One of the points which I propose to take up is the absurd conception Lord Salisbury sets forth of the process of Natural Selection. When you wrote you said you had dealt with it yourself in your volume on Darwinism. I have no doubt that it is also in some measure dealt with by Darwin himself, by implication or incidentally. You of course know Darwin by heart, and perhaps you would be kind enough to save me the trouble of searching by indicating the relevant passages both in his books and in your own. My reading power is very small, and it tries me to find the parts I want by much reading.—Truly yours,
HERBERT SPENCER.
To the following letter from Mr. Gladstone, Wallace attached this pencil note: "In 1881 I put forth the first idea of mouth-gesture as a factor in the origin of language, in a review of E.B. Tylor's 'Anthropology,' and in 1895 I extended it into an article in the Fortnightly Review, and reprinted it with a few further corrections in my 'Studies,' under the title 'The Expressiveness of Speech or Mouth-Gesture as a Factor in the Origin of Language.' In it I have developed a completely [pg 066] new principle in the theory of the origin of language by showing that every motion of the jaws, lips and tongue, together with inward or outward breathing, and especially the mute or liquid consonants ending words which serve to indicate abrupt or continuous motion, have corresponding meanings in so many cases as to show a fundamental connection. I thus enormously extended the principle of onomatopoeia in the origin of vocal language. As I have been unable to find any reference to this important factor in the origin of language, and as no competent writer has pointed out any fallacy in it, I think I am justified in supposing it to be new and important. Mr. Gladstone informed me that there were many thousands of illustrations of my ideas in Homer."—A.R.W.
W.E. GLADSTONE TO A.R. WALLACE
Hawarden Castle, Chester. October 18, 1895.
Dear Sir,—Your kindness in sending me your most interesting article draws on you the inconvenience of an acknowledgment.
My pursuits in connection with Homer, especially, have made me a confident advocate of the doctrine that there is, within limits, a connection in language between sound and sense.
I would consent to take the issue simply on English words beginning with st. You go upon a kindred class in sn. I do not remember a perfectly innocent word, a word habitually used in bonam partem, and beginning with sn, except the word "snow," and "snow," as I gather from Schnee, is one of the worn-down words.
May I beg to illustrate you once more on the ending in p. I take our old schoolboy combinations: hop, skip and jump. Each motion an ending motion; and to each word closed with p compare the words run, rennen, courir, currere. [pg 067]