d 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._

But I have now a new title to speak. It is deafness; and I know from
deafness that I run a worse chance with a man whose mouth is covered
with beard and moustache.

A young relation of mine, slightly deaf, was sorely put to it in an
University examination because one of his examiners was _secretal_ in
this way.

I will not trouble you further except to express, with misgiving, a
doubt on a single point, the final _f_.

In driving with Lord Granville, who was deaf but not very deaf, I had
occasion to mention to him the Duke of _Fife_, I used every effort, but
in no way could I contrive to make him hear the word.

I break my word to add one other particular. Out of 27,000 odd lines in
Homer, every one of them expressed, in a sense, heavy weight or force;
the blows of heavy-armed men on the breastplates of foes ... [illegible]
and the like.--With many thanks, I remain yours very faithfully,

W.E. GLADSTONE.

P.S.--I should say that the efficacy of lip-expression, undeniably, is
most subtle, and defies definite description.

* * * * *

TO DR. ARCHDALL REID

_Parkstone, Dorset. April 19, 1896._

Dear Sir,--I