Alfred Russel Wallace; letters and reminiscences

Abstract

tribution of Animals,'?towards which all his previous thought and writings had tended, and from which, again, came other valuable works leading up to the publication of '' Darwinism "' (1889).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.Works on Biology, etc. in Wallace's writings, and it is to be noted that while Darwin devoted himself entirely to scientific subjects, Wallace diverged at intervals from natural science to what may be termed the scientific consideration of social conditions, in addition to his researches into spiritualistic phenomena.The many enticing interests arising out of the classifying of his birds and insects led Wallace to the conclusion that it would be best to postpone the writing of his book on the Malay Archipelago until he could embody in it the more generally important results derived from the detailed study of certain portions of his collections.Thus it was not until seven years later (1869) that this complete sketch of his travels '"'from the point of view of the philosophic naturalist '' appeared.Between 1862 and 1867 he wrote a number of articles which were published in various journals and magazines, and he read some important papers before the Linnean, Entomological, and other learned Societies.These included several on physical and zoological geography; six on questions of anthropology; and five or six dealing with special applications of Natural Selection.As these papers *' discussed matters of considerable interest and novelty," such a summary of them may be given as will serve to indicate their value to natural science.The first of them, read before the Zoological Society in January, 1863, gave some detailed information about his collection of birds brought from Buru.In this he showed that the island was originally one of the Moluccan group, as every bird found there which was not widely distributed was either identical with or closely allied to Moluccan species, while none had special affinities with Celebes.It was clear, then, that this island formed the most westerly outlier of the Moluccan group.1 See '* My Life," pp.98-9.* Dr. Henry Forbes in a note to the Editor writes: " In his ' Island Life' Wallace extended his philosophical observations to a wider field, and it is in philosophical biology that Wallace's name must stand pre-eminent for all time."**In our own science of biology,'' say Profs.Geddes and Thomson in a recent work, "we may recall the 'Grand Old Men,' surely second to none in history-Darwin, Wallace, and Hooker.' and I therefore claim for my book the position of being the advocate of pure Darwinism."'In concluding this section which, like a previous one, touches upon the intimate relations between Darwin and Wallace, and the points on which they agreed or differed, it is well, as the differences have been exaggerated and misunderstood, to bear in mind his own declaration: "' None of my differences from Darwin imply any real divergence as to the overwhelming importance of the great principle of natural selection, while in several directions I believe that I have extended and strengthened it.''*With these explanatory notes the reader will now be

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