My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

SPENCER, HUXLEY, AND OTHERS 243see how the valuations, differing in all cases, are tobe made.*'I name this as one point ; and there are manyothersin respect of which I do not see my way. Itappears to me that at present we are far off from thetime at which action may advantageously be taken." Truly yours," Herbert Spencer."The last three letters I received from HerbertSpencer were in 1894 and 1895, all on the subject ofwhat he termed "the absurdity of Lord Salisbury'srepresentation of the process of natural selection " inhis British Association address at Oxford, wishingme to write to the Times, pointing out his errors,which were influencing many persons and writers inthe press, and suggesting certain points I shouldespecially deal with. He concluded, " It behoves youof all men to take up the gauntlet he has thus throwndown." I replied, declining the task, on the groundthat I did not think Lord Salisbury's influence in amatter of science of much importance, and that Ithought my time better employed in writing sucharticles on social and political, as well as generalscientific questions which then interested me. Tothis he replied that he did not at all agree with me,and that "articles in the papers show that LordSalisbury's argument is received with triumph, andunless it is disposed of, it will lead to a public reactionagainst the doctrine of evolution at large."As I still declined to go into this controversy,having dealt with the whole matter in my " Darwinism,"and still being sceptical as to any greateffects being produced by the address in question, hewrote me a month later as follows :" As I cannot