Chapter X: Part VII: Characteristics (1)

"There is a point of view so lofty or so peculiar that from it we
are able to discern in men and women something more than and apart
from creed and profession and formulated principle; which indeed
directs and colours this creed and principle as decisively as it
is in its turn acted on by them, and this is their character or
humanity."--LORD MORLEY.

"As sets the sun in fine autumnal calm
So dost thou leave us. Thou not least but last
Link with that rare and gallant little band
Of seekers after truth, whose days, though past,
Shed lustre on the hist'ry of their land.
And thine, O Wallace, thine the added charm
Of modesty, thy mem'ry to embalm."--_Anonymous._

(_Received with a bunch of lilies-of-the-valley, a few days after Dr. Wallace's death_.)

Addison somewhere says that modesty sets off every talent which a man can be possessed of. This was manifestly true of Alfred Russel Wallace. When, for instance, honours were bestowed upon him, he accepted or rejected them with the same good-humour and unspoilable modesty. To Prof. E.B. Poulton, whose invitation for the forthcoming Encæmia had been conveyed in Prof. Bartholomew Price's letter, he wrote:

_Godalming. May 28, 1889._

My dear Mr. Poulton,--I have just received from Prof. B. Price the totally unexpected offer of the honorary degree of D.C.L. at the coming Commemoration, and you will probably be surprised and _disgusted_ to hear that I have declined it. I have to thank you for your kind offer of hospitality during the ceremony, but the fact is, I have at all times a profound distaste of all public ceremonials, and at this particular time that distaste is stronger than ever. I have never recovered from the severe illness I had a year and a half ago, and it is in hopes of restoring my health that I have let my cottage here and have taken another at Parkstone, Dorset, into which I have arranged to move on Midsummer Day. To add to my difficulties, I have work at examination papers for the next two or three weeks, and also a meeting (annual) of our Land Nationalisation Society, so that the work of packing my books and other things and looking after the plants which I have to move from my garden will have to be done in a very short time. Under these circumstances it would be almost impossible for me to rush away to Oxford except under absolute compulsion, and to do so would be to render a ceremony which at any time would be a trial, a positive punishment.

Really the greatest kindness my friends can do me is to leave me in peaceful obscurity, for I have lived so secluded a life that I am more and more disinclined to crowds of any kind. I had to submit to it in America, but then I felt exceptionally well, whereas now I am altogether weak and seedy and not at all up to fatigue or excitement.--Yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE. Prof. Poulton pressed him to reconsider his decision, and he reluctantly gave way.

* * * * *

_Godalming. June 2, 1889._

My dear Mr. Poulton,--I am exceedingly obliged by your kind letters, and I will say at once that if the Council of the University should again ask me to accept the degree, to be conferred in the autumn, as you propose, I could not possibly refuse it. At the same time I hope you will not in any way urge it upon them, as I really feel myself too much of an amateur in Natural History and altogether too ignorant (I left school--a bad one--finally, at fourteen) to receive honours from a great University. But I will say no more about that.--Yours very faithfully,

A.R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

In due course he received the degree. "On that occasion," says Professor Poulton, "Wallace stayed with us, and I was anxious to show him something of Oxford; but, with all that there is to be seen, one subject alone absorbed the whole of his interest--he was intensely anxious to find the rooms where Grant Allen had lived. He had received from Grant Allen's father a manuscript poem giving a picture of the ancient city dimly seen by midnight from an undergraduate's rooms. With the help of Grant Allen's college friends we were able to visit every house in which he had lived, but were forced to conclude that the poem was written in the rooms of a friend or from an imaginary point of view."

His friend Sir W.T. Thiselton-Dyer, with others, was promoting his election to the Royal Society, and wrote to him:

SIR W.T. THISELTON-DYER TO A.R. WALLACE

_Kew. October 23, 1892._

Dear Mr. Wallace,-- ... When you were at Kew this summer I took the liberty of saying that it would give great pleasure to the Fellows of the Royal Society if you would be willing to join their body. I understood you to say that it would be agreeable to you. I now propose to comply with the necessary formalities. But before doing so it will be proper to ask for your formal consent. You will then, as a matter of course, be included in the next annual election.

Will you forgive me if I am committing any indiscretion in saying that I have good authority for adding (though I suppose it can hardly be stated officially at this stage) that no demand will ever be made upon you for a subscription?--Believe me yours sincerely,

W.T. THISELTON-DYER.

* * * * *

SIR W.T. THISELTON-DYER TO A.R. WALLACE

_Kew. January 12, 1893._

Dear Mr. Wallace,-- ... I was very vexed to hear that I had misunderstood your wishes about the Royal Society. Of course, the matter must often have presented itself to your mind, and I confess that it argued a little presumption on the part of a person like myself, so far inferior to you in age and standing, to think that you would yield to my solicitation.

I was obliged for my health to go to Eastbourne, and there I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Huxley, who, you will be glad to hear, is wonderfully well, and an ardent gardener! His present ambition is to grow every possible saxifrage.

