this to the usually dull colours of +female butterflies and birds. It is to these articles, as well as to my +letters, that Darwin chiefly refers." + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 30, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--Your letter, like so many previous ones, has +interested me much. Dr. Allbutt's view occurred to me some time ago, and +I have written a short discussion on it. It is, I think, a remarkable +law, to which I have found no exception. The foundation lies in the fact +that in many cases the eggs or seeds require nourishment and protection +by the mother-form for some time after impregnation. Hence the +spermatozoa and antherozoids travel in the lower aquatic animals and +plants to the female, and pollen is borne to the female organ. As +organisms rise in the scale it seems natural that the male should carry +the spermatozoa to the females in his own body. As the male is the +searcher he has received and gained more eager passions than the female; +and, very differently from you, I look at this as _one_ great difficulty +in believing that the males select the more attractive females; as far +as I can discover they are always ready to seize on any female, and +sometimes on many females. Nothing would please me more than to find +evidence of males selecting the more attractive females [? _in +pigeons_[69]]: I have for months been trying to persuade myself of this. +There is the case of man in favour of this belief, and I know in hybrid +[_lizards'_[69]] unions of males preferring particular females, but alas! +not guided by colour. Perhaps I may get more evidence as I wade through +my twenty years' mass of notes. + +I am not shaken about the female protected butterflies: I will grant +(only for argument) that the life of the male is of _very_ little value; +I will grant that the males do not vary; yet why has not the protective +beauty of the female been transferred by inheritance to the male? The +beauty would be a gain to the male, as far as we can see, as a +protection; and I cannot believe that it would be repulsive to the +female as she became beautiful. But we shall never convince each other. +I sometimes marvel how truth progresses, so difficult is it for one man +to convince another unless his mind is vacant. Nevertheless, I myself to +a certain extent contradict my own remark; for I believe _far more_ in +the importance of protection than I did before reading your articles. + +I do not think you lay nearly stress enough in your articles on what you +admit in your letter, viz. "there seems to be some production of +vividness ... of colour in the male independent of protection." This I +am making a chief point; and have come to your conclusion so far that I +believe that intense colouring in the female sex is often checked by +being dangerous. + +That is an excellent remark of yours about no known case of the male +_alone_ assuming protective colours; but in the cases in which +protection has been gained by dull colours, I presume that sexual +selection would interfere with the male losing his beauty. If the male +alone had acquired beauty as a protection, it would be most readily +overlooked, as males are so often more beautiful than their females. +Moreover, I grant that the loss of the male is somewhat less precious +and thus there would be less rigorous selection with the male, so he +would be less likely to be made beautiful through Natural Selection for +protection. (This does not apply to sexual selection, for the greater +the excess of males and the less precious their lives, so much the +better for sexual selection.) But it seems to me a good argument, and +very good if it could be thoroughly established.--Yours most sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + +I do not know whether you will care to read this scrawl. + +P.S.--I heard yesterday that my photograph had been sent to your London +address--Westbourne Grove. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. May 5, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am afraid I have caused you a great deal of trouble +in writing to me at such length. I am glad to say that I agree almost +entirely with your summary, except that I should put sexual selection as +an equal or perhaps as even a more important agent in giving colour than +natural selection for protection. As I get on in my work I hope to get +clearer and more decided ideas. Working up from the bottom of the scale +I have as yet only got to fishes. What I rather object to in your +articles is that I do not think anyone would infer from them that you +place sexual selection even as high as No. 4 in your summary. It was +very natural that you should give only a line to sexual selection in +the summary to the _Westminster Review_, but the result at first to my +mind was that you attributed hardly anything to its power. In your +penultimate note you say: "In the great mass of cases in which there is +_great_ differentiation of colour between the sexes, I believe it is due +_almost wholly_ to the need of protection to the female." Now, looking +to the whole animal kingdom I can at present by no means admit this +view; but pray do not suppose that because I differ to a certain extent, +I do not thoroughly admire your several papers and your admirable +generalisation on birds' nests. With respect to this latter point, +however, although following you, I suspect that I shall ultimately look +at the whole case from a rather different point of view. + +You ask what I think about the gay-coloured females of Pieris:[70] I +believe I quite follow you in believing that the colours are wholly due +to mimicry; and I further believe that the male is not brilliant from +not having received through inheritance colour from the female, and from +not himself having varied; in short, that he has not been influenced by +Selection. + +I can make no answer with respect to the elephants. With respect to the +female reindeer, I have hitherto looked at the horns simply as the +consequence of inheritance _not_ having been limited by sex. + +Your idea about colour being concentrated in the smaller males seems +good, and I presume that you will not object to my giving it as your +suggestion.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, with many thanks, yours very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +Wallace's more recent views on the question of Natural Selection and +Sterility may be found in a note written by him in 1899: "When writing +my 'Darwinism' and coming again to the consideration of the problem of +the effect of Natural Selection in accumulating variations in the amount +of sterility between varieties or incipient species, twenty years later, +I became more convinced than I was when discussing with Darwin, of the +substantial accuracy of my argument. Recently a correspondent who is +both a naturalist and a mathematician has pointed out to me a slight +error in my calculation at p, 183 (which does not, however, materially +affect the result) disproving the physiological selection of the late +Dr. Romanes, but he can see no fallacy in my argument as to the power of +Natural Selection to increase sterility between incipient species, nor, +so far as I am aware, has anyone shown such fallacy to exist. + +"On the other points on which I differed from Mr. Darwin in the +foregoing discussion--the effect of high fertility on population of a +species, etc.--I still hold the views I then expressed, but it would be +out of place to attempt to justify them here."--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. August 16, [1868?]._ + +Dear Darwin,--I ought to have written before to thank you for the copies +of your paper on "Primula" and on "Cross Unions of Dimorphic Plants, +etc." The latter is particularly interesting, and the conclusion most +important; but I think it makes the difficulty of _how_ these forms, +with their varying degrees of sterility, originated, greater than ever. +If Natural Selection could not accumulate varying degrees of sterility +for the plant's benefit, then how did sterility ever come to be +associated with _one cross_ of a trimorphic plant rather than another? +The difficulty seems to be increased by the consideration that the +advantage of a cross with a _distinct individual_ is gained just as well +by illegitimate as by legitimate unions. By what means, then, did +illegitimate unions ever become sterile? It would seem a far simpler way +for each plant's pollen to have acquired a prepotency on another +individual's stigma over that of the same individual, without the +extraordinary complication of three differences of structure and +eighteen different unions with varying degrees of sterility! + +However, the fact remains an excellent answer to the statement that +sterility of hybrids proves the absolute distinctness of the parents. + +I have been reading with great pleasure Mr. Bentham's last admirable +address,[71] in which he so well replies to the gross misstatements of +the _Athenaeum_; and also says a word in favour of pangenesis. I think we +may now congratulate you on having made a valuable convert, whose +opinions on the subject, coming so late and being evidently so well +considered, will have much weight. + +I am going to Norwich on Tuesday to hear Dr. Hooker, who I hope will +boldly promulgate "Darwinianism" in his address. Shall we have the +pleasure of seeing you there? + +I am engaged in negotiations about my book. + +Hoping you are well and getting on with your next volumes, believe me +yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Freshwater, Isle of Wight. August 19, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--Thanks for your note. I did sometimes think of going +to Norwich, for I should have very much liked it, but it has been quite +out of the question. We have been here for five weeks for a change, and +it has done me some little good; but I have been forced to live the life +of a drone, and for a month before leaving home I was unable to do +anything and had to stop all work. + +We return to Down to-morrow. + +Hooker has been here for two or three days, so that I have had much +talk about his Address. I am glad that you will be there. + +It is real good news that your book is so advanced that you are +negotiating about its publication. + +With respect to dimorphic plants: it is a great puzzle, but I _fancy_ I +partially see my way--too long for a letter and too speculative for +publication. The groundwork of the acquirement of such peculiar +fertility (for what you say about any other distinct individual being, +as it would appear, sufficient, is very true) rests on the stamens and +pistil having varied first in relative length, _as actually occurs_ +irrespective of dimorphism, and the peculiar kind of fertility +characteristic of dimorphic and the trimorphic plants having been +_secondarily_ acquired. Pangenesis makes _very_ few converts: G.H. Lewes +is one. + +I had become, before my nine weeks' horrid interruption of all work, +extremely interested in sexual selection and was making fair progress. +In truth, it has vexed me much to find that the further I get on, the +more I differ from you about the females being dull-coloured for +protection. I can now hardly express myself as strongly even as in the +"Origin." This has _much decreased_ the pleasure of my work. + +In the course of September, if I can get at all stronger, I hope to get +Mr. J. Jenner Weir (who has been _wonderfully_ kind in giving me +information) to pay me a visit, and I will then write for the chance of +your being able to come and, I hope, bring with you Mrs. Wallace. If I +could get several of you together, it would be less dull for you, for of +late I have found it impossible to talk with any human being for more +than half an hour, except on extraordinarily good days.--Believe me, my +dear Wallace, ever yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent. August 30, [1868?]._ + +Dear Darwin,--I was very sorry to hear you had been so unwell again, and +hope you will not exert yourself to write me such long letters. +Darwinianism was in the ascendant at Norwich (I hope you do not dislike +the word, for we really _must_ use it), and I think it rather disgusted +some of the parsons, joined with the amount of _advice_ they received +from Hooker and Huxley. The worst of it is that there are no opponents +left who know anything of natural history, so that there are none of the +good discussions we used to have. G.H. Lewes seems to me to be making a +great mistake in the _Fortnightly_, advocating _many distinct_ origins +for different groups, and even, if I understand him, distinct origins +for some allied groups, just as the anthropologists do who make the red +man descend from the orang, the black man from the chimpanzee--or rather +the Malay and orang one ancestor, the negro and chimpanzee another. Vogt +told me that the Germans are all becoming converted by your last book. + +I am certainly surprised that you should find so much evidence against +protection having checked the acquirement of bright colour in females; +but I console myself by presumptuously hoping that I can explain your +facts, unless they are derived from the very groups on which I chiefly +rest--birds and insects. There is nothing _necessarily_ requiring +protection in females; it is a matter of habits. There are groups in +which both sexes require protection in an exactly equal degree, and +others (I think) in which the male requires most protection, and I feel +the greatest confidence that these will ultimately support my view, +although I do _not_ yet know the facts they may afford. + +Hoping you are in better health, believe me, dear Darwin, yours +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. September 5, [1868?]._ + +Dear Darwin,--It will give me great pleasure to accept your kind +invitation for next Saturday and Sunday, and my wife would very much +like to come too, and will if possible. Unfortunately, there is a new +servant coming that very day, and there is a baby at the mischievous age +of a year and a quarter to be left in somebody's care; but I daresay it +will be managed somehow. + +I will drop a line on Friday to say if we are coming the time you +mention.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + +_Friday_. + +My dear Darwin,--My wife has arranged to accompany me to-morrow, and we +hope to be at Orpington Station at 5.44, as mentioned by you.--Very +truly yours, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. September 16, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--The beetles have arrived, and cordial thanks: I never +saw such wonderful creatures in my life. I was thinking of something +quite different. I shall wait till my son Frank returns, before soaking +and examining them. I long to steal the box, but return it by this post, +like a too honest man. + +I am so much pleased about the male musk Callichroma; for by odd chance +I told Frank a week ago that next spring he must collect at Cambridge +lots of Cerambyx moschatus, for as sure as life he would find the odour +sexual! + +You will be pleased to hear that I am undergoing severe distress about +protection and sexual selection: this morning I oscillated with joy +towards you; this evening I have swung back to the old position, out of +which I fear I shall never get. + +I did most thoroughly enjoy my talk with you three gentlemen, and +especially with you, and to my great surprise it has not knocked me up. +Pray give my kindest remembrances to Mrs. Wallace, and if my wife were +at home she would cordially join in this.--Yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +I have had this morning a capital letter from Walsh of Illinois; but +details too long to give. + + * * * * * + +Among Wallace's papers was found the following draft of a letter of his +to Darwin: + + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. September 18, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--The more I think of your views as to the colours of +females, the more difficulty I find in accepting them, and as you are +now working at the subject I hope it will not interrupt you to hear +"counsel on the other side." + +I have a "general" and a "special" argument to submit. + +1. Female birds and insects are generally exposed to more danger than +the male, and in the case of insects their existence is necessary for a +longer period. + +2. They therefore require in some way or other a special balance of +protection. + +3. Now, if the male and female were distinct species, with different +habits and organisations, you would, I think, at once admit that a +difference of colour serving to make that one less conspicuous which +evidently required more protection than the other had been acquired by +Natural Selection. + +4. But you admit that variations appearing in one sex are transmitted +(often) to that sex only: there is therefore nothing to prevent Natural +Selection acting on the two sexes as if they were two species. + +5. Your objection that the same protection would to a certain extent be +useful to the male, seems to me utterly unsound, and directly opposed to +your own doctrine so convincingly urged in the "Origin," "_that Natural +Selection never can improve an animal beyond its needs_." So that +admitting abundant variation of colour in the male, it is impossible +that he can be brought by Natural Selection to resemble the female +(unless _her_ variations are always transmitted to _him_), because the +_difference_ of their colours is to balance the _difference_ in their +organisations and habits, and Natural Selection cannot give to the male +_more_ than is needed to effect that balance. + +6. The fact that in almost all protected groups the females perfectly +resemble the males shows, I think, a tendency to transference of colour +from one sex to the other when this tendency is not injurious. + +Or perhaps the _protection_ is acquired because this tendency exists. I +admit therefore in the case of concealed nests they [habits] may have +been acquired for protection. + +Now for the special case. + +7. In the very weak-flying Leptalis both sexes mimic Heliconidae. + +8. In the much more powerful Papilio, Pieris, and Diadema it is +generally the _female only_ that mimics Danaida. + +9. In these cases the females often acquire more bright and varied +colours than the male. Sometimes, as in _Pieris pyrrha_, conspicuously +so. + +10. No single case is known of a male Papilio, Pieris, Diadema (or any +other insect?) _alone_ mimicking a Danais, etc. + +11. But colour is more frequent in males, and _variations_ always seem +ready for purposes of sexual or other selection. + +12. The fair inference seems to be that given in proposition 5 of the +general argument, viz. that _each species_ and _each sex_ can only be +modified by selection just as far as is absolutely necessary, not a step +farther. A male, being by structure and habits less exposed to danger +and less requiring protection than the female, cannot have more +protection given to it by Natural Selection, but a female must have some +extra protection to balance the greater danger, and she rapidly acquires +it in one way or another. + +13. An objection derived from cases like male fish, which seem to +require protection, yet having brighter colours, seems to me of no more +weight than is that of the existence of many white and unprotected +species of Leptalis to Bates's theory of mimicry, that only one or two +species of butterflies perfectly resemble leaves, or that the instincts +or habits or colours that seem essential to the preservation of one +animal are often totally absent in an allied species. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent. September 23, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am very much obliged for all your trouble in writing +me your long letter, which I will keep by me and ponder over. To answer +it would require at least 200 folio pages! If you could see how often I +have rewritten some pages, you would know how anxious I am to arrive as +near as I can to the truth. We differ, I think, chiefly from fixing our +minds perhaps too closely on different points, on which we agree: I lay +great stress on what I know takes place under domestication: I think we +start with different fundamental notions on inheritance. I find it most +difficult, but not, I think, impossible, to see how, for instance, a few +red feathers appearing on the head of a male bird, and which _are at +first transmitted to both sexes_, could come to be transmitted to males +alone;[72] but I have no difficulty in making the whole head red if the +few red feathers in the male from the first tended to be sexually +transmitted. I am quite willing to admit that the female may have been +modified, either at the same time or subsequently, for protection, by +the accumulation of variations limited in their transmission to the +female sex. I owe to your writings the consideration of this latter +point. But I cannot yet persuade myself that females _alone_ have often +been modified for protection. Should you grudge the trouble briefly to +tell me whether you believe that the plainer head and less bright +_colours_ of [female symbol][73] chaffinch, the less red on the head and +less clean colours of [female symbol] goldfinch, the much less red on +breast of [female symbol] bullfinch, the paler crest of goldencrest +wren, etc., have been acquired by them for protection? I cannot think +so; any more than I can that the considerable differences between +[female symbol] and [male symbol] house-sparrow, or much greater +brightness of [male symbol] _Parus caeruleus_ (both of which build under +cover) than of [female symbol] Parus are related to protection. I even +misdoubt much whether the less blackness of blackbird is for protection. + +Again, can you give me reason for believing that the merest differences +between female pheasants, the female _Gallus bankiva_, the female of +black grouse, the pea-hen, female partridge, have all special reference +to protection under slightly different conditions? I of course admit +that they are all protected by dull colours, derived, as I think, from +some dull-ground progenitor; and I account partly for their difference +by partial transference of colour from the male, and by other means too +long to specify; but I earnestly wish to see reason to believe that each +is specially adapted for concealment to its environment. + +I grieve to differ from you, and it actually terrifies me, and makes me +constantly distrust myself. + +I fear we shall never quite understand each other. I value the cases of +bright-coloured, incubating male fishes--and brilliant female +butterflies, solely as showing that one sex may be made brilliant +without any necessary transference of beauty to the other sex; for in +these cases I cannot suppose that beauty in the other sex was checked by +selection. + +I fear this letter will trouble you to read it. A very short answer +about your belief in regard to the [female symbol] finches and +Gallinaceae would suffice.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, S.W. September 27, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--Your view seems to be that variations occurring in one sex +are transmitted either to that sex exclusively or to both sexes equally, +or more rarely partially transferred. But we have every gradation of +sexual colours from total dissimilarity to perfect identity. If this is +explained solely by the laws of inheritance, then the colours of one or +other sex will be always (in relation to their environment) a _matter of +chance_. I cannot think this. I think Selection more powerful than laws +of inheritance, of which it makes use, as shown by cases of two, three +or four forms of female butterflies, all of which have, I have little +doubt, been specialised for protection. + +To answer your first question is most difficult, if not impossible, +because we have no sufficient evidence in _individual cases of slight +sexual difference_, to determine whether the male alone has acquired his +superior brightness by sexual selection, or the female been made duller +by need of protection, or whether the two causes have acted. Many of the +sexual differences of existing species may be inherited differences from +parent forms who existed under different conditions and had greater or +less need of protection. + +I think I admitted before the general tendency (probably) of males to +acquire brighter tints. Yet this cannot be universal, for many female +birds and quadrupeds have equally bright tints. + +I think the case of [female symbol] _Pieris pyrrha_ proves that females +alone can be greatly modified for protection. + +To your second question I can reply more decidedly. I do think the +females of the Gallmaceae you mention have been modified or been +prevented from acquiring the brighter plumage of the male by need of +protection. I know that the _Gallus bankiva_ frequents drier and more +open situations than the pea-hen of Java, which is found among grassy +and leafy vegetation corresponding with the colours of the two. So the +Argus pheasant, [male symbol] and [female symbol], are, I feel sure, +protected by their tints corresponding to the dead leaves of the lofty +forest in which they dwell, and the female of the gorgeous fire-back +pheasant, _Lophura viellottii_, is of a very similar _rich brown +colour_. I do not, however, at all think the question can be settled by +individual cases, but only by large masses of facts. + +The colours of the mass of female birds seem to me strictly analogous to +the colours of both sexes of snipes, woodcocks, plovers, etc., which are +undoubtedly protective. + +Now, supposing, on your view, that the colours of a male bird become +more and more brilliant by sexual selection, and a good deal of that +colour is transmitted to the female till it becomes positively injurious +to her during incubation and the race is in danger of extinction, do you +not think that all the females who had acquired less of the male's +bright colours or who themselves varied in a protective direction would +be preserved, and that thus a good protective colouring would be +acquired? If you admit that this could occur, and can show no good +reason why it should not often occur, then we no longer differ, for this +is the main point of my view. + +Have you ever thought of the red wax-tips of the Bombycilla beautifully +imitating the red fructification of lichens used in the nest, and +therefore the females have it too? Yet this is a very sexual-looking +character. + +We begin printing this week.--Yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--Pray don't distress yourself on this subject. It will all come +right in the end, and after all it is only an episode in your great +work.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. October 4, 1868._ + +Dear Darwin,--I should have answered your letter before, but have been +very busy reading over my MSS. the last time before going to press, +drawing maps, etc. etc. + +Your first question cannot be answered, because we have not, in +_individual cases_ of _slight sexual_ difference, sufficient evidence to +determine how much of that difference is due to sexual selection acting +on the male, how much to natural selection (protective) acting on the +female, or how much of the difference may be due to inherited +differences from ancestors who lived under different conditions. On your +second question I can give an opinion. I do think the females of the +Gallinaceae you mention have been either _modified_; or _prevented from +acquiring much of the brighter plumage of the males_, by the need of +protection. I know that _Gallus bankiva_ frequents drier and more open +situations than _Pavo muticus_, which in Java is found among grassy and +leafy vegetation corresponding with the colours of the two females. So +the Argus pheasants, male and female, are, I feel sure, protected by +their tints corresponding to dead leaves of the dry lofty forests in +which they dwell; and the female of the gorgeous fire-back pheasant, +_Lophura viellottii_, is of a very similar rich brown colour. + +These and many other colours of female birds seem to me exactly +analogous to the colours of _both sexes_ in such groups as the snipes, +woodcocks, plovers, ptarmigan, desert birds, Arctic animals, greenbirds. + +[The second page of this letter has been torn off. This letter and that +of September 27 appear both to answer the same letter from Darwin. The +last page of this or of another letter was placed with it in the +portfolio of letters; it is now given.] + +I am sorry to find that our difference of opinion on this point is a +source of anxiety to you. + +Pray do not let it be so. The truth will come out at last, and our +difference may be the means of setting others to work who may set us +both right. + +After all, this question is only an episode (though an important one) in +the great question of the origin of species, and whether you or I are +right will not at all affect the main doctrine--that is one comfort. + +I hope you will publish your treatise on Sexual Selection as a separate +book as soon as possible, and then while you are going on with your +other work, there will no doubt be found someone to battle with me over +your facts, on this hard problem. + +With best wishes and kind regards to Mrs. Darwin and all your family, +believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. October 6, 1868._ + +My dear Wallace,--Your letter is very valuable to me, and in every way +very kind. I will not inflict a long answer, but only answer your +queries. There are breeds (viz. Hamburgh) in which both sexes differ +much from each other and from both sexes of _G. bankiva_; and both sexes +are kept constant by selection. + +The comb of Spanish [male symbol] has been ordered to be upright and +that of Spanish [female symbol] to lop over, and this has been effected. +There are sub-breeds of game fowl, with [female symbol]s very distinct +and [male symbol]s almost identical; but this apparently is the result +of spontaneous variation without special selection. + +I am very glad to hear of the case of [female symbol] birds of paradise. + +I have never in the least doubted the possibility of modifying female +birds _alone_ for protection; and I have long believed it for +butterflies: I have wanted only evidence for the females alone of birds +having had their colours modified for protection. But then I believe +that the variations by which a female bird or butterfly could get or has +got protective colouring have probably from the first been variations +limited in their transmission to the female sex; and so with the +variations of the male, where the male is more beautiful than the +female, I believe the variations were sexually limited in their +transmission to the males. I am delighted to hear that you have been +hard at work on your MS.--Yours most sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 20, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--It will give me very great pleasure if you will allow me +to dedicate my little book of Malayan Travels to you, although it will +be far too small and unpretending a work to be worthy of that honour. +Still, I have done what I can to make it a vehicle for communicating a +taste for the higher branches of Natural History, and I know that you +will judge it only too favourably. We are in the middle of the second +volume, and if the printers will get on, shall be out next month. + +Have you seen in the last number of the _Quarterly Journal of Science_ +the excellent remarks on _Fraser's_ article on Natural Selection failing +as to Man? In one page it gets to the heart of the question, and I have +written to the editor to ask who the author is. + +My friend Spruce's paper on Palms is to be read to-morrow evening at the +Linnean. He tells me it contains a discovery which he calls "alteration +of function." He found a clump of Geonema all of which were females, and +the next year the same clump were all males! He has found other facts +analogous to this, and I have no doubt the subject is one that will +interest you. + +Hoping you are pretty well and are getting on steadily with your next +volumes, and with kind regards to Mrs. Darwin and all your circle, +believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--Have you seen the admirable article in the _Guardian_ (!) on +Lyell's "Principles"? It is most excellent and liberal. It is written by +the Rev. Geo. Buckle, of Tiverton Vicarage, Bath, whom I met at Norwich +and found a thoroughly scientific and liberal parson. Perhaps you have +heard that I have undertaken to write an article for the _Quarterly_ (!) +on the same subject, to make up for that on "Modern Geology" last year +not mentioning Sir C. Lyell. + +Really, what with the Tories passing Radical Reform Bills and the Church +periodicals advocating Darwinianism, the millennium must be at +hand.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. January 22, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--Your intended dedication pleases me much and I look at +it as a _great_ honour, and this is nothing more than the truth. I am +glad to hear, for Lyell's sake and on general grounds, that you are +going to write in the _Quarterly_. Some little time ago I was actually +wishing that you wrote in the _Quarterly_, as I knew that you +occasionally contributed to periodicals, and I thought that your +articles would thus be more widely read. + +Thank you for telling me about the _Guardian_, which I will borrow from +Lyell. I did note the article in the _Quarterly Journal of Science_ and +put it aside to read again with the articles in _Fraser_ and the +_Spectator_. + +I have been interrupted in my regular work in preparing a new edition[74] +of the "Origin," which has cost me much labour, and which I hope I have +considerably improved in two or three important points. I always thought +individual differences more important than single variations, but now I +have come to the conclusion that they are of paramount importance, and +in this I believe I agree with you. Fleeming Jenkin's arguments have +convinced me.[75] + +I heartily congratulate you on your new book being so nearly +finished.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 30, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--Will you tell me _where_ are Fleeming Jenkin's arguments +on the importance of single variation? Because I at present hold most +strongly the contrary opinion, that it is the individual differences or +_general variability_ of species that enables them to become modified +and adapted to new conditions. + +Variations or "sports" may be important in modifying an animal in one +direction, as in colour for instance, but how it can possibly work in +changes requiring co-ordination of many parts, as in Orchids for +example, I cannot conceive. And as all the more important structural +modifications of animals and plants imply much co-ordination, it appears +to me that the chances are millions to one against _individual +variations_ ever coinciding so as to render the required modification +possible. However, let me read first what has convinced you. + +You may tell Mrs. Darwin that I have now a daughter. + +Give my kind regards to her and all your family.--Very truly yours, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. February 2, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I must have expressed myself atrociously; I meant to +say exactly the reverse of what you have understood. F. Jenkin argued in +the _North British Review_[76] against single variations ever being +perpetuated, and has convinced me, though not in quite so broad a manner +as here put. I always thought individual differences more important, but +I was blind and thought that single variations might be preserved much +oftener than I now see is possible or probable. I mentioned this in my +former note merely because I believed that you had come to similar +conclusions, and I like much to be in accord with you. I believe I was +mainly deceived by single variations offering such simple illustrations, +as when man selects. + +We heartily congratulate you on the birth of your little +daughter.--Yours very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 5, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I was delighted at receiving your book[77] this +morning. The whole appearance and the illustrations with which it [is] +so profusely ornamented are quite beautiful. Blessings on you and your +publisher for having the pages cut and gilded. + +As for the dedication, putting quite aside how far I deserve what you +say, it seems to me decidedly the best expressed dedication which I have +ever met. + +The reading will probably last me a month, for I dare not have it read +aloud, as I know that it will set me thinking. + +I see that many points will interest me greatly. When I have finished, +if I have anything particular to say, I will write again. Accept my +cordial thanks. The dedication is a thing for my children's children to +be proud of.--Yours most sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. March 10, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--Thanks for your kind note. I could not persuade Mr. +Macmillan to cut more than twenty-five copies for my own friends, and he +even seemed to think this a sign of most strange and barbarous taste. + +Mr. Weir's paper on the kinds of larvae, etc., eaten or rejected by +insectivorous birds was read at the last meeting of the Entomological +Society and was most interesting and satisfactory. His observations and +experiments, so far as they have yet gone, confirm in _every instance_ +my hypothetical explanation of the colours of caterpillars. He finds +that all nocturnal-feeding obscure-coloured caterpillars, all _green_ +and _brown_ and _mimicking_ caterpillars, are greedily eaten by almost +every insectivorous bird. On the other hand, every gaily coloured, +spotted or banded species, which never conceal themselves, and all spiny +and hairy kinds, are _invariably rejected_, either without or after +trial. He has also come to the curious and rather unexpected conclusion, +that hairy and spiny caterpillars are not protected by their hairs, but +by their nauseous taste, the hairs being merely an external mark of +their uneatableness, like the gay colours of others. He deduces this +from two kinds of facts: (1) that very young caterpillars before the +hairs are developed are equally rejected, and (2) that in many cases the +smooth pupae and even the perfect insects of the same species are equally +rejected. + +His facts, it is true, are at present not very numerous, but they all +point one way. They seem to me to lend an immense support to my view of +the great importance of protection in determining colour, for it has not +only prevented the eatable species from ever acquiring bright colours, +spots, or markings injurious to them, but it has also conferred on all +the nauseous species distinguishing marks to render their uneatableness +more protective to them than it would otherwise be. When you have read +my book I shall be glad of any hints for corrections if it comes to +another edition. I was horrified myself by coming accidentally on +several verbal inelegancies after all my trouble in correcting, and I +have no doubt there are many more important errors.--Believe me, dear +Darwin, yours very truly, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 22, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have finished your book.[78] It seems to me +excellent, and at the same time most pleasant to read. That you ever +returned alive is wonderful after all your risks from illness and sea +voyages, especially that most interesting one to Waigiou and back. Of +all the impressions which I have received from your book, the strongest +is that your perseverance in the cause of science was heroic. Your +descriptions of catching the splendid butterflies have made me quite +envious, and at the same time have made me feel almost young again, so +vividly have they brought before my mind old days when I collected, +though I never made such captures as yours. Certainly collecting is the +best sport in the world. I shall be astonished if your book has not a +great success; and your splendid generalisations on geographical +distribution, with which I am familiar from your papers, will be new to +most of your readers. I think I enjoyed most the Timor case, as it is +best demonstrated; but perhaps Celebes is really the most valuable. I +should prefer looking at the whole Asiatic continent as having formerly +been more African in its fauna, than admitting the former existence of a +continent across the Indian Ocean. Decaisne's paper on the flora of +Timor, in which he points out its close relation to that of the +Mascarene Islands, supports your view. On the other hand, I might +advance the giraffes, etc., in the Sewalik deposits. How I wish someone +would collect the plants of Banca! The puzzle of Java, Sumatra and +Borneo is like the three geese and foxes: I have a wish to extend +Malacca through Banca to part of Java and thus make three parallel +peninsulas, but I cannot get the geese and foxes across the river. + +Many parts of your book have interested me much: I always wished to +hear an independent judgment about the Rajah Brooke, and now I have been +delighted with your splendid eulogium on him. + +With respect to the fewness and inconspicuousness of the flowers in the +tropics, may it not be accounted for by the hosts of insects, so that +there is no need for the flowers to be conspicuous? As, according to +Humboldt, fewer plants are social in the tropical than in the temperate +regions, the flowers in the former would not make so great a show. + +In your note you speak of observing some inelegancies of style. I notice +none. All is as clear as daylight. I have detected two or three errata. + +In Vol. I. you write lond_i_acus: is this not an error? + +Vol. II., p. 236: for _western_ side of Aru read _eastern_. + +Page 315: Do you not mean the horns of the moose? For the elk has not +palmated horns. + +I have only one criticism of a general nature, and I am not sure that +other geologists would agree with me: you repeatedly speak as if the +pouring out of lava, etc., from volcanoes actually caused the subsidence +of an adjoining area. I quite agree that areas undergoing opposite +movements are somehow connected; but volcanic outbursts must, I think, +be looked at as mere accidents in the swelling tip of a great dome or +surface of _plutonic_ rocks; and there seems no more reason to conclude +that such swelling or elevation in mass is the cause of the subsidence +than that the subsidence is the cause of the elevation; which latter +view is indeed held by some geologists, I have regretted to find so +little about the habits of the many animals which you have seen. + +In Vol. II., p. 399, I wish I could see the connection between +variations having been first or long ago selected, and their appearance +at an earlier age in birds of paradise than the variations which have +subsequently arisen and been selected. In fact, I do not understand your +explanation of the curious order of development of the ornaments of +these birds. + +Will you please to tell me whether you are sure that the female +Casuarius (Vol. II., p. 150) sits on her eggs as well as the male?--for, +if I am not mistaken, Bartlett told me that the male alone, who is less +brightly coloured about the neck, sits on the eggs. In Vol. II., p. 255, +you speak of male savages ornamenting themselves more than the women, of +which I have heard before; now, have you any notion whether they do this +to please themselves, or to excite the admiration of their fellow-men, +or to please the women, or, as is perhaps probable, from all three +motives? + +Finally, let me congratulate you heartily on having written so excellent +a book, full of thought on all sorts of subjects. Once again, let me +thank you for the very great honour which you have done me by your +dedication.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +Vol. II., p. 455: When in New Zealand I thought the inhabitants a mixed +race, with the type of Tahiti preponderating over some darker race with +more frizzled hair; and now that the stone instruments [have] revealed +the existence of ancient inhabitants, is it not probable that these +islands were inhabited by true Papuans? Judging from descriptions the +pure Tahitans must differ much from your Papuans. + + * * * * * + +The reference in the following letter is to Wallace's review, in the +April number of the _Quarterly_, of Lyell's "Principles of Geology" +(tenth edition), and of the sixth edition of the "Elements of Geology." +Wallace points out that here for the first time Sir C. Lyell gave up his +opposition to Evolution; and this leads Wallace to give a short account +of the views set forth in the "Origin of Species." In this article +Wallace makes a definite statement as to his views on the evolution of +man, which were opposed to those of Darwin. He upholds the view that the +brain of man, as well as the organs of speech, the hand and the external +form, could not have been evolved by Natural Selection (the "child" he +is supposed to "murder "). At p. 391 he writes: "In the brain of the +lowest savages and, as far as we know, of the prehistoric races, we have +an organ ... little inferior in size and complexity to that of the +highest types.... But the mental requirements of the lowest savages, +such as the Australians or the Andaman Islanders, are very little above +those of many animals.... How then was an organ developed far beyond the +needs of its possessor? Natural Selection could only have endowed the +savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape, whereas he +actually possesses one but very little inferior to that of the average +members of our learned societies." + +This passage is marked in Darwin's copy with a triply underlined "No," +and with a shower of notes of exclamation. It was probably the first +occasion on which he realised the extent of this great and striking +divergence in opinion between himself and his colleague. He had, +however, some indication of it in Wallace's paper on Man in the +_Anthropological Review_, 1864, referred to in his letter to Wallace of +May 28, 1864, and again in that of April 14, 1869. + + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 27, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I must send a line to thank you, but this note will +require no answer. This very morning after writing I found that "elk" +was used for "moose" in Sweden, but I had been reading lately about elk +and moose in North America. + +As you put the case in your letter, which I think differs somewhat from +your book, I am inclined to agree, and had thought that a feather could +hardly be increased in length until it had first grown to full length, +and therefore it would be increased late in life and transmitted to a +corresponding age. But the Crossoptilon pheasant, and even the common +pheasant, show that the tail feathers can be developed very early. + +Thanks for other facts, which I will reflect on when I go again over my +MS. + +I read all that you said about the Dutch Government with much interest, +but I do not feel I know enough to form any opinion against yours. + +I shall be intensely curious to read the _Quarterly_: I hope you have +not murdered too completely your own and my child. + +I have lately, i.e. in the new edition of the "Origin,"[79] been +moderating my zeal, and attributing much more to mere useless +variability. I did think I would send you the sheet, but I daresay you +would not care to see it, in which I discuss Naegeli's essay on Natural +Selection not affecting characters of no functional importance, and +which yet are of high classificatory importance. + +Hooker is pretty well satisfied with what I have said on this head. It +will be curious if we have hit on similar conclusions. You are about the +last man in England who would deviate a hair's breadth from his +conviction to please any editor in the world.--Yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--After all, I have thought of one question, but if I receive no +answer I shall understand that (as is probable) you have nothing to say. +I have seen it remarked that the men and women of certain tribes differ +a little in shade or tint; but have you ever seen or heard of any +difference in tint between the two sexes which did not appear to follow +from a difference in habits of life? + + * * * * * + +_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 14, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been wonderfully interested by your article,[80] +and I should think Lyell will be much gratified by it. I declare if I +had been editor and had the power of directing you I should have +selected for discussion the very points which you have chosen. I have +often said to younger geologists (for I began in the year 1830) that +they did not know what a revolution Lyell had effected; nevertheless, +your extracts from Cuvier have quite astonished me. + +Though not able really to judge, I am inclined to put more confidence in +Croll than you seem to do; but I have been much struck by many of your +remarks on degradation. + +Thomson's views of the recent age of the world have been for some time +one of my sorest troubles, and so I have been glad to read what you say. +Your exposition of Natural Selection seems to me inimitably good; there +never lived a better expounder than you. + +I was also much pleased at your discussing the difference between our +views and Lamarck's. One sometimes sees the odious expression, "Justice +to myself compels me to say, etc.," but you are the only man I ever +heard of who persistently does himself an injustice and never demands +justice. Indeed, you ought in the review to have alluded to your paper +in the Linnean _Journal_, and I feel sure all our friends will agree in +this, but you cannot "Burke" yourself, however much you may try, as may +be seen in half the articles which appear. + +I was asked but the other day by a German professor for your paper, +which I sent him. Altogether, I look at your article as appearing in the +_Quarterly_ as an immense triumph for our cause. I presume that your +remarks on Man are those to which you alluded in your note. + +If you had not told me I should have thought that they had been added by +someone else. As you expected, I differ grievously from you, and I am +very sorry for it. + +I can see no necessity for calling in an additional and proximate cause +in regard to Man. But the subject is too long for a letter. + +I have been particularly glad to read your discussion, because I am now +writing and thinking much about Man. + +I hope that your Malay book sells well. I was extremely pleased with the +article in the _Q.J. of Science_, inasmuch as it is thoroughly +appreciative of your work. Alas! you will probably agree with what the +writer says about the uses of the bamboo. + +I hear that there is also a good article in the _Saturday Review_, but +have heard nothing more about it.