1867.] MR. WALLACE. 91 



the most powerful means of changing the races of man. I 

 can show that the different races have a widely different 

 standard of beauty. Among savages the most powerful men. 

 will have the pick of the women, and they will generally leave 

 the most descendants. I have collected a few notes on man, 

 but I do not suppose that I shall ever use them. Do you 

 intend to follow out your views, and if so, would you like at 

 some future time to have my few references and notes ? I 

 am sure I hardly know whether they are of any value, and 

 they are at present in a state of chaos. 



There is much more that I should like to write, but I have 

 not strength. 



Believe me, dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, 



CH. DARWIN. 



P.S. Our aristocracy is handsomer (more hideous accord- 

 ing to a Chinese or Negro) than the middle classes, from 

 [having the] pick of the women ; but oh, what a scheme is- 

 primogeniture for destroying natural selection ! I fear my 

 letter will be barely intelligible to you. 



[In February 1867, when the manuscript of ' Animals and 

 Plants ' had been sent to Messrs. Clowes to be printed, and 

 before the proofs began to come in, he had an interval of spare 

 time, and began a " chapter on Man," but he soon found it. 

 growing under his hands, and determined to publish it 

 separately as a " very small volume." 



The work was interrupted by the necessity of correcting 

 the proofs of ' Animals and Plants,' and by some botanical 

 work, but was resumed with unremitting industry on the first 

 available day in the following year. He could not rest, and 

 he recognized with regret the gradual change in his mind 

 that rendered continuous work more and more necessary to- 

 him as he grew older. This is expressed in a letter to Sir 

 J. D. Hooker, June 17, 1868, which repeats to some extent 

 what is given in the Autobiography : 



