WCP5648

Letter (WCP5648.6499)

[1]1

Down Bromley Kent

Friday [25 June 1858]2

My dear Lyell

I am very very sorry to trouble you, busy as you are, in so merely personal an affair. But if you will give me your deliberate opinion, you will do me as great a service, as ever man did, for I have entire confidence in your judgement & honour. —

I sh[oul]d not have sent off your letter3 without further reflexion, for I [2] am at present quite upset, but write now to get subject for time out of mind. But I confess it never did occur to me, as it ought, that Wallace could have made any use of your letter.

There is nothing in Wallace's sketch4 which is not written out much fuller in my sketch copied in 18445, & read by Hooker6 some dozen years ago. About a year ago I sent a short [3] sketch7 of which I have copy of my views (owing to correspondence on several points) to Asa Gray8, so that I could most truly say & prove that I shd[?] take nothing from Wallace. I sh[oul]d be extremely glad now to publish a sketch of my general views in about a dozen pages or so. But I cannot persuade myself that I can do so honourably. Wallace says nothing about publication, & I enclose his letter. — But as I had [4] not intended to publish any sketch, can I do so honourably because Wallace has sent me an outline of his doctrine? — I would far rather burn my whole book than that he or any man sh[oul]d think that I had behaved in a paltry spirit. Do you not think his having sent me this sketch ties my hands? I do not in least believe that that he originated his views form anything [5] which I wrote to him.

If I could honourably publish I would state that I was induced now to publish a sketch (& I sh[oul]d be very glad to be permitted to say to follow your advice9 long ago given) from Wallace having sent me an outline of my general conclusions. — We differ only, that I was led to my views from what artificial selection has done for domestic animals. [6] I could send Wallace a copy of my letter to Asa Gray to show him that I had not stolen his doctrine. But I cannot tell whether to publish now would not be base & paltry: this was my first impression, & I sh[oul]d have certainly acted on it, had it not been for your letter. —

This is a trumpery affair to trouble you with; but [7] you cannot tell how much obliged I sh[oul]d be for your advice. —

By the way would you object to send this & your answer to Hooker to be forwarded to me, for then I shall have the opinion of my two best & kindest friends. — This letter is miserably written & I write it now, that I may for time banish whole subject. And I am [8] worn out with musing.

I fear we have case of scarlet-fever in House with Baby10. — Etty11 is weak but is recovering. —

My good dear friend forgive me. — This is a trumpery letter influenced by trumpery feelings.

Yours most truly | C. Darwin [signature]

I will never trouble you or Hooker on this subject again. —

1
An annotation in pencil in the top, left margin reads "received 29 June 1858". The "29" is written in a different shade of pencil.
2
The date [25 June 1858] has been established by The Darwin Correspondence Project <https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-2294.xml> [accessed 12 June 2020].
3
Darwin possibly forwarded a letter by Lyell to ARW. The letter is presumed lost. See WCP5647.6498, Darwin to Lyell, 18 [June 1858].
4
Wallace, A. R. 1858. On The Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type. Original manuscript not located. See 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): pp. 45-62. [p. 53-62].
5
See Darwin, F. 1909. Foundations: The foundations of the Origin of Species. Two essays written in 1842 and 1844 by Charles Darwin. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
6
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1865-85. President of the Royal Society 1873-78.
7
Letter from Darwin to Gray 5 September [1857]. See Darwin Correspondence Project <https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-2136.xml> [accessed 24 June 2020].
8
Gray, Asa (1810-1888). American botanist. Professor of natural history, Harvard University, 1842-73.
9
See letter from Lyell to Darwin, 1-2 May 1856. Darwin Correspondence Project. <https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-1862.xml> [accessed 24 June 2020].
10
Darwin, Charles Waring (1856-1858). Tenth child of Charles Robert and Emma Darwin, and the third of their three children that died in childhood.
11
Litchfield (née Darwin), Henrietta Emma ("Etty") (1843-1927). Daughter of Charles Robert Darwin and his wife Emma.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP5648.6499)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Darwin Correspondence Project [2014-08-19] Transcription checked by Costa, Leslie [2020-06-26]

Please cite as “WCP5648,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5648