Alfred Russel Wallace 



Letter III 

 C. Dabwin to a. E. Wallace 



Down, Bromley, Kent. January 25, 1859. 



My dear Sir, — I was extremely much pleased at receiving 

 three days ago your letter to me and that to Dr. Hooker. 

 Permit me to say how heartily I admire the spirit in which 

 they are written. Though I had absolutely nothing what- 

 ever to do in leading Lyell and Hooker to what they thought 

 a fair course of action, yet I naturally could not but feel 

 anxious to hear what your impression would be. I owe 

 indirectly much to you and them; for I almost think that 

 Lyell would have proved right and I should never have 

 completed my larger work, for I have found my abstract' 

 hard enough with my poor health; but now, thank God, I 

 am in my last chapter but one. My abstract will make a 

 small volume of 400 or 500 pages. Whenever published, I 

 will of course send you a copy, and then you will see 

 what I mean about the part which I believe selection 

 has played with domestic productions. It is a very dif- 

 ferent part, as you suppose, from that played by '' natural 

 selection." 



I sent off, by same address as this note, a copy of 

 the Journal of the Linnean Society^ and subsequently I 

 have sent some half-dozen copies of the Paper. I have 

 many other copies at your disposal; and I sent two 

 to your friend Dr. Davies (?), author of works on men's 

 skulls. 



I am glad to hear that you have been attending to 

 birds' nests ; I have done so, though almost exclusively 

 under one point of view, viz. to show that instincts 

 vary, so that selection could work on and improve them. 



1 ** The Origin of Species." 

 134 



