Down, Beckenham, Kent.  January 5, 1880.

My dear Wallace,—­As this note requires no sort of answer, you must allow me to express my lively admiration of your paper in the Nineteenth Century.[112] You certainly are a master in the difficult art of clear exposition.  It is impossible to urge too often that the selection from a single varying individual or of a single varying organ will not suffice.  You have worked in capitally Allen’s admirable researches.  As usual, you delight to honour me more than I deserve.  When I have written about the extreme slowness of Natural Selection (in which I hope I may be wrong), I have chiefly had in my mind the effects of intercrossing.  I subscribe to almost everything you say excepting the last short sentence.

And now let me add how grieved I was to hear that the City of London did not elect you for the Epping office, but I suppose it was too much to hope that such a body of men should make a good selection.  I wish you could obtain some quiet post and thus have leisure for moderate scientific work.  I have nothing to tell you about myself; I see few persons, for conversation fatigues me much; but I daily do some work in experiments on plants, and hope thus to continue to the end of my days.

With all good wishes, believe me yours very sincerely,

CHARLES DARWIN.

P.S.—­Have you seen Mr. Farrer’s article in the last Fortnightly?  It reminded me of an article on bequests by you some years ago which interested and almost converted me.

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Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon.  January 9, 1880.

My dear Darwin,—­It is a great pleasure to receive a letter from you sometimes—­especially when we do not differ very much.  I am, of course, much pleased and gratified that you like my article.  I wrote it chiefly because I thought there was something a little fresh still to say on the subject, and also because I wished to define precisely my present position, which people continually misunderstand.  The main part of the article forms part of a chapter of a book I have now almost finished on my favourite subject of “Geographical Distribution.”  It will form a sort of supplement to my former work, and will, I trust, be more readable and popular.  I go pretty fully into the laws of variation and dispersal; the exact character of specific and generic areas, and their causes; the growth, dispersal and extinction of species and groups, illustrated by maps, etc.; changes of geography and of climate as affecting dispersal, with a full discussion of the Glacial theory, adopting Croll’s views (part of this has been published as a separate article in the Quarterly Review of last July, and has been highly approved by Croll and Geikie); a discussion of the theory of permanent continents and oceans, which I see you were the first to adopt, but which geologists, I am sorry to say,