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+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+unpublished letters, or in any of the letters which appear in these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 Æsop'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
+larvæ 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 Gryphæa 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 _tædium vitæ_ 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 Heliconiidæ
+and Erotylidæ 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 Heliconiidæ....--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 _tædium vitæ_ 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
+    Linnæus 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 minutiæ 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 Naturæ" of Linnæus.
+
+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 pupæ, 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 branchiæ, because I have not found them to be branchiæ;
+whereas _he himself_ admits, before I wrote on cirripedes, without the
+least hesitation, that their organs are branchiæ. 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
+Papilionidæ 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 _bête 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 _Æneas_ 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 Papilionidæ.--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 Rhynchæa, 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
+_Angræcum 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 _Angræcum_[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 _Angræcum_ 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 _Athenæum_. 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 _Athenæum_, 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 pupæ 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 Pieridæ. 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 _Athenæum_; 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 Heliconidæ.
+
+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 cæruleus_ (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
+Gallinaceæ 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 Gallmaceæ 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
+Gallinaceæ 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 larvæ, 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 pupæ 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.
+
+Claparède 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 Claparède'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 Dionæa, 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 Palæontology 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 Sittidæ 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 larvæ 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 pupæ
+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 Papilionidæ 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
+Papilionidæ," _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.
+Rhynchæa, 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] _Angræcum 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 _Angræcum_ 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
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