at science is bankrupt. But this is equivocal. It only means
that it cannot meet demands beyond its power to satisfy.

I entirely sympathise with anyone who seeks an answer from some other
non-scientific source. But I keep scientific explanations and spiritual
craving wholly distinct.

The whole point of evolution, as formulated by Lyell and Darwin, is to
explain phenomena by known causes. Now, directive power is not a known
cause. Determinism compels me to believe that every event is inevitable.
If we admit a directive power, the order of nature becomes capricious
and unintelligible. Excuse my saying all this. But that is the dilemma
as it presents itself to _my_ mind. If it does not trouble other people,
I can only say, so much the better for them. Briefly, I am afraid I must
say that it is ultra-scientific. I think that would have been pretty
much Darwin's view.

I do not think that it is quite fair to say that biologists shirk the
problem. In my opinion they are not called upon to face it. Bastian, I
suppose, believed that he had bridged the gulf between lifeless and
living matter. And here is a man, of whom I know nothing, who has
apparently got the whole thing cut and dried.--Yours sincerely,

W.T. THISELTON-DYER.

* * * * *

TO PROF. POULTON

_Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset. May 28, 1912._

My dear Poulton,--Thanks for your paper on Darwin and Bergson.[39] I
have read nothing of Bergson's, and although he evidently has much in
common with my own views, yet all vague ideas--like "an internal
development force"--seem to me of no real value as an explanation of
Nature.

I claim to have shown the necessity of an ever-present Mind as the
primal cause both of all physical and biological evolution. This Mind
works by and through the primal forces of nature--by means of Natural
Selection in the world of life; and I do not think I could read a book
which rejects this method in favour of a vague "law of sympathy." He
might as well reject gravitation, electrical repulsion, etc. etc., as
explaining the motions of cosmical bodies....--Yours very truly, ALFRED
R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

TO MR. BEN R. MILLER

_Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset, January 18, 1913._

Dear Sir,--Thanks for your kind congratulations, and for the small
pamphlet[40] you have sent me. I have read it with much interest, as the
writer was evidently a man of thought and talent.