Alfred Russel Wallace 



in all parts of their bodies to a generic or even family 

 degree of difference, he has been changing almost wholly 

 in the brain and head — then, in geological antiquity the 

 species of man may be as old as many mammalian 

 families^ and the origin of the family man may date back 

 to a period when some of the orders first originated. 



As to the theory of Natural Selection itself, I shall 

 always maintain it to be actually yours and yours only. 

 You had worked it out in details I had never thought of, 

 years before I had a ray of light on the subject, and my 

 paper would never have convinced anybody or been noticed 

 as more than an ingenious speculation, whereas your book 

 has revolutionised the study of natural history, and carried 

 away captive the best men of the present age. All the merit 

 I claim is the having been the means of inducing you to write 

 and publish at once. 



I may_ possibly some day go a little more into this sub- 

 ject (of Man), and, if I do, will accept the kind offer of 

 your notes. I am now, however, beginning to write the 

 '* Narrative of my Travels " which will occupy me a long 

 time, as I hate writing narrative, and after Bates's bril- 

 liant success rather fear to fail. I shall introduce a few 

 chapters on geographical distribution and other such 

 topics. 



Sir C. Lyell, while agreeing with my main argument on 

 Man, thinks I am wrong in wanting to put him back into 

 Miocene times, and thinks I do not appreciate the immense 

 interval even to the later Pliocene. But I still maintain 

 my view, which in fact is a logical result of my theory, for 

 if man originated in later Pliocene times, when almost all 

 mammalia were of closely allied species to those now living, 

 and many even identical, then man has not been stationary 

 in bodily structure while animals have been varying, and 

 my theory will be proved to be all wrong. 



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