46 MESSES. C. DARWIN AND A. WALLACE ON THE 



he repeats his views, and which shows that these remained un- 

 altered from 1839 to 1857. 



3. An Essay by Mr. "Wallace, entitled " On the Tendency of 

 Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original Type." This 

 was written at Ternate in Eebruary 1858, for the perusal of his 

 friend and correspondent Mr. Darwin, and sent to him with the 

 expressed wish that it should be forwarded to Sir Charles Lyell, 

 if Mr. Darwin thought it sufficiently novel and interesting. So 

 highly did Mr. Darwin appreciate the value of the views therein 

 set forth, that he proposed, in a letter to Sir Charles Lyell, to 

 obtain Mr. Wallace's consent to alJ.ow the Essay to be published 

 as soon as possible. Of this step we highly approved, provided 

 Mr. Darwin did not withhold from the public, as he was strongly 

 inclined to do (in favour of Mr. Wallace), the memoir which he 

 had himself written on the same subject, and which, as before 

 stated, one of us had perused in 1844, and the contents of which 

 we had both of us been privy to for many years. On representing 

 this to Mr. Darwin, he gave us permission to make what use we 

 thought proper of his memoir, &c. ; and in adopting our present 

 course, of presenting it to the Linnean Society, we have explained 

 to him that we are not solely considering the relative claims to 

 priority of himself and his friend, but the interests of science 

 generally ; for we feel it to be desirable that views founded on a 

 wide deduction from facts, and matured by years of reflection, 

 should constitute at once a goal from which others may start, 

 and that, while the scientific world is waiting for the appearance 

 of Mr. Darwin's complete work, some of the leading results of his 

 labours, as well as those of his able correspondent, should together 

 be laid before the public. 



We have the honour to be yours very obediently, 



Chaeles Lyell. 



Jos. D. HOOKEE. 



J. J. Bennett, Esq., 



Secretary of the Linnean Society. 



I. Extract from an unpublished Work on Species, hy C. Daewin, 

 Esq., consisting of a portion of a Chapter entitled, " On the 

 Variation of Organic Beings in a state of Nature ; on the 

 Natural Means of Selection ; on the Compariso7i of Domestic 

 Baces and true Species.''^ 



De CandoUe, in an eloquent passage, has declared that all nature 

 is at war, one organism with another, or with external nature. 



