rary_!--Yours very truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

The next letter relates to Wallace's Friday evening Discourse at the
Royal Institution. His friends were afraid whether his voice could be
sustained throughout the hour--fears which were abundantly dispelled by
the actual performance. This was his last public lecture.

TO PROF. MELDOLA

_Old Orchard, Broadstone, Wimborne. December 20, 1908._

My dear Meldola,--Thanks for your kind offer to read for me if
necessary. But when Sir Wm. Crookes first wrote to me about it, he
offered to read all, or any parts of the lecture, if my voice did not
hold out. I am very much afraid I cannot stand the strain of speaking
beyond my natural tone for an hour, or even for half that time--but I
may be able to do the opening and conclusion....

I am glad that you see, as I do, the utter futility of the claims of the
Mutationists. I may just mention them in the lecture, but I hope I have
put the subject in such a way that even "the meanest capacity" will
suffice to see the absurdity of their claims.--Yours very truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

TO PROF. POULTON

_Old Orchard, Broadstone, Wimborne. January 26, 1909._

My dear Poulton,--I had a delightful two hours at the Museum on Saturday
morning, as Mr. Rothschild brought from Tring several of his
glass-bottomed drawers with his finest new New Guinea butterflies. They
_were_ a treat! I never saw anything more lovely and interesting!...

As to your very kind and pressing invitation,[36] I am sorry to be
obliged to decline it. I cannot remain more than one day or night away
from home, without considerable discomfort, and all the attractions of
your celebration are, to me, repulsions....

My lecture, even as it will be published in the _Fortnightly_, will be
far too short for exposition of all the points I wish to discuss, and I
hope to occupy myself during this year in saying all I want to say in a
book (of a wider scope) which is already arranged for. One of the great
points, which I just touched on in the lecture, is to show that all that
is usually considered the waste of Nature--the enormous number produced
in proportion to the few that survive--was absolutely essential in order
to secure the variety and continuity of life through all the ages, and
especially of that one line of descent which culminated in man. That, I
think, is a subject no on