To A. R. Wallace   [c. 10 April 1864]1

[Down.]

I see you have been reading a paper to the Linn. Soc. also, so I am sure you have little cause to say you are not doing much.2

I am sure Spencers Social Statics, wh. you so strongly recommend, wd be too deep for me, & I confess with shame & grief that I cannot fully appreciate this authors merits—occasionally a page or two of his last part on Biology is read to me—3 I can se⁠⟨⁠e⁠⟩⁠ that it is very clever, tho⁠⟨⁠ugh⁠⟩⁠ very wordy, & somehow does not satisfy me, & I do not feel a bit the wiser.

The doctors still maintain that I shall get well, but it will be months before I am able to work.

With every good wish | pray believe me | yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

LS incomplete

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from A. R. Wallace, 10 May 1864 (Correspondence vol. 12), in which Wallace mentioned CD’s ‘letter of a month back’.
2
Wallace read his paper ‘On the phenomena of variation and geographical distribution as illustrated by the Papilionidæ of the Malayan region’ (A. R. Wallace 1864a) before the Linnean Society on 17 March 1864. He had also read a paper on the origin of human races before the Anthropological Society of London on 1 March 1864 (A. R. Wallace 1864b). In his letter of 10 May 1864, Wallace mentioned that he was sending CD a copy of his anthropological paper, and told CD where he could find an abstract of his Papilionidae paper. In his letter of 2 January 1864 (Correspondence vol. 12), Wallace had said, ‘With regard to work, I am doing but little’.
3
Spencer 1851. Herbert Spencer’s Principles of biology (Spencer 1864–7) was issued in parts, beginning in 1863. See also Correspondence vol. 12, letter from A. R. Wallace, 2 January 1864, and letter from J. D. Hooker, 3 November [1864].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4378F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4378F