Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 | Page 6

gained some valuable grounding at school were Latin,
arithmetic, and writing.
This estimate of the value of the grammar-school teaching is echoed in
Darwin's own words when describing his school days at precisely the
same age at Shrewsbury Grammar School, where, he says, "the school
as a means of education to me was simply a blank." It is therefore
interesting to notice, side by side, as it were, the occupation which each
boy found for himself out of school hours, and which in both instances
proved of immense value in their respective careers in later life.
Darwin, even at this early age, found his "taste for natural history, and
more especially for collecting," well developed. "I tried," he says, "to
make out the names of plants, and collected all sorts of things, shells,
seals, franks, coins and minerals. The passion for collecting which
leads a man to be a systematic naturalist ... was very strong in me, and
was clearly innate, as none of my sisters or brothers ever had this
taste."
He also speaks of himself as having been a very "simple little fellow"
by the manner in which he was either himself deceived or tried to

deceive others in a harmless way. As an instance of this, he
remembered declaring that he could "produce variously coloured
polyanthuses and primroses by watering them with certain coloured
fluids," though he knew all the time it was untrue. His feeling of
tenderness towards all animals and insects is revealed in the fact that he
could not remember--except on one occasion--ever taking more than
one egg out of a bird's nest; and though a keen angler, as soon as he
heard that he could kill the worms with salt and water he never
afterwards "spitted a living worm, though at the expense, probably, of
some loss of success!"
Nothing thwarted young Darwin's intense joy and interest in collecting
minerals and insects, and in watching and making notes upon the habits
of birds. In addition to this wholesome outdoor hobby, the tedium of
school lessons was relieved for him by reading Shakespeare, Byron and
Scott--also a copy of "Wonders of the World" which belonged to one of
the boys, and to which he always attributed his first desire to travel in
remote countries, little thinking how his dreams would be fulfilled.
Whilst Charles Darwin occupied himself with outdoor sport and
collecting, with a very moderate amount of reading thrown in at
intervals, Wallace, on the contrary, devoured all the books he could get;
and fortunately for him, his father having been appointed Librarian to
the Hertford Town Library, Alfred had access to all the books that
appealed to his mental appetite; and these, especially the historical
novels, supplemented the lack of interesting history lessons at school,
besides giving him an insight into many kinds of literature suited to his
varied tastes and temperament. In addition, however, to the hours spent
in reading, he and his brother John found endless delight in turning the
loft of an outhouse adjoining their yard into a sort of mechanical
factory. Here they contrived, by saving up all their pence (the only
pocket-money that came to them), to make crackers and other simple
fireworks, and to turn old keys into toy cannon, besides making a large
variety of articles for practical domestic purposes. Thus he cultivated
the gift of resourcefulness and self-reliance on which he had so often to
depend when far removed from all civilisation during his travels on the
Amazon and in the Malay Archipelago.

A somewhat amusing instance of this is found in a letter to his sister,
dated June 25th, 1855, at a time when he wanted a really capable man
for his companion, in place of the good-natured but incapable boy
Charles, whom he had brought with him from London to teach
collecting. In reply to some remarks by his sister about a young man
who she thought would be suitable, he wrote: "Do not tell me merely
that he is 'a very nice young man.' Of course he is.... I should like to
know whether he can live on rice and salt fish for a week on occasion....
Can he sleep on a board?... Can he walk twenty miles a day? Whether
he can work, for there is sometimes as hard work in collecting as in
anything. Can he saw a piece of wood straight? Ask him to make you
anything--a little card box, a wooden peg or bottle-stopper, and see if
he makes them neat and square."
In another letter he describes the garden and live stock he had been able
to obtain where he was living; and in yet another he gives a long list of
his domestic woes and tribulations--which, however, were overcome
with the patience inculcated in early life by