WCP2482

[1]

Bank Buildings

Kingsway

London. W.C.

Dec[ember]. 15^th 1910

Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace,

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Wimborne,

Dorset.

Dear Dr Wallace,

I have just been devouring your book. But I write to say that I am not going to let any one-eyed specialist of a biologist loose upon your book. Its importance is far greater than that, and I will allow no one but myself to summarise it, and present to the readers of the "Review of Reviews" the great tidings of joy which you have so fearlessly presented to the world. It is, as you say, that so many people choose to believe in hell rather than in heaven. I told Archdeacon Wilberforce¹ the other day that your chapter on Is Pain Cruel ? ought to be read aloud in all the Churches. I was particularly pleased that you should have ventured to quote Miss Doten’s² trance address in your closing pages. It makes the enemy to blaspheme, no doubt, but it will do them good. I was confirmed in my reluctance to act [2] upon your suggestion by reading Clodd’s³ review in the "Daily Chronicle" to-day. Clodd is one of those men who seem to have the same passionate longing to believe in the purposeless eternity of pain in this world which mankind marvels at when found expression in the savage zeal with which orthodox theologians used to contemplate damned souls grilling in hell.

I am | Yours sincerely | W. Stead [signature]⁴