I told him that I had had the audacity to approach you on the subject of the Royal Society. He heartily approved, and expressed the strongest opinion that unless you had some insuperable objection you ought to yield. All of us who belong to the R.S. have but one wish, which is that it should stand before the public as containing all that is best and worthiest in British Science. As long as men like you stand aloof, that cannot be said. Lately we have been exposed to some very ill-natured attacks: we have been told that we are professional, and not discoverers. Well, this is all the more reason for your not holding aloof from us. I wish you would think it over again. Huxley went the length of saying that to him it seemed a plain duty. But this is language I do not like to use.

As to attending the meetings or taking part in the work of the Society, that is immaterial. Darwin never did either, though he did once come to one of the evening receptions, and enjoyed it immensely.

In writing as I do I am not merely expressing my own opinions, but those of many others of my own standing who are keenly interested in the matter.

It is not a great matter to ask. I have the certificate ready. You have but to say the word. You will be put to no trouble or pecuniary responsibility. That my father-in-law arranged, long ago.

To dissociate yourself from the R.S. really amounts nowadays to doing it an injury. And I am sure you do not wish that.

With all good wishes, believe me yours sincerely,

W.T. THISELTON-DYER.

* * * * *

TO SIR W.T. THISELTON-DYER

_Parkstone, Dorset. January 17, 1893._

Dear Mr. Thiselton-Dyer,--I have been rather unwell myself the last few days or should have answered your very kind letter sooner. I feel really overpowered. I cannot understand why you or anyone should care about my being an F.R.S., because I have really done so little of what is usually considered scientific work to deserve it. I have for many years felt almost ashamed of the amount of reputation and honour that has been awarded me. I can understand the general public thinking too highly of me, because I know that I have the power of clear exposition, and, I think, also, of logical reasoning. But all the work I have done is more or less amateurish and founded almost wholly on other men's observations; and I always feel myself dreadfully inferior to men like Sir J. Hooker, Huxley, Flower, and scores of younger men who have extensive knowledge of whole departments of biology of which I am totally ignorant. I do not wish, however, to be thought ungrateful for the many honours that have been given me by the Royal and other Societies, and will therefore place myself entirely in your hands as regards my election to the F.R.S.

I am much pleased to hear that Huxley has taken to gardening. I have no doubt he will do some good work with his saxifrages. For myself the personal attention to my plants occupies all my spare time, and I derive constant enjoyment from the mere contemplation of the infinite variety of forms of leaf and flower, and modes of growth, and strange peculiarities of structure which are the source of fresh puzzles and fresh delights year by year. With best wishes and many thanks for the trouble you are taking on my behalf, believe me yours very faithfully,

ALFRED B. WALLACE.

* * * * *

In 1902 the _Standard_ announced that the degree of D.C.L. was to be conferred upon him by the University of Wales. He wrote to Miss Dora Best, who had sent him the information:

I have not seen the _Standard_. But I suppose it is about the offer of a degree by the University of Wales. You will not be surprised to hear that I have declined it "with thanks." The bother, the ceremony, the having perhaps to get a blue or yellow or scarlet gown! and at all events new black clothes and a new topper! such as I have not worn this twenty years. Luckily I had a good excuse in having committed the same offence before. Some ten years back I declined the offer of a degree from Cambridge, so that settled it.

P.S.--Having already degrees two--LL.D. (Dublin) and D.C.L. (Oxford)--I might have quoted Shakespeare: "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily," etc. But I didn't!--A.R.W.

* * * * *

In 1908 he received the Order of Merit, the highest honour conferred upon him. To his friend Mrs. Fisher he wrote:

Dear Mrs. Fisher,--Is it not awful--two more now! I should think very few men have had three such honours within six months! I have never felt myself worthy of the Copley Medal--and as to the Order of Merit--to be given to a red-hot Radical, Land Nationaliser, Socialist, Anti-Militarist, etc. etc. etc., is quite astounding and unintelligible!...

There is another thing you have not heard yet, but it will be announced soon. Sir W. Crookes, as Secretary of the Royal Institution, wrote to me two weeks back asking me very strongly to give them a lecture at their opening meeting (third week in January) appropriate to the Jubilee of the "Origin of Species." I was very unwell at the time--could eat nothing, etc.--and was going to decline positively, having nothing more to say! But while lying down, vaguely thinking about it, an idea flashed upon me of a new treatment of the whole subject of Darwinism, just suitable for a lecture to a R.I. audience. I felt at once there was something that ought to be said, and that I should like to say--so I actually wrote and accepted, provisionally. My voice has so broken that unless I can improve it I fear not being heard, but Crookes promised to read it either wholly, or leaving to me the opening and concluding paragraphs. I was very weak--almost a skeleton--but I am now getting much better. But finishing up the "Spruce" book, and now all these honours and congratulations and letters, etc., are giving me much work, yet I am getting strong again, and really hope to do this "lecture" as my last stroke for Darwinism against the Mutationists and Mendelians, but much more effective, I hope, than my article in the August _Contemporary Review_, though that was pretty strong.--Yours very sincerely,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

How more than true "Sunlight's"[64] words have come, "You will come out of the hole! You will be more in the world. You will have satisfaction, retrospection, and work"! Literally fulfilled!--A.R.W.

