se send it on
with your letter and a letter of my own to Sir John Gorst, whom I know
well, and whom I agree with you in regarding as the most acceptable
member of the Government.

If I am converted, it will be wholly _your_ doing. I have read much on
the subject--Creighton, etc., and am at present strongly
pro-vaccination; at the same time, there is no one by whom I would more
willingly be converted than yourself.

I am glad to take this opportunity of telling you something about my
relation to one of your books. I write now from bed, having had some
influenzic pneumonia, now going off. For some days my temperature was
105 and I was very restless at night, anxious to read, but in too
sensitive and fastidious a state to tolerate almost any book. I found
that almost the only book which I could read was your "Malay
Archipelago" (of course I had read it before). In spite of my complete
ignorance of natural history there was a certain charm about the book,
both moral and literary, which made it deeply congenial in those trying
hours. You have had few less instructed readers, but very few can have
dwelt on that simple manly record with a more profound sympathy.

I want to bespeak you as a _friend at court_. When we get into the next
world, I beg you to remember me and say a good word for me when you can,
as you will have much influence there.

To me it seems that Hodgson's report[62] is the _best_ thing which we
have yet published. I trust that it impresses you equally. It has
converted _Podmore_ amongst other people!

I will, then, write again soon, and I am yours most truly,

F.W.H. MYERS.

* * * * *

TO MRS. FISHER (_nee_ BUCKLEY)

_Parkstone, Dorset. January 4, 1896._

My dear Mrs. Fisher,--I am glad to hear that you are going on with your
book. I am sure it will be a comfort to you. I have read one book of
Hudson's--"A Scientific Demonstration of a Future Life," and that is so
pretentious, so unscientific, and so one-sided that I do not feel
inclined to read more of the same author's work. I do not think I
mentioned to you (as I thought you did not read much now) a really fine
and original work, called "Psychic Philosophy, a Religion of Natural
Law," by Desertis (Redway). I should like to know if, after reading
that, you still think Hudson's books worth reading. I have been much
pleased and interested lately in reading Mark Twain's, Mrs. Oliphant's
and Andrew Lang's books abo