WCP82

[1]

Broadstone, Wimbourne.

Nov^r. 1^st. 1903

My dear Will¹

Your letter to Violet² received this morning was so cheerful & entertaining that I feel almost afraid of sending my very common-place budget of odds & ends. Having at last got books & book-writing off my hands for a time, & having finished most of my arrears of correspondence I am devoting myself chiefly to gardening, & entertaining or instructive reading. I have also an interesting occupation in getting information & help for Fred[erick] Birch³ who has now quite decided to go to British Guiana & will probably sail early in January. Should you by chance happen to meet any Engineer or Merchant or Manufacturer who has friends or correspondents there [2] please find out if they know anyone there with any taste for natural history who would be likely to help a young naturalist with advice, information, or introductions.

I have just had a letter & a book from a L[ieutenan]t Col[onel] W. Sedgewick, living at Godalming. The book is called — "Man’s Position in the Universe"⁴ — and he claims that any book extends & supports his views. I have looked through it, but, as the Yankees say, I take no stock in it. It is a kind of scientific sketchly cosmogony. He seems to know something of chemistry & makes a great deal of the new inert elements — Argon &c. He tries to begin at the very beginning, with the constituents of atoms, which he [3] thinks were all inert & formed a kind of gas by motion in all directions. Then he argues that they could never combine into atoms, molecules, & matter, without being fitted together, & uses the Periodic System of the Elements to prove this in one a way I cannot follow. Then he says the universe is complete without man — all works harmoniously without him — minerals, gases, plants — herbivora, carnivora — all adapted to each other & might go on for ever. Man disturbs the order. He exterminates species, destroys forests, digs up coal, & thus breaks up all the order of nature. He must therefore have come into existence for some other purpose than to destroy the beauty & harmony of nature — this purpose is [4] found in his intellectual & moral nature which fits him for continuous life elsewhere. This is rather an original & neat argument, but the greater part of the book has little connection with it, and is full of the vaguest notions & frequent references to the bible, &c.

A few weeks back there was a review in "Nature"⁵ of Osborne Reynolds⁶ book on the Universe⁷, evidently by some big mathematician. He deals with the general idea as very ingenious & perhaps possible & true, but he says there are many obscurities in the mathematical reasoning, and some actual errors unless they are misprints. But he thinks it a grand attempt to explain everything & may be as epoch-making as the theory of gravitation.

[5] I have had about a dozen reviews of my book in daily papers, but none really good, because the reviewers seem never to have read it through, for want of time, and most of them are quite afraid of committing themselves to anything the astronomers have criticised. It is only when the weekly, monthly, or quarterly periodicals review ^it that there is likely to be anything really careful and independent. I hope some of them will give it to Prince Kropotkin⁸ to review, or ^to some other good all-round man, not a specialist astronomer, as these are quite unfitted to discuss the whole subject. I hope L[ord]^d Kelvin⁹ may tackle it, or Perry, or some one who is not afraid to form an [6] independent judgement of the main points, quite independent of popular or scientific prejudice.

In the Nov[ember] "Fortnightly" there is a rather interesting letter from a Mr. Ernest Marriott¹⁰, Librarian, Portico, Manchester, saying that Edgar A. Poe¹¹ argued for a limited Stellar universe nearly 50 years ago, in a very elaborate Essay, on "The Origin, Creation, and Destiny of the Material and Spiritual Universe" — & he gives an extract which gives the modern astronomical argument as to the light of the stars &c. very clearly. He says the whole Essay is very interesting, & I must get it to read. Do you [7] know if "Portico," Manchester, is one of the public M Libraries? If so you might call on Mr. Marriott who is not doubt an intelligent man. He says Poe’s essay is a work of "profound thought." I¹²have written to him.

There are, I believe, a good many spiritualists in Manchester & a Spiritualist-Society of some kind, so if you care about joining you might perhaps see something; but unless you really feel a special interest in the subject it is hardly worth while, as I suppose your time is pretty fully occupied. I hope your work is now going on satisfactorily and that you find [8] it interesting & are making the acquaintance of some nice people.

As soon as I feel the want of something to do in the writing way I intend to begin on the "Recollections of my Youth", but I am dreadfully in want of materials.

The Bounder’s [1 word illeg.] Journeys are being printed again in the "Clarion"¹³ and those through the Eastern Countries are just finished. I enjoyed them more the 2nd. time than the 1st, & read several of them a third time, & often had to stop for laughing. Never have I read so inimitable a humourist, & one so jolly so thoroughly good, & delightful. I wonder where he is, & what he is doing? Does he write for a spiritual "Clarion" & make all the spirits smile the smile beautiful, as he did here?

Your affectionate Pa | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]