[1] [p. 68]
TO DR. ARCHDALL REID
Parkstone.
April 28, 1896.
Dear Sir,—
"We can but reason from the facts we know." We know a good deal of the senses of the higher animals, very little of those of insects. If we find — as I think we do — that all cases of supposed "instinctive knowledge" in the former turn out to be merely intuitive reactions to various kinds of stimulus, combined with very rapidly acquired experience, we shall be justified in thinking that the actions of the latter will some day be similarly explained. When Lloyd Morgan's2 book is published we shall have much information on this question. (See "Natural Selection and Tropical Nature," pp.91-7.)-
Yours truly,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP5632.6434)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP5632,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on