* * * * *

And to Mr. F. Birch:

_December 30, 1908._

Dear Fred,-- ... I received a letter from Lord Knollys--the King's Private Secretary--informing me that His Majesty proposed to offer me the Order of Merit, among the Birthday honours! This is an "Order" established by the present King about eight years ago, solely for "merit"--whether civil or military--it is a pity it was not civil only, as the military have so many distinctions already. So I had to compose a very polite letter of acceptance and thanks, and then later I had to beg to be excused (on the ground of age and delicate health) from attending the investiture at Buckingham Palace (on December 14th), when Court dress--a kind of very costly livery--is obligatory! and I was kept for weeks waiting. But at last one of the King's Equerries, Col. Legge (an Earl's son), came down here about two weeks ago bringing the Order, which is a very handsome cross in red and blue enamel and gold--rich colours--with a crown above, and a rich ribbed-silk blue and crimson riband to hang it round the neck! Col. Legge was very pleasant, stayed half an hour, had some tea, and showed us how to wear it. So I shall be in duty bound to wear it on the only public occasion I shall be seen again (in all probability), when I give (or attempt to give) my lecture.[65] Then, I had a letter from Windsor telling me that chalk portraits of all the members of the Order were to be taken for the collections in the Library, and a Mr. Strang came and stayed the night, and in four hours completed a very good life-size head, in coloured chalk, and so far, so good!--Yours very sincerely, ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

Wallace regarded "Sunlight's" prophecy about "retrospection" as being fulfilled in 1904, when he received the invitation of Messrs. Chapman and Hall to begin collecting material for his autobiography which was subsequently published in two large volumes, under the title of "My Life."

Referring to this work he wrote to Mrs. Fisher:

_Broadstone, Dorset. April_ 17, 1904.

Dear Mrs. Fisher,--Thanks for your remarks on what an autobiography ought to be. But I am afraid I shall fall dreadfully short. I seem to remember nothing but ordinary facts and incidents of no interest to anyone but my own family. I do not feel myself that anything has much influenced my character or abilities, such as they are. Lots of things have given me opportunities, and those I can state. Also other things have directed me into certain lines, but I can't dilate on these; and really, with the exception of Darwin and Sir Charles Lyell, I have come into close relations with hardly any eminent men. All my doings and surroundings have been commonplace!

I am now just reading a charming and ideal bit of autobiography--Robert Dale Owen's "Threading my Way." If you have not read it, do get it (published by Trübner and Co. in 1874). It is delightful. So simple and natural throughout. But his father was one of the most wonderful men of the nineteenth century--Robert Owen of New Lanark--and this book gives the true history of his great success. Then R.D. Owen met Clarkson and heard from his own lips how he worked to abolish the slave trade.

Then he had part of his education at Hofwyl under Fellenberg, an experiment in education and self-government wonderfully original and successful. He afterwards worked at "New Harmony" with his father, and met during his life almost all the most remarkable people in England and America.

This book only contains the first twenty-seven years of his life and I am afraid he never completed it. Such a book makes me despair!--Yours very sincerely,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

When "My Life" was published, he wrote to the same old and valued friend:

_Broadstone, Wimborne. November 7, 1905._

My dear Mrs. Fisher,--The reviewers are generally very fair about the fads except a few. The _Review_ invents a new word for me--I am an "anti-body"; but the _Outlook_ is the richest: I am the one man who believes in Spiritualism, phrenology, anti-vaccination, and the centrality of the earth in the universe, whose life is worth writing. Then it points out a few things I am capable of believing, but which everybody else knows to be fallacies, and compares me to Sir I. Newton writing on the prophets! Yet of course he praises my biology up to the skies--there I am wise--everywhere else I am a kind of weak, babyish idiot! It is really delightful!

Only one is absolutely savage about it all--the _Liverpool_ _Daily Post and Mercury_. The reviewer devotes over three columns almost wholly to the fads--as to all of which he evidently knows absolutely nothing, but he is cocksure that I am always wrong!...--Yours very sincerely,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

He always thought that he was deficient in the gift of humour: "I am," he wrote to Mr. J.W. Marshall (May 6, 1905), "still grinding away at my autobiography. Have got to my American lecture tour, and hope to finish by about Sept. but have such lots of interruptions. I am just reading Huxley's Life. Some of his letters are inimitable, but the whole is rather monotonous. I find there is a good deal of variety in my life if I had but the gift of humour! Alas! I could not make a joke to save my life. But I find it very interesting." "Unless somebody," he wrote to Miss Evans, "can make me laugh just before the critical moment I always have a horrid expression in photographs." Yet another observant friend remarked that "he had a keen sense of humour. It was always his boyish joyous exuberance which touched me. He never grew old. When I had sat with him an hour he was a young man, he became transfigured to me." ... "The last time I saw Dr. Wallace," writes Prof. T.D.A. Cockerell of Colorado, "was immediately after the Darwin Celebration at Cambridge in 1909. I was the first to give him the details concerning it, and vividly remember how interested he was, and how heartily he laughed over some of the funny incidents, which may not as yet be told in print. One of his most prominent characteristics was his keen sense of humour, and his enjoyment of a good story." In the summer of 1885 he spent a holiday with Prof. Meldola at Lyme Regis. "After our ramble," said the Professor, "we used to spend the evenings indoors, I reading aloud the 'Ingoldsby Legends,' which Wallace richly enjoyed. His humour was a delightful characteristic. 'The inimitable puns of T. Hood were,' he said, 'the delight of my youth, as is the more recondite and fantastic humour of Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll in my old age.'"

