WCP5338

Letter (WCP5338.5884)

[1]

Leith Hill Place

Saturday1 [9 May 1863]2

My dear Hooker.

You give good advice about not writing in newspapers; I have been gnashing my teeth at my own folly; & this not caused by Owen's3 sneers, which were so good that I almost enjoyed them. I have written once again to own to certain extent of truth in what he says; & then if I am ever such [2] a fool again have no mercy on me. — I enclose A. Gray's4 letter5, as you might like to read all. I quite disagree with what he says about Lyell6 acting as a Judge on Species; I complain that he has not acted as a judge; I sometimes wish he had pronounced dead against us rather than [3] possessed such inability to decide. — I have read the Squib7 in Public Opinion: it is capital; if there is more & you have copy, do lend it. It shows well that a scientific man had better be trampled in dirt than squabble.

Our outing has not done much for Horace8 or myself; but I have been a bit better for the last 2 or 3 days. — I have been drawing [4] diagrams, dissecting shoots & muddling my brain to a hopeless degree about the divergence of leaves & have, of course, utterly failed. But I can see that the subject is most curious & indeed astonishing. I wish you or Oliver9 could give me reference to some paper by Asa Gray, of which you told me. —

[5] I am sure you will like Bates'10 book11, & it will be a rest & pleasure to you to read it.

It is a bad job that you can come to no even moderately clear conclusion about the Cameroons. If the facts do not show it was migration during the Glacial period, so much the worse, as some one says, for the facts. — About some of the same or allied [6] species (in the case of Fernando Po) still existing in the Mauritius; do you think there can be some truth in what I say in Origin of the forms which become extinct on continents, still surviving on islands from less severe competition. —

I was very sorry to see in Falconer's12 last letter13, the parody of Louis' XIV words, applied to Lyell: I [7] have never seen any geological arrogance in Lyell. — I cannot think what he will do, now he has split with Owen & Falconer about naming mammals. —

Goodnight — I long to be in my Hothouse & poking over my little experiments again ; we return on Wednesday morning — Goodnight | C. Darwin [signature]

That is a clever remark in Gray's letter about origin of language telling against [8] each trifling variation being designed; Lyell shirked this point, which I urged him to grapple with. I do not believe there are above half-a-dozen real downright believers in modification of Species in all England: certainly not more, who dare speak out. —

Darwin The only honest
Hooker downright "flat-footed"
Huxley14 (see A. Gray) men
Wallace in all England!!!
Lubbock15
Bates
1
An ink annotation to the right of "Saturday" reads "May 11th/63".
2
The date [9 May 1863] has been established by The Darwin Correspondence Project <https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-4148.xml> [accessed 29 July 2020].
3
Owen, Richard (1804-1892). British comparative anatomist and vertebrate palaeontologist. Instrumental in establishing the British Museum (Natural History) in South Kensington. Outspoken opponent of natural selection.
4
Gray, Asa (1810-1888). American botanist. Professor of natural history, Harvard University, 1842-1873.
5
See Gray to Darwin, 20 April 1863. Darwin Correspondence Project, <https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-4112.xml> [accessed 30 July 2020].
6
Lyell, Charles (1797-1875). British geologist and author, notably of the influential Principles of Geology (1830–3). President of the Geological Society of London, 1835–7 & 1849–51.
7
Anon. 1863. A report of a sad case recently tried before the Lord Mayor, Owen versus Huxley, in which will be found fully given the merits of the great recent bone case. Public Opinion [2 May], 3: 497-498. Also printed separately as a pamphlet.
8
Darwin, Horace (1851-1928). British civil engineer and manufacturer of scientific instruments; the 9th child of Charles and Emma Darwin.
9
Oliver, Daniel (1830-1916). British botanist, Librarian of the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1860-90 and Professor of Botany at University College London 1861-88.
10
Bates, Henry Walter (1825-1892). British naturalist, explorer and close friend of ARW.
11
Bates, H. W. 1863. The Naturalist on the River Amazons. London: John Murray.
12
Falconer, Hugh (1808-1865). British palaeontologist and naturalist.
13
Falconer, H (1863). Primeval man [Letter]. Athenaeum [No. 1853 (2 May)], p. 586.
14
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825-1895). British biologist and author, known as "Darwin's Bulldog".
15
Lubbock, John (1834-1913). British archaeologist, politician, philanthropist and polymath.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP5338.5884)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Darwin Correspondence Project [2015-06-11] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-06-11] Transcription checked by Costa, Leslie [2020-05-08] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Please cite as “WCP5338,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5338