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Darwin Correspondence Project

From A. R. Wallace   [19 November 1873]1

The Dell, Grays, Essex.

Wednesday morng.

Dear Darwin

Yours just received.2 Pray act exactly as if nothing had been said to me on the subject. I do not particularly wish for the work, as besides being, as you say, tedious work, it involves a considerable amount of responsibility.3 Still I am prepared to do any literary work of the kind, as I told Bates some time ago, & that is the reason he wrote to me about it.4 I certainly think however that it would be in many ways more satisfactory to you if your son did it, & I therefore hope he may undertake it.5

Should he however, for any reasons, be unable, I am at your service as a derniére ressort6

In case my meaning is not quite clear, I will say positively, I will not do it, unless your son has the offer & declines it.

Believe me | Dear Darwin | Yours faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace

Footnotes

The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letters to A. R. Wallace, [18 November 1873] and 19 November [1873]. In 1873, 19 November was a Wednesday.
Wallace refers to the work needed to produce a second edition of Descent, detailed in the letter to A. R. Wallace, 17 November 1873.
Derniére ressort: last resort (French).

Bibliography

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

Summary

Thinks CD’s son George would be more satisfactory than ARW for the work on Descent.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9156
From
Alfred Russel Wallace
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Grays
Source of text
DAR 106: B117
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9156,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9156.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21

letter