WCP3753

[1]¹

The Dell, Grays, Essex

April 26^th. 1873

Dear Huxley

Many thanks for your new volume the personal inscription in which renders it doubly valuable.² I have of course read most of the articles, but many of them hastily, and I shall be very glad of the opportunity of going over them again at my leisure. The one in which I find most that I disagree with, & which I was least prepared for from you, is the first.³ I believe in the fundamental truth of Spencer's⁴ views on the subject, and although the existing social organism has been cramped and deformed by so many & so long continued governmental shackles that it might be unable at once to [2] walk straight if they were all suddenly removed, I cannot believe that they are permanently necessary, or that our only business is to replace them by others of rather better construction.

As Spencer's heavy artillery⁵ does not disturb you, you will not mind a few small shot [sic] from me should I find the opportunity to deliver them.

I regret that I am now so shut out from my London friends, but the fact is that I somewhat incautiously began a battle [3] with Nature in this place, & it takes me a great deal of time & money to carry it on, & this with a little writing & work at a book I have in hand, fills up all my time. I hope however someday you and Mrs. Huxley⁶ will spend a quiet Sunday with us here.

Believe me | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace. [signature]