182 GROWTH OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. [Oh. X. 



and am now drawing up my work as perfect as my materials 

 of nineteen years' collecting suffice, but do not intend to stop 

 to perfect any line of investigation beyond current work." 



And in November he wrote to Sir Charles Lyell : — 



" I am working very steadily at my big book ; I have found 

 it quite impossible to publish any preliminary essay or sketch ; 

 but am doing my work as completely as my present materials 

 allow without waiting to perfect them. And this much ac- 

 celeration I owe to you." 



Again to Mr. Fox, in February, 1857 : — 



" I am got most deeply interested in my subject ; though I 

 wish I could set less value on the bauble fame, either present 

 or posthumous, than I do, but not I think, to any extreme 

 degreo : yet, if I know myself, I would work just as hard, 

 though with less gusto, if I knew that my book would bo 

 published for ever anonymously." 



C. D. to A. B. Wallace. Moor Park, May 1st, 1857. 



My dear Sir — I am much obliged for your letter of 

 October 10th, from Celebes, received a few days ago; in a 

 laborious undertaking, sympathy is a valuable and real en- 

 couragement. By your letter and even still more by your 

 paper* in the Annals, a year or more ago, I can plainly see 

 that we have thought much alike and to a certain extent have 

 como to similar conclusions. In regard to the Taper in the 

 Annals, I agree to the truth of almost every word of your 

 paper ; and I dare say that you will agree with me that it is 

 very rare to find oneself agreeing pretty closely with any 

 theoretical paper ; for it is lamentable how each man draws 

 his own different conclusions from the very same facts. This 

 summer wiU make the 20th year (!) since I opened my first 

 note-book, on the question how and in what way do species 

 and varieties differ from each other. I am now preparing my 

 work for publication, but I find the subject so very large, that 

 though I have written many chapters, I do not suppose I shall 

 go to press for two years. I have never heard how long you 

 intend staying in the Malay Archipelago ; I wish I might 

 profit by the publication of your Travels there before my work 

 appears, for no doubt you will reap a large harvest of facts. I 

 have acted already in accordance with your advice of keeping 

 domestic varieties, and those appearing in a state of nature, 



* " On the Law that has regulated the Introduction of New Species," 

 —Ann. Nat. Hist, 1855, 



