Charles Darwin autograph letter signed, dated Wednesday, 1 February [1854], five years before he published his groundbreaking "On the Origin of Species" in 1859. Writing from his home in "Down Bromley Kent", Darwin here orders the "1st + likewise the 10th Editions of the Vestiges of Creation / Also the 2nd Edition of Baden Powell's Unity of Worlds...C. Darwin". Published anonymously until Robert Chambers claimed authorship with the 12th edition in 1884, "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" was hugely popular across the globe when it was originally published in 1844. It was the first widely read book on evolution (then called the "natural history of creation") and suggests that every being on the planet developed from earlier forms in the solar system. Darwin believed that, without this book, his "Origin of the Species" would have been too controversial for the public to accept. Single page letter has some dampstaining along top, paper loss at lower right inlaid and a closed tear and creasing along right side. Overall very good condition. An exceptionally rare letter by Darwin referencing an earlier work on evolution that influenced his own.