336 MY LIFE 



unexpected that it was. till completed, thought to be erro- 

 neous. And you declared your belief that some non-human 

 in ul licence was then communicating with vou. You also 



described many physical phenomena occurring in your own 



house with the medium Williams. You saw ' hands,' appar- 

 ently human, yet not those of any one present. You saw 

 hand-bells, etc., carried about; you saw a human head and face 

 above the table, the face with mobile features and eyes. Wil- 

 liams was held all the time, and your brother walked around 

 the table to prove that there was no wire or other machinery 

 (in your own room!), yet a bell, placed on a piano some 

 distance away, was taken up by a luminous hand and rung, and 

 carried about the room ! 



" Can you have forgotten all this? 



" In your second letter to Darwin you expressed your con- 

 viction of the truth of these facts, and of the existence of 

 spiritual intelligences, of mind without brain. You said that 

 these phenomena had altered your whole conceptions. For- 

 merly you had thought there were two mental natures in 

 Crookes and Wallace — one sane, the other lunatic! Now 

 (you said) you belonged to the same class as they did. 



" Tell it not in Gath ! There are, then, two Romanes as 

 well as two Wallaces. There is a Romanes ' of incapacity and 

 absurdity!! ' But he keeps it secret. He thinks no one knows 

 it. He is ashamed to confess it to his fellow-naturalists ; but 

 he is not ashamed to make use of the ignorant prejudice 

 against belief in such phenomena, in a scientific discussion 

 with one who has the courage of his opinions, which he him- 

 self has not. 



" Yours truly, 



" Alfred R. Wallace." 



His answer, written from Scotland on July 21 , was as 

 follows : — 



" Dear Mr. Wallace, 



" I am truly sorry to observe the tone of injury 

 which pervades your letter of the 18th inst., just received. It 



