WCP497

[1]

[in ARW’s hand] Answ^d

Tankerville, Boscombe

Bournemouth, Nov. 27, 1903

Dear Sir,

I have now read, with great pleasure, Man’s Place in the U.¹ Not being an astronomer, I accept the conclusions of the experts, as so ably presented by you. But I do this most gladly, as your conclusions harmonize with my own ideas. I have long wanted a centre for the universe, & now this seems forthcoming. The extraordinary & most harmonious balance of life-elements on this planet is singularly striking. Your argumentation throughout is singularly lucid & is expressed with great temperance. If I might suggest any alteration in a future edit, it would be the omission of such a passage as that about pure air (pps. 259 — 61). [2] Not that I am ignorant of the merits of pure air, but (1) it seems somewhat foreign to the general subject & (2) your veins are expressed so strongly, that a critic inclined to be hostile, would perhaps be ill-disposed to your astronomy on that account. Most illogical, you will say, but that is just what many of these critics are. I have learned very much from your volume & am greatly obliged to you for it. When I go home (Priestgate House, Barton on Humber, Hull), I shall hope to send you a short Paper on a Euphratean circle of 360°. I felt sure the Babylonians had this, & discovered a Tablet containing it. I think you will admit we have got a great deal from the Euphrates Valley, & I hope my book on the constellations — [3] it is [illeg.] work — will, to some extent, interest you. I am a Linc. [Lincolnshire] man & revere Tennyson,² whom I knew slightly. I wrote the In Memoriam Poem on his death for the county. With all good wishes[.]

Yours faithfully | Rob^t Brown Junr.³ [signature]

Dr. Alfred R. Wallace