Down,
Beckenham, Kent.
Railway Station
Orpington. S.E.R.
Jan[uary] 5. 1880
My dear Wallace,
As this note requires no sort of answer, you must allow me to express my lively admiration of your paper in the Nineteenth Cent[ur]y. You are certainly are a master in the difficult art of clear exposition. It is impossible to urge too often that the [2] selection from a single varying individual or of a single varying organ will not suffice. You have worked in capitally Allen's admirable researches. As usual you delight to honour me more than I deserve. When I have written about the extreme slowness of natural selection (in which I hope I may be wrong) [3] I have chiefly had in my mind the effects of intercrossing. I subscribe to almost everything you say excepting the last short sentence.
And now let me add how grieved I was to hear that the City of London did not elect you for the Epping office; but I suppose it was too much to hope f that such a body [4] of men should make a good selection. I wish you could obtain some quiet post & thus have leisure for moderate scientific work. I have nothing to tell you about myself; I see few persons, for conversation fatigues me much; but I daily do some work in experiments on plants, & hope thus to continue to the end of my days. With all good wishes.
Believe me | yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin [signature]
[5] P.S.
Have you seen Mr Farrer's article in the last Fortnightly it reminded me of an article on bequests by you some years ago which interested & almost converted me.
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP1980.1870)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
[1] [p. 304]
Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 5, 1880.
My dear Wallace, — As this note requires no sort of answer, you must allow me to express my lively admiration of your paper in the Nineteenth Century.1 You certainly are a master in the difficult art of clear exposition. It is impossible to urge too often that the selection from a single varying individual or of a single varying organ will not suffice. You have worked in capitally Allen's2 admirable researches. As usual, you delight to honour me more than I deserve. When I have written about the extreme slowness of Natural Selection (in which I hope I may be wrong), I have chiefly had in my mind the effects of intercrossing. I subscribe to almost everything you say excepting the last short sentence.
And now let me add how grieved I was to hear that the City of London did not elect you for the Epping office, but I suppose it was too much to hope that such a body of men should make a good selection. I wish you could obtain some quiet post and thus have leisure for moderate scientific work. I have nothing to tell you about myself; I see few persons, for conversation fatigues me much; but I daily do some work in experiments on plants, and hope thus to continue to the end of my days.
With all good wishes, believe me yours very sincerely, | CHARLES DARWIN.
P.S. — Have you seen Mr. Farrer's3 article in the last Fortnightly? It reminded me of an article on bequests by you some years ago which interested and almost converted me.
Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP1980.6078)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP1980,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1980