Alfred Russel Wallace 



at all affect the main doctrine of Natural Selection as 

 applied to the higher animals. I allude, of course, to 

 Bastian's '^ Beginnings of Life,'' which you have no doubt 

 got. It is hard reading, but intensely interesting. I am 

 a thorough convert to his main results, and it seems to 

 me that nothing more important has appeared since your 

 '' Origin." It is a pity he is so awfully voluminous and 

 discursive. When you have thoroughly digested it I shall 

 be glad to know what you are disposed to think. My first 

 notice of it will I think appear in Nature next week, but I 

 have been hurried for it, and it is not so well written an 

 article as I could wish. 



I sincerely hope your health is improving. — Believe me 

 yours very faithfully, Alfred E. Wallace. 



P.S. — I fear Lubbock's motion is being pushed off to the 

 end of the Session, and Hooker's case will not be fairly con- 

 sidered. I hope the matter will not be allowed to drop. — 

 A. R. W. 



Dovm, Beckenharrif Kent, August 28, 1872. 



My dear Wallace, — I have at last finished the gigantic 

 job of reading Dr. Bastian's book, and have been deeply 

 interested in it. You wished to hear my impression, but 

 it is not worth sending. 



He seems to me an extremely able man, as indeed I 

 thought when I read his first essay. His general argu- 

 ment in favour of archebiosis' is wonderfully strong; 

 though I cannot think much of some few of his argu- 

 ments. The result is that I am bewildered and astonished 

 by his statements, but am not convinced; though on the 

 whole it seems to me probable that archebiosis is true. I 

 am not convinced partly I think owing to the deductive 



^ That is to say, spontaneous generation. For the distinction between 

 archebiosis and heterogenesis, see Bastian, Chap. VI. See also "Life and 

 Letters of Charles Darwin," iii. 168. 



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