WCP4870

[1]

5, Westbourne Grove Terrace, W.

April 22 nd. 1863

My dear Sir

I beg to thank you very much for the copy of the 2nd. Ed. of your work on the "Antiquity of Man"¹.

I have been highly delighted & instructed by its perusal, & consider that, independently of its special object, such a clear & connected view of Post-tertiary Geology as you have now given us was a great desideratum² [2] to our scientific literature.

A work which has been so widely read & so generally admired needs no praise from me. I may mention however that the chapter on "Languages & species"³ seems to me preeminently [sic] admirable, and has enabled many persons to understand the theory of the origin of species better than any thing that has yet been written.

I have to thank you for introducing my name in connexion with that of Mr. Darwin⁴ which I shall always consider an honour.

[3] I was very sorry to read D^r Falconer’s⁵ letter⁶ in the Athenaeum⁷ which seemed to me quite uncalled for; — & I think the general impression a very impartial reader of your book, must have been, that you had endeavoured to do full justice to all parties whose observation you had occasion to mention.

I remain My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]