I hope these remarks may be intelligible to you, and that you will be so
kind as to let me know what you think of them.
I have not heard for some time how you are getting on. I hope you are
still improving in health, and that you will be able now to get on with
your great work, for which so many thousands are looking with
interest.--With best wishes, believe me, my dear Darwin, yours very
faithfully,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
* * * * *
_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. July 5, [1866]._
My dear Wallace,--I have been much interested by your letter, which is
as clear as daylight. I fully agree with all that you say on the
advantages of H. Spencer's excellent expression of "the survival of the
fittest." This, however, had not occurred to me till reading your
letter. It is, however, a great objection to this term that it cannot be
used as a substantive governing a verb; and that this is a real
objection I infer from H. Spencer continually using the words "Natural
Selection."
I formerly thought, probably in an exaggerated degree, that it was a
great advantage to bring into connection natural and artificial
selection; this indeed led me to use a term in common, and I still think
it some advantage.
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