To A. R. Wallace 5 January 1880
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Jan 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 Centy.1 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.2 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.3 I subscribe to almost everything you say excepting the last short sentence.4
And now let me add how grieved I was to hear that the City of London did not elect you for the Epping office;5 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 & 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, & 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 & almost converted me.6
Footnotes
Bibliography
Allen, Joel Asaph. 1871. On the mammals and winter birds of East Florida, with an examination of certain assumed specific characters in birds, and a sketch of the bird-faunæ of Eastern North America. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy 2 (1870–1): 161–450.
Farrer, Thomas Henry. 1880. Freedom of land. Fortnightly Review 33: 76–86.
Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1873c. Limitation of state functions in the administration of justice. Contemporary Review 23: 43–52.
Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1880b. The origin of species and genera. Nineteenth Century 7: 93–106.
Summary
Admiration of ARW’s ["The origin of species and genera", Nineteenth Century (Jan 1880)]. Good use of Allen’s "admirable researches".
Disappointment about the Epping Forest appointment.
Farrer’s article in Fortnightly Review.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12401
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The British Library (Add MS 46434 ff. 286–8)
- Physical description
- LS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12401,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12401.xml