he
more I differ from you about the females being dull-coloured for
protection. I can now hardly express myself as strongly even as in the
"Origin." This has _much decreased_ the pleasure of my work.

In the course of September, if I can get at all stronger, I hope to get
Mr. J. Jenner Weir (who has been _wonderfully_ kind in giving me
information) to pay me a visit, and I will then write for the chance of
your being able to come and, I hope, bring with you Mrs. Wallace. If I
could get several of you together, it would be less dull for you, for of
late I have found it impossible to talk with any human being for more
than half an hour, except on extraordinarily good days.--Believe me, my
dear Wallace, ever yours sincerely,

CH. DARWIN.

* * * * *

_9 St. Mark's Crescent. August 30, [1868?]._

Dear Darwin,--I was very sorry to hear you had been so unwell again, and
hope you will not exert yourself to write me such long letters.
Darwinianism was in the ascendant at Norwich (I hope you do not dislike
the word, for we really _must_ use it), and I think it rather disgusted
some of the parsons, joined with the amount of _advice_ they received
from Hooker and Huxley. The worst of it is that there are no opponents
left who know anything of natural history, so that there are none of the
good discussions we used to have. G.H. Lewes seems to me to be making a
great mistake in the _Fortnightly_, advocating _many distinct_ origins
for different groups, and even, if I understand him, distinct origins
for some allied groups, just as the anthropologists do who make the red
man descend from the orang, the black man from the chimpanzee--or rather
the Malay and orang one ancestor, the negro and chimpanzee another. Vogt
told me that the Germans are all becoming converted by your last book.

I am certainly surprised that you should find so much evidence against
protection having checked the acquirement of bright colour in females;
but I console myself by presumptuously hoping that I can explain your
facts, unless they are derived from the very groups on which I chiefly
rest--birds and insects. There is nothing _necessarily_ requiring
protection in females; it is a matter of habits. There are groups in
which both sexes require protection in an exactly equal degree, and
others (I think) in which the male requires most protection, and I feel
the greatest confidence that these will ultimately support my view,