January 5, 1880._
My dear Wallace,--As this note requires no sort of answer, you must
allow me to express my lively admiration of your paper in the
_Nineteenth Century_.[112] You certainly are a master in the difficult art
of clear exposition. It is impossible to urge too often that the
selection from a single varying individual or of a single varying organ
will not suffice. You have worked in capitally Allen's admirable
researches. As usual, you delight to honour me more than I deserve. When
I have written about the extreme slowness of Natural Selection (in which
I hope I may be wrong), I have chiefly had in my mind the effects of
intercrossing. I subscribe to almost everything you say excepting the
last short sentence.
And now let me add how grieved I was to hear that the City of London did
not elect you for the Epping office, but I suppose it was too much to
hope that such a body of men should make a good selection. I wish you
could obtain some quiet post and thus have leisure for moderate
scientific work. I have nothing to tell you about myself; I see few
persons, for conversation fatigues me much; but I daily do some work in
experiments on plants, and hope thus to continue to the end of my days.
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