Ɛpsilon

WCP1387

Letter (WCP1387.1166)

[1]

College of New Jersey.

Princeton, N.J.,

Feb 28 1887

Dear Sir

I venture to mail to you a little paper of mine on Development what it can do, and what it cannot do'' I hope you may be interested in it. It accords with your views[.]

I read Darwin's1 work on the Origin of Species2 when it was published and saw that there was truth. I also read your paper when it appeared[.]

I was at that time a professor of philosophy in Queen's College Belfast[.] I am now President of Princeton College in this country[.]

You argue that there is something in man which cannot be accounted [2] for by natural development[.]

I concur in this, and endeavor to show that there have been a succession of new powers in the Ages of which man is the culmination[.]

I am | Yours truly | James McCosh3 [signature]

Prof Alfred R Wallace

1
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). British naturalist, geologist and author, notably of On the Origin of Species (1859).
2
Darwin, C. R. 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray.
3
McCosh, James (1811-1894). Scottish theologian, philosopher, and botanist. Professor of logic and metaphysics, Queen’s College, Belfast, 1851–68. Professor of philosophy, College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), 1868–94; president, 1868–88. (DNB 11)

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP1387.1166)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Bertalan, Mia Solana [2014-08-21] Transcription checked by Munro, Rosemary [2014-08-21] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2024-12-24]

Please cite as “WCP1387,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1387