WCP1937

Letter (WCP1937.4088)

[1]

Holly House, Barking. E.

Nov[embe]r. 24th. 1870

Dear Darwin

Your letter gave me very great pleasure. We still agree I am sure on nineteen points out of twenty, and on the twentieth I am not unconvinceable. But then I must be convinced by facts & arguments, not by high-handed ridicule such as Claparède[’]s.1

I hope you see the difference between such criticisms as his, & that in the last number of the N. American Review,2 where my last chapter is really criticised, point by point;3 — & though I think some of it very weak, I admit that some is very [2] strong, & almost converts me from the error of my ways.

As to your new book,4 I am sure it will not make me think less highly of you than I do, unless you do, what you have never done yet,— ignore facts and arguments that go against you.

I am doing nothing just now but writing articles and putting down anti-Darwinians, being dreadfully ridden upon by a horrid old-man-of-the-sea4.5, who has agreed to let me have the piece of land I have set my heart on4.6, & I [3] which I have been trying to get of him since last February, but who will not answer letters, will not sign an agreement, & keeps me week after week in anxiety, though I have accepted his own terms unconditionally, one of which is that I pay rent from last Michaelmas! And now the finest weather for planting is going by. It is a bit of wilderness that can be made into a splendid imitation of a Welsh valley in little, & will enable me to gather round me all the beauties of the [4] temperate flora which I so much admire, — or I would not put up with the little fellow’s ways. The fixing on a residence for the rest of your life is an important event, and I am not likely to be in a very settled frame of mind for some time.

I am answering A[ndrew]. Murray’s5 Geog[raphical] Dist[ribution] of Coleoptera for my Ent[omological]. Soc[iety] Pres[idential]. Address6, and am printing a 2nd. Edition of my "Essays" with a few notes and additions.7

Very glad to see (by your writing yourself) that you are better, & with kind regards to all your family

Believe me Dear Darwin| Yours very faithfully| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

My wife is suffering from face-neuralgia, otherwise we are pretty well.8

Claparède, Jean Louis René Antoine Édouard (1832-1871). Swiss anatomist and professor of comparative anatomy at the Geneva Academy 1862-1871.
Wright, C. 1870. North American Review. 111 (Oct. 1870): 282-311.
Wallace, A. R. 1870. The Limits of Natural Selection as Applied to Man. 332-371. Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection. London, UK: Macmillan & Co.

Darwin, C. 1871. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. 1st Ed. 2 vols. London, UK: John Murray.

4.5. James Theobald (1800-1871) of Hyde Abbey, Winchester.

4.6. The site of ARW's house The Dell, Grays, Essex.

Murray, Andrew (1812-1878). British lawyer, entomologist and botanist.
ARW gave the Presidential Address for the Entomological Society of London on 23 January 1871. The address was subsequently published in the Society's proceedings. See Wallace, A. R. 1871. The President's address. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London 1871: xliv-lxix.
Wallace, A. R. 1871. Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection. 2nd Ed. London: Macmillan and Co.
The text from "My wife" to "pretty well" is written vertically along the left-hand margin of page 4.

Transcription (WCP1937.1827)

[1]1

To C.Darwin.) Holly House, Barking.E. Nov.24th.1870

Dear Darwin Your letter gave me very great pleasure. We still agree I am sure on nineteen points out of twenty, and on the twentieth I am not inconvincible. But then I must be convinced by facts & arguments, not by high-handed ridicule such as Claparède's.

I hope you see the difference between such criticisms as his, & that in the last number of the N.American Review, where my last chapter is really criticised, point by point;— & though I think some of it very weak I admit that some is very strong, & almost converts me from the error of my ways.

As to your new book I am sure it will not make me think less highly of you than I do, unless you do, what you have never yet done yet,— ignore facts & arguments that go against you.

I am doing nothing just now but writing articles and putting down anti-Darwinians, being dreadfully ridden upon by a horrid old-man-of-the-sea, who has agreed to let me have the piece of land I have set my heart on, & which I have been trying to get of[f] him since last February, but who will not answer letters, will not sign an agreement, & keeps me week after week in anxiety though I have accepted his own terms unconditionally, one of which is that I may rent from last Michaelmas! And now the finest weather for planting is going by. It is a bit of wilderness that can be made into a splendid imitation of Welsh valley in little, & will enable me to gather round me all the beauties of the temperate flora which I so much admire,— or I would not put up with the little fellow's ways. The fixing of a residence for the rest of your life is an important event, and I am not likely to be in a hurry very settled frame of mind for some time.

I am answering A.Murray's Geog.Dist.of Coleoptera for my Ent. Soc. Pres. Address, and am printing a second Edition of my "Essays" with a few notes and additions. Very glad to see (by your writing yourself) that you are better, & with kind regards to all your family Believe me Dear Darwin Yours very faithfully (signature)

Pagenumber (1) is typed top centre of the page, and crossed out in pencil.

Believe me Dear Darwin Yours very faithfully (signature)

Transcription (WCP1937.4496)

[1]

To C.Darwin.) Holly House, Barking. E. Nov.[ember]24th.1870

Dear Darwin

Your letter gave me very great pleasure. We still agree I am sure on nineteen points out of twenty, and on the twentieth I am not inconvincible. But then I must be convinced by facts & arguments, not by high-handed ridicule such as Claparède’s.1

I hope you see the difference between such criticism as his, & that in the last number of the N. American Review, where my last chapter is really criticised, point by point;—& though I think some of it very weak I admit that some is very strong, & almost converts me from the error of my ways.

