3i8 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



from Mr. J. Bellew, which message was worded in a manner 

 so unexpected that it was, till completed, thought to be 

 erroneous. And you declared your belief that some non- 

 human intelligence was then communicating with you. You 

 also described many physical phenomena occurring in your 

 own house with the medium Williams. You saw * hands,* 

 apparently human, yet not those of any one present. You 

 saw hand-bells, etc., carried about ; you saw a human head 

 and face above the table, the face with mobile features and 

 eyes. Williams was held all the time, and your brother 

 walked round the table to prove that there was no wire or 

 other machinery (in your own room !), yet a bell, placed on a 

 piano some distance away, was taken up by a luminous hand 

 and rung, and carried about the room ! 

 " Can you have forgotten all this ? 



" In your second letter to Darwin you expressed your con- 

 viction of the truth of these facts, and of the existence of 

 spiritual intelligences, of mind without brain. You said that 

 these phenomena had altered your whole conceptions. For- 

 merly you had thought there were two mental natures in 

 Crookes and Wallace — one sane, the other lunatic! Now 

 (you said) you belonged to the same class as they did. 



^* Tell it not in Gath ! There are, then, two Romanes as 

 well as two Wallaces. There is a Romanes * of incapacity and 

 absurdity !! ' But he keeps it secret. He thinks no one knows 

 it. He is ashamed to confess it to his fellow-naturalists ; but 

 he is not ashamed to make use of the ignorant prejudice 

 against belief in such phenomena, in a scientific discussion 

 with one who has the courage of his opinions, which he 

 himself has not. 



" Yours truly, 



"Alfred R. Wallace." 



His answer, written from Scotland on July 21, was as 

 follows : — 



"Dear Mr. Wallace, 



" I am truly sorry to observe the tone of injury 

 which pervades your letter of the i8th inst, just received. It 