* * * * *

Wallace loved to give time and trouble in aiding young men to start in life, especially if they were endeavouring to become naturalists. He sent them letters of advice, helped them in the choice of the right country to visit, and gave them minute practical instructions how to live healthily and to maintain themselves. He put their needs before other and more fortunate scientific workers and besought assistance for them.

"The central secret of his personal magnetism lay in his wide and unselfish sympathy," writes Prof. Poulton.[66] "It might be thought by those who did not know Wallace that the noble generosity which will always stand as an example before the world was something special--called forth by the illustrious man with whom he was brought in contact. This would be a great mistake. Wallace's attitude was characteristic, and characteristic to the end of his life.

"A keen young naturalist in the North of England, taking part in an excursion to the New Forest, called on Wallace and confided to him the dream of his life--a first-hand knowledge of tropical nature. When I visited 'Old Orchard' in the summer of 1903, I found that Wallace was intently interested in two things: his garden, and the means by which his young friend's dream might best be realised. The subject was referred to in seventeen letters to me; it formed the sole topic of some of them. It was a grand and inspiring thing to see this great man identifying himself heart and soul with the interests of one--till then a stranger--in whom he recognised the passionate longings of his own youth. By the force of sympathy he re-lived in the life of another the splendid years of early manhood."

The late Prof. Knight recalled meeting him at the British Association in Dundee, during the year 1867, when Wallace was his guest for the usual time of the gathering. He wrote:

I, and everyone else who then met him at my house, were struck, as
no one could fail to be, by his rare urbanity, his social charm,
his modesty, his unobtrusive strength, his courtesy in explaining
matters with which he was himself familiar but those he conversed
with were not; and his abounding interest, not only in almost
every branch of Science, but in human knowledge in all its phases,
especially new ones. He was a many-sided scientific man, and had a
vivid sense of humour. He greatly enjoyed anecdote, as
illustrative of character. During those days he talked much on the
fundamental relations between Science and Philosophy, as well as
on the connection of Poetry with both of them. When he left Dundee
he went to Kenmore, that he might ascend Ben Lawers in search of
some rare ferns.

In 1872 I saw him, after meeting Thomas Carlyle and Dean Stanley
at Linlathen, when Darwin's theory was much discussed, and when
our genial host--Mr. Erskine--talked so dispassionately but
decidedly against evolution as explanatory of the rise of what was
new. A little later in the same year Matthew Arnold discussed the
same subject with some friends at the Athenæum Club, defending the
chief aim of Darwin's theory, and enlarging from a different point
of view what Wallace had done in the same direction. I remember
well that he characterised the two men as fellow-workers, not as
followers, or in any sense as copyists. Wallace's versatility not
only continued, but grew in many ways with the advance of years.
It was seen in his appreciation of the value of historical study.
Quite late in life he wrote: "The nineteenth century is quite as
wonderful in the domain of History as in that of Science."
Comparatively few know, or remember, that he and his young brother
Herbert--on whom he left an interesting chapter _in
memoriam_--both wrote verses, some of which were of real value.

It may be safely said that few scientific men have sympathetically
entered into bordering territories and therein excelled. The whole
field of psychical research was familiar to him, and he might have
been a leader in it.

My last meeting with him was at his final home, the "Old Orchard,"
Broadstone, in 1909. I was staying at Boscombe in Hants, and he
asked me to "come and see his garden, while we talked of past
days." He had then the freshness of boyhood, blent with the mellow
wisdom of age.--W.A.K.

The eminent naturalist and traveller, Dr. Henry O. Forbes, who later explored the greater part of the lands visited by Wallace, contributes the following appreciation of the latter's scientific work:

As a traveller, explorer and working naturalist, Wallace will
always stand in the first rank, compared even with the most modern
explorers. It ought not to be forgotten, however, how great were
the difficulties, the dangers and the cost of travel fifty years
ago, compared with the facilities now enjoyed by his successors,
who can command steam and motor transport to wellnigh any spot on
the coasts of the globe, and who have to their hand concentrated
and preserved foods, a surer knowledge of the causes of tropical
diseases, and outfits of non-perishable medicines sufficient for
many years within the space of a few cubic inches. Commissariat
and health are the keys to all exploration in uncivilised regions.
Wallace accomplished his work on the shortest of commons and lay
weeks at a time sick through inability to replenish his medical
stores.

He was no mere "trudger" over new lands. Where those before him,
and even many after him, have been able to see only sterile
objects, his discerning eyes perceived everywhere a meaning in
the varying modes of organic life, and in response to his
sympathetic mind Nature revealed to him more of her multitudinous
secrets than to most others. Wallace's Amazonian travels were far
from unfruitful, in spite of the irreparable loss he sustained in
the burning of his notes and the bulk of his collections in the
vessel by which he was returning home; but it was in the Malay
Archipelago that his most celebrated years of investigation were
passed, which marked him as one of the greatest naturalists of our
time. As a methodical natural history collector--which is "the
best sport in the world" according to Darwin--he has never been
surpassed; and few naturalists, if any, have ever brought together
more enormous collections than he. The mere statement, taken from
his "Malay Archipelago," of the number of his captures in the
Archipelago in six years of actual collecting, exceeding 125,000
specimens--a number greater than the entire contents of many large
museums--still causes amazement. The value of a collection,
however, depends on the full and accurate information attached to
each specimen, and from this point of view only a few collections,
including Darwin's and Bates's, have possessed the great
scientific value of his.

