Everybody will look to you for a reply, and if
you make no reply it will be understood that Lord Salisbury's objection
is valid. As to the non-publication of your letter in the _Times_, that
is absurd, considering that your name and that of Darwin are constantly
coupled together.--Truly yours,
HERBERT SPENCER.
* * * * *
TO PROF. POULTON
_Parkstone, Dorset. September 8, 1894._
My dear Poulton,--I was glad to see your exposure of another American
Neo-Lamarckian in _Nature_.[24] It is astonishing how utterly illogical
they all are! I was much pleased with your point of the adaptations
supposed to be produced by the inorganic environment when they are
related to the organic. It is I think new and very forcible. For nearly
a month I have been wading through Bateson's book,[25] and writing a
criticism of it, and of Galton, who backs him up with his idea of
"organic stability." ... Neither he nor Galton appears to have any
adequate conception of what Natural Selection is, or how impossible it
is to escape from it. They seem to think that, given a stable
variation, Natural Selection must hide its diminished head!
Bateson's preface, concluding reflections, etc., are often quite
amusing.... He is so cocksure he has made a great discovery--which is
the most palpable of mare's nests.--Yours very truly,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
P.S.--I allude of course to his grand argument--"environment
_continuous_--species _discontinuous_--therefore _variations_ which
produce species must be also _discontinuous_"! (Bateson--Q.
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