Alfred Russel Wallace 



To Db. Edwin Smith 



Parkstone, Dorset. October 19, 1899. 



Dear Sir, — I know nothing of London mediums now. 

 Nine-tenths of the alleged frauds in mediums arise from 

 the ignorance of the sitters. The only way to gain any real 

 knowledge of spiritualistic phenomena is to follow the course 

 pursued in all science — study the elements before going to 

 the higher branches. To expect proof of materialisation 

 before being satisfied of the reality of such simpler pheno- 

 mena as raps, movements of various objects, etc. etc., is 

 as if a person began chemistry by trying to analyse the 

 more complex vegetable products before he knew the com- 

 position of water and the simplest salts. 



If you want to know anything about Spiritualism you 

 should experiment yourself with a select party of earnest 

 inquirers — personal friends. When you have thus satis- 

 fied yourself of the existence of a considerable range of the 

 physical phenomena and of many of the obscurities and 

 difficulties of the inquiry, you may use the services of 

 public mediums, without the certainty of imputing every 

 little apparent suspicious circumstance to trickery, since 

 you will have seen similar suspicious facts in your private 

 circle where you knew there was no trickery. You will 

 find rules for forming private circles in some issues of 

 Light. You can get them from the ofBce of Light. — Yours 

 very truly, Alfred K. Wallace. 



Prop. Barrett to A. R. Wallace 



6 De Vesci Terrace, Kingstown, Go. Dublin. November 3, 1906. 



My dear Wallace, — . . . Just now I am engaged in 

 a correspondence with the Secretaries of the Society for 

 Psychical Research on the question of the Presidency for 



210 