Wallace's Eastern explorations included nearly all the large and
the majority of the smaller islands of the Archipelago. Many of
them he was the first naturalist to visit, or to reside on. Ceram,
Batjian, Buru, Lombok, Timor, Aru, Ke and New Guinea had never
been previously scientifically investigated. When in 1858 "the
first and greatest of the naturalists," as Dr. Wollaston styles
Wallace, visited New Guinea, it was "the first time that any
European had ventured to reside alone and practically unprotected
on the mainland of this country," which, dangerous as it is now in
the same regions, was infinitely more so then. Of the journals of
his voyagings, "The Malay Archipelago" will always be ranked among
the greatest narratives of travel. The fact that this volume has
gone through a dozen editions is witness to its extraordinary
popularity among intelligent minds, and hardly supports the belief
that his scientific work has been forgotten. Nor can this
popularity be a matter of much surprise, for few travellers have
possessed Wallace's powers of exposition, his lucidity and charm
of style. Professor Strasburger of Bonn has declared that through
"The Malay Archipelago" "a new world of scientific knowledge" was
unfolded before him. "I feel it ... my duty," he adds, "to
proclaim it with gratitude." Wallace's narrative has attracted
during the past half-century numerous naturalists to follow in his
tracks, many of whom have reaped rich aftermaths of his harvest;
but certain it is that no explorer in the same, if in any other,
region has approached his eminence, or attained the success he
achieved.

As a systematic zoologist, Wallace took no inconsiderable place;
his _métier_, however, was different. He described, nevertheless,
large sections of his Lepidoptera and of his birds, on which many
valuable papers are printed in the _Transactions_ of the learned
societies and in various scientific periodicals. Of the former,
special mention may be made of that on variation in the
"Papilionidæ of the Malayan Region," of which Darwin has recorded:
"I have never in my life been more struck by any paper." Of the
latter, reference may be drawn to his account of the "Pigeons of
the Malay Archipelago" and his paper on the "Passerine Birds," in
which he proposed an important new arrangement of the families of
that group (used later in his "Geographical Distribution") based
on the feathering of their wings. Without a lengthy search through
the zoological records, it would be impossible to say how many
species Wallace added to science; but the constant recurrence in
the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum of "wallacei" as the
name bestowed on various new species by other systematists, and of
"Wallace" succeeding those scientifically named by himself, is an
excellent gauge of their very large number.

In the field of anthropology Wallace could never be an
uninterested spectator. He took a deep interest, he tells us, in
the study of the various races of mankind. His accounts of the
Amazonian tribes suffered greatly by the loss of his journals; but
of the peoples of the Malay Archipelago he has given us a most
interesting narrative, detailing their bodily and mental
characteristics, and showing how their distribution accorded with
that of the fauna on the opposite sides--Malays to the West,
Papuans to the East--of Wallace's Line. If fuller investigation of
the New Guinea tribes requires some modification in regard to
their origin, his observations, as broadly outlined then, remain
true still. His opinions on the origin of the Australian
aborigines--that they were a low and primitive type of Caucasian
race--which, when first promulgated, were somewhat sceptically
received, are now those accepted by many very competent
anthropologists.

Wallace's contributions to Geographical Science were only second
in importance to those he so pre-eminently made to biology. Though
skilled in the use of surveying instruments, he did little or no
map-making--at all times a laborious and lengthy task--for, with
more important purposes in his mind, he could not spare the time,
nor did the limitations to his movements permit any useful
attempt. Yet he did pure geographical work quite as important. The
value of the comparative study of the flora and fauna of
neighbouring regions, the great differences in the midst of much
likeness between the organic life of neighbouring land masses, was
a subject that was always in Wallace's mind during his exploration
of the Amazon Valley, for he perceived that the physical geography
and the distribution of these animals and plants were of the
greatest service in elucidating their history where the geological
record was defective. As is well known, the visual inspection of
the geological structure of tropical countries is always difficult
and often impossible to make out because of the dense vegetation
upon the surface and even the faces of the river gorges. But for
the loss of his collections and notes we should have had from
Wallace's pen a Physical History of the Amazon. This loss was,
however, amply made up by his very original contributions to the
geography of the Malay Archipelago. "The Zoological Geography of
the Malay Archipelago" and "The Physical Geography of the Malay
Archipelago" (written on Eastern soil, with the texts of his
discourses around him) were the forerunners of his monumental
"Geographical Distribution of Animals," elaborated in England
after his return. "To the publication of the 'Geographical
Distribution of Animals' we owe the first scientific study of the
distribution of organic life on the globe, which has broadened
ever since, and continues to interest students daily; his
brilliant work in Natural History and Geography ... is universally
honoured," are the opinions of Dr. Scott speaking as President of
the Linnean Society of London.

