WCP5718

[1] [p. 159]

MR. JOHN (LORD) MORLEY TO A. R. WALLACE

57 Elm Park Gardens, S. W.

October 31, 1900.

My dear Sir,—

For some reason, though your letter is dated the 20th, it has only reached me, along with the two volumes, to-day. I feel myself greatly indebted to you for both. In older days I often mused upon e passage of yours in the "Malay Archipelago" contrasting the condition of certain types of savage life with that of life in a modern [2] [p. 160] industrial city. And I shall gladly turn again to the subject in these pages, new to me, where you come to close quarters with the problem.

But my time and my mind are at present neither of them free for the effective consideration of this mighty case. Nor can I promise myself the requisite leisure for

at least several months to come. What I can do is to set your arguments a-simmering in my brain, and perhaps when the time of liberation arrives I may be in a state

to make something of it. I don’t suppose that I shall be a convert, but I always remember J. S. Mill’s observation, after recapitulating the evils to be apprehended

from Socialism, that he would face them in spite of all, if the only alternative to Socialism were our present state.—

With sincere thanks and regard, believe me yours faithfully.

JOHN MORLEY.