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours +ever sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--I have had a baddish fall, my horse partly rolling over me; but I +am getting rapidly well. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. April 18, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am very glad you think I have done justice to Lyell, and +have also well "exposed" (as a Frenchman would say) Natural Selection. +There is nothing I like better than writing a little account of it, and +trying to make it clear to the meanest capacity. + +The "Croll" question is awfully difficult. I had gone into it more +fully, but the Editor made me cut out eight pages. + +I am very sorry indeed to hear of your accident, but trust you will soon +recover and that it will leave no bad effects. + +I can quite comprehend your feelings with regard to my "unscientific" +opinions as to Man, because a few years back I should myself have +looked at them as equally wild and uncalled for. I shall look with +extreme interest for what you are writing on Man, and shall give full +weight to any explanations you can give of his probable origin. My +opinions on the subject have been modified solely by the consideration +of a series of remarkable phenomena, physical and mental, which I have +now had every opportunity of fully testing, and which demonstrate the +existence of forces and influences not yet recognised by science. This +will, I know, seem to you like some mental hallucination, but as I can +assure you from personal communication with them, that Robert Chambers, +Dr. Norris of Birmingham, the well-known physiologist, and C.F. Varley, +the well-known electrician, who have all investigated the subject for +years, agree with me both as to the facts and as to the main inferences +to be drawn from them, I am in hopes that you will suspend your judgment +for a time till we exhibit some corroborative symptoms of insanity. + +In the meantime I can console you by the assurance that I _don't_ agree +with the _Q.J. of Science_ about bamboo, and that I see no cause to +modify any of my opinions expressed in my article on the "Reign of +Law."--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. June 23, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--Thank you very much for the copy of your fifth edition of +the "Origin." I have not yet read all the additions, but those I have +looked at seem very interesting, though somewhat brief, but I suppose +you are afraid of its great and rapid growth. + +A difficult sexual character seems to me the plumules or battledore +scales on the wings of certain families and genera of butterflies, +almost invariably changing in form with the species and genera in +proportion to other changes, and always constant in each species yet +confined to the males, and so small and mixed up with the other scales +as to produce no effect on the colour or marking of the wings. How could +sexual selection produce them? + +Your correspondent Mr. Geach is now in England, and if you would like to +see him I am sure he would be glad to meet you. He is staying with his +brother (address Guildford), but often comes to town. + +Hoping that you have quite recovered from your accident and that the +_great work_ is progressing, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--You will perhaps be pleased to hear that German, French, and +Danish translations of my "Malay Archipelago" are in progress.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Caerleon, Barmouth, N. Wales. June 25, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--We have been here a fortnight, and shall remain here +till the beginning of August. I can say nothing good about my health, +and I am so weak that I can hardly crawl half a mile from the house; but +I hope I may improve, and anyhow the magnificent view of Cader is +enjoyable. + +I do not know that I have anything to ask Mr. Geach, nor do I suppose I +shall be in London till late in the autumn, but I should be particularly +obliged, if you have any communication with Mr. Geach, if you would +express for me my _sincere_ thanks for his kindness in sending me the +very valuable answers on Expression. I wrote some months ago to him in +answer to his last letter. + +I would ask him to Down, but the fatigue to me of receiving a stranger +is something which to you would be utterly unintelligible. + +I think I have heard of the scales on butterflies; but there are lots +of sexual characters which quite baffle all powers of even conjecture. + +You are quite correct, that I felt forced to make all additions to the +"Origin" as short as possible. + +I am indeed pleased to hear, and fully expected, that your Malay work +would be known throughout Europe. + +Oh dear! what would I not give for a little more strength to get on with +my work.--Ever yours, + +C. DARWIN. + +I wish that you could have told me that your place in the new Museum was +all settled. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. October 20, 1869._ + +Dear Darwin,--I do not know your son's (Mr. George Darwin's) address at +Cambridge. Will you be so good as to forward him the enclosed note +begging for a little information? + +I was delighted to see the notice in the _Academy_ that you are really +going to bring out your book on Man. I anticipate for it an enormous +sale, and shall read it with intense interest, although I expect to find +in it more to differ from than in any of your other books. Some +reasonable and reasoning opponents are now taking the field. I have been +writing a little notice of Murphy's "Habit and Intelligence," which, +with much that is strange and unintelligible, contains some very acute +criticisms and the statement of a few real difficulties. Another article +just sent me from the _Month_ contains some good criticism. How +incipient organs can be useful is a real difficulty, so is the +independent origin of similar complex organs; but most of his other +points, though well put, are not very formidable. I am trying to begin a +little book on the Distribution of Animals, but I fear I shall not make +much of it from my idleness in collecting facts. + +I shall make it a popular sketch first, and, if it succeeds, gather +materials for enlarging it at a future time. If any suggestion occurs to +you as to the kind of maps that would be best, or on any other essential +point, I should be glad of a hint. I hope your residence in Wales did +you good. I had no idea you were so near Dolgelly till I met your son +there one evening when I was going to leave the next morning. It is a +glorious country, but the time I like is May and June--the foliage is so +glorious. + +Sincerely hoping you are pretty well, and with kind regards to Mrs. +Darwin and the rest of your family, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. October 21, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I forwarded your letter at once to my son George, but +I am nearly sure that he will not be able to tell you anything; I wish +he could for my own sake; but I suspect there are few men in England who +could. Pray send me a copy or tell me where your article on Murphy will +be published. I have just received the _Month_, but have only read half +as yet. I wish I knew who was the author; you ought to know, as he +admires you so much; he has a wonderful deal of knowledge, but his +difficulties have not troubled me much as yet, except the case of the +dipterous larva. My book will not be published for a long time, but +Murray wished to insert some notice of it. Sexual selection has been a +tremendous job. Fate has ordained that almost every point on which we +differ should be crowded into this vol. Have you seen the October number +of the _Revue des deux Mondes?_ It has an article on you, but I have not +yet read it; and another article, not yet read, by a very good man on +the Transformist School. + +I am very glad to hear that you are beginning a book, but do not let it +be "little," on Distribution, etc. I have no hints to give about maps; +the subject would require long and anxious consideration. Before Forbes +published his essay on Distribution and the Glacial Period I wrote out +and had _copied_ an essay on the same subject, which Hooker read. If +this MS. would be of any use to you, _on account of the references_ in +it to papers, etc., I should be very glad to lend it, to be used in any +way; for I foresee that my strength will never last out to come to this +subject. + +I have been pretty well since my return from Wales, though at the time +it did me no good. + +We shall be in London next month, when I shall hope to see you.--My dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. December 4, [1869]._ + +Dear Darwin,--Dr. Adolf Bernhard Meyer, who translated my book into +German, has written to me for permission to translate my original paper +in the _Linnean Proceedings_ with yours, and wants to put my photograph +and yours in it. If you have given him permission to translate the +papers (which I suppose he can do without permission if he pleases), I +write to ask which of your photographs you would wish to represent you +in Germany--the last, or the previous one by Ernest Edwards, which I +think much the best--as if you like I will undertake to order them and +save you any more trouble about it. It is, of course, out of the +question our meeting to be photographed together, as Mr. Meyer coolly +proposes. + +Hoping you are well, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--I have written a paper on Geological Time, which will appear in +_Nature_, and I _think_ I have hit upon a solution of your greatest +difficulties in that matter.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. December 5, 1869._ + +My dear Wallace,--I wrote to Dr. Meyer that the photographs in England +would cost much and that they did not seem to me worth the cost to him, +but that I of course had no sort of objection. I should be greatly +obliged if you would kindly take the trouble to order any one which you +think best: possibly it would be best to wait, unless you feel sure, +till you hear again from Dr. M. I sent him a copy of our joint paper. He +has kindly sent me the translation of your book, which is splendidly got +up, and which I thought I could not better use than by sending it to +Fritz Mueller in Brazil, who will appreciate it. + +I liked your reviews on Mr. Murphy very much; they are capitally +written, like everything which is turned out of your workshop. I was +specially glad about the eye. If you agree with me, take some +opportunity of bringing forward the case of perfected greyhound or +racehorse, in proof of the possibility of the selection of many +correlated variations. I have remarks on this head in my last book. + +If you throw light on the want of geological time, may honour, eternal +glory and blessings crowd thick on your head.--Yours most sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +I forgot to say that I wrote to Dr. M. to say that I should not soon be +in London, and that, of all things in the world, I hate most the bother +of sitting for photographs, so I declined with many apologies. I have +recently refused several applications. + + * * * * * + +_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. January 22, 1870._ + +Dear Darwin,--My paper on Geological Time having been in type nearly two +months, and not knowing when it will appear, I have asked for a proof to +send you, Huxley and Lyell. The latter part only contains what I think +is new, and I shall be anxious to hear if it at all helps to get over +your difficulties. + +I have been lately revising and adding to my various papers bearing on +the "Origin of Species," etc., and am going to print them in a volume +immediately, under the title of "Contributions to the Theory of Natural +Selection: A Series of Essays." + +In the last, I put forth my heterodox opinions as to Man, and even +venture to attack the Huxleyan philosophy! + +Hoping you are quite well and are getting on with your Man book, believe +me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--When you have read the proof and done with it, may I beg you to +return it to me?--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. January 26, [1870]._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been very much struck by your whole article +(returned by this post), especially as to rate of denudation, for the +still glaciated surfaces have of late most perplexed me. Also +_especially_ on the lesser mutations of climate during the last 60,000 +years; for I quite think with you no cause so powerful in inducing +specific changes, through the consequent migrations. Your argument would +be somewhat strengthened about organic changes having been formerly more +rapid, if Sir W. Thomson is correct that physical changes were formerly +more violent and abrupt. + +The whole subject is so new and vast that I suppose you hardly expect +anyone to be at once convinced, but that he should keep your view before +his mind and let it ferment. This, I think, everyone will be forced to +do. I have not as yet been able to digest the fundamental notion of the +shortened age of the sun and earth. Your whole paper seems to me +admirably clear and well put. I may remark that Ruetimeyer has shown that +several wild mammals in Switzerland since the neolithic period have had +their dentition and, I _think_, general size _slightly_ modified. I +cannot believe that the Isthmus of Panama has been open since the +commencement of the glacial period; for, notwithstanding the fishes, so +few shells, crustaceans, and, according to Agassiz, not one echinoderm +is common to the sides. I am very glad you are going to publish all your +papers on Natural Selection: I am sure you are right, and that they will +do our cause much good. + +But I groan over Man--you write like a metamorphosed (in retrograde +direction) naturalist, and you the author of the best paper that ever +appeared in the _Anthropological Review_! Eheu! Eheu! Eheu!--Your +miserable friend, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. March 31, 1870._ + +My dear Wallace,--Many thanks for the woodcut, which, judging from the +rate at which I crawl on, will hardly be wanted till this time next +year. Whether I shall have it reduced, or beg Mr. Macmillan for a +stereotype, as you said I might, I have not yet decided. + +I heartily congratulate you on your removal being over, and I much more +heartily condole with myself at your having left London, for I shall +thus miss my talks with you which I always greatly enjoy. + +I was excessively pleased at your review of Galton, and I agree to every +word of it. I must add that I have just re-read your article in the +_Anthropological Review_, and _I defy_ you to upset your own +doctrine.--Ever yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. April 20, [1870]._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have just received your book ["Natural +Selection"][81] and read the preface. There never has been passed on me, +or indeed on anyone, a higher eulogium than yours. I wish that I fully +deserved it. Your modesty and candour are very far from new to me. I +hope it is a satisfaction to you to reflect--and very few things in my +life have been more satisfactory to me--that we have never felt any +jealousy towards each other, though in one sense rivals. I believe that +I can say this of myself with truth, and I am absolutely sure that it is +true of you. + +You have been a good Christian to give a list of your additions, for I +want much to read them, and I should hardly have had time just at +present to have gone through all your articles. + +Of course, I shall immediately read those that are new or greatly +altered, and I will endeavour to be as honest as can reasonably be +expected. Your book looks remarkably well got up.--Believe me, my dear +Wallace, to remain yours very cordially, + +CH. DARWIN + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. June 5, 1870._ + +My dear Wallace,--As imitation and protection are your subjects I have +thought that you would like to possess the enclosed curious drawing. The +note tells all I know about it.--Yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN + +P.S.--I read not long ago a German article on the colours of _female_ +birds, and that author leaned rather strongly to your side about +nidification. I forget who the author was, but he seemed to know a good +deal.--C.D. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. July 6, 1870._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for the drawing. I must say, however, the +resemblance to a snake is not very striking, unless to a cobra not found +in America. It is also evident that it is not Mr. Bates's caterpillar, +as that threw the head backwards so as to show the feet above, forming +imitations of keeled scales. + +Claparede has sent me his critique on my book. You will probably have it +too. His arguments in reply to my heresy seem to me of the weakest. I +hear you have gone to press, and I look forward with fear and trembling +to being crushed under a mountain of facts! + +I hear you were in town the other day. When you are again, I should be +glad to come at any convenient hour and give you a call. + +Hoping your health is improving, and with kind remembrances to Mrs. +Darwin and all your family, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +In "My Life" (Vol. II., p. 7) Wallace wrote: "In the year 1870 Mr. A.W. +Bennett read a paper before Section D of the British Association at +Liverpool entitled 'The Theory of Natural Selection from a Mathematical +Point of View,' and this paper was printed in full in _Nature_ of +November 10, 1870. To this I replied on November 17, and my reply so +pleased Mr. Darwin that he at once wrote to me as follows:" + + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. November 22, 1870._ + +My dear Wallace,--I must ease myself by writing a few words to say how +much I and all others in this house admire your article in _Nature_. You +are certainly an unparalleled master in lucidly stating a case and in +arguing. Nothing ever was better done than your argument about the term +"origin of species," and the consequences about much being gained, even +if we know nothing about precise cause of each variation. By chance I +have given a few words in my first volume, now some time printed off, +about mimetic butterflies, and have touched on two of your points, viz. +on species already widely dissimilar not being made to resemble each +other, and about the variations in Lepidoptera being often well +pronounced. How strange it is that Mr. Bennett or anyone else should +bring in the action of the mind as a leading cause of variation, seeing +the beautiful and complex adaptations and modifications of structure in +plants, which I do not suppose they would say had minds. + +I have finished the first volume, and am half-way through the first +proof of the second volume, of my confounded book, which half kills me +by fatigue, and which I much fear will quite kill me in your good +estimation. + +If you have leisure I should much like a little news of you and your +doings and your family.--Ever yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. November 24, 1870._ + +Dear Darwin,--Your letter gave me very great pleasure. We still agree, I +am sure, on nineteen points out of twenty, and on the twentieth I am not +inconvincible. But then I must be convinced by facts and arguments, not +by high-handed ridicule such as Claparede's. + +I hope you see the difference between such criticisms as his, and that +in the last number of the _North American Review_, where my last chapter +is really criticised, point by point; and though I think some of it very +weak, I admit that some is very strong, and almost converts me from the +error of my ways. + +As to your new book, I am sure it will not make me think less highly of +you than I do, unless you do, what you have never done yet, ignore +facts and arguments that go against you. + +I am doing nothing just now but writing articles and putting down +anti-Darwinians, being dreadfully ridden upon by a horrid +old-man-of-the-sea, who has agreed to let me have the piece of land I +have set my heart on, and which I have been trying to get of him since +last February, but who will not answer letters, will not sign an +agreement, and keeps me week after week in anxiety, though I have +accepted his own terms unconditionally, one of which is that I pay rent +from last Michaelmas! And now the finest weather for planting is going +by. It is a bit of a wilderness that can be made into a splendid +imitation of a Welsh valley in little, and will enable me to gather +round me all the beauties of the temperate flora which I so much admire, +or I would not put up with the little fellow's ways. The fixing on a +residence for the rest of your life is an important event, and I am not +likely to be in a very settled frame of mind for some time. + +I am answering A. Murray's Geographical Distribution of Coleoptera for +my Entomological Society Presidential Address, and am printing a second +edition of my "Essays," with a few notes and additions. Very glad to see +(by your writing yourself) that you are better, and with kind regards to +all your family, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. January 27, 1871._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your first volume,[82] which I have just +finished reading through with the greatest pleasure and interest, and I +have also to thank you for the great tenderness with which you have +treated me and my heresies. + +On the subject of sexual selection and protection you do not yet +convince me that I am wrong, but I expect your heaviest artillery will +be brought up in your second volume, and I may have to capitulate. You +seem, however, to have somewhat misunderstood my exact meaning, and I do +not think the difference between us is quite so great as you seem to +think it. There are a number of passages in which you argue against the +view that the female has, in any large number of cases, been "specially +modified" for protection, or that _colour_ has _generally_ been obtained +by either sex for purposes of protection. + +But my view is, and I thought I had made it clear, that the female has +(in most cases) been simply prevented from acquiring the gay tints of +the male (even when there was a tendency for her to inherit it) because +it was hurtful; and, that when protection is not needed, gay colours are +so generally acquired by both sexes as to show that inheritance by both +sexes of colour variations is the most usual, when _not prevented from +acting_ by Natural Selection. + +The colour itself may be acquired either by sexual selection or by other +unknown causes. There are, however, difficulties in the very wide +application you give to sexual selection which at present stagger me, +though no one was or is more ready than myself to admit the perfect +truth of the principle or the immense importance and great variety of +its applications. Your chapters on Man are of intense interest, but as +touching my special heresy not as yet altogether convincing, though of +course I fully agree with every word and every argument which goes to +prove the "evolution" or "development" of man out of a lower form. My +only difficulties are as to whether you have accounted for _every_ step +of the development by ascertained laws. Feeling sure that the book will +keep up and increase your high reputation and be immensely successful, +as it deserves to be, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. January 30, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--Your note has given me very great pleasure, chiefly +because I was so anxious not to treat you with the least disrespect, and +it is so difficult to speak fairly when differing from anyone. If I had +offended you, it would have grieved me more than you will readily +believe. Secondly, I am greatly pleased to hear that Vol. I. interests +you; I have got so sick of the whole subject that I felt in utter doubt +about the value of any part. I intended when speaking of the female not +having been specially modified for protection to include the prevention +of characters acquired by the [male symbol] being transmitted to the +[female symbol]; but I now see it would have been better to have said +"specially acted on," or some such term. Possibly my intention may be +clearer in Vol. II. Let me say that my conclusions are chiefly founded +on a consideration of all animals taken in a body, bearing in mind how +common the rules of sexual differences appear to be in all classes. The +first copy of the chapter on Lepidoptera agreed pretty closely with you. +I then worked on, came back to Lepidoptera, and thought myself compelled +to alter it, finished sexual selection, and for the last time went over +Lepidoptera, and again I felt forced to alter it. + +I hope to God there will be nothing disagreeable to you in Vol. II., and +that I have spoken fairly of your views. I feel the more fearful on this +head, because I have just read (but not with sufficient care) Mivart's +book,[83] and I feel _absolutely certain_ that he meant to be fair (but +he was stimulated by theological fervour); yet I do not think he has +been quite fair: he gives in one place only half of one of my sentences, +ignores in many places all that I have said on effects of use, speaks of +my dogmatic assertion, "of false belief," whereas the end of paragraph +seems to me to render the sentence by no means dogmatic or arrogant; +etc. etc. I have since its publication received some quite charming +letters from him. + +What an ardent (and most justly) admirer he is of you. His work, I do +not doubt, will have a most potent influence versus Natural Selection. +The pendulum will now swing against us. The part which, I think, will +have most influence is when he gives whole series of cases, like that of +whalebone, in which we cannot explain the gradational steps; but such +cases have no weight on my mind--if a few fish were extinct, who on +earth would have ventured even to conjecture that lung had originated in +swim-bladder? In such a case as Thylacines, I think he was bound to say +that the resemblance of the jaw to that of the dog is superficial; the +number and correspondence and development of teeth being widely +different. I think, again, when speaking of the necessity of altering a +number of characters together, he ought to have thought of man having +power by selection to modify simultaneously or almost simultaneously +many points, as in making a greyhound or racehorse--as enlarged upon in +my "Domestic Animals." + +Mivart is savage or contemptuous about my "moral sense," and so probably +will you be. I am extremely pleased that he agrees with my position, _as +far as animal nature is concerned_, of man in the series; or, if +anything, thinks I have erred in making him too distinct. + +Forgive me for scribbling at such length. + +You have put me quite in good spirits, I did so dread having been +unintentionally unfair towards your views. I hope earnestly the second +volume will escape as well. I care now very little what others say. As +for our not quite agreeing, really in such complex subjects it is almost +impossible for two men who arrive independently at their conclusions to +agree fully--it would be unnatural for them to do so.