Old Orchard,
Broadstone,
Dorset.
March 24th. 1913
Dear Mr. Marchant
After a few days thought, which I always find productive, and after writing to Mr Murray1 & finding that he had quite misunderstood your suggestion, which he thought was to be in the nature of a double barrelled "biography" which he objected to as do I — I have sketched out the Title and [2] Contents of Chapters of such a book as you spoke to me about, and which I think will not only be quite distinct from anything yet written on the s[u]bject, but if carefully and accurately written in a popular style, will be what the reading public of the present generation requires.
If you think it requires needs any modification I [3] shall be glad to consider & discuss with you any suggestions you have to make. You can then take it to Mr. Murray & arrange with him the best size &c.
I should think there is matter enough for a volume of about 300 page — or somewhere near 100,000 words. That will be easy for a ready writer like yourself, but it will want some reading up — especially for the last & most important [4] Chapter, and for this, I can lend you, I think, all the books necessary
Yours very truly | Alfred R Wallace [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6576.7582)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Notes for the use of Mr. James Marchant1 as to the his proposed Book on the Life-Work of Darwin3 and Wallace
By A.R.W. [signature]
[2]2
(Title)
Darwin3 and Wallace:
A Study of their Literary and Scientific Writings, with an Estimate of the Present Position of the Theory of Natural Selection as an adequate explanation of the Process of Organic Evolution.
____________________
Suggested Contents.
Chapter I
A sketch of the more salient Conditions and Events which led them, independently, to the idea of Natural Selection — (travel — Malthus3 — geographical distribution &c. &c.)
[3]4
Chapter II
The diversities and similarities in their respective Environments — social and educational — the diversities being much the more important. Environment was therefore not the determining factor in their coincident Life-Work.
Chap. III
Direct Heredity also unlike — Similarity of intellectual character must therefore have been due to [one word crossed out] chance intermingling of somewhat remote ancestral traits, leading to an almost identical result in their scientific discovery.
[4]5
Chap. IV.
Their literary work compared — the "Naturalists' Voyage"6 with the "Amazon and Rio Negro"7 and "Malay Archipelago"8 — the "Origin of Species"9 with "Darwinism"10: the "Autobiography and Letters"11 with "My Life"12—
Chap. V.
The Scientific writings of Darwin: — the "Origin of Species" as [one letter deleted] a popular exposition of a new theory — "Animals and Plants under Domestication"13 — [one word crossed out] being a portion of the vast collection of facts and observations on which the theory was based — the "Descent of Man"14 and all other works being extensions and applications of the theory, founded mainly on his own observation and Experiment — Personal experiment the preponderating factor.
[5]15
Chap. VI.
The Chief Scientific works of Wallace —"Darwinism" — "Island Life"16 — ["]Geographical Distribution of Animals"17 — &c. their chief characteristic being, that they are the results of reasoning on the observations and experiments of other writers. This applies also to his Cosmological & Social — and Political, and Ethical works.
Chap VII.
General conclusions as to the Character and Life-work of the Co-discover[er]s of Natural Selection.
[6]18
Chap. VIII.
The Theory of Nat. Selection as it stands. Its chief upholders in Europe and America. No important difference among Darwinians — Mutationism19 and Mendelianism20,21 totally inadequate — [one word deleted] They only deal with side-issues and [two words deleted] at the utmost apply only to an infinitesimal fragment of the facts of Organic Evolution and Adaptation, the whole of which are embraced by D Natural Selection. It does not claim to account for the First Causes of Life — or for the fundamental forces and powers of Growth and Reproduction — Neither Chemistry nor Physics nor Electricity can explain or account for the fundamental forces of those Sciences, nor those inherent in the very existence of matter itself!
[7]Notes for
"Darwin and Wallace"
by Revd. James Marchant
assisted by
A.R.W. [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Enclosure (WCP6576.8402)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
A typewritten transcription of the handwritten enclosure, probably typed by Marchant to send to Murray, the prospective publisher of the book. [Enclosure (WCP6576.8403)]
Please cite as “WCP6576,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on