I have prepared the
plan and written portions of a work embracing the whole subject, and
have endeavoured to prove in detail what I have as yet only
indicated.... I have been much gratified by a letter from Darwin, in
which he says that he agrees with 'almost every word' of my paper. He
is now preparing his great work on 'Species and Varieties,' for which he
has been preparing materials for twenty years. He may save me the
trouble of writing more on my hypothesis, by proving that there is no
difference in nature between the origin of species and of varieties; or
he may give me trouble by arriving at another conclusion; but, at all
events, his facts will be given for me to work upon. Your collections
and my own will furnish most valuable material to illustrate and prove
the universal application of the hypothesis. The connection between the
succession of affinities and the geographical distribution of a group,
worked out species by species, has never yet been shown as we shall be
able to show it."
"This letter proves," writes Wallace,[22] "that at this time I had not
the least idea of the nature of Darwin's proposed work nor of the
definite conclusions he had arrived at, nor had I myself any
expectations of a complete solution of the great problem to which my
paper was merely the prelude.
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