WCP2908

[1]¹

Inverquharity

19/7/[19]08²

Dear D^r. Wallace —

I was highly pleased to get y[ou]^r letter. I hardly expected that you would have cared for my frivolous little book of riddles. I am little good at guessing other people[']s riddles. (It is so much easier to make them). As But we are going to tackle the ones you sent me.

As to the insoluble one, all I can make of it is — 5 + 5 + 45 = 55 = LV.; add 2 of the chief letters O & E. and you have Love. I do not know whether any King ever died of Love, but many people have gone mad over it. But it does not seem a good answer.

As to seeds & bulbs, I was disappointed at getting so few sent me, after having enlisted so many in the search. My best man was ill in the seeding season & could only send in 2- Waratah³ & Blandfordia⁴ — which I forwarded. I am trying again. The Botanical Garden⁵ could not help me — Nor Rodway⁶ the Botanist though both willing. I have many never seen seeds in the heath[?], but will seek & will surely get something at any rate. -

Thanks for "Light"⁷. Much of the occult seems to me highly probable. Communicating between mind & mind are merely Ethergrams⁸; & I don't see why another mind may not "exchange" with mine[,] if only its Sensorium⁹ is "keyed" to mine, which may only happen in rare cases. As to Spirit I confess myself sceptical but ignorant. I was deeply interested in all that concerned

mind v matter but could never (in this out of the way corner) get in contact with it; & I know [1 word illeg.] the organs of, [1 word illeg.]¹⁰, [1 word illeg.]¹¹ & a few others were once excited, credibility be [1 word illeg.] easy: though I know this[,] you of all people with your scientific training and thoroughly open mind should be proof against[?] this danger. But if I am told (as I have been) that a man has thrown a rope up in the air, climbed up it out of sight and then pulled the rope up after him[,] I don't think it would be possible for me to believe this it. Without actually witnessing it and closely cross-examining the facts — and by [1 word illeg.] us to spirits is not only the common [2] obviously indellible [sic?] one but also this — that the older I grow the deeper the conviction is to me in upon once that what we call Spirit — a thing that can know — (as we know everything else —) simply by its attributes — in this case. Consciousness, emotion, will to[,] is [sic] simply a result of chemical reactions in the brain[,] as fire is briefly the result of chemical reaction in the fuel — and when it goes out — it goes out. I see this mind, or spirit, or whatever you like to call it, gradually coming into being in the infant, developing with the growth of his body, decoupling decaying with senility; I see it affected by chumcal chemicals, by narcotics & intoxicants, by disease, by physical injury, by pressure on the brain. I see that if the skull is smaller than so many inches, it never develops at all: and so on. It seems no more credible that mind can be floating about, in the air or the ether, ready to enter[?] fuel. -

Further, there seems no logical escape from Determinism. I can conceive of no act of this that is not the sole inevitable, result of 3 outside causes — (1) Heredity (meaning the disposition and capacities with which we [1 word illeg.] at birth — (2). Education, including in that term all the influences that have been brought to bear upon us since birth. and (3) the circumstances at the moment. — The older I grow (74 now) the more I disbelieve in our minds & with being final Causes[?] [.] They must be effects of precedents & surroundings, and every one unconsciously recognises this, without recognising that they he recognises it, by always seeking for a motive, & when they can't find a rational one, saying that the man is mad — i e. that his act is the product of diseases — [.] Of course this disposes of all Responsibility — of Virtue & Vice — & is a more dangerous doctrine[.] I know all that, & keep my ideas to myself as much as I can[,] even from my grown up children. Still the truth seems to me to point that way. That I happen to be so constituted that I have neither the desire nor the power to play tricks with truthfulness (which seems to me after all, more valuable than both) & twist facts to suit a desirable belief. And never[?] when I don't feel that I am [4 words struck though illeg.] weakened in my general desire to do right¹²: though I admit that happily my means & my tastes tastes have prevented me from my particular temptation & do wrong. Possibly — probably — if I were sorely tempted I might fail. After all, every rope has its breaking strain. Lucky is the Man whose rope has never been subjected to it. I can only hope mine never will be. After all we can but act upon Deliriums[?] as a creed. Even the Turkish fatalist and the Calvinists Calvinist believe in pre election — acts much the same as other people — I have justified[?] my "Darwinism: [2 words illeg.] ["]¹³. I didn't think you quite understood the purpose with which it was written — It was written for the many who not only did not know anything about Darw[i]ⁿ. but didn't want to know, thought it was an absurd belief & wicked — but who getting hold of my little book

¹⁴would be so fascinated by the story that they he would stick to it till they he finished it & rise with the entire new idea of what [1 word struck though illeg.]

Evolution means — & their his whole mental outlook changed. I have had personal assurance that it had that effect.

A really scientific treatise by a Scientist would not have had that effect. Its dryness would have revolted — Pray excuse this long screed — my pen ran away with me —

Yours sincerely | A. J. Ogilvy [signature]