Alfred Russel Wallace 



Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 12, 1871. 



My dear Wallace, — Very many thanks. As soon as I 

 read your letter I determined not to print the paper, not- 

 withstanding my eldest daughter, who is a very good critic, 

 thought it so interesting as to be worth reprinting. Then 

 my wife came in, and said, ^^ I do not much care about 

 these things and shall therefore be a good judge whether 

 it is very dull.'' So I will leave my decision open for a 

 day or two. Your letter has been, and will be, of use to 

 me in other ways : thus I had quite forgotten that you had 

 taken up the case of the giraffe in your first memoir, and 

 I must look to this. I feel very doubtful how far I shall 

 succeed in answering Mivart; it is so difficult to answer 

 objections to doubtful points and make the discussion read- 

 able. I shall make only a selection. The worst of it is 

 that I cannot possibly hunt through all my references for 

 isolated points; it would take me three weeks of intoler- 

 ably hard work. I wish I had your power of arguing 

 clearly. At present I feel sick of everything, and if I could 

 occupy my time and forget my daily discomforts or little 

 miseries, I would never publish another word. But I shall 

 cheer up, I daresay, soon, being only just got over a bad 

 attack. Farewell. God knows why I bother you about 

 myself. 



I can say nothing more about missing links than what 

 I have said. I should rely much on pre-Silurian times; 

 but then comes Sir W. Thomson like an odious spectre. 

 Farewell. — Yours most sincerely, qjj Darwin. 



I was grieved to see in the Daily News that the 

 madman about the flat earth has been threatening 

 your life. What an odious trouble this must have been 

 to you. 



268 