--Yours ever very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. March 11, 1871._ + +Dear Darwin,--I need not say that I read your second volume with, if +possible, a greater interest than the first, as so many topics of +special interest to me are treated of. You will not be surprised to find +that you have not convinced me on the "female protection" question, but +you _will_ be surprised to hear that I do not despair of convincing you. +I have been writing, as you are aware, a review for the _Academy_, which +I tried to refuse doing, but the Editor used as an argument the +statement that you wished me to do so. It is not an easy job fairly to +summarise such a book, but I hope I have succeeded tolerably. When I got +to discussion, I felt more at home, but I most sincerely trust that I +may not have let pass any word that may seem to you in the least too +strong. + +You have not written a word about me that I could wish altered, but as I +know you wish me to be candid with you, I will mention that you have +quoted one passage in a note (p. 376, Vol. II.) which seems to me a +caricature of anything I have written. + +Now let me ask you to rejoice with me, for I have got my chalk pit, and +am hard at work engineering a road up its precipitous slopes. I hope you +may be able to come and see me there some day, as it is an easy ride +from London, and I shall be anxious to know if it is equal to the pit in +the wilds of Kent Mrs. Darwin mentioned when I lunched with you. Should +your gardener in the autumn have any thinnings out of almost any kind +of hardy plants they would be welcome, as I have near four acres of +ground in which I want to substitute ornamental plants for weeds. + +With best wishes, and hoping you may have health and strength to go on +with your great work, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +My review will appear next Wednesday. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. March 16, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have just read your grand review.[84] It is in every +way as kindly expressed towards myself as it is excellent in matter. The +Lyells have been here, and Sir C. remarked that no one wrote such good +scientific reviews as you, and, as Miss Buckley added, you delight in +picking out all that is good, though very far from blind to the bad. In +all this I most entirely agree. I shall always consider your review as a +great honour, and however much my book may hereafter be abused, as no +doubt it will be, your review will console me, notwithstanding that we +differ so greatly. + +I will keep your objections to my views in my mind, but I fear that the +latter are almost stereotyped in my mind, I thought for long weeks about +the inheritance and selection difficulty, and covered quires of paper +with notes, in trying to get out of it, but could not, though clearly +seeing that it would be a great relief if I could. I will confine myself +to two or three remarks. I have been much impressed with what you urge +against colour[85] in the case of insects having been acquired through +sexual selection. I always saw that the evidence was very weak; but I +still think, if it be admitted that the musical instruments of insects +have been gained through sexual selection, that there is not the least +improbability in colour having been thus gained. Your argument with +respect to the denudation of mankind, and also to insects, that taste on +the part of one sex would have to remain nearly the same during many +generations, in order that sexual selection should produce any effect, I +agree to, and I think this argument would be sound if used by one who +denied that, for instance, the plumes of birds of paradise had been so +gained. + +I believe that you admit this, and if so I do not see how your argument +applies in other cases. I have recognised for some short time that I +have made a great omission in not having discussed, as far as I could, +the acquisition of taste, its inherited nature, and its permanence +within pretty close limits for long periods. + +One other point and I have done: I see by p. 179 of your review that I +must have expressed myself very badly to have led you to think that I +consider the prehensile organs of males as affording evidence of the +females exerting a choice. I have never thought so, and if you chance to +remember the passage (but do not hunt for it), pray point it out to me. + +I am extremely sorry that I gave the note from Mr. Stebbing; I thought +myself bound to notice his suggestion of beauty as a cause of +denudation, and thus I was led on to give his argument. I altered the +final passage which seemed to me offensive, and I had misgivings about +the first part. + +I heartily wish I had yielded to these misgivings. I will omit in any +future edition the latter half of the note. + +I have heard from Miss Buckley that you have got possession of your +chalk pit, and I congratulate you on the tedious delay being over. I +fear all our bushes are so large that there is nothing which we are at +all likely to grub up. + +Years ago we threw away loads of things. I should very much like to see +your house and grounds; but I fear the journey would be too long. Going +even to Kew knocks me up, and I have almost ceased trying to do so. + +Once again let me thank you warmly for your admirable review.--My dear +Wallace, yours ever very sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + +What an excellent address you gave about Madeira, but I wish you had +alluded to Lyell's discussion on land shells, etc.--not that he has said +a word on the subject. The whole address quite delighted me. I hear Mr. +Crotch[86] disputed some of your facts about the wingless insects, but he +is a _crotchety_ man. As far as I remember, I did not venture to ask Mr. +Appleton to get you to review me, but only said, in answer to an +inquiry, that you would undoubtedly be the best, or one of the very few +men who could do so effectively. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. March 24, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--Very many thanks for the new edition of your Essays. +Honour and glory to you for giving list of additions. It is grand as +showing that our subject flourishes, your book coming to a new edition +so soon. My book also sells immensely; the edition will, I believe, be +6,500 copies. I am tired with writing, for the load of letters which I +receive is enough to make a man cry, yet some few are curious and +valuable. I got one to-day from a doctor on the hair on backs of young +weakly children, which afterwards falls off. Also on hairy idiots. But I +am tired to death, so farewell. + +Thanks for your last letter. + +There is a very striking second article on my book in the _Pall Mall_. +The articles in the _Spectator_[87] have also interested me much.--Again +farewell. + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. May 14, 1871._ + +Dear Darwin,--Have you read that very remarkable book "The Fuel of the +Sun"? If not, get it. It solves the great problem of the almost +unlimited duration of the sun's heat in what appears to me a most +satisfactory manner. I recommended it to Sir C. Lyell, and he tells me +that Grove spoke very highly of it to him. It has been somewhat ignored +by the critics because it is by a new man with a perfectly original +hypothesis, founded on a vast accumulation of physical and chemical +facts; but not being encumbered with any mathematical shibboleths, they +have evidently been afraid that anything so intelligible could not be +sound. The manner in which everything in physical astronomy is explained +is almost as marvellous as the powers of Natural Selection in the same +way, and naturally excites a suspicion that the respective authors are +pushing their theories "a little too far." + +If you read it, get Proctor's book on the Sun at the same time, and +refer to his coloured plates of the protuberances, corona, etc., which +marvellously correspond with what Matthieu Williams's theory requires. +The author is a practical chemist engaged in iron manufacture, and it is +from furnace chemistry that he has been led to the subject. I think it +the most original, most thoughtful and most carefully-worked-out theory +that has appeared for a long time, and it does not say much for the +critics that, as far as I know, its great merits have not been properly +recognised. + +I have been so fully occupied with road-making, well-digging, garden- +and house-planning, planting, etc., that I have given up all other work. + +Do you not admire our friend Miss Buckley's admirable article in +_Macmillan_? It seems to me the best and most original that has been +written on your book. + +Hoping you are well, and are not working too hard, I remain yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 9, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--I send by this post a review by Chauncey Wright, as I +much want your opinion of it, as soon as you can send it. I consider you +an incomparably better critic than I am. The article, though not very +clearly written, and poor in parts for want of knowledge, seems to me +admirable. + +Mivart's book is producing a great effect against Natural Selection, and +more especially against me. Therefore, if you think the article even +somewhat good, I will write and get permission to publish it as a +shilling pamphlet, together with the MS. addition (enclosed), for which +there was not room at the end of the review. I do not suppose I should +lose more than L20 or L30. + +I am now at work at a new and cheap edition of the "Origin," and shall +answer several points in Mivart's book and introduce a new chapter for +this purpose; but I treat the subject so much more concretely, and I +daresay less philosophically, than Wright, that we shall not interfere +with each other. You will think me a bigot when I say, after studying +Mivart, I was never before in my life so convinced of the _general_ +(i.e. not in detail) truth of the views in the "Origin." I grieve to see +the omission of the words by Mivart, detected by Wright.[88] I complained +to M. that in two cases he quotes only the commencement of sentences by +me and thus modifies my meaning; but I never supposed he would have +omitted words. There are other cases of what I consider unfair +treatment. I conclude with sorrow that though he means to be honourable, +he is so bigoted that he cannot act fairly. + +I was glad to see your letter in _Nature_, though I think you were a +little hard on the silly and presumptuous man. + +I hope that your house and grounds are progressing well, and that you +are in all ways flourishing. + +I have been rather seedy, but a few days in London did me much good; and +my dear good wife is going to take me somewhere, _nolens volens_, at the +end of this month. + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Holly Home, Barking, E. July 12, 1871._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to read at my +leisure the very talented article of Mr. C. Wright. His criticism of +Mivart, though very severe, is, I think, in most cases sound; but I find +the larger part of the article so heavy and much of the language and +argument so very obscure, that I very much doubt the utility of printing +it separately. I do not think the readers of Mivart could ever read it +in that form, and I am sure your own answer to Mivart's arguments will +be so much more clear and to the point, that the other will be +unnecessary. You might extract certain portions in your own chapter, +such as the very ingenious suggestion as to the possible origin of +mammary glands, as well as the possible use of the rattle of the +rattlesnake, etc. + +I cannot see the force of Mivart's objection to the theory of production +of the long neck of the giraffe (suggested in my first Essay), and which +C. Wright seems to admit, while his "watch-tower" theory seems to me +more difficult and unlikely as a means of origin. The argument, "Why +haven't other allied animals been modified in the same way?" seems to me +the weakest of the weak. I must say also I do not see any great reason +to complain of the "words" left out by Mivart, as they do not seem to me +materially to affect the meaning. Your expression, "and tends to depart +in a slight degree," I think hardly grammatical; a _tendency_ to depart +cannot very well be said to be in a slight degree; a _departure_ can, +but a tendency must be either a _slight tendency_ or a _strong +tendency_; the degree to which the departure may reach must depend on +favourable or unfavourable causes in addition to the tendency itself. +Mivart's words, "and tending to depart from the parental type," seem to +me quite unobjectionable as a paraphrase of yours, because the "tending" +is kept in; and your own view undoubtedly is that the tendency may lead +to an ultimate departure to any extent. Mivart's error is to suppose +that your words favour the view of _sudden departures_, and I do not see +that the expression he uses really favours his view a bit more than if +he had quoted your exact words. The expression of yours he relies upon +is evidently "the whole organism seeming to have become plastic," and he +argues, no doubt erroneously, that having so become "plastic," any +amount or a larger amount of sudden variation in some direction is +likely. + +Mivart's greatest error, the confounding "individual variations" with +"minute or imperceptible variations," is well exposed by C. Wright, and +that part I should like to see reprinted; but I always thought you laid +too much stress on the slowness of the action of Natural Selection owing +to the smallness and rarity of favourable variations. In your chapter on +Natural Selection the expressions, "extremely slight modifications," +"every variation even the slightest," "every grade of constitutional +difference," occur, and these have led to errors such as Mivart's, I say +all this because I feel sure that Mivart would be the last to +intentionally misrepresent you, and he has told me that he was sorry the +word "infinitesimal," as applied to variations used by Natural +Selection, got into his book, and that he would alter it, as no doubt he +has done, in his second edition. + +Some of Mivart's strongest points--the eye and ear, for instance--are +unnoticed in the review. You will, of course, reply to these. His +statement of the "missing link" argument is also forcible, and has, I +have no doubt, much weight with the public. As to all his minor +arguments, I feel with you that they leave Natural Selection stronger +than ever, while the two or three main arguments do leave a lingering +doubt in my mind of some fundamental organic law of development of which +we have as yet no notion. + +Pray do not attach any weight to my opinions as to the review. It is +very clever, but the writer seems a little like those critics who know +an author's or an artist's meaning better than they do themselves. + +My house is now in the hands of a contractor, but I am wall-building, +etc., and very busy.--With best wishes, believe me, dear Darwin, yours +very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 12, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--Very many thanks. As soon as I read your letter I +determined, not to print the paper, notwithstanding my eldest daughter, +who is a very good critic, thought it so interesting as to be worth +reprinting. Then my wife came in, and said, "I do not much care about +these things and shall therefore be a good judge whether it is very +dull." So I will leave my decision open for a day or two. Your letter +has been, and will be, of use to me in other ways: thus I had quite +forgotten that you had taken up the case of the giraffe in your first +memoir, and I must look to this. I feel very doubtful how far I shall +succeed in answering Mivart; it is so difficult to answer objections to +doubtful points and make the discussion readable. I shall make only a +selection. The worst of it is that I cannot possibly hunt through all my +references for isolated points; it would take me three weeks of +intolerably hard work. I wish I had your power of arguing clearly. At +present I feel sick of everything, and if I could occupy my time and +forget my daily discomforts or little miseries, I would never publish +another word. But I shall cheer up, I daresay, soon, being only just got +over a bad attack. Farewell. God knows why I bother you about myself. + +I can say nothing more about missing links than what I have said. I +should rely much on pre-Silurian times; but then comes Sir W. Thomson +like an odious spectre. Farewell.--Yours most sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +I was grieved to see in the _Daily News_ that the madman about the flat +earth has been threatening your life. What an odious trouble this must +have been to you. + +P.S.--There is a most cutting review of me in the _Quarterly_:[89] I have +only read a few pages. The skill and style make me think of Mivart. I +shall soon be viewed as the most despicable of men. This _Quarterly_ +review tempts me to republish Ch. Wright, even if not read by anyone, +just to show that someone will say a word against Mivart, and that his +(i.e. Mivart's) remarks ought not to be swallowed without some +reflection. + +I quite agree with what you say that Mivart fully intends to be +honourable; but he seems to me to have the mind of a most able lawyer +retained to plead against us, and especially against me. God knows +whether my strength and spirit will last out to write a chapter versus +Mivart and others; I do so hate controversy, and feel I should do it so +badly. + +P.S.--I have now finished the review: there can be no doubt it is by +Mivart, and wonderfully clever. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. July 16, 1871._ + +Dear Darwin,--I am very sorry you are so unwell, and that you allow +criticisms to worry you so. Remember the noble army of converts you have +made! and the host of the most talented men living who support you +wholly. What do you think of putting C. Wright's article as an appendix +to the new edition of the "Origin"? That would get it read, and obviate +my chief objection, that the people who read Mivart and the "Origin" +will very few of them buy a separate pamphlet to read. Pamphlets are +such nuisances. I don't think Mivart could have written the _Quarterly_ +article, but I will look at it and shall, I think, be able to tell. Pray +keep your spirits up. I am so distracted by building troubles that I can +write nothing, and I shall not, till I get settled in my new house, +some time next spring, I hope.--With best wishes, believe me yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Haredene, Albury, Guildford. August 1, 1871._ + +My dear Wallace,--Your kind and sympathetic letter pleased me greatly +and did me good, but as you are so busy I did not answer it. I write now +because I have just received a very remarkable letter from Fritz Mueller +(with butterflies' wings gummed on paper as illustrations) on mimicry, +etc. I think it is well worth your reading, but I will not send it, +unless I receive a 1/2d. card to this effect. He puts the difficulty of +first start in imitation excellently, and gives wonderful proof of +closeness of the imitation. He hints a curious addition to the theory in +relation to sexual selection, which you will think madly hypothetical: +it occurred to me in a very different class of cases, but I was afraid +to publish it. It would aid the theory of imitative protection, _when +the colours are bright_. He seems much pleased with your caterpillar +theory. I wish the letter could be published, but without coloured +illustrations [it] would, I fear, be unintelligible. + +I have not yet made up my mind about Wright's review; I shall stop till +I hear from him. Your suggestion would make the "Origin," already too +large, still more bulky. + +By the way, did Mr. Youmans, of the United States, apply to you to write +a popular sketch of Natural Selection? I told him you would do it +immeasurably better than anyone in the world. My head keeps very rocky +and wretched, but I am better,--Ever yours most truly, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Holly House, Barking, E. March 3, 1872._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your new edition of the "Origin," which I +have been too busy to acknowledge before. I think your answer to Mivart +on the initial stages of modification ample and complete, and the +comparison of whale and duck most beautiful. I always saw the fallacy of +these objections, of course. The eye and ear objection you have not so +satisfactorily answered, and to me the difficulty exists of how _three +times over_ an organ of sight was developed with the apparatus even +approximately identical. Why should not, in one case out of the three, +the heat rays or the chemical rays have been utilised for the same +purpose, in which case no translucent media would have been required, +and yet vision might have been just as perfect? The fact that the eyes +of insects and molluscs are transparent to us shows that the very same +limited portion of the rays of the spectrum is utilised for vision by +them as by us. + +The chances seem to me immense against that having occurred through +"fortuitous variation," as Mivart puts it. + +I see still further difficulties on this point but cannot go into them +now. Many thanks for your kind invitation. I will try and call some day, +but I am now very busy trying to make my house habitable by Lady Day, +when I _must_ be in it.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 27, 1872._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have just read with infinite satisfaction your +crushing article in _Nature_.[90] I have been the more glad to see it, as +I have not seen the book itself: I did not order it, as I felt sure +from Dr. B.'s former book that he could write nothing of value. But +assuredly I did not suppose that anyone would have written such a mass +of inaccuracies and rubbish. How rich is everything which he says and +quotes from Herbert Spencer! + +By the way, I suppose that you read H. Spencer's answer to Martineau: it +struck me as quite wonderfully good, and I felt even more strongly +inclined than before to bow in reverence before him. Nothing has amused +me more in your review than Dr. B.'s extraordinary presumption in +deciding that such men as Lyell, Owen, H. Spencer, Mivart, Gaudry, etc. +etc., are all wrong. I daresay it would be very delightful to feel such +overwhelming confidence in oneself. + +I have had a poor time of it of late, rarely having an hour of comfort, +except when asleep or immersed in work; and then when that is over I +feel dead with fatigue. I am now correcting my little book on +Expression; but it will not be published till November, when of course a +copy will be sent to you. I shall now try whether I can occupy myself +without writing anything more on so difficult a subject as Evolution. + +I hope you are now comfortably settled in your new house, and have more +leisure than you have had for some time. I have looked out in the papers +for any notice about the curatorship of the new Museum, but have seen +nothing. If anything is decided in your favour, I _beg_ you to inform +me.--My dear Wallace, very truly yours, + +C. DARWIN. + +How grandly the public has taken up Hooker's case. + + * * * * * + +_Down. August 3, [1872]._ + +My dear Wallace,--I hate controversy, chiefly perhaps because I do it +badly; but as Dr. Bree accuses you of "blundering," I have thought +myself bound to send the enclosed letter[91] to _Nature_, that is, if +you in the least desire it. In this case please post it. If you do not +_at all_ wish it, I should rather prefer not sending it, and in this +case please tear it up. And I beg you to do the same, if you intend +answering Dr. Bree yourself, as you will do it incomparably better than +I should. Also please tear it up if you don't like the letter.