WCP3215

Letter (WCP3215.3183)

[1]

28, NEW CAVENDISH STREET,

PORTLAND PLACE, W.

Sept. 25/1903

Dear Sir,

Many thanks for your kind letter1 respecting my Poems. I thought it very possible that some of them might interest you.

Your article2 in the Fortnightly for [2] March on "Man's Place in the Universe" made a profound impression on me. It seemed to me to suggest thoughts of the most immense and far-reaching significance. It is very probable that you are absolutely right in your idea. The counter-arguments of some of [3] the astronomers arrayed against you are very feeble.

I think you possibly did not see my two sonnets on your article. They appeared in the May Fortnightly.3 I enclose you a print of them. Perhaps, if not a trouble, you would kindly return it to me when read.

The chief difficulty in the view of the [4] full acceptance of your views appears to me to be, not an astronomical, but a spiritual and speculative one. If the dead still exist somewhere, in some form, there would never be room for them all on this planet. Does your thought suggest any answer to this difficulty?

I am, dear Sir, | yours truly | George Barlow4 [signature]

I shall greatly welcome your book.5

The letter has not been found.
Wallace, A. R. 1903. Man’s Place in the Universe. The Fortnightly Review 73 (1 March), pp. 395-411.
Barlow, George. 1903. Two sonnets. The Fortnightly Review 73 (1 May), p. 875.
Barlow, George (1847-1913). British poet who sometimes wrote under the pseudonym "James Hinton".
Postscript written on the top of page 1.

Please cite as “WCP3215,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3215