[1]1
30, Cumberland Road,
Kew.
7th October 1909
My dear Mr Wallace,
I can scarcely hoe that you will remember having written a letter to me in 1888 concerning Lyell’s uniformitarian teachings. I had defended the doctrines in my address to the Geological Society in that year, and you were so kind as to express the hope that I would undertake a work in which that defence would be developed more fully.
[2] The heavy tasks of teaching and administration which lay on my shoulders during my official life has made the execution of such a task impossible up to the present. But now that I have retired from active work, I contemplate the preparation of a little book on the subject.
You have so clearly stated in your letter your agreement with Lyell’s views that I should like to quote from it, if you will give me your permission to do so.
I was very pleased to see you [3]2 at the Linnean Society’s ‘Celebration’ last year, though I had no opportunity of speaking to you. I can imagine how dear old Charles Darwin would have been touched by your more than generous words; and, when the account of that Celebration appeared, I was delighted to read the terms in which you described the influence on your mind of Lyell’s ‘Principles’, in that very interesting postscript.
I almost hesitate about troubling you in your retirement, [4] but the friendliness I have always experienced at your hands, encourages me to venture to trespass on your kindness once more.
Believe me to remain | yours very faithfully | John W Judd [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2967.2857)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP2967,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2967