--My dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. August 4, 1872._ + +Dear Darwin,--I have sent your letter to _Nature_, as I think it will +settle that question far better than anything I can say. Many thanks for +it. I have not seen Dr. Bree's letter yet, as I get _Nature_ here very +irregularly, but as I was very careful to mention none but _real errors_ +in Dr. Bree's book, I do not imagine there will be any necessity for my +taking any notice of it. It was really entertaining to have such a book +to review, the errors and misconceptions were so inexplicable and the +self-sufficiency of the man so amazing. Yet there is some excellent +writing in the book, and to a half-informed person it has all the +appearance of being a most valuable and authoritative work. + +I am now reviewing a much more important book and one that, if I mistake +not, will really compel you sooner or later to modify some of your +views, though it will not at all affect the main doctrine of Natural +Selection as applied to the higher animals. I allude, of course, to +Bastian's "Beginnings of Life," which you have no doubt got. It is hard +reading, but intensely interesting. I am a thorough convert to his main +results, and it seems to me that nothing more important has appeared +since your "Origin." It is a pity he is so awfully voluminous and +discursive. When you have thoroughly digested it I shall be glad to know +what you are disposed to think. My first notice of it will I think +appear in _Nature_ next week, but I have been hurried for it, and it is +not so well written an article as I could wish. + +I sincerely hope your health is improving.--Believe me yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--I fear Lubbock's motion is being pushed off to the end of the +Session, and Hooker's case will not be fairly considered. I hope the +matter will _not_ be allowed to drop.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. August 28, 1872._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have at last finished the gigantic job of reading +Dr. Bastian's book, and have been deeply interested in it. You wished to +hear my impression, but it is not worth sending. + +He seems to me an extremely able man, as indeed I thought when I read +his first essay. His general argument in favour of archebiosis[92] is +wonderfully strong; though I cannot think much of some few of his +arguments. The result is that I am bewildered and astonished by his +statements, but am not convinced; though on the whole it seems to me +probable that archebiosis is true. I am not convinced partly I think +owing to the deductive cast of much of his reasoning; and I know not +why, but I never feel convinced by deduction, even in the case of H. +Spencer's writings. If Dr. B.'s book had been turned upside down, and he +had begun with the various cases of heterogenesis, and then gone on to +organic and afterwards to saline solutions, and had then given his +general arguments, I should have been, I believe, much more influenced. +I suspect, however, that my chief difficulty is the effect of old +convictions being stereotyped on my brain. I must have more evidence +that germs or the minutest fragments of the lowest forms are always +killed by 212 deg. of Fahr. Perhaps the mere reiteration of the statements +given by Dr. B. by other men whose judgment I respect and who have +worked long on the lower organisms would suffice to convince me. Here is +a fine confession of intellectual weakness; but what an inexplicable +frame of mind is that of belief. + +As for Rotifers and Tardigrades being spontaneously generated, my mind +can no more digest such statements, whether true or false, than my +stomach can digest a lump of lead. + +Dr. B. is always comparing archebiosis as well as growth to +crystallisation; but on this view a Rotifer or Tardigrade is adapted to +its humble conditions of life by a happy accident; and this I cannot +believe. That observations of the above nature may easily be altogether +wrong is well shown by Dr. B. having declared to Huxley that he had +watched the entire development of a leaf of Sphagnum. He must have +worked with very impure materials in some cases, as plenty of organisms +appeared in a saline solution not containing an atom of nitrogen. + +I wholly disagree with Dr. B. about many points in his latter chapters. +Thus the frequency of generalised forms in the older strata seems to me +clearly to indicate the common descent with divergence of more recent +forms. + +Notwithstanding all his sneers, I do not strike my colours as yet about +pangenesis. I should like to live to see archebiosis proved true, for it +would be a discovery of transcendent importance; or if false I should +like to see it disproved, and the facts otherwise explained; but I shall +not live to see all this. If ever proved, Dr. B. will have taken a +prominent part in the work. How grand is the onward rush of science; it +is enough to console us for the many errors which we have committed and +for our efforts being overlaid and forgotten in the mass of new facts +and new views which are daily turning up. + +This is all I have to say about Dr. B.'s book, and it certainly has not +been worth saying. Nevertheless, reward me whenever you can by giving me +any news about your appointment to the Bethnal Green Museum.--My dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. August 31, 1872._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your long and interesting letter about +Bastian's book, though I almost regret that my asking you for your +opinion should have led you to give yourself so much trouble. I quite +understand your frame of mind, and think it quite a natural and proper +one. You had hard work to hammer your views into people's heads at +first, and if Bastian's theory is true he will have still harder work, +because the facts he appeals to are themselves so difficult to +establish. Are not you mistaken about the Sphagnum? As I remember it, +Huxley detected a fragment of Sphagnum leaf _in the same solution in +which a fungoid growth had been developed_. Bastian mistook the Sphagnum +also for a vegetable growth, and on account of this ignorance of the +character of Sphagnum, and its presence in the solution, Huxley rejected +somewhat contemptuously (and I think very illogically) all Bastian's +observations. Again, as to the saline solution without nitrogen, would +not the air supply what was required? + +I quite agree that the book would have gained force by rearrangement in +the way you suggest, but perhaps he thought it necessary to begin with a +general argument in order to induce people to examine his new collection +of facts, I am impressed _most_ by the agreement of so many observers, +some of whom struggle to explain away their own facts. What a +wonderfully ingenious and suggestive paper that is by Galton on "Blood +Relationship." It helps to render intelligible many of the +eccentricities of heredity, atavism, etc. + +Sir Charles Lyell was good enough to write to Lord Ripon and Mr. Cole[93] +about me and the Bethnal Green Museum, and the answer he got was that at +present no appointment of a director is contemplated. I suppose they see +no way of making it a Natural History Museum, and it will have to be +kept going by Loan Collections of miscellaneous works of art, in which +case, of course, the South Kensington people will manage it. It is a +considerable disappointment to me, as I had almost calculated on getting +something there. + +With best wishes for your good health and happiness, believe me, dear +Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--I have just been reading Howorth's paper in the _Journal of the +Anthropological Institute_. How perverse it is. He throughout confounds +"fertility" with "increase of population," which seems to me to be the +main cause of his errors. His elaborate accumulation of facts in other +papers in _Nature_, on "Subsidence and Elevation of Land," I believe to +be equally full of error, and utterly untrustworthy as a whole.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 2, 1872._ + +My dear Wallace,--I write a line to say that I understood--but I may of +course have been mistaken--from Huxley that Bastian distinctly stated +that he had watched the development of the scale of Sphagnum: I was +astonished, as I knew the appearance of Sphagnum under a high power, and +asked a second time; but I repeat that I may have been mistaken. Busk +told me that Sharpey had noticed the appearance of numerous Infusoria in +one of the solutions not containing any nitrogen; and I do not suppose +that any physiologist would admit the possibility of Infusoria absorbing +nitrogen gas. Possibly I ought not to have mentioned statements made in +private conversation, so please do not repeat them. + +I quite agree about the extreme importance of such men as Cohn +[illegible] and Carter having observed apparent cases of heterogenesis. +At present I should prefer any mad hypothesis, such as that every +disintegrated molecule of the lowest forms can reproduce the +parent-form, and that the molecules are universally distributed, and +that they do not lose their vital power until heated to such a +temperature that they decompose like dead organic particles. + +I am extremely grieved to hear about the Museum: it is a great +misfortune.--Yours most sincerely, + +C. DARWIN. + +I have taken up old botanical work and have given up all theories. + +I quite agree about Howorth's paper: he wrote to me and I told him that +we differed so widely it was of no use our discussing any point. + +As for Galton's paper, I have never yet been able to fully digest it: as +far as I have, it has not cleared my ideas, and has only aided in +bringing more prominently forward the large proportion of the latent +characters. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. October 20, 1872._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have thought that you would perhaps like to see +enclosed specimen and extract from letter (translated from the German by +my son) from Dr. W. Marshall, Zoological Assistant to Schlegel at +Leyden. Neither the specimen nor extract need be returned; and you need +not acknowledge the receipt. The resemblance is not so close, now that +the fragments are gummed on card, as I at first thought. Your review of +Houzeau was very good: I skimmed through the whole gigantic book, but +you managed to pick out the plums much better than I did for myself. You +are a born critic. What an _admirable_ number that was of _Nature_. + +I am writing this at Sevenoaks, where we have taken a house for three +weeks and have one more week to stay. We came here that I may get a +little rest, of which I stood in much need.--Ever yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +With respect to what you say about certain instincts of ants having been +acquired by experience or sense, have you kept in mind that the neuters +have no progeny? I wish I knew whether the fertile females, or queens, +do the same work (viz. placing the eggs in warm places, etc.) as the +neuters do afterwards; if so the case would be comparatively simple; but +I believe this is not the case, and I am driven to selection of varying +pre-existing instincts. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 15, 1872._ + +Dear Darwin,--I should have written earlier to thank you for your +book,[94] but was hoping to be able to read more of it before doing so. +I have not, however, found time to get beyond the first three chapters, +but that is quite sufficient to show me how exceedingly interesting you +have made the subject, and how completely and admirably you have worked +it out. I expect it will be one of the most popular of your works. I +have just been asked to write a review of it for the _Quarterly Journal +of Science_, for which purpose I shall be in duty bound to seek out some +deficiencies, however minute, so as to give my notice some flavour of +criticism. + +The cuts and photos are admirable, and my little boy and girl seized it +at once to look at the naughty babies. + +With best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--I will take this opportunity of asking you if you know of any book +that will give me a complete catalogue of vertebrate fossils with some +indication of their affinities.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 13, 1873._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have read your review with much interest, and I +thank you sincerely for the very kind spirit in which it is written. I +cannot say that I am convinced by your criticisms.[95] If you have ever +actually observed a kitten sucking and pounding with extended toes its +mother, and then seen the same kitten when a _little older_ doing the +same thing on a soft shawl, and ultimately an old cat (as I have seen), +and do not admit that it is identically the same action, I am +astonished. + +With respect to the decapitated frog,[96] I have always heard of Pflueger +as a most trustworthy observer. If, indeed, anyone knows a frog's habits +so well as to say that it never rubs off a bit of leaf or other object, +which may stick to its thigh, in the same manner as it did the acid, +your objection would be valid. Some of Flourens' experiments, in which +he removed the cerebral hemisphere from a pigeon, indicate that acts +_apparently_ performed consciously can be done without consciousness--I +presume through the force of habit; in which case it would appear that +intellectual power is not brought into play. Several persons have made +such suggestions and objections as yours about the hands being held up +in astonishment:[97] if there was any straining of the muscles, as with +protruded arms under fright, I would agree: as it is I must keep to my +old opinion, and I daresay you will say that I am an obstinate old +blockhead.--My dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +The book has sold wonderfully; 9,000 copies have now been printed. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. Wednesday morning, [November, 1873]._ + +Dear Darwin,--Yours just received. Pray act exactly as if nothing had +been said to me on the subject. I do not particularly _wish_ for the +work,[98] as, besides being as you say, tedious work, it involves a +considerable amount of responsibility. Still, I am prepared to do any +literary work of the kind, as I told Bates some time ago, and that is +the reason he wrote to me about it. I certainly think, however, that it +would be in many ways more satisfactory to you if your son did it, and I +therefore hope he may undertake it. + +Should he, however, for any reasons, be unable, I am at your service as +a _dernier ressort_. + +In case my meaning is not quite clear, I will _not do it_ unless your +son has the offer and declines it.--Believe me, dear Darwin, yours very +faithfully, + +ALFRED B. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 18, 1873._ + +Dear Darwin,--I quite understand what you require, and would undertake +to do it to the best of my ability. Of course in such work I should not +think of offering criticisms of matter. + +I do not think I could form any idea of how long it would take by seeing +the MSS., as it would all depend upon the amount of revision and +working-in required. I have helped Sir C. Lyell with his last three or +four editions in a somewhat similar though different way, and for him I +have kept an account simply of the hours I was employed in any way for +him, and he paid me 5/- an hour; but (of course this is confidential) I +do not think this quite enough for the class of work. I should propose +for your work 7/- an hour as a fair remuneration, and I would put down +each day the hours I worked at it. + +No doubt you will get it done for very much less by any literary man +accustomed to regular literary work and nothing else, and perhaps better +done, so do not in the least scruple in saying you decide on employing +the gentleman you had in view if you prefer it. + +If you send it to me could you let me have _all_ your MSS. copied out, +as it adds considerably to the time required if there is any difficulty +in deciphering the writing, which in yours (as you are no doubt aware) +there often is. + +My hasty note to Bates was not intended to be shown you or anyone. I +thought he had heard of it from Murray, and that the arrangement was to +be made by Murray.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +P.S.--I have been delighted with H. Spencer's "Study of Sociology." Some +of the passages in the latter part are _grand_. You have perhaps seen +that I am dipping into politics myself occasionally.--A.R.W. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenkam, Kent. November 19, 1873._ + +Dear Wallace,--I thank you for your extremely kind letter, and I am +sorry that I troubled you with that of yesterday. My wife thinks that my +son George would be so much pleased at undertaking the work for me, that +I will write to him, and so probably shall have no occasion to trouble +you. If on still further reflection, and after looking over my notes, I +think that my son could not do the work, I will write again and +_gratefully_ accept your proposal. But if you do not hear, you will +understand that I can manage the affair myself. I never in my lifetime +regretted an interruption so much as this new edition of the "Descent." +I am deeply immersed in some work on physiological points with plants. + +I fully agree with what you say about H. Spencer's "Sociology"; I do not +believe there is a man in Europe at all his equal in talents. I did not +know that you had been writing on politics, except so far as your letter +on the coal question, which interested me much and struck me as a +capital letter. + +I must again thank you for your letter, and remain, dear Wallace, yours +very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +I hope to Heaven that politics will not replace natural science. + +I know too well how atrociously bad my handwriting is. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. December 6, 1874._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your kindness in sending me a copy of your +new edition of the "Descent." I see you have made a whole host of +additions and corrections which I shall have great pleasure in reading +over as soon as I have got rid of my horrid book on Geographical +Distribution, which is almost driving me mad with the amount of drudgery +required and the often unsatisfactory nature of the result. However, I +must finish with it soon, or all the part first done will have to be +done over again, every new book, either as a monograph, or a +classification, putting everything wrong (for me). + +Hoping you are in good health and able to go on with your favourite +work, I remain yours very sincerely, + +ALFRED B. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. July 21, 1875._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your kindness in sending me a copy of your +new book.[99] Being very busy I have only had time to dip into it yet. +The account of Utricularia is most marvellous, and quite new to me. I'm +rather surprised that you do not make any remarks on the origin of these +extraordinary contrivances for capturing insects. Did you think they +were too obvious? I daresay there is no difficulty, but I feel sure they +will be seized on as inexplicable by Natural Selection, and your silence +on the point will be held to show that you consider them so! The +contrivance in Utricularia and Dionaea, and in fact in Drosera too, seems +fully as great and complex as in Orchids, but there is not the same +motive force. Fertilisation and cross-fertilisation are important ends +enough to lead to _any_ modification, but can we suppose mere +nourishment to be so important, seeing that it is so easily and almost +universally obtained by extrusion of roots and leaves? Here are plants +which lose their roots and leaves to acquire the same results by +infinitely complex modes! What a wonderful and long-continued series of +variations must have led up to the perfect "trap" in Utricularia, while +at any stage of the process the same end might have been gained by a +little more development of roots and leaves, as in 9,999 plants out of +10,000! + +Is this an imaginary difficulty, or do you mean to deal with it in +future editions of the "Origin"?--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 7, 1875._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your beautiful little volume on "Climbing +Plants," which forms a most interesting companion to your "Orchids" and +"Insectivorous Plants." I am sorry to see that you have not this time +given us the luxury of cut edges. + +I am in the midst of printing and proof-sheets, which are wearisome in +the extreme from the mass of names and statistics I have been obliged to +introduce, and which will, I fear, make my book insufferably dull to all +but zoological specialists. + +My trust is in my pictures and maps to catch the public. + +Hoping yourself and all your family are quite well, believe me yours +very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. June 5, 1876._ + +My dear Wallace,--I must have the pleasure of expressing to you my +unbounded admiration of your book,[100] though I have read only to page +184--my object having been to do as little as possible while resting. I +feel sure that you have laid a broad and safe foundation for all future +work on Distribution. How interesting it will be to see hereafter plants +treated in strict relation to your views; and then all insects, +pulmonate molluscs, and fresh-water fishes, in greater detail than I +suppose you have given to these lower animals. The point which has +interested me most, but I do not say the most valuable point, is your +protest against sinking imaginary continents in a quite reckless manner, +as was started by Forbes, followed, alas, by Hooker, and caricatured by +Wollaston and Murray. By the way, the main impression which the latter +author has left on my mind is his utter want of all scientific judgment. +I have lifted up my voice against the above view with no avail, but I +have no doubt that you will succeed, owing to your new arguments and the +coloured chart. Of a special value, as it seems to me, is the conclusion +that we must determine the areas chiefly by the nature of the mammals. +When I worked many years ago on this subject, I doubted much whether the +now-called Palearctic and Nearctic regions ought to be separated; and I +determined if I made another region that it should be Madagascar. I have +therefore been able to appreciate the value of your evidence on these +points. What progress Palaeontology has made during the last 20 years! +But if it advances at the same rate in the future, our views on the +migration and birthplace of the various groups will, I fear, be greatly +altered. I cannot feel quite easy about the Glacial period and the +extinction of large mammals, but I much hope that you are right. I think +you will have to modify your belief about the difficulty of dispersal of +land molluscs; I was interrupted when beginning to experimentise on the +just-hatched young adhering to the feet of ground-roosting birds. I +differ on one other point, viz. in the belief that there must have +existed a Tertiary Antarctic continent, from which various forms +radiated to the southern extremities of our present continents. But I +could go on scribbling for ever. You have written, as I believe, a grand +and memorable work, which will last for years as the foundation for all +future treatises on Geographical Distribution,--My dear Wallace, yours +very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + +P.S.--You have paid me the highest conceivable compliment by what you +say of your work in relation to my chapters on Distribution in the +"Origin," and I heartily thank you for it. + + * * * * * + +_The Dell, Grays, Essex. June 7, 1876._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your very kind letter. So few people will +read my book at all regularly, that a criticism from one who does so +will be very welcome. + +If, as I suppose, it is only to p. 184 of Vol. I. that you have read, +you cannot yet quite see my conclusions on the points you refer to (land +molluscs and Antarctic continent). My own conclusions fluctuated during +the progress of the book, and I have, I know, occasionally used +expressions (the relics of earlier ideas) which are not quite consistent +with what I say further on. I am positively against any Southern +continent as _uniting_ South America with Australia or New Zealand, as +you will see at Vol. I., pp. 398-403 and 459-466. My general conclusions +as to Distribution of Land Mollusca[101] are at Vol. II., pp. 522-529. +When you have read these passages and looked at the general facts which +lead to them, I shall be glad to hear if you still differ from me. + +Though, of course, _present results_ as to origin and migrations of +genera of mammals will have to be modified owing to new discoveries, I +cannot help thinking that much will remain unaffected, because in all +geographical and geological discoveries the great outlines are soon +reached; the details alone remain to be modified. I also think much of +the geological evidence is now so accordant with, and explanatory of, +geographical distribution that it is prima facie correct in outline. +Nevertheless, such vast masses of new facts will come out in the next +few years that I quite dread the labour of incorporating them in a new +edition. + +Now for a little personal matter. For two years I have made up my mind +to leave this place--mainly for two reasons: drought and wind prevent +the satisfactory growth of all delicate plants; and I cannot stand being +unable to attend evening meetings and being obliged to refuse every +invitation in London. But I was obliged to stay till I had got it into +decent order to attract a customer. At last it is so, and I am offering +it for sale, and as soon as it is disposed of I intend to try the +neighbourhood of Dorking, whence there are late trains from Cannon +Street and Charing Cross. + +I see your post-mark was Dorking, so I suppose you have been staying +there. Is it not a lovely country? I hope your health is improved, and +when, quite at your leisure, you have waded through my book, I trust +you will again let me have a few lines of friendly criticism and +advice.--Yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham. June 17, 1876._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have now finished the whole of Vol. I., with the +same interest and admiration as before; and I am convinced that my +judgment was right and that it is a memorable book, the basis of all +future work on the subject. I have nothing particular to say, but +perhaps you would like to hear my impressions on two or three points. +Nothing has struck me more than the admirable and convincing manner in +which you treat Java. To allude to a very trifling point, it is capital +about the unadorned head of the Argus pheasant.[102] How plain a thing is, +when it is once pointed out! What a wonderful case is that of Celebes! I +am glad that you have slightly modified your views with respect to +Africa,[103] and this leads me to say that I cannot swallow the so-called +continent of Lemuria, i.e. the direct connection of Africa and +Ceylon![104] The facts do not seem to me many and strong enough to justify +so immense a change of level. Moreover, Mauritius and the other islands +appear to me oceanic in character. But do not suppose that I place my +judgment on this subject on a level with yours. A wonderfully good paper +was published about a year ago on India in the _Geological Journal_--I +_think_ by Blandford.[105] Ramsay agreed with me that it was one of the +best published for a long time. The author shows that India has been a +continent with enormous fresh-water lakes from the Permian period to the +present day. If I remember right he believes in a former connection with +South Africa. + +I am sure that I read, some 20 to 30 years ago, in a French journal, an +account of teeth of mastodon found in Timor; but the statement may have +been an error. + +With respect to what you say about the colonising of New Zealand, I +somewhere have an account of a frog frozen in the ice of a Swiss +glacier, and which revived when thawed. I may add that there is an +Indian toad which can resist salt water and haunts the seaside. Nothing +ever astonished me more than the case of the Galaxias; but it does not +seem known whether it may not be a migratory fish like the salmon. It +seems to me that you complicate rather too much the successive +colonisations with New Zealand. I should prefer believing that the +Galaxias was a species, like the Emys of the Sewalik Hills, which has +long retained the same form. Your remarks on the insects and flowers of +New Zealand have greatly interested me; but aromatic leaves I have +always looked at as a protection against their being eaten by insects or +other animals; and as insects are there rare, such protection would not +be much needed. I have written more than I intended, and I must again +say how profoundly your book has interested me. + +Now let me turn to a very different subject. I have only just heard of +and procured your two articles in the _Academy_. I thank you most +cordially for your generous defence of me against Mr. Mivart. In the +"Origin" I did not discuss the derivation of any one species; but that I +might not be accused of concealing my opinion I went out of my way and +inserted a sentence which seemed to me (and still so seems) to declare +plainly my belief. This was quoted in my "Descent of Man." Therefore it +is very unjust, not to say dishonest, of Mr. Mivart to accuse me of base +fraudulent concealment; I care little about myself; but Mr. Mivart, in +an article in the _Quarterly Review_ (which I _know_ was written by +him), accused my son George of encouraging profligacy, and this without +the least foundation.[106] I can assert this positively, as I laid +George's article and the _Quarterly Review_ before Hooker, Huxley and +others, and all agreed that the accusation was a deliberate +falsification. Huxley wrote to him on the subject and has almost or +quite cut him in consequence; and so would Hooker, but he was advised +not to do so as President of the Royal Society. Well, he has gained his +object in giving me pain, and, good God, to think of the flattering, +almost fawning speeches which he has made to me! I wrote, of course, to +him to say that I would never speak to him again. I ought, however, to +be contented, as he is the one man who has ever, as far as I know, +treated me basely. + +Forgive me for writing at such length, and believe me yours very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +P.S.--I am very sorry that you have given up sexual selection. I am not +at all shaken, and stick to my colours like a true Briton. When I think +about the unadorned head of the Argus pheasant, I might exclaim, _Et tu, +Brute!_ + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham. June 25, 1876._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been able to read rather more quickly of late +and have finished your book. I have not much to say. Your careful +account of the temperate parts of South America interested me much, and +all the more from knowing something of the country. I like also much the +general remarks towards the end of the volume on the land molluscs. Now +for a few criticisms. + +P. 122:[107] I am surprised at your saying that "during the whole Tertiary +period North America was zoologically far more strongly contrasted with +South America than it is now." But we know hardly anything of the latter +except during the Pliocene period, and then the mastodon, horse, several +great Dentata, etc. etc., were common to the North and South. If you are +right I erred greatly in my Journal, where I insisted on the former +close connection between the two. + +P. 252, and elsewhere: I agree thoroughly with the general principle +that a great area with many competing forms is necessary for much and +high development; but do you not extend this principle too far--I should +say much too far, considering how often several species of the same +genus have been developed on very small islands? + +P. 265: You say that the Sittidae extend to Madagascar, but there is no +number in the tabular heading.[108] + +P. 359: Rhinochetus is entered in the tabular heading under No. 3 of the +_Neotropical_ sub-regions.[109] + +Reviewers think it necessary to find some fault, and if I were to review +you, the sole point which I should blame is your not giving very +numerous references. These would save whoever follows you great labour. +Occasionally I wished myself to know the authority for certain +statements, and whether you or somebody else had originated certain +subordinate views. Take the case of a man who had collected largely on +some island, for instance St. Helena, and who wished to work out the +geographical relations of his collection; he would, I think, feel very +blank at not finding in your work precise references to all that had +been written on St. Helena. I hope you will not think me a confoundedly +disagreeable fellow. + +I may mention a capital essay which I received a few mouths ago from +Axel Blytt[110] on the distribution of the plants of Scandinavia; showing +the high probability of there having been secular periods alternately +wet and dry; and of the important part which they have played in +distribution. + +I wrote to Forel, who is always at work on ants, and told him of your +views about the dispersal of the blind Coleoptera, and asked him to +observe. + +I spoke to Hooker about your book, and feel sure that he would like +nothing better than to consider the distribution of plants in relation +to your views; but he seemed to doubt whether he should ever have time. + +And now I have done my jottings, and once again congratulate you on +having brought out so grand a work. I have been a little disappointed at +the review in _Nature_[111]--My dear Wallace, yours sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Rose Hill, Dorking. July 23, 1876._ + +My dear Darwin,--I should have replied sooner to your last kind and +interesting letters, but they reached me in the midst of my packing +previous to removal here, and I have only just now got my books and +papers in a get-at-able state. + +And first, many thanks for your close observation in detecting the two +absurd mistakes in the tabular headings. + +As to the former greater distinction of the North and South American +faunas, I think I am right. The Edentata, being proved (as I hold) to +have been mere temporary migrants into North America in the +post-Pliocene epoch, form no part of its Tertiary fauna. Yet in South +America they were so enormously developed in the Pliocene epoch that we +know, if there is any such thing as Evolution, etc., that strange +ancestral forms must have preceded them in Miocene times. + +Mastodon, on the other hand, represented by one or two species only, +appears to have been a late immigrant into South America from the North. + +The immense development of Ungulates (in varied families, genera, and +species) in North America during the whole Tertiary epoch is, however, +the great feature, which assimilates it to Europe and contrasts it with +South America. True camels, hosts of hog-like animals, true +rhinoceroses, and hosts of ancestral horses, all bring North America +much nearer to the Old World than it is now. Even the horse, represented +in all South America by Equus only, was probably a temporary immigrant +from the North. + +As to extending too far the principle (yours) of the necessity of +comparatively large areas for the development of varied faunas, I may +have done so, but I think not. There is, I think, every probability that +most islands, etc., where a varied fauna now exists have been once more +extensive, e.g. New Zealand, Madagascar. Where there is no such evidence +(e.g. Galapagos), the fauna is _very restricted_. + +Lastly as to want of references; I confess the justice of your +criticism. But I am dreadfully unsystematic. It is my first large work +involving much of the labour of others. I began with the intention of +writing a comparatively short sketch, enlarged it, and added to it, bit +by bit; remodelled the tables, the headings, and almost everything else, +more than once, and got my materials into such confusion that it is a +wonder it has not turned out far more crooked and confused than it is. +I, no doubt, ought to have given references; but in many cases I found +the information so small and scattered, and so much had to be combined +and condensed from conflicting authorities, that I hardly knew how to +refer to them or where to leave off. Had I referred to all authors +consulted for every fact, I should have greatly increased the bulk of +the book, while a large portion of the references would be valueless in +a few years owing to later and better authorities. My experience of +referring to references has generally been most unsatisfactory. One +finds, nine times out of ten, the fact is stated, and nothing more; or +a reference to some third work not at hand! + +I wish I could get into the habit of giving chapter and verse for every +fact and extract, but I am too lazy and generally in a hurry, having to +consult books against time when in London for a day. + +However, I will try and do something to mend this matter should I have +to prepare another edition. + +I return you Forel's letter. It does not advance the question much, +neither do I think it likely that even the complete observation he +thinks necessary would be of much use; because it may well be that the +ova or larvae or imagos of the beetles are not carried systematically by +the ants, but only occasionally owing to some exceptional circumstances. +This might produce a great effect in distribution, yet be so rare as +never to come under observation. + +Several of your remarks in previous letters I shall carefully consider. +I know that, compared with the extent of the subject, my book is in many +parts crude and ill-considered; but I thought, and still think, it +better to make _some generalisations_ wherever possible, as I am not at +all afraid of having to alter my views in many points of detail. I was +so overwhelmed with zoological details that I never went through the +Geological Society's _Journal_ as I ought to have done, and as I mean to +do before writing more on the subject. + +With best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Rose Hill, Dorking. December 13, 1876._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your new book on "Crossing Plants," +which I have read with much interest. I hardly expected, however, that +there would have been so many doubtful and exceptional cases. I fancy +that the results would have come out better had you always taken +weights instead of heights; and that would have obviated the objection +that will, I daresay, be made, that _height_ proves nothing, because a +tall plant may be weaker, less bulky and less vigorous than a shorter +one. Of course no one who knows you or who takes a _general_ view of +your results will say this, but I daresay it will be said. I am afraid +this book will not do much or anything to get rid of the one great +objection, that the physiological characteristic of species, the +infertility of hybrids, has not yet been produced. Have you ever tried +experiments with plants (if any can be found) which for several +centuries have been grown under very different conditions, as for +instance potatoes on the high Andes and in Ireland? If any approach to +sterility occurred in mongrels between these it would be a grand step. +The most curious point you have brought out seems to me the slight +superiority of self-fertilisation over fertilisation with another flower +of the same plant, and the most important result, that difference of +constitution is the essence of the benefit of cross-fertilisation. All +you now want is to find the neutral point where the benefit is at its +maximum, any greater difference being prejudicial. + +Hoping you may yet demonstrate this, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Rose Hill, Dorking. January 17, 1877._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your valuable new edition of the +"Orchids," which I see contains a great deal of new matter of the +greatest interest. I am amazed at your continuous work, but I suppose, +after all these years of it, it is impossible for you to remain idle. I, +on the contrary, am very idle, and feel inclined to do nothing but +stroll about this beautiful country, and read all kinds of miscellaneous +literature. + +I have asked my friend Mr. Mott to send you the last of his remarkable +papers--on Haeckel. But the part I hope you will read with as much +interest as I have done is that on the deposits of Carbon, and the part +it has played and must be playing in geological changes. He seems to +have got the idea from some German book, but it seems to me very +important, and I wonder it never occurred to Sir Charges Lyell. If the +calculations as to the quantity of undecomposed carbon deposited are +anything approaching to correctness, the results must be important. + +Hoping you are in pretty good health, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Rose Hill, Dorking. July 23, 1877._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your admirable volume on "The Forms of +Flowers." It would be impertinence of me to say anything in praise of +it, except that I have read the chapters on "Illegitimate Offspring of +Heterostyled Plants" and on "Cleistogamic Flowers" with great interest. + +I am almost afraid to tell you that in going over the subject of the +Colours of Animals, etc., for a small volume of essays, etc., I am +preparing, I have come to conclusions directly opposed to _voluntary +sexual selection_, and believe that I can explain (in a general way) +_all_ the phenomena of sexual ornaments and colours by laws of +development aided by simple Natural Selection. + +I hope you admire as I do Mr. Belt's remarkable series of papers in +support of his terrific "oceanic glacier river-damming" hypothesis. In +awful grandeur it beats everything "glacial" yet out, and it certainly +explains a wonderful lot of hard facts. The last one, on the "Glacial +Period in the Southern Hemisphere," in the _Quarterly Journal of +Science_, is particularly fine, and I see he has just read a paper at +the Geological Society. It seems to me supported by quite as much +evidence as Ramsay's "Lakes"; but Ramsay, I understand, will have none +of it--as yet.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. August 31, 1877._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am very much obliged to you for sending your +article, which is very interesting and appears to me as clearly written +as it can be. You will not be surprised that I differ altogether from +you about sexual colours. That the tail of the peacock and his elaborate +display of it should be due merely to the vigour, activity, and vitality +of the male is to me as utterly incredible as my views are to you. +Mantegazza published a few years ago in Italy a somewhat similar view. I +cannot help doubting about recognition through colour; our horses, dogs, +fowls, and pigeons seem to know their own species, however differently +the individuals may be coloured. I wonder whether you attribute the +odoriferous and sound-producing organs, when confined to the males, to +their greater vigour, etc.? I could say a good deal in opposition to +you, but my arguments would have no weight in your eyes, and I do not +intend to write for the public anything on this or any other difficult +subject. By the way, I doubt whether the term voluntary in relation to +sexual selection ought to be employed: when a man is fascinated by a +pretty girl it can hardly be called voluntary, and I suppose that female +animals are charmed or excited in nearly the same manner by the gaudy +males. + +Three essays have been published lately in Germany which would interest +you: one by Weismann, who shows that the coloured stripes on the +caterpillars of Sphinx are beautifully protective: and birds were +frightened away from their feeding-place by a caterpillar with large +eye-like spots on the broad anterior segments of the body. Fritz Mueller +has well discussed the first steps of mimicry with butterflies, and +comes to nearly or quite the same conclusion as you, but supports it by +additional arguments. + +Fritz Mueller also has lately shown that the males alone of certain +butterflies have odoriferous glands on their wings (distinct from those +which secrete matter disgusting to birds), and where these glands are +placed the scales assume a different shape, making little tufts. + +Farewell: I hope that you find Dorking a pleasant place? I was staying +lately at Abinger Hall, and wished to come over to see you, but driving +tires me so much that my courage failed.--Yours very sincerely, + +CHAS. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Madeira Villa, Madeira Road, Ventnor, Isle of Wight. September 3, +1877._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your letter. Of course I did not expect +my paper to have any effect on your opinions. You have looked at all the +facts so long from your special point of view that it would require +conclusive arguments to influence you, and these, from the complex +nature of the question, are probably not to be had. We must, I think, +leave the case in the hands of others, and I am in hopes that my paper +may call sufficient attention to the subject to induce some of the great +school of Darwinians to take the question up and work it out thoroughly. +You have brought such a mass of facts to support your view, and have +argued it so fully, that I hardly think it necessary for you to do more. +Truth will prevail, as you as well as I wish it to do. I will only make +one or two remarks. The word "voluntary" was inserted in _my proofs +only_, in order to distinguish clearly between the two radically +distinct kinds of "sexual selection." Perhaps "conscious" would be a +better word, to which I think you will not object, and I will alter it +when I republish. I lay no stress on the word "voluntary." + +Sound- and scent-producing organs in males are surely due to "natural" +or "automatic" as opposed to "conscious" selection. If there were +gradations in the sounds produced, from mere noises, up to elaborate +music--the case would be analogous to that of "colours" and "ornament." +Being, however, comparatively simple, Natural Selection, owing to their +use as a guide, seems sufficient. The louder sound, heard at a greater +distance, would attract or be heard by more females, or it may attract +other males and lead to combats _for_ the females, but this would not +imply _choice_ in the sense of rejecting a male whose stridulation was a +trifle less loud than another's, which is the essence of the theory as +applied by you to colour and ornament. But greater general vigour would +almost certainly lead to greater volume or persistence of sound, and so +the same view will apply to both cases on my theory. + +Thanks for the references you give me. My ignorance of German prevents +me supporting my views by the mass of observations continually being +made abroad, so I can only advance my own ideas for what they are worth. + +I like Dorking much, but can find no house to suit me, so fear I shall +have to move again. + +With best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 5, [1877]._ + +My dear Wallace,--"Conscious" seems to me much better than "voluntary." +Conscious action, I presume, comes into play when two males fight for a +female; but I do not know whether you admit that, for instance, the +spur of the cock is due to sexual selection. + +I am quite willing to admit that the sounds and vocal organs of some +males are used only for challenging, but I doubt whether this applies to +the musical notes of Hylobates or to the howling (I judge chiefly from +Rengger) of the American monkeys. No account that I have seen of the +stridulation of male insects shows that it is a challenge. All those who +have attended to birds consider their song as a charm to the females and +not as a challenge. As the males in most cases search for the females I +do not see how their odoriferous organs will aid them in finding the +females. But it is foolish in me to go on writing, for I believe I have +said most of this in my book: anyhow, I well remember thinking over it. +The "belling" of male stags, if I remember rightly, is a challenge, and +so I daresay is the roaring of the lion during the breeding season. + +I will just add in reference to your former letter that I fully admit +that with birds the fighting of the males co-operates with their charms; +and I remember quoting Bartlett that gaudy colouring in the males is +almost invariably concomitant with pugnacity. But, thank Heaven, what +little more I can do in science will be confined to observation on +simple points. However much I may have blundered, I have done my best, +and that is my constant comfort.--Most truly yours, + +C. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. September 14, 1878._ + +Dear Darwin,--An appointment is soon to be made of someone to have the +superintendence of Epping Forest under the new Act, and as it is a post +which of all others I should like I am trying very hard to get up +interest enough to secure it. + +One of the means is the enclosed memorial, which has been already signed +by Sir J. Hooker and Sir J. Lubbock, and to which I feel sure you will +add your name, which I expect has weight "even in the City." + +In want of anything better to do I have been grinding away at a book on +the Geography of Australia for Stanford for the last six months. + +Hoping you are in good health, and with my best compliments to Mrs. +Darwin and the rest of your family, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. September 16, 1878._ + +My dear Wallace,--I return the paper signed, and most heartily wish that +you may be successful, not only for your own sake, but for that of +Natural Science, as you would then have more time for new researches. + +I keep moderately well, but always feel half-dead, yet manage to work +away on vegetable physiology, as I think that I should die outright if I +had nothing to do.--Believe me yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN + + * * * * * + +_Walron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. September 23, 1878._ + +Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your signature and good wishes. I have +some hopes of success, but am rather doubtful of the Committee of the +Corporation who will have the management, for they have just decided +after a great struggle in the Court of Common Council that it is to be a +rotatory Committee, every member of the Council (of whom there are 200) +coming on it in succession if they please. They evidently look upon it +as a Committee which will have great opportunities of excursions, +picnics, and dinners, at the expense of the Corporation, while the +improvement of the Forest will be quite a secondary matter. + +I am very glad to hear you are tolerably well. It is all I can say of +myself.