1 866.] BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 47 



double sense * in which I have used Natural Selection is new 

 to me and unanswerable ; but my blunder has done no harm, 

 for I do not believe that any one, excepting you, has ever 

 observed it. Again, I agree that I have said too much about 

 " favourable variations ;" but I am inclined to think that you 

 put the opposite side too strongly ; if every part of every 

 being varied, I do not think we should see the same end, or 

 object, gained by such wonderfully diversified means. 



I hope you are enjoying the country, and are in good 

 health, and are working hard at your Malay Archipelago book, 

 for I will always put this wish in every note I write to you, 

 as some good people always put in a text. My health 

 keeps much the same, or rather improves, and I am able to 

 work some hours daily. With many thanks for your 

 interesting letter, 



Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours sincerely, 



Ch. Darwin. 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, Aug. 30 [1866]. 



My DEAR Hooker, — I was very glad to get your note 

 and the Notts. Newspaper. I have seldom been more pleased 

 in my life than at hearing how successfully your lecture f 

 went off. Mrs. H. Wedgwood sent us an account, saying 

 that you read capitally, and were listened to with profound 

 attention and great applause. She says, when your final 



* "I find you use ' Natural Se- tract from Mr. Wallace's letter 



lection' in two senses; ist, for the above quoted. 



simple preservation of favourable f At the Nottingham meeting of 



and rejection of unfavourable varia- the British Association, Aug. 27, 



tions, in which case it is equivalent 1866. The subject of the lecture 



to the ' survival of the fittest,' — and was 'Insular Floras.' See Gar- 



2ndly, for the effect or change pro- (letters' Chronicle, 1866. 

 duced by this preservation." — Ex- 



