To the following letter from Mr. Gladstone, Wallace attached this pencil note: "In 1881 I put forth the first idea of mouth-gesture as a factor in the origin of language, in a review of E.B. Tylor's 'Anthropology,' and in 1895 I extended it into an article in the _Fortnightly Review_, and reprinted it with a few further corrections in my 'Studies,' under the title 'The Expressiveness of Speech or Mouth-Gesture as a Factor in the Origin of Language.' In it I have developed a completely new principle in the theory of the origin of language by showing that every motion of the jaws, lips and tongue, together with inward or outward breathing, and especially the mute or liquid consonants ending words which serve to indicate abrupt or continuous motion, have corresponding meanings in so many cases as to show a fundamental connection. I thus enormously extended the principle of onomatopoeia in the origin of vocal language. As I have been unable to find any reference to this important factor in the origin of language, and as no competent writer has pointed out any fallacy in it, I think I am justified in supposing it to be new and important. Mr. Gladstone informed me that there were many thousands of illustrations of my ideas in Homer."--A.R.W. * * * * * W.E. GLADSTONE TO A.R. WALLACE _Hawarden Castle, Chester. October 18, 1895._ Dear Sir,--Your kindness in sending me your most interesting article draws on you the inconvenience of an acknowledgment. My pursuits in connection with Homer, especially, have made me a confident advocate of the doctrine that there is, within limits, a connection in language between sound and sense. I would consent to take the issue simply on English words beginning with _st_. You go upon a kindred class in _sn_. I do not remember a perfectly _innocent_ word, a word habitually used _in bonam partem_, and beginning with _sn_, except the word "snow," and "snow," as I gather from _Schnee_, is one of the worn-down words. May I beg to illustrate you once more on the ending in _p_. I take our old schoolboy combinations: hop, skip and jump. Each motion an ending motion; and to each word closed with _p_ compare the words _run, rennen, courir, currere._ But I have now a new title to speak. It is deafness; and I know from deafness that I run a worse chance with a man whose mouth is covered with beard and moustache. A young relation of mine, slightly deaf, was sorely put to it in an University examination because one of his examiners was _secretal_ in this way. I will not trouble you further except to express, with misgiving, a doubt on a single point, the final _f_. In driving with Lord Granville, who was deaf but not very deaf, I had occasion to mention to him the Duke of _Fife_, I used every effort, but in no way could I contrive to make him hear the word.