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

;MONEY MATTERS 377whatever faculties I possess. I may be allowed hereto give an extract from one of these letters on myliterary work, nearly the last I received from mylamented friend F. W. H. Myers. He writes(April 12, 1898):—" I am glad to take this opportunity of telling yousomething about my relationto one of your books.I write now from bed, having had severe influenzicpneumonia, now going off. For some days my temperaturewas 105°, and I was very restless at night—anxious to read, but in too sensitive and fastidiousa state to tolerate almost any book. I found thatalmost 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 historythere was a certain uniqueness of charm about thebook, both moral and literary, which made it deeplycongenial in those trying hours. You have had fewless instructed readers ; but very few can have dwelton that simple, manly record with a more profoundsympathy."Other people, quite strangers, have also told methat they have read it over and over again, and alwaystake it with them on a journey. This is the kind ofthing I cannot understand. It is true, if I open itmyself I can read a chapter with pleasure ; but, then,to me it recalls incidents and feelings almost forgotten,and renews the delights of my wanderings in thewilderness and of my intense interest in the wonderfuland beautiful forms of plant, bird, and insect life Iwas continually meeting with. Others have writtenin almost equally laudatory terms of my books onLand Nationalization " and on " Spiritualism," which*'have introduced them to new spheres of thoughtwhile others, again, have been equally pleased with