WCP3482

[1]^{1, 2}

CHAMBERS’S ENCYCLOPAEDIA.

339. High Street

Edinburgh

23^rd Feb 1911

Dear Sir,

Writing near the beginning of 1911 and so soon after the appearance of The World of Life,³ I cannot help congratulating you on your mar- [2] vellous energy, and honestly desiring that it may be maintained to the full in this and years to come.

In 1890 or 1891 you were good enough to write for Chambers's Encyclopaedia the admirable article on "Spiritualism",⁴ which appeared in the volume published in 1892 and was reprinted more than [3] once unchanged. We are contemplating at present a review reprint of the Encyclopaedia, those articles which require it being rewritten or altered.

I do not in the least wish to have your contribution altered at all unless you think it necessary. But I do not feel free to reprint the [4] article so have since left it to your hand without submitting it to you. If you are content to pass as it is, I shall be more than content. If on the other hand you think some passages should be changed, pray alter what you think requires alteration.

By the conditions of publication (a [5]^{5, 6} reprint from the original plates altered where necessary) I am precluded from asking you to extend the article. If you make additions, pray indicate where corresponding excisions [6] might be made. As the end only I could, by abridging the following articles, secure a little additional space.

If you will at your convenience — and this article will not require to go to press till May [7] or June — review the article for me, you will do not us merely but a wide circle of readers a very great favour.

I enclose a copy of the article as it stands for your [8] revision, if you will be pleased to do us the great service.

Yours very faithfully | David Patrick⁷ [signature] (Editor)

To Alfred Russel Wallace OM., D.C.L., F.R.S.