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 5, 1880._ + +My dear Wallace,--As this note requires no sort of answer, you must +allow me to express my lively admiration of your paper in the +_Nineteenth Century_.[112] You certainly are a master in the difficult art +of clear exposition. It is impossible to urge too often that the +selection from a single varying individual or of a single varying organ +will not suffice. You have worked in capitally Allen's admirable +researches. As usual, you delight to honour me more than I deserve. When +I have written about the extreme slowness of Natural Selection (in which +I hope I may be wrong), I have chiefly had in my mind the effects of +intercrossing. I subscribe to almost everything you say excepting the +last short sentence. + +And now let me add how grieved I was to hear that the City of London did +not elect you for the Epping office, but I suppose it was too much to +hope that such a body of men should make a good selection. I wish you +could obtain some quiet post and thus have leisure for moderate +scientific work. I have nothing to tell you about myself; I see few +persons, for conversation fatigues me much; but I daily do some work in +experiments on plants, and hope thus to continue to the end of my days. + +With all good wishes, believe me yours very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + +P.S.--Have you seen Mr. Farrer's article in the last _Fortnightly_? It +reminded me of an article on bequests by you some years ago which +interested and almost converted me. + + * * * * * + +_Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. January 9, 1880._ + +My dear Darwin,--It is a great pleasure to receive a letter from you +sometimes--especially when we do not differ very much. I am, of course, +much pleased and gratified that you like my article. I wrote it chiefly +because I thought there was something a little fresh still to say on the +subject, and also because I wished to define precisely my present +position, which people continually misunderstand. The main part of the +article forms part of a chapter of a book I have now almost finished on +my favourite subject of "Geographical Distribution." It will form a sort +of supplement to my former work, and will, I trust, be more readable and +popular. I go pretty fully into the laws of variation and dispersal; the +exact character of specific and generic areas, and their causes; the +growth, dispersal and extinction of species and groups, illustrated by +maps, etc.; changes of geography and of climate as affecting dispersal, +with a full discussion of the Glacial theory, adopting Croll's views +(part of this has been published as a separate article in the _Quarterly +Review_ of last July, and has been highly approved by Croll and Geikie); +a discussion of the theory of permanent continents and oceans, which I +see you were the first to adopt, but which geologists, I am sorry to +say, quite ignore. All this is preliminary. Then follows a series of +chapters on the different kinds of islands, continental and oceanic, +with a pretty full discussion of the characters, affinities, and origin +of their fauna and flora in typical cases. Among these I am myself quite +pleased with my chapters on New Zealand, as I believe I have fully +explained and accounted for _all_ the main peculiarities of the New +Zealand and Australian floras. I call the book "Island Life," etc. etc., +and I think it will be interesting. + +Thanks for your regrets and kind wishes anent Epping. It was a +disappointment, as I had good friends on the Committee and therefore had +too much hope. I may just mention that I am thinking of making some +application through friends for some post in the new Josiah Mason +College of Science at Birmingham, as Registrar or Curator and Librarian, +etc. The Trustees have advertised for Professors to begin next October. +Should you happen to know any of the Trustees, or have any influential +friends in Birmingham, perhaps you could help me. + +I think this book will be my last, as I have pretty well said all I have +to say in it, and I have never taken to experiment as you have. But I +want some easy occupation for my declining years, with not too much +confinement or desk-work, which I cannot stand. You see I had some +reason for writing to you; but do not you trouble to write again unless +you have something to communicate. + +With best wishes, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + +I have not seen the _Fortnightly_ yet, but will do so. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. October 11, 1880._ + +My dear Darwin,--I hope you will have received a copy of my last book, +"Island Life," as I shall be very glad of your opinion on certain points +in it. The first five chapters you need not read, as they contain +nothing fresh to you, but are necessary to make the work complete in +itself. The next five chapters, however (VII. to X.), I think, will +interest you. As I _think_, in Chapters VIII. and IX. I have found the +true explanation of geological climates, and on this I shall be very +glad of your candid opinion, as it is the very foundation-stone of the +book. The rest will not contain much that is fresh to you, except the +three chapters on New Zealand. Sir Joseph Hooker thinks my theory of +the Australian and New Zealand floras a decided advance on anything that +has been done before. + +In connection with this, the chapter on the Azores should be read. + +Chap. XVI. on the British Fauna may also interest you. + +I mention these points merely that you may not trouble yourself to read +the whole book, unless you like. + +Hoping that you are well, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. November 3, 1880._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have now read your book,[113] and it has interested me +deeply. It is quite excellent, and seems to me the best book which you +have ever published; but this may be merely because I have read it last. +As I went on, I made a few notes,[114] chiefly when I differed strongly +from you; but God knows whether they are worth your reading. You will be +disappointed with many of them; but they will show that I had the will, +though I did not know the way, to do what you wanted. + +I have said nothing on the infinitely many passages and views which I +admired and which were new to me. My notes are badly expressed; but I +thought that you would excuse my taking any pains with my style. I wish +that my confounded handwriting was better. + +I had a note the other day from Hooker, and I can see that he is _much_ +pleased with the Dedication. + +With all good wishes, believe me yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +In two or three weeks you will receive a book from me; if you care to +know what it is about, read the paragraph in Introduction about new +terms and then the last chapter, and you will know whole contents of +book. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. November 8, 1880._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your kind remarks and notes on my book. +Several of the latter will be of use to me if I have to prepare a second +edition, which I am not so sure of as you seem to be. + +1. In your remark as to the doubtfulness of paucity of fossils being due +to coldness of water, I think you overlook that I am speaking _only_ of +waters in the latitude of the Alps, in Miocene and Eocene times, when +icebergs and glaciers temporarily descended into an otherwise warm sea; +my theory being that there was no glacial epoch at that time, but merely +a local and temporary descent of the snow-line and glaciers owing to +high excentricity and winter in _aphelion_. + +2. I cannot see the difficulty about the cessation of the glacial +period. Between the Miocene and the Pleistocene periods geographical +changes occurred which rendered a true glacial period possible with +high excentricity. When the high excentricity passed away the glacial +epoch also passed away in the Temperate zone; but it persists in the +Arctic zone, where during the Miocene there were mild climates, and this +is due to the persistence of the changed geographical conditions. The +present Arctic climate is itself a comparatively new and abnormal state +of things due to geographical modification. As to "epoch" and "period," +I use them as synonyms to avoid repeating the same word. + +3. Rate of deposit and geological time: there no doubt I may have gone +to an extreme, but my "twenty-eight million years" may be anything under +100 millions, as I state. There is an enormous difference between _mean_ +and _maximum_ denudation and deposition. In the case of the great faults +the upheaval along a given line would itself facilitate the denudation +(whether subaerial or marine) of the upheaved portion at a rate perhaps +a hundred times faster than plains and plateaux. So, local subsidence +might itself lead to very rapid deposition. Suppose a portion of the +Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the Mississippi were to subside for a +few thousand years, it might receive the greater part of the sediment +from the whole Mississippi valley, and thus form strata at a very rapid +rate. + +4. You quote the Pampas thistles, etc., against my statement of the +importance of preoccupation. But I am referring especially to St. +Helena, and to plants naturally introduced from the adjacent continents. +Surely, if a certain number of African plants reached the island and +became modified into a complete adaptation to its climatic conditions, +they would hardly be expelled by other African plants arriving +subsequently. They might be so conceivably, but it does not seem +probable. The cases of the Pampas, New Zealand, Tahiti, etc., are very +different, where highly developed _aggressive_ plants have been +artificially introduced. Under nature it is these very aggressive +species that would first reach any island in their vicinity, and, being +adapted to the island and colonising it thoroughly, would then hold +their own against other plants from the _same_ country, mostly less +aggressive in character. I have not explained this so fully as I should +have done in the book. Your criticism is therefore useful. + +My Chap. XXIII. is no doubt very speculative, and I cannot wonder at +your hesitating at accepting my views. To me, however, your theory of +hosts of existing species migrating over the tropical lowlands from the +North Temperate to the South Temperate zone appears more speculative and +more improbable. For, where could the rich lowland _equatorial_ flora +have existed during a period of general refrigeration sufficient for +this? and what became of the wonderfully rich Cape flora which, if the +temperature of Tropical Africa had been so recently lowered, would +certainly have spread northwards and on the return of the heat could +hardly have been driven back into the sharply defined and _very +restricted area_ in which it now exists? + +As to the migration of plants from mountain to mountain not being so +probable as to remote islands, I think that is fully counterbalanced by +two considerations: + +(a) The area and abundance of the mountain stations along such a range +as the Andes are immensely greater than those of the islands in the +North Atlantic, for example. + +(b) The temporary occupation of mountain stations by migrating plants +(which I think I have shown to be probable) renders _time_ a much more +important element in increasing the number and variety of the plants so +dispersed than in the case of islands, where the flora soon acquires a +fixed and endemic character, and where the number of species is +necessarily limited. + +No doubt, direct evidence of seeds being carried great distances through +the air is wanted, but, I am afraid, can hardly be obtained. Yet I feel +the greatest confidence that they _are_ so carried. Take for instance +the two peculiar orchids of the Azores (Habinaria species): what other +mode of transit is conceivable? The whole subject is one of great +difficulty, but I hope my chapter may call attention to a hitherto +neglected factor in the distribution of plants. + +Your references to the Mauritius literature are very interesting, and +will be useful to me; and again thanking you for your valuable remarks, +believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. November 21, 1880._ + +My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your new book containing your wonderful +series of experiments and observations on the movements of plants. I +have read the introduction and conclusion, which shows me the importance +of the research as indicating the common basis of the infinitely varied +habits and mode of growth of plants. The whole subject becomes thus much +simplified, though the nature of the basic vitality which leads to such +wonderful results remains as mysterious as ever.--Yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 1, 1881._ + +My dear Darwin,--I have been intending to write to you for some weeks to +call your attention to what seems to me a striking confirmation (or at +all events a support) of my views of the land migration of plants from +mountain to mountain. In _Nature_ of Dec. 9th, p. 126, Mr. Baker, of +Kew, describes a number of the alpine plants of Madagascar as being +_identical species_ with some found on the mountains of Abyssinia, the +Cameroons, and other African mountains. Now, if there is one thing more +clear than another it is that Madagascar has been separated from Africa +since the Miocene (probably the early Miocene) epoch. These plants must +therefore have reached the island either _since_ then, in which case +they certainly must have passed through the air for long distances, or +at the time of the union. But the Miocene and Eocene periods were +certainly warm, and these alpine plants could hardly have migrated over +tropical forest lands, while it is very improbable that if they had been +isolated at so remote a period, exposed to such distinct climatal and +organic environments as in Madagascar and Abyssinia, they would have in +both places retained their specific characters unchanged. The +presumption is, therefore, that they are comparatively _recent_ +immigrants, and if so must have passed across the sea from mountain to +mountain, for the richness and speciality of the Madagascar forest +vegetation render it certain that no recent glacial epoch has seriously +affected that island. + +Hoping that you are in good health, and wishing you the compliments of +the season, I remain yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 2, 1881._ + +My dear Wallace,--The case which you give is a very striking one, and I +had overlooked it in _Nature._[115] But I remain as great a heretic as +ever. Any supposition seems to me more probable than that the seeds of +plants should have been blown from the mountains of Abyssinia or other +central mountains of Africa to the mountains of Madagascar. It seems to +me almost infinitely more probable that Madagascar extended far to the +south during the Glacial period, and that the southern hemisphere was, +according to Croll, then more temperate; and that the whole of Africa +was then peopled with some temperate forms, which crossed chiefly by +agency of birds and sea-currents; and some few by the wind from the +shores of Africa to Madagascar, subsequently ascending to the mountains. + +How lamentable it is that two men should take such widely different +views, with the same facts before them; but this seems to be almost +regularly our case, and much do I regret it. + +I am fairly well, but always feel half dead with fatigue. I heard but an +indifferent account of your health some time ago, but trust that you are +now somewhat stronger.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very +sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 7, 1881._ + +My dear Wallace,--You know from Miss Buckley that, with her assistance, +I drew up a memorial to Mr. Gladstone with respect to your services to +science. The memorial was corrected by Huxley, who has aided me in every +possible way. It was signed by twelve good men, and you would have been +gratified if you had seen how strongly they expressed themselves on your +claims. + +The Duke of Argyll, to whom I sent the memorial, wrote a private note to +Mr. Gladstone. The memorial was sent in only on January 5th, and I have +just received a note in Mr. Gladstone's own handwriting, in which he +says: "I lose no time in apprising you that although the Fund is +moderate and at present poor, I shall recommend Mr. Wallace for a +pension of L200 a year." I will keep this note carefully, as, if the +present Government were to go out, I do not doubt that it would be +binding on the next Government. + +I hope that it will give you some satisfaction to see that not only +every scientific man to whom I applied, but that also our Government +appreciated your lifelong scientific labour.--Believe me, my dear +Wallace, yours sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + +I should expect that there will be some delay before you receive an +official announcement. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 8, 1881._ + +My dear Darwin,--I need not say how very grateful I am to you for your +constant kindness, and especially for the trouble you have taken in +recommending me to Mr. Gladstone. It is also, of course, very gratifying +to hear that so many eminent men have so good an opinion of the little +scientific work I have done, for I myself feel it to be very little in +comparison with that of many others. + +The amount you say Mr. Gladstone proposes to recommend is considerably +more than I expected would be given, and it will relieve me from a great +deal of the anxieties under which I have laboured for several years. +To-day is my fifty-eighth birthday, and it is a happy omen that your +letter should have arrived this morning. + +I presume after I receive the official communication will be the proper +time to thank the persons who have signed the memorial in my favour. I +do not know whether it is the proper etiquette to write a private letter +of thanks to Mr. Gladstone, or only a general official one. Whenever I +hear anything from the Government I will let you know. + +Again thanking you for your kindness, believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 10, 1881._ + +My dear Wallace,--I am heartily glad that you are pleased about the +memorial. + +I do not feel that my opinion is worth much on the point which you +mention. A relation who is in a Government office and whose judgment, I +think, may be fully trusted, felt sure that if you received an official +announcement without any private note, it ought to be answered +officially, but if the case were mine, I would express whatever I +thought and felt in an official document. His reason was that Gladstone +gives or recommends the pension on public grounds alone. + +If the case were mine I would not write to signers of the memorial, +because I believe that they acted like so many jurymen in a claim +against the Government. Nevertheless, if I met any of them or was +writing to them on any other subject, I should take the opportunity of +expressing my feelings. I think you might with propriety write to +Huxley, as he entered so heartily into the scheme and aided in the most +important manner in many ways. + +Sir J. Lubbock called here yesterday and Mr. F. Balfour came here with +one of my sons, and it would have pleased you to see how unfeignedly +delighted they were at my news of the success of the memorial. + +I wrote also to tell the Duke of Argyll of the success, and he in answer +expressed very sincere pleasure.--My dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CH. DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 29, 1881._ + +My dear Darwin,--Yours just received was very welcome, and the delay in +its reaching me is of no importance whatever, as, having seen the +announcement of the Queen's approval of the pension, of course I felt it +was safe. The antedating of the first payment is a very liberal and +thoughtful act; but I do not think it is any way exceptional as regards +myself. I am informed it is the custom because, as no payment is made +after the death of the person, if the first payment were delayed the +proposed recipient might die before the half-year (or quarter-day) and +thus receive nothing at all. + +I suppose you sent the right address to Mr. Seymour. I have not yet +heard from him, but I daresay I shall during the next week. + +As I am assured both by Miss Buckley and by Prof. Huxley that it is to +you that I owe in the first place this great kindness, and that you have +also taken an _immense_ amount of trouble to bring it to so successful +issue, I must again return you my best thanks, and assure you that there +is no one living to whose kindness in such a matter I could feel myself +indebted with so much pleasure and satisfaction.--Believe me, dear +Darwin, yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 9._ + +My dear Wallace,--Dr. G. Krefft has sent me the enclosed from Sydney. A +nurseryman saw a caterpillar feeding on a plant and covered the whole +up, but, when he searched for the cocoon [pupa], was long before he +could find it, so good was its imitation, in colour and form, of the +leaf to which it was attached. + +I hope that the world goes well with you. Do not trouble yourself by +acknowledging this.--Ever yours, + +CH. DARWIN. + + +Accompanying this letter, which has been published in "Darwin and Modern +Science" (1909), was a photograph of the chrysalis (_Papilio sarpedon +choredon_) attached to a leaf of its food-plant. Many butterfly pupae +are known to have the power of individual adjustment to the colours of +the particular food-plant or other normal environment; and it is +probable that the Australian _Papilio_ referred to by Darwin possesses +this power. + + * * * * * + +_Nutwood Cottage, Frith Hill, Godalming, July 9, 1881._ + +My dear Darwin,--I am just doing, what I have rarely if ever done +before--reading a book through a second time immediately after the first +perusal. I do not think I have ever been so attracted by a book, with +perhaps the exception of your "Origin of Species" and Spencer's "First +Principles" and "Social Statics." I wish therefore to call your +attention to it, in case you care about books on social and political +subjects, but here there is also an elaborate discussion of Malthus's +"Principles of Population," to which both you and I have acknowledged +ourselves indebted. The present writer, Mr. George, while admitting the +main principle as self-evident and as actually operating in the case of +animals and plants, denies that it ever has operated or can operate in +the case of man, still less that it has any bearing whatever on the vast +social and political questions which have been supported by a reference +to it. He illustrates and supports his views with a wealth of +illustrative facts and a cogency of argument which I have rarely seen +equalled, while his style is equal to that of Buckle, and thus his book +is delightful reading. The title of the book is "Progress and Poverty." +It has gone through six editions in America, and is now published in +England by Kegan Paul. It is devoted mainly to a brilliant discussion +and refutation of some of the most widely accepted maxims of political +economy, such as the relation of wages and capital, the nature of rent +and interest, the laws of distribution, etc., but all treated as parts +of the main problem as stated in the title-page, "An Enquiry into the +Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of +Wealth." It is the most startling novel and original book of the last +twenty years, and if I mistake not will in the future rank as making an +advance in political and social science equal to that made by Adam Smith +a century ago. + +I am here settled in my little cottage engaged in the occupation I most +enjoy--making a garden, and admiring the infinite variety and beauty of +vegetable life. I am out of doors all day and hardly read anything. As +the long evenings come on I shall get on with my book on the "Land +Question," in which I have found a powerful ally in Mr. George. + +Hoping you are well, believe me, yours most faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + * * * * * + +The following is the last letter Wallace received from Darwin, who died +on Wednesday, April 19, 1882, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. + + +_Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 12, 1881._ + +My dear Wallace,--I have been heartily glad to get your note and hear +some news of you. I will certainly order "Progress and Poverty," for the +subject is a most interesting one. But I read many years ago some books +on political economy, and they produced a disastrous effect on my mind, +viz. utterly to distrust my own judgment on the subject and to doubt +much everyone else's judgment! So I feel pretty sure that Mr. George's +book will only make my mind worse confounded than it is at present. I, +also, have just finished a book which has interested me greatly, but +whether it would interest anyone else I know not: it is "The Creed of +Science," by W. Graham, A.M. Who and what he is I know not, but he +discusses many great subjects, such as the existence of God, +immortality, the moral sense, the progress of society, etc. I think some +of his propositions rest on very uncertain foundations, and I could get +no clear idea of his notions about God. Notwithstanding this and other +blemishes, the book has interested me _extremely_. Perhaps I have been +to some extent deluded, as he manifestly ranks too high what I have +done. + +I am delighted to hear that you spend so much time out of doors and in +your garden; for with your wonderful power of observation you will see +much which no one else has seen. From Newman's old book (I forget the +title) about the country near Godalming, it must be charming. + +We have just returned home after spending five weeks on Ullswater: the +scenery is quite charming; but I cannot walk, and everything tires me, +even seeing scenery, talking with anyone or reading much. What I shall +do with my few remaining years of life I can hardly tell. I have +everything to make me happy and contented, but life has become very +wearisome to me. I heard lately from Miss Buckley in relation to Lyell's +Life, and she mentioned that you were thinking of Switzerland, which I +should think and hope you will enjoy much. + +I see that you are going to write on the most difficult political +question, the Land. Something ought to be done--but what is to rule? I +hope that you will [not] turn renegade to natural history; but I suppose +that politics are very tempting. + +With all good wishes for yourself and family, believe me, my dear +Wallace, yours very sincerely, + +CHARLES DARWIN. + + * * * * * + +Wallace's last letter to Darwin was written in October, 1881: + + +_Nutwood Cottage, Frith Hill, Godalming. October 18, 1881._ + +My dear Darwin,--I have delayed writing to thank you for your book on +Worms till I had been able to read it, which I have now done with great +pleasure and profit, since it has cleared up many obscure points as to +the apparent sinking or burying of objects on the surface and the +universal covering up of old buildings. I have hitherto looked upon them +chiefly from the gardener's point of view--as a nuisance, but I shall +tolerate their presence in the view of their utility and importance. A +friend here to whom I am going to lend your book tells me that an +agriculturist who had been in West Australia, near Swan River, told him +many years ago of the hopelessness of farming there, illustrating the +poverty and dryness of the soil by saying, "There are no worms in the +ground." + +I do not see that you refer to the formation of leaf-mould by the mere +decay of leaves, etc. In favourable places many inches or even feet of +this is formed--I presume without the agency of worms. If so, would it +not take part in the formation of all mould? and also the decay of the +roots of grasses and of all annual plants, or do you suppose that _all_ +these are devoured by worms? In reading the book I have not noticed a +single erratum. + +I enclose you a copy of two letters to the _Mark Lane Express_, written +at the request of the editor, and which will show you the direction in +which I am now working, and in which I hope to do a little +good.