62 CHARLES DARWIN. 



on the struggle for existence. I never saw a more striking 

 coincidence ; if ^allace had my MS. sketch written out in 

 1842, he could not have made a better short abstract ! Even 

 his terms now stand as heads of my chapters." 



A few days later (June 25th) lie again wrote to 

 Lyell, saying 



" I should be extremely glad now to publish a sketch of my 

 general views in about a dozen pages or so ; but I cannot 

 persuade myself that I can do so honourably. Wallace says 

 nothing about publication, and I enclose his letter. But as 

 I had not intended to publish any sketch, can I do so 

 honourably, because Wallace has sent me an outline of his 

 doctrine ? I would far rather burn my whole book, than that 

 he or any other man should think that I had behaved in a 

 paltry spirit." 



He also asked Lyell to send the letter on to 

 Hooker, " for then I shall have the opinion of my two 

 best and kindest friends." He was so much dis- 

 tressed at the idea of being unfair to Wallace that he 

 wrote again the next day to put the case against 

 himself in an even stronger light. This must have 

 been one of the most trying times in Darwin's life, 

 for, in addition to the cause of trouble and perplexity 

 described above, one of his children died of scarlet 

 fever, and there was the gravest fear lest the others 

 should be attacked. 



Thus appealed to, Lyell and Hooker took an 

 extremely wise and fair course. They asked Darwin 

 for an abstract of his work, and, accepting the whole 

 responsibility, communicated it and Wallace's essay 

 in a joint paper to the Linnean Society, giving an 

 account of the circumstances of the case in a preface, 



