WCP3059

[1]

April 12/[18]90

My Dear Wallace

I will read you pamphlet most carefully; will write & tell you how it affects me; & will in any case send it on with your letter & a letter of my own to Sir John Frost¹, whom I know well[?illeg] & whom I agree with you in thinking/regarding as the most accessible[?or acceptable] member of his government.

If I am converted, it will by wholly your doing. I have read much on the subject, —Creighton², etc & am at present strongly pro-vaccination. At the same time, there is no-one for whom I would more willingly be converted than yourself.

I am glad to take this opportunity of telling you something about ^{my relation to} one of your books. I write now from bed, having had severe[?illeg] [2] influenzic pneumonia, now going off.

For some days my temp. was 105^o & I was very restless at night, — anxious to read, but ⁱⁿ too sensitive & fastidious a state to tolerate almost any book. I found that almost the only book wh(which) I cd.(could) read was your *Malay Archipelego. In spite of my complete ignorance of natural history there was a certain [?illeg word] of charm about the book, both moral & literary, wh(which) made it deeply congenial in those trying hours. You have had few less instructed readers,— but very few can have dwelt on that simple manly[?illeg] record unto a more profound sympathy.

I want to respect you as a friend at court. When we get into the next world, I beg you to remember me, and say a good word for [3] me when you can, as you will have much influence there.

To me it seems that Hodgson’s³ Affront is the best thing wh(which) we have got published. I trust that it impresses you equally. It has converted Podmore,⁴ amongst other people!

I will, then, write again soon & I am[?illeg] most truly | FW H Myers [signature]