One of Wallace's most important contributions to the physical
geography of the Malay region was his discovery of the physical
differences between the western and the eastern portions of the
Archipelago; i.e. that the islands lying to the east of a line
running north from the middle of the Straits of Bali and outside
Celebes were fragments of an ancient and larger Australian
continent, while those to the western side were fragments of an
Asiatic continent. This he elucidated by recognising that the
flora and fauna on the two sides of the line, close though these
islands approached each other, were absolutely different and had
remained for ages uncommingled. This line was denominated
"Wallace's Line" by Huxley, and this discovery alone would have
been sufficient to associate his name inseparably with this region
of the globe.--H.O.F.

Like Darwin, Wallace gave excessive attention to the suggestions and criticisms of people who were obviously ignorant of the subjects about which they wrote. He was never impatient with honest ignorance or considered the lowly position of his correspondents. He replied to all letters of inquiry (and he received many from working men), and always gave his best knowledge and advice to anyone who desired it. There was not the faintest suggestion of the despicable sense of superiority about him.

"I had, of course, revelled in 'The Malay Archipelago' when a boy," says Prof. Cockerell, "but my first personal relations with Dr. Wallace arose from a letter I wrote him after reading his 'Darwinism,' then (early in 1890) recently published. The book delighted me, but I found a number of little matters to criticise and discuss, and with the impetuosity of youth proceeded to write to the author, and also to send a letter on some of the points to _Nature_. I have possibly not yet reached years of discretion, but in the perspective of time I can see with confusion that what I regarded as worthy zeal might well have been characterised by others as confounded impudence. In the face of this, the tolerance and kindness of Dr. Wallace's reply is wholly characteristic: 'I am very much obliged to you for your letter containing so many valuable emendations and suggestions on my "Darwinism." They will be very useful to me in preparing another edition. Living in the country with but few books, I have often been unable to obtain the _latest_ information, but for the purpose of the argument the facts of a few years back are often as good as those of to-day--which in their turn will be modified a few years hence.... You appear to have so much knowledge of details in so many branches of natural history, and also to have thought so much on many of the more recondite problems, that I shall be much pleased to receive any further remarks or corrections on any other portions of my book.' This letter, written to a very young and quite unknown man in the wilds of Colorado, who had merely communicated a list of more or less trifling criticisms, can only be explained as an instance of Dr. Wallace's eagerness to help and encourage beginners. It did not occur to him to question the propriety of the criticisms, he did not write as a superior to an inferior; he only saw what seemed to him a spark of biological enthusiasm, which should by all means be kindled into flame. Many years later, when I was at his house, he produced with the greatest delight some letters from a young man who had gone to South America and was getting his first glimpse of the tropical forest. What discoveries he might make! What joy he must have on seeing the things described in the letter, such things as Dr. Wallace himself had seen in Brazil so long ago!"

Wallace's critical faculty was always keen and vigilant. Unlike some critics, however, he relished genuine and well-informed criticism of his own writings. Flattery he despised; whilst the charge of dishonesty aroused strongest resentment. Deceived he might be, but he required clear proof that his own eyes and ears had led him astray. Romanes, who had propounded the forgotten theory of physiological selection, charged Wallace with adopting it as his own. This was not only untrue, it was ridiculous; and Wallace, after telling him so and receiving no apology, dropped him out of his recognition. During Romanes' illness Mr. Thiselton-Dyer wrote to Wallace and sought to bring about a reconciliation, and Wallace replied:

* * * * *

_Parkstone, Dorset. September 26, 1893._

My dear Thiselton-Dyer,--I am sorry to hear of Romanes' illness, because I think he would have done much good work in carrying out experiments which require the leisure, means and knowledge which he possesses. I cannot, however, at all understand his wishing to have any communication from myself. I do not think I ever met Romanes in private more than once, when he called on me more than twenty years ago about some curious psychical phenomena occurring in his own family; and perhaps half a dozen letters--if so many--may have passed between us since. There is therefore no question of personal friendship disturbed. I consider, however, that he made a very gross misstatement and personal attack on me when he stated, both in English and American periodicals, that in my "Darwinism" I adopted his theory of "physiological selection" and claimed it as my own, and that my adoption of it was "unequivocal and complete." This accusation he supported by such a flood of words and quotations and explanations as to obscure all the chief issues and render it almost impossible for the ordinary reader to disentangle the facts. I told him then that unless he withdrew this accusation as publicly as he had made it I should decline all future correspondence with him, and should avoid referring to him in any of my writings.

This is, of course, very different from any criticism of my theories; that, or even ridicule, would never disturb me; but when a man has made an accusation of literary and scientific dishonesty, and has done all he can to spread this accusation over the whole civilised world, my only answer can be--after showing, as I have done (_see Nature_, vol. xliii., pp. 79 and 150), that his accusations are wholly untrue--to ignore his existence.

