WCP2388

[1]

[12 February 1879]¹

A. R. Wallace Esqr

Sir —

Ever since the appearance of your admirable articles on Colour in animals and plants² and Mr. Gladstone’s³ diagnosis of Homer’s organ of colour,⁴ I have given much attention to the question of development of the colour-sense. Being a special student of Comparative and physiological psychology, (at present holder of a Harvard University Fellowship,) I have had unusual opportunities for investigating the matter, as I could give all my time to it; and I have now embodied the results of my labors in the article which lies before you. Last week, when it was almost completed, I wrote to Mr. John Morley,⁵telling him about the paper, and asking permission to submit it to his editorial judgment; but he replied that his hands were so "absolutely and embarrassingly full" that he could not possibly make room for it for a long time to come. I am afraid that similar replies would be sent to me, in case [2] [text damaged] should write to other magazines [text damaged] since unfortunately I am as yet a young man unknown to English editors. I have however, for two years been a regular correspondent of the New York Nation, and have also published articles in the Atlantic and Lippincott’s Monthlies. But, as you are doubtless aware, our foremost magazines are principally devoted to politics and to love-stories. My patriotism sinks to several degrees below zero every time I compare the contents of our magazines with those published in your country. An article on the "Aesthetic value of the Sense of Smell", which I sent to the Atlantic almost a year ago was accepted, but has not yet appeared. The same might have been the result had I sent this article of on the Colour-sense to America. As, moreover, the question of the prehistoric development of the colour-sense is of English origin, and is just now very much discussed in your country, my views would doubtless receive more attention there than elsewhere. I have, therefore, after much hesitation, made up my mind to send my paper to you, and ask you if you would not be so kind as to forward it to some editor who would be likely to accept it and publish it without much [3] delay. I am aware that I am asking what may possibly seem to you a gross piece of impertinence, as your time is doubtless fully occupied with your own labours. Nor, I assure you would I have dared to trouble you with this matter had I not hoped that you might be personally interested in my theories and in the facts which I have dug out of the mines of German erudition. My theory, as you will see, is essentially an endeavor to carry the same line of argument which you started in your essays where you attit attributed the confusion in the use of colour-epithets in Homer, etc. to a defective nomenclature. Only I have, beside offering some new arguments, endeavor to show also that ^what this imperfect nomenclature is due to:- viz. the anthropomorphic tendency of the Greek mind, which is revealed in their art, mythology and literature, and which prevented them from taking an interest in nature per se, with her manifold hues and tints. The Greeks, according to my view had not a defective organ of colour, but they lac^ked aesthetic culture in regard to colour and its harmonies [4] you may [text damaged] way I have been able to show in not a striking manner Comparative anatomy confirms Mr. Darwin’s⁶ and your own theories in regard to the existence of a colour-sense in the lower animals; and my confirmation of your suggestion that birds very possibly herein excel [sic] mammals. The fact that the yellow spot, which is the most favorable part of our retina, for perceiving colours, is of all mammals common only to man and apes (apes alone of mammals having sexual colour — like birds) might perhaps make a mention for Mr. Darwin’s Descent of Man, Vols. I & II.⁷

I trust that my enthusiasm in this matter will serve as a partial excuse of my boldness in begging your patronage; but if your time is entirely taken up with other matters, let me assure you that I shall consider it perfectly in order if you will simply be so kind to as to return the article with the enclosed stamps.

Very respectfully yours | Henry T. Finck⁸ [signature] (A. B.)

In den Zelten 18a

N. W. Berlin,

Germ