WCP5727

[1] [p. 175]

Broadstone, Wimborne.

February 28, 1905.

Dear Mrs. Fisher,

— Thanks for your letter. Am sorry I have not converted you, but perhaps it will come yet! I will only make one remark as to your conclusion.

I have not attempted to prove a negative! That is not necessary. What I claim to have done is, to have shown that all the evidence we have, be it much or little, is decidedly against not only other solar planets having inhabitants, but also, as far as probabilities are concerned, equally against it in any supposed stellar planets — for not one has been proved to exist. There is absolutely no evidence which shows even a probability of there being other inhabited worlds. It is all pure speculation, depending upon our ideas as to what the universe is for, as to what we think (some of us!) ought to be! That is not evidence, even of the flimsiest. All I maintain is that mine is evidence, founded on physical probabilities, and that, as against no evidence at all — no proved physical probability — mine holds the field!

Yours very truly, | Alfred R. Wallace.