WCP4314

[1]

9, St. Mark's Crescent

Regent's Park Road

N.W.

May 7th. 1869

My dear Sir¹

It will give me much pleasure to see you whenever convenient, and to show yourself & Miss Kingsley² anything I may have to interest you. Please let me know beforehand what time it will suit you to call.

I cannot but feel flattered by your praise of my little book,³ which you nevertheless [2] estimate far too highly. As to Darwin,⁴ I know exactly our relative positions, & my great inferiority to him. I compare myself to a guerilla chief, very well for a skirmish or for a flank movement, & even able to sketch out the plan of a campaign, but reckless of communications & careless about Commissariat; — while Darwin is the great General, who can manoeuvre the largest army, & by attending [3] to his lines of communication with an impregnable base of operations, & forgetting no detail of discipline arms or supplies, leads his forces to victory.

I feel truly thankful that Darwin had been at work ^{studying the subject} so many years before me, & that I was not left to attempt & to fail, in the great work he has so admirably performed.

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

Rev^d. C. Kingsley.