I hope to go to press in early part of next month. It will be a small volume of about 500 pages or so. I will, of course, send you a copy. I forget whether I told you that Hooker, who is our best British botanist, and perhaps the best in the world, is a _full_ convert, and is now going immediately to publish his confession of faith; and I expect daily to see the proof-sheets. Huxley is changed and believes in mutation of species: whether a _convert_ to us, I do not quite know. We shall live to see all the _younger_ men converts. My neighbour and excellent naturalist, J. Lubbock, is an enthusiastic convert. I see by Natural History notices that you are doing great work in the Archipelago; and most heartily do I sympathise with you. For God's sake take care of your health. There have been few such noble labourers in the cause of natural science as you are. Farewell, with every good wish.--Yours sincerely, C. DARWIN. P.S.--You cannot tell how I admire your spirit, in the manner in which you have taken all that was done about publishing our papers. I had actually written a letter to you, stating that I would _not_ publish anything before you had published. I had not sent that letter to the post when I received one from Lyell and Hooker, _urging_ me to send some MS. to them, and allow them to act as they thought fair and honourably to both of us. I did so. * * * * * LETTER V C. DARWIN TO A.R. WALLACE _Down, Bromley, Kent. August 9, 1859._ My dear Mr. Wallace,--I received your letter and memoir[34] on the 7th, and will forward it to-morrow to the Linnean Society. But you will be aware that there is no meeting till beginning of November. Your paper seems to me _admirable_ in matter, style and reasoning; and I thank you for allowing me to read it. Had I read it some months ago I should have profited by it for my forthcoming volume. But my two chapters on this subject are in type; and though not yet corrected, I am so wearied out and weak in health that I am fully resolved not to add one word, and merely improve style. So you will see that my views are nearly the same with yours, and you may rely on it that not one word shall be altered owing to my having read your ideas. Are you aware that Mr. W. Earl published several years ago the view of distribution of animals in the Malay Archipelago in relation to the depth of the sea between the islands? I was much struck with this, and have been in habit of noting all facts on distribution in the Archipelago and elsewhere in this relation. I have been led to conclude that there has been a good deal of naturalisation in the different Malay islands, and which I have thought to certain extent would account for anomalies. Timor has been my greatest puzzle. What do you say to the peculiar _Felis_ there? I wish that you had visited Timor: it has been asserted that a fossil mastodon or elephant's tooth (I forget which) had been found there, which would be a grand fact.