--Believe me yours very faithfully, + +ALFRED R. WALLACE. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "While at Hertford I lived altogether in five different houses, and +in three of these the Silk family lived next door to us, which involved +not only each family having to move about the same time, but also that +two houses adjoining each other should have been vacant together, and +that they should have been of the size required by each, which after the +first was not the same, the Silk family being much the larger."--"My +Life," i. 32. + +[2] "My Life," i. 191-2. + +[3] "My Life," i. 108-111. + +[4] Darwin makes a similar comment: "I was very successful in +collecting, and invented two new methods ... and thus I got some very +rare species. No poet ever felt more delighted at seeing his first poem +published than I did at seeing, in Stephens' 'Illustrations of British +Insects,' the magic words, 'captured by C. Darwin, Esq.'"--Darwin's +Autobiography, in the one-volume "Life," p. 20. + +[5] "My Life," i. 194-5. + +[6] There is no record in his autobiography as to the exact date when he +first became acquainted with Lyell's work, though several times +reference is made to it. + +[7] "Travels on the Amazon," p. 277. + +[8] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," pp. 11-12. + +[9] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," p. 534. + +[10] It is interesting to note that the careers of Sir Joseph Hooker, +Charles Darwin, H.W. Bates, Alfred Russel Wallace and T.H. Huxley were +all determined by voyages or journeys of exploration. + +[11] "Life of Charles Darwin" (one-volume Edit.), p. 29. + +[12] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," p. 535. + +[13] This letter may have been written for publication. + +[14] A reference to the loss of his earlier collection (p. 29). + +[15] The original of this letter is in the possession of the Trustees of +the British Museum. + +[16] For the other part of this letter see "My Life," i. 379. + +[17] "My early letters to Bates suffice to show that the great problem +of the origin of species was already distinctly formulated in my mind; +that I was not satisfied with the more or less vague solutions at that +time offered; that I believed the conception of evolution through +natural law so clearly formulated in the 'Vestiges' to be, so far as it +went, a true one; and that I firmly believed that a full and careful +study of the facts of nature would ultimately lead to a solution of the +mystery."--"My Life," i. 254-7. + +[18] "On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of +Species."--_Ann. and Mag. of Natural History_, 2nd Series, 1855, xvi. +184. + +[19] "Life of Charles Darwin" (one-vol. Edit.), p. 171. + +[20] "Life of Charles Darwin," (one-vol. Edit.), p. 40, + +[21] _See post_, p. 112. + +[22] "My Life," i. 359. + +[23] "My Life," i. 361-3. + +[24] It will be remembered, that Darwin died in April, 1882, twenty-six +years previously. + +[25] "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," ii. 188. + +[26] "The Herbert Spencer Lecture," delivered at the Museum, December 8, +1910. (Clarendon Press, Oxford.) + +[27] "My Life," ii. 23-4. + +[28] "On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New +Species."--_Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist._, 1855. The law is thus stated +by Wallace: "Every species has come into existence coincident both in +time and space with a pre-existing closely-allied species." + +[29] "The Origin of Species." + +[30] "The Origin of Species." + +[31] First Edit., 1859, pp. 1, 2. + +[32] "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties and on the +Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection." By +C. Darwin and A.R. Wallace. Communicated by Sir C. Lyell and J.D. +Hooker. _Journ. Linn. Soc._, 1859, iii. 45. Read July 1st, 1858. + +[33] "On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New Species." +_Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist._, 1855, xvi. 184. + +[34] This seems to refer to Wallace's paper on "The Zoological Geography +of the Malay Archipelago," _Journ. Linn. Soc._, 1860. + +[35] Dr. Samuel Wilberforce. + +[36] Now Major Leonard Darwin. + +[37] The last sheet of the letter is missing. + +[38] Wallace's paper was entitled "Remarks on the Rev. S. Haughton's +Paper on the Bee's Cells and on the Origin of Species." Prof. Haughton's +paper appeared in the _Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist._, 1863, xi. 415. +Wallace's was published in the same journal. + +[39] For March, 1864. + +[40] _Reader_, April 16, 1864. An abstract of Wallace's paper "On the +Phenomena of Variation and Geographical Distribution, as illustrated by +the Papilionidae of the Malayan Region," _Linn. Soc. Trans._, xxv. + +[41] _Anthropolog. Rev._, 1864. + +[42] _Nat. Hist. Rev._, 1864, p. 328. + +[43] "Read June, 1864."--A.R.W. + +[44] "June 8, 1864."--A.R.W. + +[45] "Referring to my broken engagement."--A.R.W. + +[46] Paper on the three forms of Lythrum. + +[47] Probably the one on the Distribution of Malayan Butterflies, _Linn. +Soc. Trans._, xxv. + +[48] E.B. Tylor's "Early History of Mankind," and Lecky's "Rationalism." + +[49] "Prehistoric Times." + +[50] The note speaks of the "characteristic unselfishness" with which +Wallace ascribed the theory of Natural Selection to Darwin. + +[51] "Fuer Darwin." + +[52] "On the Pigeons of the Malay Archipelago," _Ibis_, October, 1865. +Wallace points out (p. 366) that "the most striking superabundance of +pigeons, as well as of parrots, is confined to the Australo-Malayan +sub-regions in which ... the forest-haunting and fruit-eating mammals, +such as monkeys and squirrels, are totally absent." He points out also +that monkeys are "exceedingly destructive to eggs and young +birds."--Note, "More Letters," i. 265. + +[53] "The Geographical Distribution and Variability of the Malayan +Papilionidae," _Linn. Soc. Trans._, xxv. + +[54] The passage referred to in this letter as needing farther +explanation is the following: "The last six cases of mimicry are +especially instructive, because they seem to indicate one of the +processes by which dimorphic forms have been produced. When, as in these +cases, one sex differs much from the other, and varies greatly itself, +it may be that individual variations will occasionally occur, having a +distant resemblance to groups which are the objects of mimicry, and +which it is therefore advantageous to resemble. Such a variety will have +a better chance of preservation; the individuals possessing it will be +multiplied; and their accidental likeness to the favoured group will be +rendered permanent by hereditary transmission, and each successive +variation which increases the resemblance being preserved, and all +variation departing from the favoured type having less chance of +preservation, there will in time result those singular cases of two or +more isolated and fixed forms bound together by that intimate +relationship which constitutes them the sexes of a single species. The +reason why the females are more subject to this kind of modification +than the males is probably that their slower flight when laden with +eggs, and their exposure to attack while in the act of depositing their +eggs upon leaves, render it especially advantageous for them to have +additional protection. This they at once obtain by acquiring a +resemblance to other species which, from whatever cause, enjoy a +comparative immunity from persecution." + +[55] This no doubt refers to Janet's "Materialisme Contemporain." + +[56] _Quarterly Journal of Science_, January 7, 1867. "Ice Marks in +North Wales," by A.R. Wallace. + +[57] I.e., the suggestion that conspicuous caterpillars or perfect +insects (e.g. white butterflies) which are distasteful to birds are +protected by being easily recognised and avoided. + +[58] A bearded woman having an irregular double set of teeth. See +"Animals and Plants," ii. 328. + +[59] The letter to which this is a reply is missing. It evidently refers +to Wallace's belief in the paramount importance of protection in the +evolution of colour. _See also_ Darwin's letter of February 26, 1867. + +[60] _Menura superba._ See "The Descent of Man" (1901), p. 687. +Rhynchaea, mentioned on p. 184, is discussed in the "Descent," p. 727. +The female is more brightly coloured than the male and has a convoluted +trachea, elsewhere a masculine character. There seems some reason to +suppose that "the male undertakes the duty of incubation." + +[61] _Westminster Review_, July, 1867. + +[62] _Angraecum sesquipedale_, a Madagascar orchid, with a whip-like +nectary, 11 to 12 in. in length, which, according to Darwin +("Fertilisation of Orchids," 2nd Edit., p. 163), is adapted to the +visits of a moth with a proboscis of corresponding length. He points out +that there is no difficulty in believing in the existence of such a moth +as F. Mueller had described (_Nature_, 1873, p. 223), a Brazilian +sphinx-moth with a trunk 10 to 11 in. in length. Moreover, Forbes had +given evidence to show that such an insect does exist in Madagascar +(_Nature_, 1873, p. 121). The case of _Angraecum_ was put forward by the +Duke of Argyll as being necessarily due to the personal contrivance of +the Deity. Mr. Wallace shows (p. 476, _Quarterly Journal of Science_, +1867) that both proboscis and nectary might be increased in length by +means of Natural Selection. It may be added that Hermann Mueller has +shown good grounds for believing that mutual specialisation of this kind +is beneficial both to insect and to plant. + +[63] "Variation of Animals and Plants," 1st Edit., ii. 431. "Did He +cause the frame and mental qualities of the dog to vary in order that a +breed might be formed of indomitable ferocity, with jaws fitted to pin +down the bull for man's brutal sport?" + +[64] _See_ Wallace, _Quarterly Journ. of Sci._, 1867, pp. 477-8. He +imagined an observer examining a great river system, and finding +everywhere adaptations which reveal the design of the Creator. "He would +see special adaptations to the wants of man in the broad, quiet, +navigable rivers, through fertile alluvial plains, that would support a +large population, while the rocky streams and mountain torrents were +confined to those sterile regions suitable for a small population of +shepherds and herdsmen." + +[65] At p. 485 Wallace deals with Fleeming Jenkin's review in the _North +British Review_, 1867. The review strives to show that there are strict +limitations to variation, since the most rigorous and long-continued +selection does not indefinitely increase such a quality as the fleetness +of a racehorse. On this Wallace remarks that the argument "fails to meet +the real question," which is not whether indefinite change is possible, +but "whether such differences as do occur in nature could have been +produced by the accumulation of variations by selection." + +[66] Abstract of a paper on "Birds' Nests and Plumage," read before the +British Association. See _Gard. Chron._, 1867, p. 1047. + +[67] Sir Henry Holland, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., a writer on Mental +Physiology and other scientific subjects (b. 1788, d. 1873). + +[68] "This turns out to be inaccurate, or greatly exaggerated. There are +no true alpines, and the European genera are comparatively few. _See_ my +'Island Life,' p. 323."--A.R.W. + +[69] "In pigeons" and "lizards" inserted by A.R.W. + +[70] See _Westminster Review_, July, 1867, p. 37. + +[71] _Proc. Linn. Soc._, 1867-8, p. 57. + +[72] It is not enough that females should be produced from the males +with red feathers, which should be destitute of red feathers; but these +females must have a _latent tendency_ to produce such feathers, +otherwise they would cause deterioration in the red head-feathers of +their male offspring. Such latent tendency would be shown by their +producing the red feathers when old or diseased in their ovaria. + +[73] The symbols [male symbol], [female symbol] stand for male and +female respectively. + +[74] The fifth. + +[75] Explained in letter of February 2, 1869. _See_ p. 234. + +[76] June, 1867. + +[77] "Malay Archipelago." + +[78] "Malay Archipelago." + +[79] The fifth edition, pp. 150-7. + +[80] In the _Quarterly Review_, April, 1869. + +[81] Inserted by A.R.W. + +[82] "The Descent of Man." + +[83] "The Genesis of Species," by St. G. Mivart. 1871. + +[84] In the _Academy_, March 15, 1871. + +[85] "Mr. Wallace says that the pairing of butterflies is probably +determined by the fact that one male is stronger-winged or more +pertinacious than the rest, rather than by the choice of the females. He +quotes the case of caterpillars which are brightly coloured and yet +sexless. Mr. Wallace also makes the good criticism that 'The Descent of +Man' consists of two books mixed together."--"Life and Letters of +Charles Darwin," iii. 137. + +[86] G. Crotch was a well-known coleopterist and official in the +University Library at Cambridge. + +[87] _Spectator_, March 11 and 18, 1871. "With regard to the evolution +of conscience the reviewer thinks that Mr. Darwin comes much nearer to +the 'kernel of the psychological problem' than many of his predecessors. +The second article contains a good discussion of the bearing of the +book on the question of design, and concludes by finding in it a +vindication of Theism more wonderful than that in Paley's 'Natural +Theology.'"--"Life and Letters," iii. 138. + +[88] _North American Review_, Vol. 113, pp. 83, 84. Chauncey Wright +points out that the words omitted are "essential to the point on which +he [Mr. Mivart] cites Mr. Darwin's authority." It should be mentioned +that the passage from which words are omitted is not given within +inverted commas by Mr. Mivart.--_See_ "Life and Letters of Charles +Darwin," iii. 144. + +[89] July, 1871. + +[90] A review of Dr. Bree's book, "An Exposition of Fallacies in the +Hypotheses of Mr. Darwin."--_Nature_, July 25, 1872. + +[91] "Bree on Darwinism," _Nature_, Aug. 8, 1872. The letter is as +follows: "Permit me to state--though the statement is almost +superfluous--that Mr. Wallace, in his review of Dr. Bree's work, gives +with perfect correctness what I intended to express, and what I believe +was expressed clearly, with respect to the probable position of man in +the early part of his pedigree. As I have not seen Dr. Bree's recent +work, and as his letter is unintelligible to me, I cannot even +conjecture how he has so completely mistaken my meaning; but, perhaps, +no one who has read Mr. Wallace's article, or who has read a work +formerly published by Dr. Bree on the same subject as his recent one, +will be surprised at any amount of misunderstanding on his +part.--CHARLES DARWIN, Aug. 3." _See_ "Life and Letters of Charles +Darwin," iii. 167. + +[92] That is to say, spontaneous generation. For the distinction between +archebiosis and heterogenesis, _see_ Bastian, Chap. VI. _See also_ "Life +and Letters of Charles Darwin," iii. 168. + +[93] Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B. (1808-80). + +[94] "Expression of the Emotions." + +[95] _Quarterly Journal of Science_, January, 1873, p. 116: "I can +hardly believe that when a cat, lying on a shawl or other soft material, +pats or pounds it with its feet, or sometimes sucks a piece of it, it is +the persistence of the habit of pressing the mammary glands and sucking +during kittenhood." Wallace goes on to say that infantine habits are +generally completely lost in adult life, and that it seems unlikely that +they should persist in a few isolated instances. + +[96] Wallace speaks of "a readiness to accept the most marvellous +conclusions or interpretations of physiologists on what seem very +insufficient grounds," and he goes on to assert that the frog experiment +is either incorrectly recorded, or else that it "demonstrates volition, +and not reflex action." + +[97] The raising of the hands in surprise is explained ("Expression of +the Emotions," 1st Edit., p. 287) on the doctrine of antithesis as being +the opposite of listlessness. Mr. Wallace's view (given in the second +edition of "Expression of the Emotions," p. 300) is that the gesture is +appropriate to sudden defence or to the giving of aid to another person. + +[98] At this time Darwin, while very busy with other work, had to +prepare a second edition of "The Descent of Man," and it is probable +that he or the publishers suggested that Wallace should make the +necessary corrections.--EDITOR. + +[99] "Insectivorous Plants." + +[100] "The Geographical Distribution of Animals." 1876. + +[101] Wallace points out that "hardly a small island on the globe but +has some land shell peculiar to it," and he goes so far as to say that +probably air-breathing mollusca have been chiefly distributed by air- or +water-carriage, rather than by voluntary dispersal on the land. _See_ +"More Letters," II. 14. + +[102] _See_ "The Descent of Man," 1st Edit., pp. 90 and 143, for +drawings of the Argus pheasant and its markings. The ocelli on the wing +feathers were favourite objects of Darwin's, and sometimes formed the +subject of the little lectures which on rare occasions he would give to +a visitor interested in Natural History. In Wallace's book, the meaning +of the ocelli comes in by the way, in the explanation of Plate IX., "A +Malayan Forest with some of its Peculiar Birds." The case is a +"remarkable confirmation of Mr. Darwin's views, that gaily coloured +plumes are developed in the male bird for the purpose of attractive +display." + +[103] "Geographical Distribution of Animals," i. 286-7. + +[104] "Geographical Distribution," i. 76. The name Lemuria was proposed +by Mr. Sclater for an imaginary submerged continent extending from +Madagascar to Ceylon and Sumatra. Wallace points out that if we confine +ourselves to facts Lemuria is reduced to Madagascar, which he makes a +subdivision of the Ethiopian Region. + +[105] H.F. Blandford, "On the Age and Correlations of the Plant-bearing +Series of India and the Former Existence of an Indo-Oceanic Continent" +(_Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc_., 1875, xxxi. 519). + +[106] In the _Contemporary Review_ for August, 1873, Mr. George Darwin +wrote an article "On Beneficial Restrictions to Liberty of Marriage." In +the July number of the _Quarterly Review_, 1874, p. 70, in an article +entitled "Primitive Man--Tylor and Lubbock," Mr. Mivart thus referred to +Mr. Darwin's article: "Elsewhere (pp. 424-5) Mr. George Darwin speaks +(1) in an approving strain of the most oppressive laws and of the +encouragement of vice to check population. (2) There is no sexual +criminality of Pagan days that might not be defended on the principles +advocated by the school to which this writer belongs." In the _Quarterly +Review_ for October, 1874, p. 587, appeared a letter from Mr. George +Darwin "absolutely denying" charge No. 1, and with respect to charge No. +2 he wrote: "I deny that there is any thought or word in my essay which +could in any way lend itself to the support of the nameless crimes here +referred to." To the letter was appended a note from Mr. Mivart, in +which he said: "Nothing would have been further from our intention than +to tax Mr. Darwin personally (as he seems to have supposed) with the +advocacy of laws or acts which he saw to be oppressive or vicious. We, +therefore, most willingly accept his disclaimer, and are glad to find +that he does not, in fact, apprehend the full tendency of the doctrines +which he has helped to propagate. Nevertheless, we cannot allow that we +have enunciated a single proposition which is either 'false' or +'groundless.' ... But when a writer, according to his own confession, +comes before the public 'to attack the institution of marriage' ... he +must expect searching criticism; and, without implying that Mr. Darwin +has in 'thought' or 'word' approved of anything which he wishes to +disclaim, we must still maintain that the doctrines which he advocates +are most dangerous and pernicious."--EDITOR. + +[107] The pages refer to Vol. II. of Wallace's "Geographical +Distribution." + +[108] The number (4) was erroneously omitted.--A.R.W. + +[109] An error: should have been the Australian.--A.R.W. + +[110] Axel Blytt, "Essay on the Immigration of the Norwegian Flora." +Christiania, 1876. + +[111] June 22, 1876, p. 165 _et seq._ + +[112] "The Origin of Species and Genera." + +[113] "Island Life." + +[114] In "My Life" (ii. 12-13) Wallace writes; "With this came seven +foolscap pages of notes, many giving facts from his extensive reading +which I had not seen. There were also a good many doubts and suggestions +on the very difficult questions in the discussion of the causes of the +glacial epochs. Chapter XXIII., discussing the Arctic element in South +Temperate floras, was the part he most objected to, saying, 'This is +rather too speculative for my old noddle. I must think that you overrate +the importance of new surfaces on mountains and dispersal from mountain +to mountain. I still believe in alpine plants having lived on the +lowlands and in the southern tropical regions having been cooled during +glacial periods, and thus only can I understand character of floras on +the isolated African mountains. It appears to me that you are not +justified in arguing from dispersal to oceanic islands to mountains. Not +only in latter cases currents of sea are absent, but what is there to +make birds fly direct from one alpine summit to another? There is left +only storms of wind, and if it is probable or possible that seeds may +thus be carried for great distances, I do not believe that there is at +present any evidence of their being thus carried more than a few miles.' +This is the most connected piece of criticism in the notes, and I +therefore give it verbatim." + +[115] "_Nature_, December 9, 1880. The substance of this article by Mr. +Baker, of Kew, is given in 'More Letters,' vol. iii. 25, in a +footnote."--"My Life," ii. 13. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and +Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2), by James Marchant + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE: *** + +***** This file should be named 15997.txt or 15997.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/9/9/15997/ + +Produced by Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State +University Libraries., Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Josephine +Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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