--Truly yours,
HERBERT SPENCER.
* * * * *
TO PROF. POULTON
_Parkstone, Dorset. November 28, 1889._
My dear Mr. Poulton,--I have much pleasure in sending you Cope's
book[19] (with the review of "Darwinism"), which I hope you will keep as
long as you like, till you have mastered all its obscurities of style
and eccentricities of argument. I think you will find a good deal in it
to criticise, and it will be well for you to know what the leader of the
Neo-Lamarckians regards as the foundation-stones of his theory. I
greatly enjoyed my visit to Oxford, and only regretted that I could not
leave more time for personal talk with yourself, for I am so deplorably
ignorant of modern physiology that I am delighted to get intelligible
explanations of its bearings on the subjects that most interest me in
science. I quite see all its importance in investigations of the
mechanism of colours, but there is so much still unknown that it will be
very hard to convince me that there is no other possible explanation of
the peacock's feather than the "continued preference by the females" for
the most beautiful males, in _this one point_, "during a long line of
descent"--as Darwin says! I expect, however, great light from your new
book....--Believe me yours very faithfully,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
* * * * *
SIR FRANCIS GALTON TO A.
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