LETTER 406. TO A.R. WALLACE.

(406/1. This letter was published in "Life and Letters," III., page 89.)

Down, [May] 28th [1864].

I am so much better that I have just finished a paper for the Linnean
Society (406/2. On the three forms, etc., of Lythrum.); but I am not yet
at all strong, I felt much disinclination to write, and therefore you must
forgive me for not having sooner thanked you for your paper on Man (406/3.
"Anthropological Review," May 1864.) received on the 11th. (406/4. Mr.
Wallace wrote, May 10th, 1864: "I send you now my little contribution to
the theory of the origin of man. I hope you will be able to agree with me.
If you are able [to write] I shall be glad to have your criticisms. I was
led to the subject by the necessity of explaining the vast mental and
cranial differences between man and the apes combined with such small
structural differences in other parts of the body,--and also by an
endeavour to account for the diversity of human races combined with man's
almost perfect stability of form during all historical epochs." But first
let me say that I have hardly ever in my life been more struck by any paper
than that on "Variation," etc., etc., in the "Reader." (406/5. "Reader,"
April 16th, 1864, an abstract of Mr. Wallace: "On the Phenomena of
Variation and Geographical Distribution as illustrated by the Papilionidae
of the Malayan Region." "Linn. Soc. Trans." XXV.) I feel sure that such
papers will do more for the spreading of our views on the modification of
species than any separate treatises on the simple subject itself. It is
really admirable; but you ought not in the Man paper to speak of the theory
as mine; it is just as much yours as mine. One correspondent has already