Sir

I hope you will look upon the liberty I have taken in sending this note as a secondary matter, being prompted to respectfully ask if you can inform me of the reasons that explain the existence of “apes” in our day, or that material, out of which the writer as a member of the human family has emerged—why the mould, as it were, still remains. Can we look upon those living ancestral types as the residuum of developement, at one period, they have I presume been supreme, and that process that has thinned their ranks will if I have patience eventually obliterate them.

A Friend who takes advantage of my interest in your writings put the question to me—“why have not the apes been swallowed up in victory”; (or anything lower than anthropoid apes.), perhaps the reason I was vague, is that much of what has emanted from your pen, is as yet, untrodden ground.

I hope Sir you will not think me inquisitive, in the generally understood manner by this letter, but I shall be xtremely thankful & obliged to receive an answer if it is not inconvenient. I shall probably be made aware of an unsuspected weakness on my part considering the simplicity of my request.