It having been intimated to me that this was in a
measure true, I have selected as such an event one germane to this
Celebration and also engraven on my memory, namely, the
considerations which determined Mr. Darwin to assent to the course
which Sir Charles Lyell and myself had suggested to him, that of
presenting to the Society, in one communication, his own and Mr.
Wallace's theories on the effect of variation and the struggle for
existence on the evolution of species.
You have all read Francis Darwin's fascinating work as editor of
his father's "Life and Letters," where you will find (Vol. II., p.
116) a letter addressed, on the 18th of June, 1858, to Sir Charles
Lyell by Mr. Darwin, who states that he had on that day received a
communication from Mr. Wallace written from the Celebes Islands
requesting that it might be sent to him (Sir Charles).
In a covering letter Mr. Darwin pointed out that the enclosure
contained a sketch of a theory of Natural Selection as depending
on the struggle for existence so identical with one he himself
entertained and fully described in MS.
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