WCP5498

Alameda¹

5/23, 1887

Dear John²

I am apprised from a lady friend in the east, that she has given a letter of introduction to me from Alfred R Wallace, the celebrated English scientist, who will arrive in S[an]. F[rancisco]. to-day. I have written to to [sic] him, inviting him to lunch on Thursday; to ride up to the Red wood grave yard³ in the P.M. & to be a guest of the Berkeley Club in the evening. Now I want you to come down & join us without fail. If you can come Wednesday evening & stop over night, all the better.

[2] There is a serene atmosphere pervades the moral & intellectual world, which will be highly conducive to your general health. The proper way to treat English scientific Darwinian metaphysicians is to lend them a pair of convex lenses so that they can see further backwards into the problems of nature, while we lead them over new ground of exploration. If, by any impossibility[?] you cant come, send me a note immediately, so that I may substitute —unwillingly — some other scientific — I was going to say cuss, but I wont. If Wallace has preengaged [sic] him self we can have our own time. With kind regards to your wife & the doctors family I am

very truly yours | W. P. Gibbons⁴ [signature]