As to your new book2, I am sure it will not make me think less highly of you than I do, unless you do, what you have never yet done yet,—ignore facts & arguments that go against you.

I am doing nothing just now but writing articles and putting down anti-Darwinians, being dreadfully ridden upon by a horrid old-man-of-the-sea, who has agreed to let me have the piece of land I have set my heart on, & which I have been trying to get of him since last February, but who will not answer letters, will not sign an agreement, & keeps me week after week in anxiety, though I have accepted his own terms unconditionally, one of which is that I pay rent from last Michaelmas!3 And now the finest weather for planting is going by. It is a bit of wilderness that can be made into a splendid imitation of a Welsh valley in little, & will enable me to gather round me all the beauties of the temperate flora which I so much admire,—or I would not put up with the little fellow’s ways. The fixing on a residence for the rest of your life is a very importance event, and I am not likely to be in a hurry very settled frame of mind for some time.

I am answering A[ndrew]. Murray’s Geog. Dist. of Coleoptera4 for my Ent[omological]. Soc[iety]. Pres[identical]. address,5 and am printing a second Edition of my "Essays" with a few notes and additions.

Very glad to see (by your writing yourself) that you are better, & with kind regards to all your family[.]

Believe me | Dear Darwin | Yours very faithfully | 6 (signature)7

Swiss naturalist and invertebrate zoologist from Geneva, Jean Louis René Antoine Édouard (Édouard) Claparède (1832 — 1871). Claparède was one of the first Swiss naturalists to endorse Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Claparède criticized Wallace’s Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (published in 1870) in the French journal Revue des cours scientifiques and Nature for apparent inconsistencies and departure from Darwinian theory.
Here ARW refers to Darwin’s The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, which would be published early in 1871. Much of the text is believed to be written in response to doubts expressed by ARW concerning the evolution of humans.
Michaelmas, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, falls on the 29th of September. Michaelmas is one of the four "quarter days" that divide the year into three-month segments in England, which were traditionally the days to hire servants, pay rent, or begin a lease.
Andrew Dickson Murray, FRSE, FLS (1812-1878) was a Scottish lawyer, botanist, zoologist and entomologist. Murray especially studied insects which damaged crops, specialising in Coleoptera, the order of insects commonly called beetles.
ARW was elected president of the Entomological Society of London in 1870.
The letter used to create this transcript was itself a typed transcript of the original. While all the valedictions listed above are found on a single line, each separated by multiple spaces, at the end of the typed transcript used, it is believed that they would have been found on multiple lines in the original. For this reason, vertical bars are placed between them in this transcript as seen.
This was likely ARW’s signature in the original letter; however, the letter used to create this transcript was itself a typed transcript of the original. In the typed transcript used, there is no indication of whether this was ARW’s actual signature.

Published letter (WCP1937.6022)

[1] [p. 254]

Holly House, Barking, E. November 24, 1870.

Dear Darwin, — Your letter1 gave me very great pleasure. We still agree, I am sure, on nineteen points out of twenty, and on the twentieth I am not inconvincible. But then I must be convinced by facts and arguments, not by highhanded ridicule such as Claparède's.2

I hope you see the difference between such criticisms as his, and that in the last number of the North American Review,3 where my last chapter is really criticised, point by point; and though I think some of it very weak, I admit that some is very strong, and almost converts me from the error of my ways.

As to your new book, I am sure it will not make me think less highly of you than I do, unless you do, what [2] you have never done yet, ignore facts and arguments that go against you.

I am doing nothing just now but writing articles and putting down anti-Darwinians, being dreadfully ridden upon by a horrid old-man-of-the-sea,4 who has agreed to let me have the piece of land I have set my heart on, and which I have been trying to get of him since last February, but who will not answer letters, will not sign an agreement, and keeps me week after week in anxiety, though I have accepted his own terms unconditionally, one of which is that I pay rent from last Michaelmas! And now the finest weather for planting is going by. It is a bit of a wilderness that can be made into a splendid imitation of a Welsh valley in little, and will enable me to gather round me all the beauties of the temperate flora which I so much admire, or I would not put up with the little fellow's ways. The fixing on a residence for the rest of your life is an important event, and I am not likely to be in a very settled frame of mind for some time.

I am answering A. Murray's5 Geographical Distribution of Coleoptera6 for my Entomological Society Presidential Address,7 and am printing a second edition of my "Essays,"8 with a few notes and additions. Very glad to see (by your writing yourself) that you are better, and with kind regards to all your family, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, | ALFRED R. WALLACE.

WCP1936_P6930.
Claparède, René-Édouard (1832-1871). Swiss anatomist.
American literary magazine founded in 1815.
'Horrid old-man-of-the-sea'
Murray, Andrew (1812-1878). British lawyer, entomologist and botanist.
Murray, A. 'On the Geographical Relations of the Chief Coleopterous Faunae' Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 11, Issue 49, October 1870, Pages 1-89.
ARW gave the address on 23 January 1871.

Please cite as “WCP1937,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1937