366 MY LIFE 



also some complimentary remarks thereon by Sir Charles 

 Lyell and Dr. Hooker, which (as I know neither of them) I 

 am a little proud of. As to politics, I hate and abominate 

 them. The news from India I now never read, as it is all an 

 inextricable confusion without good maps and regular papers. 

 Mine come in lumps — two or three months at a time, often 

 with alternate issues stolen or lost. I therefore beg you to 

 write no more politics — nothing public or newspaperish. Tell 

 me about yourself, your own private doings, your health, your 

 visits, your new and old acquaintances (for I know you pick 

 up half a dozen every week a la Barragan). But, above all, 

 tell me what you read. Have you read the ' Currency ' book 

 I returned you, ' Home Tooke,' ' Bentham,' Family Herald 

 leading articles ? Give me your opinions on any or all of 

 these. Follow the advice in Family Herald article on ' Hap- 

 piness,' Ride a Hobby, and you will assuredly find happiness 

 in it, as I do. Let ethnology be your hobby, as you seem 

 already to have put your foot in the stirrup, but ride it hard. 

 If I live to return I shall come out strong on Malay and 

 Papuan races, and shall astonish Latham, Davis, & Co. ! By 

 the bye, I have a letter from Davis ; 1 he says he sent my last 

 letter to you, and it is lost mysteriously. Instead, therefore, of 

 sending me a reply to my ' poser,' he repeats what he has said 

 in every letter I have had from him, that ' myriads of miracles 

 are required to people the earth from one source.' I am sick of 

 him. You must read ' Pritchard ' through, and Lawrence's 

 ' Lectures on Man ' carefully ; but I am convinced no man can 

 be a good ethnologist who does not travel, and not travel 

 merely, but reside, as I do, months and years with each race, 

 becoming well acquainted with their average physiognomy and 

 their character, so as to be able to detect cross-breeds, which 

 totally mislead the hasty traveller, who thinks they are transi- 

 tions ! Latham, I am sure, is quite wrong on many points. 



" When I went to New Guinea, I took an old copy of 



' Tristram Shandy,' which I read through about three times. 



It is an annoying and, you will perhaps say, a very gross 



book; but there are passages in it that have never been 



1 J. Barnard Davis, the well-known craniologist. 