I cannot believe that he can want any sympathy from a man he says has wilfully and grossly plagiarised him, unless he feels that his accusations were unfounded. If he does so, and will write to me to that effect (for publication, if I wish, after his death), I will accept it as full reparation and write him such a letter as you suggest.--Believe me yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

SIR W.T. THISELTON-DYER TO A.R. WALLACE

_Kew. September 27, 1897._

Dear Mr. Wallace,--I am afraid I have been rather guilty of an impertinence which I hope you will forgive.

Romanes is an old acquaintance of mine of many years' standing. Personally, I like him very much; but for his writings I confess I have no great admiration.

Pray believe me I had no mission of any sort on his part to write to you. But I feel so sorry for him that when he told me how much he regretted that he did not stand well with you, I could not resist writing to tell you of the calamities that have befallen him.

I must confess I was in total ignorance of what you tell me. I don't see how, under the circumstances, you can do anything. I was never more surprised in my life, in fact, than when I read your letter. The whole thing is too childishly preposterous.

Romanes laments over _me_ because he says I wilfully misunderstand his theory. The fact is, poor fellow, that I do not think he understands it himself. If his life had been destined to be prolonged I should have done all in my power to have induced him to occupy himself more with observation and less with mere logomachy.

I cannot get him to face the fact that natural hybrids are being found to be more and more common amongst plants. At the beginning of the century it was supposed that there were some sixty recognisable species of willows in the British Isles: now they are cut down to about sixteen, and all the rest are resolved into hybrids.--Ever sincerely,

W.T. THISELTON-DYER.

* * * * *

Wallace was a seeker after Truth who was never shy of his august mistress, whatever robes she wore. "I feel within me," wrote Darwin to Henslow, "an instinct for truth, or knowledge, or discovery, of something of the same nature as the instinct of virtue." This was equally true of Wallace. He had a fine reverence for truth, beauty and love, and he feared not to expose error. He paid no respect to time-honoured practices and opinions if he believed them to be false. Vaccination came under his searching criticism, and in the face of nearly the whole medical faculty he denounced it as quackery condemned by the very evidence used to defend it. He very carefully examined the claims of phrenology, which had been laughed out of court by scientific men, and he came to the conclusion that "in the present (twentieth) century phrenology will assuredly attain general acceptance. It will prove itself to be the true science of the mind. Its practical uses in education, in self-discipline, in the reformatory treatment of criminals, and in the remedial treatment of the insane, will gain it one of the highest places in the hierarchy of the sciences; and its persistent neglect and obloquy during the last sixty years of the nineteenth century will be referred to as an example of the almost incredible narrowness and prejudice which prevailed among men of science at the very time they were making such splendid advances in other fields of thought and discovery."[67]

Wallace was not even scared out of his wits by ghosts, for, unlike Coleridge, he believed in them although he thought he had seen many. Whether truth came from the scaffold or the throne, the séance or the sky, it did not alter the truth, and did not prejudice or overbear his judgment. He shed his early materialism (which temporarily took possession of him as it did of many others as a result of the shock following the overwhelming discoveries of that period) when he was brought face to face with the phenomena of the spiritual kingdom which withstood the searching test of his keen observation and reasoning powers. Prejudices, preconceived notions, respect for his scientific position or the opinions of his eminent friends or the reputation of the learned societies to which he belonged--all were quietly and firmly put aside when he saw what he recognised to be the truth. If his fellow-workers did not accept it, so much the worse for them. He stood four-square against the onslaught of quasi-scientific rationalism, which once threatened to obliterate all the ancient landmarks of morality and religion alike. He made mistakes, and he admitted and corrected them, because he verily loved Truth for her own sake. And to the very end of his long life he kept the windows of his soul wide open to what he believed to be the light of this and other worlds.

He was, then, a man of lofty ideals, and his idealism was at the base of his opposition to the materialism which boasted that Natural Selection explained all adaptation, and that Physics could give the solution of Huxley's poser to Spencer: "Given the molecular forces in a mutton chop, deduce Hamlet and Faust therefrom," and which regarded mind as a quality of matter as brightness is a quality of steel, and life as the result of the organisation of matter and not its cause.

"We have ourselves," wrote Prof. H.F. Osborn in an account of Wallace's scientific work which Wallace praised, "experienced a loss of confidence with advancing years, an increasing humility in the face of transformations which become more and more mysterious the more we study them, although we may not join with this master in his appeal to an organising and directing principle." But profound contemplation of nature and of the mind of man led Wallace to belief in God, to accept the Divine origin of life and consciousness, and to proclaim a hierarchy of spiritual beings presiding over nature and the affairs of nations. "Whatever," writes Dr. H.O. Forbes, "may be the last words on the deep and mysterious problems to which Wallace addressed himself in his later works, the unquestioned consensus of the highest scientific opinion throughout the world is that his work has been for more than half a century, and will continue to be, a living stimulus to interpretation and investigation, a fertilising and vivifying force in every sphere of thought."

