Quick Links
-Search Website
-Have A Question?
-Wallace News
-About This Site

General
Misinformation Alert!
Wallace Bio & Accomplishments
Wallace Chronology
Frequently Asked Questions
Wallace Quotes
Wallace Archives
Miscellaneous Facts
Links

Bibliography / Texts
Wallace Writings Bibliography
Texts of Wallace Writings
Texts of Wallace Interviews
Wallace Writings: Names Index
Wallace Writings: Subject Index
Writings on Wallace
Wallace Obituaries
Wallace's Most Cited Works

Features
Taxonomic / Systematic Works
Wallace on Conservation
Smith on Wallace
Research Threads
Wallace Images
Just for Fun
Frequently Cited Colleagues
Wallace-Related Maps & Figures

Alfred Russel Wallace : Alfred Wallace : A. R. Wallace :
Russel Wallace : Alfred Russell Wallace (sic)

 
 
Woman and Natural Selection (S497: 1894)

 
Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: A letter to the Editor of the Humanitarian responding to comments made by Dr. Samuel A. K. Strahan. Printed on page 315 of the April 1894 issue. To link directly to this page, connect with: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S497.htm


To the Editor of the "Humanitarian."

     Dear Editor,--I agree with Dr. Strahan that an interview is not the best way for a writer to put his views before the public. It has however the advantage of calling attention to them. In this case my views have already twice been made public, in an article on "HUMAN SELECTION," in the Fortnightly Review of September, 1890, and on "HUMAN PROGRESS: PAST AND FUTURE," which appeared in The Arena (Boston, U.S.A.), in January, 1892. The Fortnightly article, which is most easily accessible, was written partly to combat proposals of the same general nature as those suggested by Dr. Strahan, and also to reply to the common objection against Socialism, that it would lead to a too rapid increase of population. The latter half of the article deals more especially with that view which has been criticised by Dr. Strahan, and I beg to refer such of your readers as are interested in the subject to what I say there. They will see that Dr. Strahan's facts and arguments have little bearing on my views, because I postulate a standard of ethics and of public duty, enforced by education and public opinion, very much in advance of that which now prevails in any class of society or which can possibly become general in a social condition so imperfect and inharmonious as that in which we live. I am quite content to submit my Fortnightly article as a sufficient reply to Dr. Strahan.

A. R. Wallace.


*                 *                 *                 *                 *

Return to Home