Correspondence on Biology, etc. 



absolutely useless, not merely relatively as regards the differ- 

 ence from an allied species. I think this is an important 

 distinction.— Yours very truly, Alfred R. Wallace. 



Herbert Spencer to A. R. Wallace 



64 Avenue Road, Regent's Park, London, N.W. 



September 28, 1895. 



Dear Mr. Wallace,— As I cannot get you to deal with 

 Lord Salisbury I have decided to do it myself, having been 

 finally exasperated into doing it by this honour paid to his 

 address in France — the presentation of a translation to the 

 French Academy. The impression produced upon some 

 millions of people in England cannot be allowed to be thus 

 further confirmed without protest. 



One of the points which I propose to take up is the absurd 

 conception Lord Salisbury sets forth of the process of 

 Natural Selection. When you wrote you said you had dealt 

 with it yourself in your volume on Darwinism. I have no 

 doubt that it is also in some measure dealt with by Darwin 

 himself, by implication or incidentally. You of course know 

 Darwin by heart, and perhaps you would be kind enough to 

 save me the trouble of searching by indicating the relevant 

 passages both in his books and in your own. My reading 

 power is very small, and it tries me to find the parts I want 

 by much reading.— Truly yours, Herbert Spencer. 



To the following letter from Mr. Gladstone, Wallace 

 attached this pencil note : "In 1881 I put forth the 

 first idea of mouth-gesture as a factor in the origin of 

 language, in a review of E. B. Tylor's ' Anthropology,' 

 and in 1895 I extended it into an article in the Fort- 

 nightly Review^ and reprinted it Tsith a few further cor- 

 rections in my ' Studies,' under the title ' The Expres- 

 siveness of Speech or Mouth-Gesture as a Factor in the 

 Origin of Language.' In it I have developed a completely 

 F 65 



