Alfred Russel Wallace 



To Prof. Poulton 



Broadstone, Wimborne. December 18, 1907. 



My dear Poulton, — The importance of Mendelism to Evo- 

 lution seems to me to be something of the same kind, but 

 very much less in degree and importance, as Galton's fine 

 discovery of the law of the average share each parent has 

 in the characters of the child — one quarter, the four grand- 

 parents each one-sixteenth, and so on. That illuminates 

 the whole problem of heredity, combined with individual 

 diversity, in a way nothing else does. I almost wish you 

 could introduce that ! — Yours very truly, 



Alfred K. Wallace. 



To Dr. Archdall Eeid 



Broadstone, Wimborne. January 19, 1908. 



Dear Sir, — ... I was much pleased the other day to 

 read, in a review of Mr. T. Rice Holmes's fine work on 

 ^' Ancient Britain and the Invasions of Julius Caesar," 

 that the author has arrived by purely historical study 

 at the conclusion that we have not risen morally above 

 our primitive ancestors. It is a curious and important 

 coincidence. 



I myself got the germ of the idea many years ago, from 

 a very acute thinker, Mr. Albert Mott, who gave some very 

 original and thoughtful addresses as President of the Liver- 

 pool Philosophical Society, one of which dealt with the ques- 

 tion of savages being often, perhaps always, the descendants 

 of more civilised races, and therefore affording no proof of 

 progression. At that time (about 1860-70) I could not accept 

 the view, but I have now come to think he was right. — Yours 

 very truly, Alfred R. Wallace. 



86 



