Ɛpsilon

To ?   20 June [1861–8]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

June 20th

Dear Sir

As it will save you trouble of referring I send by this post a spare copy of the paper about which you enquire.— Permit me to remark that it was never in remote degree intended for publication & was written many years ago. I had no connection with the publication of these extracts beyond giving my permission.—2

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Mr. Wallace’s paper seems to me excellent.—

1
The date range is established by the printed stationery, which is a type that CD used between May 1861 and April 1869.
2
The paper referred to is probably CD’s part of the Darwin–Alfred Russel Wallace papers read to the Linnean Society by Joseph Dalton Hooker and Charles Lyell in 1858 (C. Darwin and Wallace 1858). CD’s paper contained extracts from his 1844 manuscript essay on species (see Foundations) and from the letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] (Correspondence vol. 6); a footnote explained that the manuscript essay was not intended for publication and so was not written with care.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13879,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13879