From A. R. Wallace 23 May 1862
5, Westbourne Grove Terrace, W.
Friday May 23rd. 1862
My dear Mr. Darwin
Many thanks for your most interesting book on the Orchids.1 I have read it through most attentively & have really have been quite as much staggered by the wonderful adaptations you shew to exist in them as by the Eye in animals or any other complicated organs..2 I long to get into the country & have a look at some Orchids guided by your new lights—, but I have been now for 10 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”, & it seems to me that you have assisted those who want to criticise you by your overstating the difficulties & 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 & I believe even calls him a profound philosopher. &c. &c.. Would Owen thus speak of himself?3
Trusting your health is good | I remain My dear Mr. Darwin | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace
C. Darwin Esq.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
[Wilberforce, Samuel.] 1860. [Review of Origin.] Quarterly Review 108: 225–64.
Summary
Acknowledges Orchids with its disclosures of "wonderful adaptations".
Warns that CD aids critics by overstating the difficulties.
Did Owen write the article in the Quarterly Review? [Review of Origin by Samuel Wilberforce, Q. Rev. 108 (1860): 225–64].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3568
- From
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Westbourne Grove Terrace, 5
- Source of text
- DAR 106/7 (ser. 2): 2–3
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3568,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3568.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10