ne type. The "useless characters" I have always had
in mind when arguing this question are those which are or are supposed
to be absolutely useless, not merely relatively as regards the
difference from an allied species. I think this is an important
distinction.--Yours very truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

HERBERT SPENCER TO A.R. WALLACE

_64 Avenue Road, Regent's Park, London, N.W. September 28, 1895_

Dear Mr. Wallace,--As I cannot get you to deal with Lord Salisbury I
have decided to do it myself, having been finally exasperated into doing
it by this honour paid to his address in France--the presentation of a
translation to the French Academy. The impression produced upon some
millions of people in England cannot be allowed to be thus further
confirmed without protest.

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 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 fin