WCP4898

Letter (WCP4898.5297)

[1]

Down Bromley Kent

Dec 3rd

My dear Sir

I thank you for your extremely interesting letter,1 & valuable references,— though God knows when I shall come again to this part of my subject. — One cannot of course judge of style when one merely hears a paper,2 but yours seemed to me v[er]y clear & good. — Believe me that I estimate its value most highly. Under a general point of view, I am quite convinced (Hooker3 & Huxley4 took same view some months ago) that a philosophic view of nature can solely be driven into naturalists by treating special subjects as you have here done. — Under [2] a special point of view I think you have solved one of the most perplexing problems which could be given to solve.5 I am glad to hear from Hooker that Linn[ean]. Soc[iety]. will give Plates, if you can get drawings; but I suppose they might be drawn on to stone or copper. — Pray excuse me for again saying if ever you want £10 or £20, I shall be pleased to send it, for any aid in Natural History. -

Do not complain of want of advice during your Travels;6 I daresay part of your great originality of views may be due to the necessity of self exertion of thought. I can [3] understand that your reception at B[ritish]. Museum7 would damp you; they are a v[er]y good set of men,8 but not the sort to appreciate your work. In fact I have long thought that too much systematic work of description somehow blunts the faculties. The general public appreciates a good dose of reasoning, or generalisation with new & curious remarks on habits, final causes &c &c, far more than do the regular naturalists. -

I am extremely glad to hear that you have begun your Travels. (I thought your Glacial Letter9 admirably written); I am very busy, but I shall be truly glad to render any aid which [4] I can by reading your 1st Chapter or two. I do not think I shall be able to correct style, for this reason, that after repeated trials I find I cannot correct my own style till I see the M.S. in type. Some are born with a power of good writing, like Wallace; others like myself & Lyell have to labour very hard & slowly at every sentence. I find it v[er]y good plan, when I cannot get a difficult discussion to please me, to fancy that some one comes into the room, & asks me what I am doing; & then try at once & explain to the [5] imaginary person what it is all about. — I have done this for one paragraph to myself several times; & sometimes to Mrs. Darwin,10 till I see how the subject ought to go. — It is, I think, good to read one's M.S. aloud. — But style to me is a great difficulty; yet some good judges think I have succeeded, & I say this to encourage you. — What I think I can do will be to tell you whether parts had better be shortened. — It is good I think to dash "in medias res", & work in later any descriptions of country or any historical details [6] which may be necessary. — Murray11 likes lots of woodcuts — give some by all means of Ants. — The public appreciate Monkeys, — our poor cousins. — What sexual differences are there in monkeys? Have you kept them tame? if so about their expression.

I fear that you will hardly read my vile handwriting, but I cannot without killing trouble, write better. —

You shall have my candid opinion [7] on your M.S., but remember it is hard to judge from M.S. — one reads slowly & heavy parts seem much heavier. — A first rate judge12 thought my Journal13 v[er]y poor; now that it is in print, I happen to know, he likes it. — I am sure you will understand why I am so egotistical. —

I was a little disappointed in Wallace's Book on the Amazon;14 hardly facts enough. — On other hand in Gosse's books15 there is not reasoning enough to my taste. — Heaven knows whether you will care to read [8] all this scribbling —

M.S. can be sent by Book Post, if marked to be printed. — Had you not better register it?

Many thanks for Wallace's letter; he rates me much too highly & himself much too lowly. — That was an admirable paper of his16 in Linn[ean]. Journal. — But what strikes me most about Mr Wallace is the absence of jealousy towards me: he must have a really good honest & noble disposition.17 A far higher merit than mere intellect.

With cordial good wishes & thanks | Yours sincerely, | C. Darwin [signature]

I am glad you had pleasant day with Hooker:18 he is an admirably good man in every sense.

1
The letter from Henry Walter Bates of 1 December 1861 has not been located.
2
Bates, H. W. 1862. Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley. Lepidoptera: Heliconidae. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 23: 495-566. Bates's paper was read at the Linnean Society meeting of 21 November 1861. Darwin had attended this meeting to read a paper of his own: Darwin, C. 1862. On the two forms, or dimorphic condition, in the species of Primula, and their remarkable sexual relations. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (Botany), 6: 77-96.
3
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer.
4
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825-1895). British biologist known as "Darwin's Bulldog".
5
Using Amazonian butterflies, Bates’s paper (see note 2) described what has come to be known as Batesian mimicry, in which an animal is protected from predation by its visual similarity to a poisonous animal that is avoided by predators. He specifically described this as an example of natural selection: 'The explanation of this seems to be quite clear on the theory of natural selection, as recently expounded by Mr. Darwin in the ʺOrigin of Speciesʺ' [p. 511].
6
Bates. H. W. 1863. The Naturalist on the River Amazons, 2 vols. London: John Murray.
7
The natural history collections of the British Museum in London, founded in 1753, were moved to the new British Museum of Natural History (now Natural History Museum) in 1881.
8
At the time, members of the zoological department of the British Museum included John Edward Gray (1800-1875), director; Frederick Smith (1805-1879), entomologist; George Robert Gray (1808-1872), ornithologist; and Adam White (1817-1878), a naturalist who studied insects and crustacea.
9
In his letter to Darwin of 23 March 1861, Bates commented on the effects of the glacial period on tropical regions. See Burkhardt, F., et al. (Eds). 1994. The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [pp. 71-76].
10
Darwin (née Wedgwood), Emma (1808-1896). Wife and first cousin of Charles Robert Darwin.
11
Murray, John (1808-1892). British publisher of the family firm of John Murray founded by John Murray (1737-1793).
12
Holland, Henry (1788-1873). British physician and President of the Royal Institution of Great Britain from 1865-1873.
13
Darwin, C. 1839. Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, Volume III. Journal and Remarks. 1832-1836. London: Henry Colburn. Darwin also published this separately from the official government publication, in 1839, as Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle. London: Henry Colburn, and the title would change to The Voyage of the Beagle in later editions.
14
Wallace, A. R. 1853. Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, With an Account of the Native Tribes, and Observations on the Climate, Geology, and Natural History of the Amazon Valley. London, UK: Reeve & Co.
15
According to the Darwin Correspondence Project, Darwin was familiar with several works of the British zoologist and religious writer Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888), including Gosse, P. H. 1851. A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica. London: Assisted by Richard Hill; and Gosse, P. H. 1853. A Naturalist's Ramble on the Devonshire Coast. London. See Burkhardt, F., et al. (Eds). 1994. The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [p. 365].
16
Wallace, A. R. 1860. On the zoological geography of the Malay Archipelago. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (Zoology), 4: 172-84.
17
Here Darwin is referring to ARW's reaction to the joint presentation and subsequent publication of his paper outlining the theory of natural selection he had sent to Darwin along with Darwin’s own early writings on the subject. They were presented at a meeting of the Linnean Society on 1 July 1858 and published as Darwin, C. & Wallace, A. 1858. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural means of Selection. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (Zoology), 3(9): 45-62.
18
Bates's letter to Darwin of 1 December 1861, for which this letter is a reply, has not been located. It presumably included comments regarding Bates's visit with the British botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP4898.5297)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Lester, Ahren [2012-11-29] Transcription checked by Barton, Michael [2019-12-20]

Please cite as “WCP4898,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4898