From W. S. Dallas   28 July 1880

My dear M^r. Darwin

I communicated your letter to my friend M^r. Wise, & he was very much pleased to find that you so kindly agreed to accept the dedication of his poetical effusion.—¹ I have not seen the poem, but he called upon me on Sunday with some of M^r. Walter Crane’s drawings which are exceedingly beautiful.— The drawings, which are in outline, will be reproduced by one of the Photographic printing processes, & the book, when completed, will certainly be what the French call an ouvrage de luxe & one of very high artistic character—²

Of the poem itself, I have, as already stated, seen nothing, unless you reckon the four opening lines as sufficient to found an opinion upon.— From the nature of the illustrations & from what M^r. Wise told me, its construction is that of a Fairy Masque, but in what way the theory of evolution is to be illustrated by it, not being myself a poet, I am unable to conceive.—

Author & artist have some little difficulty just now in coming to a business arrangement with a publisher, but I believe as soon as they have got matters in train, M^r. Wise will write to you, &, I suppose, submit some portion of the work to your inspection.— I feel quite sure that you will be pleased with it so far as the artistic part is concerned, & from my knowledge of the author I hope the poem may satisfy you equally well.—

Believe me | Yours very truly | W. S. Dallas.