I have been so fully occupied with road-making, well-digging, garden- and house-planning, planting, etc., that I have given up all other work. Do you not admire our friend Miss Buckley's admirable article in _Macmillan_? It seems to me the best and most original that has been written on your book. Hoping you are well, and are not working too hard, I remain yours very faithfully, ALFRED R. WALLACE. * * * * * _Down, Beckenham, Kent. July 9, 1871._ My dear Wallace,--I send by this post a review by Chauncey Wright, as I much want your opinion of it, as soon as you can send it. I consider you an incomparably better critic than I am. The article, though not very clearly written, and poor in parts for want of knowledge, seems to me admirable. Mivart's book is producing a great effect against Natural Selection, and more especially against me. Therefore, if you think the article even somewhat good, I will write and get permission to publish it as a shilling pamphlet, together with the MS. addition (enclosed), for which there was not room at the end of the review. I do not suppose I should lose more than £20 or £30. I am now at work at a new and cheap edition of the "Origin," and shall answer several points in Mivart's book and introduce a new chapter for this purpose; but I treat the subject so much more concretely, and I daresay less philosophically, than Wright, that we shall not interfere with each other. You will think me a bigot when I say, after studying Mivart, I was never before in my life so convinced of the _general_ (i.e. not in detail) truth of the views in the "Origin." I grieve to see the omission of the words by Mivart, detected by Wright.[88] I complained to M. that in two cases he quotes only the commencement of sentences by me and thus modifies my meaning; but I never supposed he would have omitted words. There are other cases of what I consider unfair treatment. I conclude with sorrow that though he means to be honourable, he is so bigoted that he cannot act fairly. I was glad to see your letter in _Nature_, though I think you were a little hard on the silly and presumptuous man. I hope that your house and grounds are progressing well, and that you are in all ways flourishing. I have been rather seedy, but a few days in London did me much good; and my dear good wife is going to take me somewhere, _nolens volens_, at the end of this month. C. DARWIN. * * * * * _Holly Home, Barking, E. July 12, 1871._