Early Letters 



I know not how or to whom to express fully my admira- 

 tion of Darwin's book. To him it would seem flattery, to 

 others self -praise ; but I do honestly believe that with how- 

 ever much patience I had worked up and experimented on 

 the subject, I could never have approached the complete- 

 ness of his book — its vast accumulation of evidence, its 

 overwhelming argument, and its admirable tone and spirit. 

 I really feel thankful that it has not been left to me to give 

 the theory to the public. Mr. Darwin has created a new 

 science and a new philosophy, and I believe that never has 

 such a complete illustration of a new branch of human know- 

 ledge been due to the labours and researches of a single man. 

 Never have such vast masses of widely scattered and hitherto 

 utterly disconnected facts been combined into a system, and 

 brought to bear upon the establishment of such a grand and 

 new and simple philosophy ! . . . — In haste, yours faithfully, 



Alfred R. Wallace. 



To His Brothbr-in-LaW;, Thomas Sims 



DelU, Timor. March 15, 1861.* 



My dear Thomas, — I will now try and write you a few 

 lines in reply to your last three letters, which I have not 

 before had time and inclination to do. First, about your 

 one-eyed and two-eyed theory of art, etc. etc. I do not 

 altogether agree with you. We do not see all objects wider 

 with two eyes than with one. A spherical or curved object 

 we do see so, because our right and left eye each see a por- 

 tion of the surface not seen by the other, but for that very 

 reason the portion seen perfectly with both eyes is less than 

 with one. Thus [see diagram on next page] we only see from 

 A to A with both our eyes, the two side portions Ab Ab being 



1 The original of this letter is in the possession of the Trustees of the British 

 Museum. 



73 



