Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 | Page 2

rearranged so as to admit similar memorials of Lister, Hooker and
Alfred Russel Wallace. Now that the plan is completed, Darwin and
Wallace are together in this wonderful galaxy of the great men of
science of the nineteenth century. Several illustrious names are missing
from this eminent company; foremost amongst them being that of

Herbert Spencer, the lofty master of that synthetic philosophy which
seemed to his disciples to have the proportions and qualities of an
enduring monument, and whose incomparable fertility of creative
thought entitled him to share the throne with Darwin. It was Spencer,
Darwin, Wallace, Hooker, Lyell and Huxley who led that historic
movement which garnered the work of Lamarck and Buffon, and gave
new direction to the ceaseless interrogation of nature to discover the
"how" and the "why" of the august progression of life.
Looking over the long list of the departed whose names are enshrined
in our Minster, one has sorrowfully to observe that contemporary
opinion of their place in history and abiding worth was not infrequently
astray; that memory has, indeed, forgotten their works; and their
memorials might be removed to some cloister without loss of respect
for the dead, perhaps even with the silent approval of their own day and
generation could it awake from its endless sleep and review the strange
and eventful course of human life since they left "this bank and shoal of
time." But may it not be safely prophesied that of all the names on the
starry scroll of national fame that of Charles Darwin will, surely,
remain unquestioned? And entwined with his enduring memory, by
right of worth and work, and we know with Darwin's fullest approval,
our successors will discover the name of Alfred Russel Wallace.
Darwin and Wallace were pre-eminent sons of light.
Among the great men of the Victorian age Wallace occupied a unique
position. He was the co-discoverer of the illuminating theory of Natural
Selection; he watched its struggle for recognition against prejudice,
ignorance, ridicule and misrepresentation; its gradual adoption by its
traditional enemies; and its final supremacy. And he lived beyond the
hour of its signal triumph and witnessed the further advance into the
same field of research of other patient investigators who are disclosing
fresh phases of the same fundamental laws of development, and are
accumulating a vast array of new facts which tell of still richer light to
come to enlighten every man born into the world. To have lived
through that brilliant period and into the second decade of the twentieth
century; to have outlived all contemporaries, having been the
co-revealer of the greatest and most far-reaching generalisation in an
era which abounded in fruitful discoveries and in revolutionary
advances in the application of science to life, is verily to have been the

chosen of the gods.
Who and what manner of man was Alfred Russel Wallace? Who were
his forbears? How did he obtain his insight into the closest secrets of
nature? What was the extent of his contributions to our stock of human
knowledge? In which directions did he most influence his age? What is
known of his inner life? These are some of the questions which most
present-day readers and all future readers into whose hands this book
may come will ask.
As to his descent, his upbringing, his education and his estimate of his
own character and work, we can, with rare good fortune, refer them to
his autobiography, in which he tells his own story and relates the
circumstances which, combined with his natural disposition, led him to
be a great naturalist and a courageous social reformer; nay more, his
autobiography is also in part a peculiar revelation of the inner man such
as no biography could approach. We are also able to send inquirers to
the biographies and works of his contemporaries--Darwin, Hooker,
Lyell, Huxley and many others. All this material is already available to
the diligent reader. But there are other sources of information which the
present book discloses--Wallace's home life, the large collection of his
own letters, the reminiscences of friends, communications which he
received from many co-workers and correspondents which, besides
being of interest in themselves, often cast a sidelight upon his own
mind and work. All these are of peculiar and intimate value to those
who desire to form a complete estimate of Wallace. And it is to help
the reader to achieve this desirable result that the present work is
published.
It may be stated here that Wallace had suggested to the present writer
that he should undertake a new work, to be called "Darwin and
Wallace," which was to have been a comparative study of their literary
and scientific writings, with an estimate of the present position of the
theory of Natural Selection as an adequate explanation of the