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 honestly to both of us; and I did so.
(71/5.

The following is the passage from the Introduction to the "Origin of Species," referred to in the first paragraph of the above letter.) "My work is now nearly finished; but as it will take me two or three years more to complete it, and as my health is far from strong, I have been urged to publish this Abstract.

I have more especially been induced to do this, as Mr.Wallace, who is now studying the Natural History of the Malay Archipelago, has arrived at almost exactly the same general conclusions that I have on the origin of species.

Last year he sent to me a memoir on this subject, with a request that I would forward it to Sir Charles Lyell, who sent it to the Linnean Society, and it is published in the third volume of the Journal of that Society.