Dear Huxley,—Thanks for your note. Of course, I have no wish to press on you an inquiry for which you have neither time nor inclination. As for the "gossip" you speak of, I care for it as little as you can do, but what I do feel an intense interest in is the exhibition of force where force has been declared impossible, and of intelligence from a source the very mention of which has been deemed an absurdity.
Faraday has declared (apropos of this subject) that he who can prove the existence or exertion of force, if but the lifting of a single ounce, by a power not yet recognised by science, will deserve and assuredly receive applause and gratitude. (I quote from memory the sense of his expressions in his Lecture on Education.)
I believe I can now show such a force, and I trust some of the physicists may be found to admit its importance and examine into it.—Believe me yours very sincerely,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
TO MISS BUCKLEY
Holly House, Barking, E. December 25, 1870.
Dear Miss Buckley,— ... You did not hear Mrs. Hardinge[59] on very favourable topics, and I hope you will hear her often again, and especially hear one of her regular discourses. I think, however, from what you heard, that, setting aside all idea of her being more than a mere spiritualist lecturer setting forth the ideas and [pg 189] opinions of the sect, you will admit that spiritualists, as represented by her, are neither prejudiced nor unreasonable, and that they are truly imbued with the scientific spirit of subordinating all theory to fact. You will also admit, I think, that the moral teachings of Spiritualism, as far as she touched upon them, are elevated and beautiful and calculated to do good; and if so, that is the use of Spiritualism—the getting such doctrines of future progress founded on actual phenomena which we can observe and examine now, not on phenomena which are said to have occurred thousands of years ago and of which we have confessedly but imperfect records.
I think, too, that the becoming acquainted with two such phases of Spiritualism as are exhibited by Mrs. Hardinge and Miss Houghton must show you that the whole thing is not to be judged by the common phenomena of public stances alone, and I can assure you that there are dozens of other phases of the subject as remarkable as these two....—Yours very faithfully,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.