Letter 3742
Wallace, A. R. to Darwin, C. R.
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Acknowledges 3d edition of Origin.
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Praise of Herbert Spencer's First Principles [1862].
Summary Add
Transcription
5, Westbourne Grove Terrace, W.
Sept
My dear Mr. Darwin
Many thanks for the third Ed. of the ``Origin'' which I found here on my return from Devonshire on Saturday.
I have not had time yet to read more than the ``Historical Sketch'' which is very interesting & shews that the time had quite come for your book.
I am now reading Herbert Spencer's First Principles, which seems to me a truly great work, which goes to the root of everything.
I hope you will be well enough to come to Cambridge.
I remain | My dear Mr. Darwin | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace
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- f1 3742.f1
See letter from A. R. Wallace, [after 20 August 1862] and n. 3. - +
- f2 3742.f2
The third English edition of Origin, published in 1861, was the first to include the historical preface that CD had appended to the first American and German editions; the preface was entitled `An historical sketch of the recent progress of opinion on the origin of species' (Origin 3d ed., pp. xiii--xix). - +
- f3 3742.f3
Spencer 1860--2. There is a partly uncut copy of this work in the Darwin Library--CUL (Marginalia 1: 769). - +
- f4 3742.f4
In 1862, the British Association for the Advancement of Science held its annual meeting in Cambridge during the first week of October. See also letter to W. D. Fox, 20 [September 1862], and letter to J. D. Hooker, 21 [September 1862].