The Greatness of Alfred Russel Wallace. 811

THE GREATNESS OF ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE.

The sudden passing away of a sudden access of illumination in 1858. great man often lets loose a flood of Darwin had reached the conclusion sentimental or dramatic appreciation some years before. The publication which obscures for a time the real was indeed coincident, but it was a significance of his life. This has been designed coincidence. the case with Alfred Russel Wallace. But evcn had the discovery itself The numerous obituary notices would been simultaneous, It would deserve have us believe that his fame was no wonder. For, as Samuel Butler founded and will rest upon his dis- has clearly shown, Buffon, Lamarck, covery, coincident with that of Charles and Erasmus Darwin had between Darwin, of the origin of species by them gone far towards an exposition natural selection. The marvel of these of the same theory un marred by the two minds, working entirely independ- factor of fortuitous variation, which ently. but led by the same clue, Charles Darwin introduced; and many Malthus's "Principles of Population," minds, besides those of Darwin and to the same novel and audacious con­ Wallace, were in revolt against the clusion, was indeed well calculated to prevailing doctrlne of cataclysmic impress the unreflective mind. The changes, and were fumbling for the pleasant and creditable story of the same escape. What Darwin and Wal- jolnt-publicatlon of their discovery to lace really did was not so much to in- the Linnean Society In 1858. and of vent a theory of evolution by natural the cordial relations existing between selection, as to furnish and marshal the "rivals," gave the glow ot generous the large and varied evidence neces- feeling required to tonch the imagina- sary to establish it in the world of tion, But to most people Wallace had science, and to exhibit Its far-reaching never heen more than a figure of consequences in the life of thought. vague importance, a great naturalist. In this work Wallace was an able who, since Darwin's death, had be­ though an independent lieutenant. But come the representative sage in this his true service to this age was in fur- department of learning, In point ot nishing a stout barrier to the torrent fact, there was nothing marvellous of quasi-scientific rationalism which, nbout the coincidence of the discovery, drawing over-freely from the new evo- In the flrst place, it was not coincident. lutionary teaching. threatened to sub­ for though Wallace, brooding over the merge all the landmarks. not merely problem of the origin of species for of dogmatic religion, but of morality over ten years, seems to have had a and humanitarianism, For the "Ori- 812 The Greatness of Alfred Russel Wallace.

gin of Species," when it had fought oglsts were slow to press these spirit- its way into the fortress of scientific ual implications, and political thinkers orthodoxy, seemed likely to prove a shrank from giving full utterance to far more subversive agency than any them, they none the less began to un­ of the earlier forces of religious or dermine the confidence with which philosophic scepticism, By definitely humanitarian reformers carried on placing man as a specimen in natural their labors for the protection of the history, body and soul, emerging by weaker members of society and the slow, continuous growth from brute weaker races. Even those who realized creation, and by bringing biology un- the importance of repressing the der the same general reign of law as cruder and more brutal struggle be­ geology, astronomy, and the other tween members of the same race or physical sciences, it seemed destined nation began to evolve a doctrine of to cancel all those higher spiritual val- social or racial efficiency which left nes which formerly separated man them free to approve war and collec­ from Nature. tive exploitation for the subjugation, Moreover, the central role assigned or even the extermination, of back­ to the struggle for existence in the ward or inferior races, The logic of process of evolution towards higher imperialism is still built upon this ba­ types appeared to conflict violently sis, avowed or implicit. with the humaner sentiments and poli- Now, the Importance of Alfred Rus- cies which were slowly gaining ground sel Wallace is that from the very tn civilized communities for the pro- outset he revolted against these ex­ tectlon of the weak and ignorant, and tensions of the biological doctrine. He for ending the barbarities of competi- refused to hand over to Nature, "red tlon between individuals and nations. in tooth and Claw," the creation and For, if the ascent of man and his do- control of man as an intellectual and minion over the rest of Nature, his en- moral being, Like Huxley, when con­ vironment, was compassed in no other fronted with the havoc which the new way than by an unceasing struggle in biology threatened to bring into the which, seizing the happy chance of realm of human conduct, he sought favorable variations, fitter organisms an escape throughthe dualism of body throve and propagated their kind by and spirit. In the ethical and higher out-competing less fit ones, any at- intellectual life of man the physical tempt out or pity or kindness to re- laws of struggle nnd survival were press the struggle, or even to mitigate superseded. How Huxley, with his Its severity, would either be a futile keen logical sense, achieved what folly or a "sin" against the law of seems a plain breach of continuity in human progress. Poverty and its at­ evolution, always remained unintelli- tendant starvation, war and its at­ gible. But Wallace's escape from the tendant slaughter, were painful but intolerable grip of biology is more necessary instruments in the biological easily understood. From the first struggle for fitter organisms and a there evidently arose in his mind a hlgher complexity of life! Nor was difficulty In believing that the higher that all. Religion. art, politics and qualities and capacities of man were the intellectual activities must in the mere extensions of characteristics of last resort, derive any validity that his animal ancestry evolved for physi- they possessed from their contribu- cal survival. He soon came to hold tions to "survival value" as psychical as he expressed it, that "certain defi- adjuncts to the struggle. Though biol- nite portions of man's intellectual and The Greatness of Alfred Russel Wallace. 813

