366 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



Society, borrow the Journal of Proceedings for August last, 

 and in the last article you will find some of my latest lucubra- 

 tions, and 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 there- 

 fore 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 acquaint- 

 ances (for I know you pick up half a dozen every week i la 

 Barragan). But, above all, tell me of what you read. Have 

 you read the * Currency ' book I returned you, * Horne Tooke,' 

 * Bentham,' Family Herald leading articles ? Give me your 

 opinions on any or all of these. Follow the advice in Family 

 Herald Article on * Happiness/ 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-by, I have a letter from 

 Davis ; ^ 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 transitions ! 

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



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

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



