WCP4143

[1]¹

Frith Hill, Godalming

July 27th. 1884

Dear Mr. Galton

A friend has just informed me that he has been told by one of the Agents for the Sale of the Ordnance Maps that it is not intended to complete the Hill-Shading on the new issue of the one-inch maps. One of the sheets in our district no — 285 has been issued with the hill shaded & it is a very beautiful map, and I cannot understand why all should not be done in the same way, as it so greatly adds to the value & interest and even to the intelligibility of the Maps, which without the hills are often difficult to make out, especially as the great irregularity with which roads & paths are marked renders mistakes very easily. Footpaths are sometimes marked as roads, while no difference is made [2] between mere field-roads & tracks, & regular metalled highways. I think some protest should be made if it is really true that the hill-shading is not to be done to the present detriment of the Maps as an educational instrument. Can you not get some M.P. of your acquaintance to bring the matter before Parliament?

I have been just reading your "Inquiries into Human Faculty"² with great interest and profit. I now however only write to remark on one point — your discussion as to the "objective efficacy of prayer." It seems to me that the method of general statistical inquiry you have adopted cannot possibly lead to true results in This [3] Case because it assumes two things one of which is certainly not, the other probably not, true. These are — that the form of prayer has the same efficacy as the essence of it, — and, that all persons can have their prayers answered in the same way.

It seems to me that there is an equally good test to be found in the cases of individuals, whose prayers have been objectively answered, not once only but scores & hundreds of times; not generally, but specifically and in detail. Two such cases are those of the Curé d Ars³, and George Müller⁴ of Bristol. I have pointed out the great importance of the latter case in my "Miracles and [4] Modern Spiritualism" pp. 209 — 211, and if you still feel any interest in the question I strongly recommend you to get his — "Narrative of some of the Lord's dealings with George Muller". 6th. Ed. 1860, — or any late edition if there is one, and I think you will find there, evidence from which there is no escape that his prayers again and again objectively answered. Of course it rests in his statement only in the book, but it would certainly be possible to get corobborarative[sic] testitmony[sic] from some of the persons who aided him with early struggles of his work, & of the numerous nurses & attendants at the Orphanages. I really hope you will go into this as a mere question of scientific fact.

NB. The book consists largely of a diary, made day-by-day, reading all the extraordinary events at the very time they occurred.

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

J. Galton Esq.