I did not go to Cambridge--I had my hands full here. I was not sorry for the excuse. There seemed to me a note of insincerity about the whole business. I am short-tempered. I cannot stand being told that the origin of species has still to be discovered, and that specific differences have no "reality" (Bateson's Essay, p. 89). People are of course at liberty to hold such opinions, but decency might have presented another occasion for ventilating them.--Yours sincerely, W.T. THISELTON-DYER. * * * * * SIR W.T. THISELTON-DYER TO A.R. WALLACE _The Ferns, Witcombe, Gloucester. July 11, 1909._ Dear Mr. Wallace,-- ... I have just got F. Darwin's "Foundations." He tries to make out that his father could have dispensed with Malthus. But the selection death-rate in a slightly varying large population is _the_ pith of the whole business. The Darwin-Wallace theory is, as you say, "the continuous adjustment of the organic to the inorganic world." It is what mathematicians call "a moving equilibrium." In fact, I have always maintained that it is a mathematical conception. It seemed to me there was a touch of insincerity about the whole celebration,[37] as the younger Cambridge School as a whole do not even begin to understand the theory.... I take it that the reason is, as you pointed out, that none of them are naturalists.--Yours sincerely, W.T. THISELTON-DYER. * * * * * TO DR. ARCHDALL REID _Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset. December 28, 1909._ Dear Dr. Archdall Reid,--Many thanks for your very interesting and complimentary letter. I am very glad to hear of your new book, which I doubt not will be very interesting and instructive. The subjects you treat are, however, so very complex, and require so much accurate knowledge of the facts, and so much sound reasoning upon them, that I cannot possibly undertake the labour and thought required before I should feel justified in expressing an opinion upon your treatment of them.... I rejoice to hear that you have exposed the fallacy of the claims of the Mendelians. I have also tried to do so, but I find it quite impossible for me to follow their detailed studies and arguments. It wants a mathematical mind, which I have not.