CHAPTER VIII.

DARWIN AND WALLACE (1858).

The history of Darwin’s friendship with Alfred Russel Wallace is of quite unique interest, being brought about by the fact that both naturalists saw in evolution and its causes the great questions of the immediate future, and by the agreement in the interpretations which they independently offered. Wallace was collecting and observing in the Malay Archipelago, and wrote to Darwin as the one man most likely to sympathise with and understand his views and to offer valuable criticism.

In the “Annals and Magazine of Natural History” for 1855, Wallace published a paper “On the Law that has Regulated the Introduction of New Species,” and in this and a letter written from the Malay Archipelago Darwin recognised the similarity of their views, although the completeness of this agreement was to be brought before him with startling force a year after his sympathetic reply, written May 1st, 1857. He then wrote:--

“By your letter and even still more by your paper in the Annals, a year or more ago, I can plainly see that we have thought much alike and to a certain extent have come to similar conclusions. In regard to the Paper in the Annals, I agree to the truth of almost every word of your paper; and I dare say that you will agree with me that it is very rare to find oneself agreeing pretty closely with any theoretical paper; for it is lamentable how each man draws his own different conclusions from the very same facts.”

On December 22nd he replied to another letter from Wallace, again expressing agreement with all his conclusions except that upon the supposed continental extension to oceanic islands, on which, alluding to his previous discussion, he says:--

“You will be glad to hear that neither Lyell nor Hooker thought much of my arguments. Nevertheless, for once in my life, I dare withstand the almost preternatural sagacity of Lyell.”

And he concludes with the wish--

“May all your theories succeed, except that on Oceanic Islands, on which subject I will do battle to the death.”

He also said, as regards Wallace’s conclusions: “I believe I go much further than you; but it is too long a subject to enter on my speculative notions.”

[Sidenote: WALLACE’S ESSAY.]

Finally, on June 18th, 1858, Darwin received from Wallace a manuscript essay bearing the title “On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original Type.” Upon this essay he wanted Darwin’s opinion, and asked him, if he thought well of it, to forward it to Lyell. Darwin was startled to find in the essay a complete account of his own views. That very day he wrote to Lyell, enclosing the essay. In the letter he said:--

“Your words have come true with a vengeance--that I should be forestalled. You said this, when I explained to you here very briefly my views of ‘Natural Selection’ depending on the struggle for existence. I never saw a more striking coincidence; if Wallace 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) he 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 distressed 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.

[Sidenote: BOTH ESSAYS PUBLISHED.]

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, which took the form of a letter to the Secretary of the Society. In this letter they introduced to the Society “the results of the investigations of the indefatigable naturalists, Mr. Charles Darwin and Mr. Alfred Wallace.”

“These gentlemen having, independently and unknown to one another, conceived the same very ingenious theory to account for the appearance and perpetuation of varieties and of specific forms on our planet, may both fairly claim the merit of being original thinkers in this important line of enquiry; but neither of them having published his views, though Mr. Darwin has for many years past been repeatedly urged by us to do so, and both authors having now unreservedly placed their papers in our hands, we think it would best promote the interests of science that a selection from them should be laid before the Linnean Society.”

After giving a list of these selections, they say of Wallace’s essay--

“This was written at Ternate[D] in February, 1858, for the perusal of his friend and correspondent Mr. Darwin, and sent to him with the expressed wish that it should be forwarded to Sir Charles Lyell, if Mr. Darwin thought it sufficiently novel and interesting. So highly did Mr. Darwin appreciate the value of the views therein set forth, that he proposed, in a letter to Sir Charles Lyell, to obtain Mr. Wallace’s consent to allow the Essay to be published as soon as possible. Of this step we highly approved, provided Mr. Darwin did not withhold from the public, as he was strongly inclined to do (in favour of Mr. Wallace), the memoir which he had himself written on the same subject, and which, as before stated, one of us had perused in 1844, and the contents of which we had both of us been privy to for many years. On representing this to Mr. Darwin, he gave us permission to make what use we thought proper of his memoir, &c.; and in adopting our present course, of presenting it to the Linnean Society, we have explained to him that we are not solely considering the relative claims to priority of himself and his friend, but the interests of science generally; for we feel it to be desirable that views founded on a wide deduction from facts, and matured by years of reflection, should constitute at once a goal from which others may start, and that, while the scientific world is waiting for the appearance of Mr. Darwin’s complete work, some of the leading results of his labours, as well as those of his able correspondent, should together be laid before the public.”

The title of the joint paper was “On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection.” It was read July 1st, 1858.