Ixx MEMOIR. 
‘The point is not of much importance, as the same principle of divergence 
of varieties 1s shown in both events. 
‘«T have taken note of what you say regarding publishing original articles, 
but I have engaged to write one on a given subject in the Vatural History 
Review, and do not see how I can get off this time; I will make it, however, 
as much a review of the present literature on the question as possible. 
** Yours sincerely, 
“‘H. W. BATEs.”’ 
H. W. Bates to Charles Darwin. 
“* September 29th, 1863. 
“. . .. The review in the Zz7zes of my book has caused quite a com- 
motion. I consider it the best that has yet been written. It is also of great 
general importance, because it is a public concession on the part of the 
highest literary tribunal of the claims of philosophical natural history to the 
attention of the public. My old father happens to be on a visit to me, and 
the review came very afvofos, causing great elation in our little iamily 
circle. My father is an old man of business, who thinks everything right 
that is said in the Zzmes, and who begins now to see that his son really has 
written a goodish book. The longest review that has yet appeared is in the 
Revue des Deux Mondes, by Forgues. It is also most excellently done, and I 
think shows a closer examination and higher appreciation of the book than 
anything that has yet appeared in England, except that of the Zzmes. 
You ask me what I am doing? I have been commissioned by Mr. W. Wilson 
Saunders to write a monograph of the M/antide (a remarkable family of 
insects). The work is to appear in the Ray Society series, in 4to, illus- 
trated by twenty plates by Westwood. This has occupied me the last four 
months, and will continue to occupy me for eighteen months longer. Mr. 
Saunders pays me (moderately) for the work, and leaves me all the credit. 
This work leaves me time for other things, such as short articles, and I had 
commenced one on the whole subject of local variation, intending to incor- 
porate details of facts of new varieties, interleaving with counterparts, which 
you require. But the monograph is so much pleasanter work just now that I 
have laid this paper aside for the present. 
‘«T will not write more just now. 
‘¢ Yours sincerely, 
‘¢H. W. BATES.”’ 
The first edition of the Waturalist on the Amazons was exhausted 
in a few months, and at the suggestion of Murray, Bates reluctantly 
consented to abridge the book by omitting “those portions of the , 
work which, treating of abstruse scientific questions, pre-suppose a 
larger amount of natural history knowledge than an author has 
a right to expect of the general reader. * 
A comparison of the two editions shows how much of permanent 
value in the incidental light thrown upon matters of abiding 
interest by one of the most sagacious and thoughtful observers was 
* Preface to Second Edition. 
