io Alfred Russel Wallace [190 1 



helm's being called ' a clever ass.' ' No,' he said, ' not at all. He knows 

 everything and does everything, including painting and fiddling, and 

 most things he knows well. In shipbuilding and engineering he sur- 

 prises all the experts who have to do with him. Also he is a man. 

 He really commands his army, and really governs his Empire.' ' A 

 second Frederick the Great/ I suggested. ' Just so,' he said. * That 

 is what he would like to be thought.' 



" 2jth July. — With Cockerell to Parkstone to see Alfred Russel 

 Wallace, the Grand Old Man of Science. Cockerell, who knew him 

 already, had asked him to have a talk with me about the prehistoric 

 horse, and an excellent talk it was. He lives in an uninteresting 

 little red villa near the station, but the old man himself is a treasure. 

 Though not able to give me much information on the subject I had 

 come to him about, the early domestication of animals and especially 

 of the horse, he was most instructive about the primitive races of 

 mankind. He divides mankind into three great families, the White, 

 the Black and the Yellow. Among the first he classes not only 

 Semites and the lighter coloured Hindoos, but also the Dravidians, 

 the Hairy Ainus and the Australians. He classes them by their fea- 

 tures, and by the quality of their hair, which is long and wavy. The 

 black races are the negroes, the negritos and all others who have 

 crisped hair. The yellow race is characterized by comparatively hair- 

 less faces, and the absence of wave in their hair. The Aryans, he 

 says, are a mere linguistic division of the white family, the distinction 

 has nothing to do with the race. He holds it probable that civilization 

 had only one birthplace, and from it had spread everywhere. The 

 taming of animals was imitated from a first example of success by 

 tribes communicating with the successful tribe. His socialistic talk 

 was also interesting, and he displayed wonderful vigour of intellect 

 for so old a man. He complimented me on my pamphlet, ' The Shame 

 of the XlXth Century ' and expressed strong views on the pauperiza- 

 tion of India. There was a number of the paper ' Light ' lying on 

 his table, and I asked him if he still adhered to his belief in spiritual- 

 ism, and he said very positively that he had not receded from it in 

 the smallest degree." 



-& 1 



The month of August was occupied with a driving tour I made 

 to Clouds and the West of England. While at Clouds I saw a good 

 deal of one of our Royal Princesses, who was staying there, and 

 whom it fell to my lot to entertain on a number of drives seated 

 by me on the box seat, for I had my four in hand there. This 

 was Princess Louise, daughter of Princess Christian and grand- 

 daughter of Queen Victoria. My conversations with this royal lady 



