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 about Joan of Arc.  The last two are far the best, Mrs. Oliphant’s as a genuine sympathetic history, Lang’s as a fine realistic story ("A Monk of Fife").  Jeanne was really perhaps the most beautiful character in authentic history, and the one that most conclusively demonstrates spirit-guidance, and both Mrs. Oliphant and A. Lang bring this out admirably.... —­Yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

TO MRS. FISHER

Parkstone, Dorset.  September 14, 1896.