Nothing less
will be effective--nothing less should be accepted; and you must let the
Government know it, and insist that they adopt it.
The rise must always be towards uniformity of payment for all useful and
productive work.--Yours sincerely,
ALFRED E. WALLACE.
PART VI
Some Further Problems
I.--Astronomy
Of the varied subjects upon which Wallace wrote, none, perhaps, came
with greater freshness to the general reader than his books written when
he was nearly eighty upon the ancient science of astronomy.
Perhaps he would have said that the "directive Mind and Purpose" kept
these subjects back until the closing years of his life in order that he
might bring to bear upon them his wider knowledge of nature, enlightened
by that spiritual perception which led him to link the heavens and the
earth in one common bond of evolution, culminating in the development of
moral and spiritual intelligences.
"Man's Place in the Universe" (1903) was in effect a prelude to "The
World of Life" (1910). Wallace saw afterwards that one grew out of the
other, as we find him frequently saying with regard to his other books
and essays.
As with Spiritualism, so with Astronomy, the seed-interest practically
lay dormant in his mind for many years; with this difference, however,
that temperament and training caused a speedy unfolding of his mind when
once a scientific subject gripped him, whereas with Spiritualism he felt
the need of moving slowly and cautiously before fully accepting the
phenomena as verifiable facts.
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