WCP1507

Letter (WCP1507.1286)

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset, Eng.

Septr. 16th. 1893

B. F. Underwood1 Esq.

Dear Sir

Many thanks for sending me copies of the R. P. Journal2 critg my paper at the Psychical Congress. I am glad it was considered interesting as it was written in a great hurry at the last moment, when I had given up the idea of writing anything having had no recent experiences & nothing new to say. Then I suddenly thought of a sketch of the progress of opinion within my own experience [2] might do, and I sat down & wrote it off in one evening & mailed it at once to Prof. Coues3at Washington, which caused it to be almost too late.

I am glad you had Mr. F. W. H. Myers4 at the Congress. He is our greatest worker, & thinker, & writer, on Psycho-Spiritual subjects, and he is I believe much more advanced as a spiritualist than his writings show. He however knows his public, & is cautious not to frighten it by going too [3] fast.

Believe me | yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

[4] Prof Alfred Wallace5

Underwood, Benjamin Franklin (1839-1914). Editor of the Religio-Philosophical Journal.
The Religio-Philosophical Journal.
Coues, Elliott (1842-1899). American army surgeon, historian, ornithologist and author.
Myers, Frederic William Henry (1843-1901). British poet, classicist, philologist, and founder of the Society of Psychical Research.
Probably in the hand of Underwood.

Please cite as “WCP1507,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1507