<P> Some year or so ago you recommended me to read a paper by Wallace in the' Annals,' which had interested you, and, as I was writing to him, I knew this would please him much, so I told him . He has to - day sent me the enclosed, and asked me to forward it to you . It seems to me well worth reading . Your words have come true with a vengeance--that I should be forestalled . You said this, when I explained to you here very briefly my views of' Natural Selection' depending on the struggle for existence . I never saw a more striking coincidence; if Wallace had my MS . sketch written out in 1842, he could not have made a better short abstract! Even his terms now stand as heads of my chapters . Please return me the MS., which he does not say he wishes me to publish, but I shall, of course, at once write and offer to send to any journal . So all my originality, whatever it may amount to, will be smashed, though my book, if it will ever have any value, will not be deteriorated; as all the labour consists in the application of the theory . I hope you will approve of Wallace's sketch, that I may tell him what you say . </P> <P> There were differences, though these were not evident to Darwin on reading the paper . Wallace's idea of selection was the environment eliminating the unfit rather than cut - throat competition among individuals, and he took an egalitarian view of the Dayak natives he was among, while Darwin had seen the Fuegians as backwards savages, albeit capable of improvement . </P> <P> It had come at a bad time, as his favourite retreat at Moor Spa was threatened by Lane being put on trial accused of adultery, and five days later Darwin's baby Charles Waring came down with scarlet fever . Darwin's first impression had been that though it meant losing priority, it would be dishonourable for him to be "induced to publish from privately knowing that Wallace is in the field", but Lyell quickly responded strongly urging him to reconsider . Darwin's reply of 25 June was a plea for advice, noting that the points in Wallace's sketch had been fully covered in his own Essay of 1844 which Hooker had read in 1847, and that he had also set out his ideas in a letter to Asa Gray in 1857, "so that I could most truly say and prove that I take nothing from Wallace . I should be extremely glad now to publish a sketch of my general views in about a dozen pages or so . But I cannot persuade myself that I can do so honourably...I would far rather burn my whole book than that he or any man should think that I had behaved in a paltry spirit". He added a request that Hooker be informed to give a second opinion . </P> <P> Darwin was overwrought when baby Charles Waring Darwin died on 28 June, and the next day acknowledged Hooker's letters saying "I cannot think now on the subject, but soon will ." That night he read the letters, and to meet Hooker's request, though "quite prostrated", got his servant to deliver Wallace's essay, the letter to Asa Gray and "my sketch of 1844 solely that you may see by your own handwriting that you did read it". He left matters in the hands of Lyell and Hooker, writing "Do not waste much time . It is miserable in me to care at all about priority ." </P>

Describe the event that pushed darwin to write and publish his book