Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1Wallace, Alfred Russel
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Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Naturalists -- Correspondence; Wallace, Alfred Russel, 1823-1913
If you had not told me I should have thought that they had been added by
someone else. As you expected, I differ grievously from you, and I am
very sorry for it.
I can see no necessity for calling in an additional and proximate cause
in regard to Man. But the subject is too long for a letter.
I have been particularly glad to read your discussion, because I am now
writing and thinking much about Man.
I hope that your Malay book sells well. I was extremely pleased with the
article in the _Q.J. of Science_, inasmuch as it is thoroughly
appreciative of your work. Alas! you will probably agree with what the
writer says about the uses of the bamboo.
I hear that there is also a good article in the _Saturday Review_, but
have heard nothing more about it.--Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours
ever sincerely,
CH. DARWIN.
P.S.--I have had a baddish fall, my horse partly rolling over me; but I
am getting rapidly well.
* * * * *
_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. April 18, 1869._
Dear Darwin,--I am very glad you think I have done justice to Lyell, and
have also well "exposed" (as a Frenchman would say) Natural Selection.
There is nothing I like better than writing a little account of it, and
trying to make it clear to the meanest capacity.
The "Croll" question is awfully difficult. I had gone into it more
fully, but the Editor made me cut out eight pages.
I am very sorry indeed to hear of your accident, but trust you will soon
recover and that it will leave no bad effects.
I can quite comprehend your feelings with regard to my "unscientific"
opinions as to Man, because a few years back I should myself have
looked at them as equally wild and uncalled for. I shall look with
extreme interest for what you are writing on Man, and shall give full
weight to any explanations you can give of his probable origin. My
opinions on the subject have been modified solely by the consideration
of a series of remarkable phenomena, physical and mental, which I have
now had every opportunity of fully testing, and which demonstrate the
existence of forces and influences not yet recognised by science. This
will, I know, seem to you like some mental hallucination, but as I can
assure you from personal communication with them, that Robert Chambers,
Dr. Norris of Birmingham, the well-known physiologist, and C.F. Varley,
the well-known electrician, who have all investigated the subject for
years, agree with me both as to the facts and as to the main inferences
to be drawn from them, I am in hopes that you will suspend your judgment
for a time till we exhibit some corroborative symptoms of insanity.
In the meantime I can console you by the assurance that I _don't_ agree
with the _Q.J. of Science_ about bamboo, and that I see no cause to
modify any of my opinions expressed in my article on the "Reign of
Law."--Believe me yours very faithfully,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
* * * * *
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