By James Marchant With Two Photogravures and Eight Half-tone Plates IN TWO VOLUMES Volume I CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1916 To the Memory of ANNIE WALLACE Alfred R. Wallace Alfred R. Wallace These two volumes consist of a selection from several thousands of letters entrusted to me by the Wallace family and dating from the dawn of Darwinism to the second decade of the twentieth century, supplemented by such biographical particulars and comments as are require

By James Marchant With Two Photogravures and Eight Half-tone Plates IN TWO VOLUMES Volume II CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1916 A.R. WALLACE (1913) A.R. WALLACE (1913) A.R. WALLACE (1913) Photogravure Frontispiece MRS. A.R. WALLACE (ABOUT 1895) THE STUDY AT "OLD ORCHARD" A.R. WALLACE ADMIRING EREMURUS ROBUSTUS (ABOUT 1905) GRAVE OF ALFRED RUSSEL AND ANNIE WALLACE WALLACE AND DARWIN MEDALLIONS IN THE NORTH AISLE OF THE CHOIR OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY...

A.R. WALLACE (1912) Photogravure Frontispiece A.R. WALLACE (SINGAPORE, 1862) A.R. WALLACE'S MOTHER A.R. WALLACE SOON AFTER HIS RETURN FROM THE EAST...

"I have long recognised how much clearer and deeper your insight into matters is than mine." "I sometimes marvel how truth progresses, so difficult is it for one man to convince another, unless his mind is vacant." "I grieve to differ from you, and it actually terrifies me, and makes me constantly distrust myself. I fear we shall never quite understand each other." —DARWIN TO WALLACE. During the period covered by the reception, exposition, and gradual acceptance of the theory of Natural Selectio

It will be remembered that Darwin and Wallace, on their respective returns to England, after many years spent in journeyings by land and sea and in laborious research, found the first few months fully occupied in going over their large and varied collections, sorting and arranging with scrupulous care the rare specimens they had taken, and in discovering the right men to name and classify them into correct groups. At this point it will be useful to arrange Darwin's writings under three heads, na

Letters and Reminiscences...

53 Harley Street. May 22, [1864]. My dear Sir,—I have been reading with great interest your paper on the Origin of the Races of Man, in which I think the question between the two opposite parties is put with such admirable clearness and fairness that that alone is no small assistance towards clearing the way to a true theory. The manner in which you have given Darwin the whole credit of the theory of Natural Selection is very handsome, but if anyone else had done it without allusion to your pape

In Westminster Abbey there repose, almost side by side, by no conscious design yet with deep significance, the mortal remains of Isaac Newton and of Charles Darwin. "'The Origin of Species,'" said Wallace, "will live as long as the 'Principia' of Newton." Near by are the tombs of Sir John Herschel, Lord Kelvin and Sir Charles Lyell; and the medallions in memory of Joule, Darwin, Stokes and Adams have been rearranged so as to admit similar memorials of Lister, Hooker and Alfred Russel Wallace. No

Queen's Hotel, Cliftonville, Margate, Aug. 19, 1894. Dear Mr. Wallace,—I cannot at all agree with you respecting the relative importance of the work you are doing and that which I wanted you to do. Various articles in the papers show that Lord Salisbury's argument is received with triumph, and, unless it is disposed of, it will lead to a public reaction against the doctrine of evolution at large, a far more serious evil than any error which you propose to rectify among biologists. Everybody will

As springs burst forth, now here, now there, on the mountain side, and find their way together to the vast ocean, so, at certain periods of history, men destined to become great are born within a few years of each other, and in the course of life meet and mingle their varied gifts of soul and intellect for the ultimate benefit of mankind. Between the years 1807 and 1825 at least eight illustrious scientists "saw the light"—Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Joseph Hooker, T.H. Huxley, Herbert Spencer, John

MRS. A.R. WALLACE (about 1895) MRS. A.R. WALLACE (about 1895) In our early days at Grays we children were allowed to run in and out of his study; but if he was busy writing at the moment we would look at a book until he could give us his attention. His brother in California sent him a live specimen of the lizard called the "horned toad," and this creature was kept in the study, where it was allowed to roam about, its favourite place being on the hearth. About this time he read "Alice through the

From this brief summary of the family history it is easy to perceive the inherited traits which were combined in the attractive personality of the great scientist. From his early forbears came the keen love of sport and outdoor exercise (to which considerable reference is made in his youth and early manhood); the close application of the philosopher; and the natural aptitude for collecting specimens of all kinds. To his grandfather he was doubtless indebted for his poetic imagination, which, con

Singapore, April 30, 1854 . My dear Mother,—We arrived here safe on the 20th of this month, having had very fine weather all the voyage. On shore I was obliged to go to a hotel, which was very expensive, so I tried to get out into the country as soon as I could, which, however, I did not manage in less than a week, when I at last got permission to stay with a French Roman Catholic missionary who lives about eight miles out of the town and close to the jungle. The greater part of the inhabitants

In this particular locality the land to be enclosed consisted of a large extent of moor, and mountain which, with other common rights, had for many years enabled the occupants of the scattered cottages around to keep a horse, cow, or a few sheep, and thus make a fairly comfortable living. Under the Act, the whole of this open land was divided among the adjacent landowners of the parish or manor, in proportion to the size or value of their estates. Thus, to those who actually possessed much, much

"An animal which differs from another by some decided and permanent character, however slight, which difference is undiminished by propagation and unchanged by climate and external circumstances, is universally held to be a distinct species ; while one which is not regularly transmitted so as to form a distinct race, but is occasionally reproduced from the parent stock (like albinoes), is generally, if the difference is not very considerable, classed as a variety . But I would class both these a

Granting this, however, the question might still be asked, Why should not any one of the suns in other parts of space possess planets as well adapted as our own to develop the higher forms of organic life? These questions cannot be answered definitely; but there are reasons, he considered, why the central position which we occupy may alone be suitable. It is almost certain that electricity and other mysterious radiant forces (of which we have so recently discovered the existence) have played an

Fascimile FACSIMILE OF INSCRIPTION BY WALLACE ON THE ENVELOPE IN WHICH HE KEPT THE FIRST EIGHT LETTERS HE RECEIVED FROM DARWIN. Many of the notes of explanation to the Wallace letters have been gathered from his own writings, and are mainly in his own words, and in such cases the reader has the advantage of perusing letters annotated by their author, while most of the notes to the Darwin letters are by Sir F. Darwin. Down, Bromley, Kent, May 1, 1857. My dear Sir,—I am much obliged for your lette

( 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: Goda