moral nature could not have been de­ have been stirred so deeply by the veloped by variation and natural se­ most eluborately artificial of Utopias lection alone, and that, therefore, some But, In truth, it was not the construc- other inliuence, law, or agency, is re­ tlve features, but the powerful revela­ quired to account for them." A spirit­ tion of the inhumanity of the current ual nature was engrafted upon man industrial order that came home to the at some point in his natural evolution. heart of Wallace as of so many other Wallace was led to conceive the possi- ordinary men and women. For Wal- bility and then the actuality of such a lace was not even in theory an intel­ process by what appeared to him the lectualist, he was not swayed by logic, convincing, independent testimony of and he knew It. When, therefore, he spiritualism. There he found outside saw the evolutionary doctrine which of Nature a world of psychical powers he assisted to create turning into a competent to intervene in and to direct monster that would devour all his the affairs of man. The laws of this cherished desires and aspirations for spiritual direction could utilize, mod­ humanity, he clapped fetters on it. ify, or abrogate and override the His imaginative sympathies drove him, physical laws of evolution for their indeed, to what more sober and less proper purposes. In his earlier ex­ audacious minds call "violent courses." position of this creed, Wallace appears In order to save the soul of man from to have conceived this spiritual inter­ the clutches of the demon he had vention as confined to man. Indeed, helped to evolve, he was perforce throughout his life, man is not merely driven to Spiritualism and Soclalism, the crowning achievement of Nature. both of a somewhat crude and un- but the purpose for which Nature ex­ compromising form. ists. There are those who express a naive This anthropocentric doctrine he wonder that so great a thinker could came to hold ever more passionately fall into such foolishness. But great as age advanced. It affords, Indeed, thinkers enjoy no such immunity as a curious example of the power of a is suggested. It is probnbly the case strong emotion to subdue a powerful that most great scientists contain intellect to its purposes. To satisfy among their stock of ideas and judg- this craving he entered in his later ments heterodoxies nnd credulities years the alien kingdom of astronomy, quite as violent and quite as inconsist- seeking to establtsh the conclusion ent with their scientific principles as that ours was the only world in which those of Wallace. But they have not human life was possible, and that the the same courage und the same public entire cosmos found its only meaning spirit to compel their revelation. One in its contribution to the service of of the signal qualities of Wallace's man. It was, of course, this same in­ greatness was his unconcern for taunts... tense sympathy with humanity which of inconsistency or credulity. If he inspired the social politics to which he thought he had got a truth that con­ devoted himself with so much ardor. tributed to human welfare, he told It Herbert Spencer and Henry George with all the force with which he felt made of him a land nationalizer; Ed­ It. Whether it fitted in precisely with ward Bellamy converted him to Social- other truths and so helped to make a ism. Socialists themselves ure usually neat logical system did not concern contemptuous of "Looking Buck­ him. He was not primarily a logician wards," and it seems strange to them or a system-monger, but a devotee of that a quiet man of science should truth and humanity. Most of his 814

truthshe was willing to hang on two ing, and acts everywhere in the uni- or more separate strings. In his last verse as direct creator, organizer, and years he seems more and more, how­ director of every minutest motive in ever, to have approached a Theism, the whole of our Universe, and of all the spiritual power and meaning of possible Universes, or whether it acts which he came to extend more and through variously conditioned modes, more widely over the realm of Nature as Herbert Spencer suggested, or and which gave a clearer unity to his through 'Infinite grades of beings' as I outlook. This position is summarized suggest, comes to much the same in a very interesting letter quoted by thing." Mr. Marchant in the little biograph­ Here, of course, we have something ical sketch appended to his latest book, very different from the abrupt doc- "The Revolt of Democracy." "The trine of the earlier position, a Uni- whole cumulative argument in my versal Mind informing and directing 'World of Life' is that it calls for the not merely the higher operations of agency of a mind or minds so enor­ humanity, but the entire course of mously above and beyond our human Nature. The conviction that some minds, as to compel us to look upon it, such power or purpose is demanded or them, as 'God or Gods,' and so alike by logic and by morality to give -called 'Laws of Nature' as the action consistency to the evolutionary proc­ by will-power or otherwise of such ess is evidently gaining an ever superhuman or infinite beings, 'Laws stronger hold upon thlnkers of our of Nature,' apart from the existence time. They differ as to how far such and agency of some such Being or Be­ Power or Purpose is fitly expressed ings, are mere words that explain in terms of Personality. But the nothing-are, in fact, unthinkable. sense of its presence is more and more That is my position. Whether this widely diffused. 'Unknown Reality' is a Single Be- The Nation.