l
community. He will act with courage where even the strong man will
fail.)

Your letter appears to me an interesting and valuable one; but I have
now been working for some years exclusively on the physiology of plants,
and all other subjects have gone out of my head, and it fatigues me
much to try and bring them back again into my head. I am, moreover,
at present very busy, as I leave home for a fortnight's rest at the
beginning of next week. My conviction as yet remains unchanged, that
a man who (for instance) jumps into a river to save a life without a
second's reflection (either from an innate tendency or from one gained
by habit) is deservedly more honoured than a man who acts deliberately
and is conscious, for however short a time, that the risk and sacrifice
give him some inward satisfaction.

You are of course familiar with Herbert Spencer's writings on Ethics.

(422/1. The observations to which the following letters refer were
continued by Mr. Wallis, who gave an account of his work in an
interesting paper in the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society," March
2nd, 1897. The results on the whole confirm the belief that traces of an
ancestral pointed ear exist in man.)

LETTER 422. TO H.M. WALLIS. Down, March 22nd, 1881.

I am very much obliged for your courteous and kind note. The fact which
you communicate is quite new to me, and as I was laughed at about the
tips to human ears, I should like to publish in "Nature" some time your
fact. But I must first consult Eschricht, and see whether he notices
this fact in his curious paper on the lanugo on human embryos; and
secondly I ought to look to monkeys and other animals which have tufted
ears, and observe how the hair grows. This I shall not be able to do for
some months, as I shall not be in London until the autumn so as to go to
the Zoological Gardens. But in order that I may not hereafter throw away
time, will you be so kind as to inform me whether I may publish your
observation if on further search it seems desirable?

LETTER 423. TO H.M. WALLIS. Down, March 31st, 1881.

I am much obliged for your interesting letter. I am glad to hear that
you are looking to other ears, and will visit the Zoological Gardens.
Under these circumstances it would be incomparably better (as more
authentic) if you would publish a notice of your observations in
"Nature" or some scientific journal. Would it not be well to confine
your attention to infants, as more likely