WCP1527

[1]

Oct^r. 22/[18]70

My dear M^r. Wallace.

I have read your "Essays on Natural Selection"¹ with equal delight & profit.

I wish I could make you reconsider pp. 276-285.² The facts, of course, are true: as all yours are sure to be. But I have never been able to get rid of the belief, that every grain of sand washed down by a river — by the merest natural laws, is designedly put [2] in the exact place where it will be needed sometime or other: or that the ugliest beast (Yet I confess the puzzle here is stranger) & the most devilish, has been created because it is beautiful & useful to some being or other. In fact, I believe not in "Special Providence": but in the whole universe as one infinite complexity of special providences.

I in fact try to extend to all nature the truth w[hich] you have so gallantly asserted for Man. "That the laws of [3] organic development have been occasionally used for a special end, just as Man uses them for his special ends" p. 370.³

— Omit "occasionally["], & say "always", & you will complete your book, & its use.

In any case, it will be a contribution equally to Science & to Natural Theology.

Ever yours sincerely: | & hoping that you will some day be my guest here. | C. Kingsley [signature]