Ixxxiv MEMOIR. 
Darwinian theory which it contains. Other sincere friends of the pure truth 
have expressed a little surprise and bewilderment at the same phenomenon. 
The views of friend Wallace are so plausible, and suit so well widespread 
prejudices, that you, no doubt, think with me they ought to be controverted. 
But who is to criticise them ? No one but yourself. I do not think any one 
else would have the present insight into the fallacy but yourself: to others it 
would require much study and labour to marshal the arguments. I said 
so to Mr. Appleton, and he begged of me to write to you in support of a 
request he is going to make to write him a short article as a review of 
the book.* 
‘¢ When you were last in town I spoke to you about some sentences I had 
written on man, interwoven in last chapter of Mrs. Somerville’s book. It 
weighs on my conscience to think that you took too much notice of what I 
said; for I do not really think there is much in the matter worthy of your 
attention. , 
“Yours sincerely, 
“H.W. BATES 
Bates’s breadth of mental “beam” permitted inclusion of 
interest in the most varied branches of knowledge—interest with 
which he would be scarcely credited by those who knew him only 
in connection with his official work, and his special field of research. 
He loathed the inanities of “society,” but he loved good fellowship, 
although his chronic bad health compelled him to live a more or 
less eremitic life. To the few who met him at the Kosmos Club, 
or the gossipy luncheon table, to which the latest explorer was 
welcomed, the polygonal, or many-sided, aspects of his mind were 
the striking features of his unassertive individuality. But, perhaps, 
to know him at his best, and pierce the thick husk of his modesty, 
was to be his companion when, the evening work of “beetle-sticking” 
over, and the frugal supper eaten, the pipe was lit and talk started, 
sometimes on some “topical” subject, but, more often, on matters 
suggested by his wide and varied reading. Unlike Darwin, who 
tells us, in the autobiography which is prefixed to his Lzfe and 
Letters, that for many years he “could not endure a line of poetry, 
and found Shakespeare intolerably dull,” even music disconcerting 
him, and natural scenery giving him little delight, Bates revelled 
and rejoiced in all these ministers to the completeness of life. He 
was, in fact, far the richer of the two both in mental grasp and 
equipment, and, as foregoing extracts show, such letters of Darwin’s 
to him as have survived destruction evidence that Bates’s “ power 
* The book was reviewed in the Academy, February 15th and March 1st, 1871, by 
Anton Dohrn. And see Darwin’s letter to Wallace, Zéfe and Letters, iii., 121. 