It is perhaps unprofitable to go further than in previous chapters into his so-called heresies--political, scientific or religious. Yet we may imitate his boldness and ask whether he was not, perhaps, in advance of his age and whether his heresies were not shrewd anticipations of some truth at present but partially revealed. Take the example of Spiritualism, which, I suppose, has more opponents than anti-vaccination. No one can overlook the fact that Spiritualism has many scientific exponents--Myers, Crookes, Lodge, Barrett and others. Prejudices against Spiritualism are as unscientific as the credulity which swallows the mutterings of every medium. Podmore's two ponderous volumes on the History of Spritualism are marred by an obvious anxiety to make the very least, if not the very worst, of every phenomenon alleged to be spiritualistic. That kind of deliberate and obstinate blindness which prided itself on being the clear cold light of science Wallace scorned and denounced. He did not insist upon spiritualistic manifestations shaping themselves according to his own predesigned moulds in order to be investigated. He watched for facts whatever form they assumed. He fully recognised that the phenomena he saw and heard could be easily ridiculed, but behind them he as fully believed that he came into contact with spiritual realities which remain, and which led him to other explanations of the higher faculties of man and the origin of life and consciousness than were acceptable to the materialistic followers of Haeckel, Büchner and Huxley. And who dares dogmatically to assert in the name of science and in the second decade of the twentieth century, when the deeper meanings of evolution are being revealed, and the philosophy of Bergson is spoken about on the housetops, that he was wrong? In these views may he not become the peer of Darwin?

At first blush it may seem to be a bad example of special pleading to attempt to discover the reason for his opposition to vaccination in his idealism. But it is not far from the truth. He believed in a Ministry of Public Health, that doctors should be servants of the State, and that they should be paid according as they kept people well and not ill. Health is the natural condition of the human body when it is properly sustained and used. And chemicals, even in sickness, are of less importance than fresh air, light and proper food. He ridiculed, too, the notion of unhealthy places. "It is like," he wrote to Mr. Birch, "the old idea that every child must have measles, and the sooner the better." To the same correspondent, who was contemplating going into virgin forests and who expressed his fear of malaria, he replied: "There is no special danger of malaria or other diseases in a dense forest region. I am sure this is a delusion, and the dense virgin forests, even when swampy, are, in a state of nature, perfectly healthy to live in. It is man's tampering with them, and man's own bad habits of living, that render them unhealthy. Having now gone over all Spruce's journals and letters during his twelve years' life in and about the Amazonian forests, I am sure this is so. And even where a place is said to be notoriously 'malarious,' it is mostly due not to infection only but to predisposition due to malnutrition or some bad mode of living. A person living healthily may, for the most part, laugh at such terrors. Neither I nor Spruce ever got fevers when we lived in the forests and were able to get wholesome food." "Health," he said to the present writer, "is the best resistant to disease, and not the artificial giving of a mild form of a disease in order to render the body immune to it for a season. Vaccination is not only condemned upon the statistics which are used to uphold it, but it is a false principle--unscientific, and therefore doomed to fail in the end." Besides which, he believed in mental healing, and had recorded definite and certain benefit from spiritual "healers." And he reminded himself that amongst doctors (witness the blind opposition encountered by Lister's discoveries) were found from time to time not a few enemies of the true healing art, and obstinate defenders of many forms of quackery. Wallace made no claim to be an original investigator. He knew his limitations, and said again and again that he could not have conducted the slow and minute researches or have accumulated the vast amount of detailed evidence to which Darwin, with infinite patience, devoted his life. He was genuinely glad that it had not fallen to his lot to write "The Origin of Species." He felt that his chief faculty was to reason from facts which others discovered. Yet he had that original insight and creative faculty which enabled him to see, often as by flashlight, the explanation which had remained hidden from the eyes of the man who was most familiar with the particular facts, and he elaborated it with quickening pulse, anxious to put down the whole conception which filled his mind lest some portion of it should escape him. Therein lay one secret of his great genius. He often said that he was an idler, but we know that he was a patient and industrious worker. His idleness was his way of describing his long musings, waiting the bidding of her whom God inspires--Truth, who often hides her face from the clouded eyes of man. For hours, days, weeks, he was disinclined to work. He felt no constraining impulse, his attention was relaxed or engaged upon a novel, or his seeds, or the plan of a new house, which always excited his interest. Then, apparently suddenly, whilst in one of his day-dreams, or in a fever (as at Ternate, to recall the historical episode when the theory of Natural Selection struck him), an explanation, a theory, a discovery,[68] the plan of a new book, came to him like a flash of light, and with the plan the material, the arguments, the illustrations; the words came tumbling one over the other in his brain, and as suddenly his idleness vanished, and work, eager, prolonged, unwearying, filled his days and months and years until the message was written down and the task fully accomplished. Whilst writing he referred to few books, but wrote straight on, adding paragraph to paragraph, chapter to chapter, without recasting or revision.[69] And the result was fresh, striking, original. It was a creation. The work being done, he relapsed into his busy idleness. The truth, as he saw it, seemed to come to him. Some people called him a prophet, but he was not conscious of that high calling. I do not remember him saying that he was only a messenger. Perhaps later, when he was reviewing his life, he connected his sudden inspirations with a higher source, but for their realisation he relied upon a foundation of veritable facts, facts patiently accumulated, a foundation laid broad and deep. He had the vision of the prophet allied with the wisdom of the philosopher and the calm mental detachment of the man of science. Perhaps another explanation of his genius may be found in his open-mindedness. Truth found ready access to his conscience, and always a warm welcome, and he saw with open eyes where others were stone-blind.