XXXIX] MONEY MATTERS 381 



fastidious a state to tolerate almost any book. I found that 

 almost the only book which I could read was your 'Malay 

 Archipelago.' Of course I had read it before. In spite of 

 my complete ignorance of natural history there was a certain 

 uniqueness of charm about the book, both moral and literary, 

 which made it deeply congenial in those trying hours. You 

 have had few less instructed readers ; but very few can have 

 dwelt on that simple, manly record with a more profound 

 sympathy." 



Other people, quite strangers, have also told me that they 

 have read it over and over again, and always take it with 

 them on a journey. This is the kind of thing I cannot under- 

 stand. It is true, if I open it myself I can read a chapter 

 with pleasure ; but, then, to me it recalls incidents and feelings 

 almost forgotten, and renews the delights of my wanderings 

 in the wilderness and of my intense interest in the wonderful 

 and beautiful forms of plant, bird, and insect life I was con- 

 tinually meeting with. Others have written in almost equally 

 laudatory terms of my books on " Land Nationalization " and 

 on " Spiritualism," which have introduced them to new 

 spheres of thought ; while others, again, have been equally 

 pleased with parts of my " Wonderful Century " and " Man's 

 Place in the Universe." I am thus forced to the conclusion 

 that my books have served to instruct and to give pleasure to 

 a good many readers, and that it is therefore just possible 

 that my life may have been prolonged, and conditions 

 modified so as to afford the required impulse and the amount 

 of time for me to write them. 



Of course, such a suggestion as this will seem foolishness 

 or something worse to most of my readers ; but for those 

 who are imbued with the teachings of modern spiritualism, 

 and to others who vaguely believe in spiritual guidance on 

 general religious grounds, such forms of what used to be 

 termed special providence will not be wholly rejected. 



