WCP4181

[1]

166, Brook Road,

Upper Clapton, N.E.

Nov[ember]^r 24 1905

Dear Sir,

Fresh from reading your last work "My Life"¹ which is of encyclopaedic interest to me, I feel sure you will not resent, as presumptuous, me sending you enclosed little book.²

There reference in "My Life" to your first article in the "Fortnightly" on the earth’s central position in the universe revived the argument in which you will find expressed in Sonnet XIII, page 15.

The instruction and pleasure I have derived from your books have been delightfully revivified in those last 2 volumes; but it always seemed to me too much like an impertinence to write and [2] thank you personally as, I gather from your autobiography, some of your readers are in the habit of doing.

The latter part of "Darwinism"³ surprised and I might almost say inspired me as would some supernatural revelation. After the deeply interesting, though purely physical details of the bulk of the work, it was like opening a door into the world of Spirit. I have made frequent use since of the weapon put in my hand (both in writing and conversation) against absolute materialism.

Also in ^an attempt at romantic fiction called "Van Saaften[?] in Java" contributed some years ago to the "University Magazine", I borrowed local colouring from the "Malay Archipelago"⁴ which I acknowledged in a foot-note.

[3] I am neither technically nor studiously scientific, and yet I find in your writings not only lucidity of instruction; but the indescribable charm which makes me return again and again to that which is literature.

I trust the liberty I have taken in writing is not unpardonable.

Yours faithfully | L. Eastwood Kidson [signature]

D^r Alfred Russel Wallace