WCP2995

[1]¹

29, FINCHLEY ROAD,

LONDON. N. W.

8. October. 1910.

Dr. A R Wallace. O.M. F.R.S.

Broadstone. Wimborne.

My dear Sir,

I am sure you will allow me to express my intense interest in the work on the "World of Life"² you are about to publish. Had I known of this I should have delayed a book of my own that was issued last month by Mess^r. Skeffington.³

This book, which I have had in hand some 7 or 8 years, was greatly indebted to your work on "Man's Place in the Universe".⁴ I quote from it several times & allude to it in other chapters. Your idea that biologically Man was an ultimate, & that astronomically this little planet was centrally situated so fascinated me that I carried the idea of our dominant position into the realm of Theology, & have endeavoured to show that Science & Theology, starting from different points, arrive at the same conclusion.

But from what I can hear of your new work you are extending your views into a region beyond Science, & showing there is a directive mind, & an [2] 2. ultimate purpose behind all this display of Energy. This is the view I have tried to set forth as you will see from the enclosed Publisher's Leaflet & I only wish I had waited a little longer to enable me to read what you have to say.

I believe I am also indebted to you for that very useful word "preter-human" — used in one of your earlier books. As a member of the Society for Psychical Research I think the coinage of this word is invaluable.

Please do not consider this letter requires any acknowledgement. It is only a tribute to what I owe you in a book that is published anonymously.

I am, My dear Sir, | yours with grateful homage | R. Nevill. Roberts⁵ [signature]

[3]⁶