ll conscious beings and go to their right
places has been put forward by Butler in his wonderful book "Life and
Habit," and now even Haeckel seems to adopt it. All theories of
heredity, including Darwin's pangenesis, do not touch it, and it seems
to me as fundamental as life and consciousness, and to be absolutely
inconceivable by us till we know what life is, what spirit is, and what
matter is; and it is probable that we must develop in the spirit world
some few thousand million years before we get to this knowledge--if
then!

My book, "Man's Place in the Universe," shows, I think, indications of
the vast importance of that Universe as the producer of Man which so
many scientific men to-day try to belittle, because of what may be, in
the infinite!--Yours very truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

PART IV

Home Life

(By W.G. WALLACE and VIOLET WALLACE)

In our father's youth and prime he was 6 ft. 1 in. in height, with
square though not very broad shoulders. At the time to which our first
clear recollections go back he had already acquired a slight stoop due
to long hours spent at his desk, and this became more pronounced with
advancing age; but he was always tall, spare and very active, and walked
with a long easy swinging stride which he retained to the end of his
life.

As a boy he does not appear to have been very athletic or muscularly
strong, and his shortsightedness probably prevented him from taking part
in many of the pastimes of his schoolfellows. He was never a good
swimmer, and he used to say that his long legs pulled him down. He was,
however, always a good walker and, until quite late in life, capable of
taking long country walks, of which he was very fond.

He was very quick and active in his movements at times, and even when 90
years of age would get up on a chair or sofa to reach a book from a high
shelf, and move about his study with rapid strides to find some paper to
which he wished to refer.

When out of doors he usually carried an umbrella, and in the garden a
stick, upon which he leaned rather heavily in his later years. His hair
became white rather early in life, but it remained thick and fine to the
last, a fact which he attributed to always wearing soft hats. He had
full beard and whiskers, which were also white. His eyes were blue and
his complexion rather pale. He habitually wore spectacles, and to us he
never looked quite natural without them. Towards the end of his life his
eyes