PREFACE 



These two volumes consist of a selection from several 

 thousands of letters entrusted to me by the Wallace family 

 and dating from the dawn of Darwinism to the second 

 decade of the twentieth century, supplemented by such 

 biographical particulars and comments as are required for 

 the elucidation of the correspondence and for giving move- 

 ment and continuity to the whole. 



The wealth and variety of Wallace's own correspondence, 

 excluding the large collection of letters which he received 

 from many eminent men and women, and the necessity for 

 somewhat lengthy introductions and many annotations, have 

 expanded the work to two (there was, indeed, enough good 

 material to make four) volumes. The family has given me 

 unstinted confidence in using or rejecting letters and re- 

 miniscences, and although I have consulted scientific and 

 literary friends, I alone must be blamed for sins of omis- 

 sion or commission. Nothing has been suppressed in the 

 unpublished letters, or in any of the letters which appear 

 in these volumes, because there was anything to hide. 

 Everything Wallace wrote, all his private letters, could 

 be published to the world. His life was an open book — 

 ^* no weakness, no contempt, dispraise, or blame, nothing 

 but well and fair.'' 



The profoundly interesting and now historic corre- 

 spondence between Darwin and Wallace, part of which 

 has already appeared in the ^' Life and Letters of Charles 

 Darwin " and '' More Letters," and part in Wallace's auto- 

 biography, entitled '' My Life," is here published, with new 



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