114 WORK ON 'MAN. 5 [1869. 



read. That you ever returned alive is wonderful after all 

 your risks from illness and sea voyages, especially that most 

 interesting one to Waigiou and back. Of all the impressions 

 which I have received from your book, the strongest is that 

 your perseverance in the cause of science was heroic. Your 

 descriptions of catching the splendid butterflies have made 

 me quite envious, and at the same time have made me feel 

 almost young again, so vividly have they brought before my 

 mind old days when I collected, though I never made such 

 captures as yours. Certainly collecting is the best sport in 

 the world. I shall be astonished if your book has not a great 

 success ; and your splendid generalizations on Geographical 

 Distribution, with which I am familiar from your papers, will 

 be new to most of your readers. I think I enjoyed most the 

 Timor case, as it is best demonstrated ; but perhaps Celebes 

 is really the most valuable. I should prefer looking at the 

 whole Asiatic continent as having formerly been more African 

 in its fauna, than admitting the former existence of a con- 

 tinent across the Indian Ocean. . . . 



[The following letter refers to Mr. Wallace's article in the 

 April number of the 'Quarterly Review,'* 1869, which to a 

 large extent deals with the tenth edition of Sir Charles Lyell's 

 1 Principles,' published in 1867 and 1868. The review contains 

 a striking passage on Sir Charles Lyell's confession of evolu- 

 tionary faith in the tenth edition of his ' Principles,' which is 

 worth quoting : " The history of science hardly presents so 

 striking an instance of youthfulness of mind in advanced life 

 as is shown by this abandonment of opinions so long held 

 and so powerfully advocated ; and if we bear in mind the 

 extreme caution, combined with the ardent love of truth 



* My father wrote to Mr. appear in the ' Quarterly,' and will 



Murray: "The article by Wallace make the Bishop of Oxford and 



is inimitably good, and it is a great gnash their teeth." 

 triumph that such an article should 



