RESIDENCE AT NEATH 257 



philosophy.' There is a review of it in the Athenceum. It 

 contains some remarkable views on my favourite subject — 

 the variations, arrangements, distribution, etc., of species." 



These extracts from my early letters to Bates suffice to 

 show that the great problem of the origin of species was 

 already distinctly formulated in my mind; that I was not 

 satisfied with the more or less vague solutions at that time 

 offered; that I believed the conception of evolution through 

 natural law so clearly formulated in the " Vestiges " to be, so 

 far as it went, a true one ; and that I firmly believed that a 

 full and careful study of the facts of nature would ultimately 

 lead to a solution of the mystery. 



There is one other subject on which I obtained conclusive 

 evidence while living at Neath, which may here be briefly 

 noticed. I have already described how at Leicester I became 

 convinced of the genuineness of the phenomena of mes- 

 merism, and was able thoroughly to test them myself. I also 

 was able to make experiments which satisfied me of the truth 

 of phrenology, and had read sufficient to enable me to under- 

 stand its general principles. But during my early residence 

 at Neath after my brother's death, I heard two lectures on 

 the subject, and in both cases I had my character delineated 

 with such accuracy as to render it certain that the positions 

 of all the mental organs had been very precisely determined. 

 It must be understood that the lecturers were both strangers, 

 and that they each gave only a single lecture on their way 

 to more important centres. In each case I received a large 

 printed sheet, with the organs and their functions stated, and 

 a number placed opposite to each to indicate its comparative 

 size. In addition to this, there was a written delineation of 

 character, but in each case it only professed to be a sketch, 

 as I could not then afford the higher fee for a full written 

 development of character. As these two documents have 

 fortunately been preserved and are now before me, it will be 

 interesting to see how closely the main features of my 

 character were stated by these two itinerant lecturers about 

 sixty years ago. 



I will take first that of Mr. Edwin Thomas Hicks, who 



