Alfred Russel Wallace 



'* origin of species/' and the consequences about much 

 being gained, even if we know nothing about precise cause 

 of each variation. By chance I have given a few words in 

 my first volume, now some time printed off, about mimetic 

 butterflies, and have touched on two of your points, viz. 

 on species already widely dissimilar not being made to 

 resemble each other, and about the variations in Lepidop- 

 tera being often well pronounced. How strange it is that 

 Mr. Bennett or anyone else should bring in the action of 

 the mind as a leading cause of variation, seeing the beauti- 

 ful and complex adaptations and modifications of structure 

 in plants, which I do not suppose they would say had minds. 



I have finished the first volume, and am half-way through 

 the first proof of the second volume, of my confounded book, 

 which half kills me by fatigue, and which I much fear will 

 quite kill me in your good estimation. 



If you have leisure I should much like a little news of 

 you and your doings and your family. — Ever yours very 

 sincerely, Ch, Darwin. 



Holly House, Barking, E. November 24: j 1870. 



Dear Darwin,— Your letter gave me very great pleasure. 

 We still agree, I am sure, on nineteen points out of twenty, 

 and on the twentieth I am not inconvincible. But then I 

 must be convinced by facts and arguments, not by high- 

 handed ridicule such as ClaparMe's. 



I hope you see the difference between such criticisms 

 as his, and that in the last number of the North American 

 Review^ where my last chapter is really criticised, point by 

 point; and though I think some of it very weak, I admit 

 that some is very strong, and almost converts me from the 

 error of my ways. 



As to your new book, I am sure it will not make m6^ 

 think less highly of you than I do, unless you do, what] 



254 



