Alfred Russel Wallace 



think my subject is better. Like every other traveller, I 

 suppose, I feel dreadfully the want of copious notes on com- 

 mon everyday objects, sights and sounds and incidents, which 

 I imagined I could never forget but which I now find it im- 

 possible to recall with any accuracy. 



I have just had a long and most interesting letter from 

 my old companion Spruce. He says he has had a letter from 

 you about Melastoma, but has not, he says, for three years 

 seen a single melastomaceous plant ! They are totally absent 

 from the Pacific plains of tropical America, though so abun- 

 dant on the Eastern plains. Poor fellow, he seems to be in 

 a worse state than you are. Life has been a burden to him 

 for three years owing to lung and heart disease, and rheuma- 

 tism, brought on by exposure in high, hot, and cold damp 

 valleys of the Andes. He went down to the dry climate of 

 the Pacific coast to die more at ease, but the change improved 

 him, and he thinks to come home, though he is sure he will 

 not survive the first winter in England. He had never been 

 able to get a copy of your book, though I am sure no one 

 would have enjoyed or appreciated it more. 



If you are able to bear reading, will you allow me to 

 take the liberty of recommending you a book ? The fact is I 

 have been so astonished and delighted with the perusal of 

 Spencer's works that I think it a duty to society to recom- 

 mend them to all my friends who I think can appreciate them. 

 The one I particularly refer to now is '^ Social Statics," a 

 book which is by no means hard to read; it is even amus- 

 ing, and owing to the wonderful clearness of its style may 

 be read and understood by anyone. I think, therefore, as 

 it is quite distinct from your special studies at present, you 

 might consider it as '' light literature," and I am pretty 

 sure it would interest you more than a great deal of what 

 is now considered very good. I am utterly astonished that 

 so few people seem to read Spencer, and the utter ignorance 



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