Heaven protect my stomach
whenever I attempt following your argument!--Yours most sincerely,
C. DARWIN.
* * * * *
_Down, Bromley, Kent. April 6, 1868._
My dear Wallace,--I have been considering the terrible problem. Let me
first say that no man could have more earnestly wished for the success
of Natural Selection in regard to sterility than I did, and when I
considered a general statement (as in your last note) I always felt sure
it could be worked out, but always failed in detail, the cause being, as
I believe, that Natural Selection cannot effect what is not good for the
individual, including in this term a social community. It would take a
volume to discuss all the points; and nothing is so humiliating to me as
to agree with a man like you (or Hooker) on the premises and disagree
about the result.
I agree with my son's argument and not with rejoinder. The cause of our
difference, I think, is that I look at the number of offspring as an
important element (all circumstances remaining the same) in keeping up
the average number of individuals within any area.
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