WCP1339

Letter (WCP1339.1118)

[1]

Tankerville, Boscombe,

Bournemouth,

Dec. 2, 1903

Dear Sir

In reply to yours of the 29th as soon as I get home I will see if I can find a copy of Languages for you. Nearly all my works are out of print. They were only for a small class of readers & not very many copies were printed. This was a Paper I wrote for the Victoria Institute, & which some bigots on it thought not orthodox eno' to bind with the Proceedings, though they printed it. I said that the crux of language was not contained in 'occult imitation.'

I have lived for many years deep in the country I have never been able, had I desired, to earwig editors & critics, so I [2] have got along as best I could, but Gladstone,1 Max Muller,2 Sayce,3 Sir P le Page Renout4 & many others have always taken much interest in my work. I should just like you to notice the Frontispiece in Vol. 2 from which you will see that by the aid of two existing Fragments I have restored the Euphratean Planisphere, & a Fragments shows that its constellations were nearly all those which we have at present, excepting of course the modern additions. You will observe that the Euphrateans made a very fair start with astronomy & that the Greeks borrowed very much which it has generally been supposed they discovered

yours very truly | R. Brown Jr [signature]

[3]

P.S. As to Socialism, ‘at present we have only the word between us’, as Plato says, I can imagine one kind of it which might be grand & beneficial, & another which would spell ruin & anarchy.

Gladstone, William Ewart (1809-1898). British politician; Prime Minister 1868-74, 1880-5, 1886, 1892-4; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1852-5, 1859-66, 1873-4, 1880-2.
Müller, Friedrich Max (1823-1900). German scholar of comparative language, religion, and mythology.
Sayce, Octavius Albert (1862-1911). Australian bacteriologist and naturalist.
Renouf, Peter le Page (1822-1897). British professor, Egyptologist, and museum director, best known for his translation of The Book of the Dead.

Please cite as “WCP1339,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1339