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Darwin Correspondence Project

To A. R. Wallace   31 March [1870]1

Down Beckenham | Kent

Mar 31

My dear Wallace

Many thanks for the wood-cut, which, judging from the rate at which I crawl on, will hardly be wanted till this time next year. Whether I shall have it reduced, or beg Mr Mcmillan for a stereotype, as you said I might, I have not yet decided—2

I heartily congratulate you on your removal being over, & I much more heartily condole with myself at your having left London, for I shall thus miss my talks with you which I always greatly enjoy.3

I was excessively pleased at your review of Galton, & I agree to every word of it.4 I must add that I have just re-read yr article in the Anthropol. Rev. & I defy you to upset yr own doctrine.5

ever yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the reference to Wallace’s review of Francis Galton’s Hereditary genius (Galton 1869), which was published on 17 March 1870 (Wallace 1870c).
2
CD refers to a woodcut of a skull of a babirusa pig from Wallace’s Malay Archipelago (Wallace 1869a, 1: 434), which he reproduced in Descent 2: 264. Alexander Macmillan was the publisher of the Malay Archipelago. CD did not have the image reduced.
3
On 25 March 1870, Wallace had moved with his family to a cottage in Barking, east of London (Raby 2001, p. 206). Wallace and CD may have met in London earlier in March (see letter to A. R. Wallace, 7 March [1870?]).
4
See n. 1, above.
5
CD refers to Wallace’s article on the origin of human races (Wallace 1864). There is an annotated copy in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. See also letter to A. R. Wallace, 26 January [1870] and n. 6.

Bibliography

Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.

Galton, Francis. 1869. Hereditary genius: an inquiry into its laws and consequences. London: Macmillan.

Raby, Peter. 2001. Alfred Russel Wallace: a life. London: Chatto & Windus.

Summary

Thanks for a woodcut sent by ARW for Descent.

Congratulations on his removal from London,

and praise of his review of Francis Galton ["Hereditary genius", Nature 1 (1870): 501–3]. CD agrees with every word of it.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-7154
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Alfred Russel Wallace
Sent from
Down
Source of text
The British Library (Add MS 46434: 200–1)
Physical description
LS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7154,” accessed on 6 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7154.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18

letter

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