Book Review of "My Life" by Alfred Russel Wallace
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202 Alfred Russel Wallace. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE: SCIENTIST, PHILOSO- PHER AND HUMANITARIAN .* I. AN INFORMING AND INSPIRING LIFE rianism has ever matched his passion for truth. -STORY. The present autobiography has, we think, a fault common to most large two-volume HERE are few forms of literature so T worksof this character. It dwells in a some- helpful to general readers, and espec what too extended manner on unimportant ially to young men and women, as autobiogra penonal details and facts relating to the fam- phies of the few really great men of all ages, ily and friends of the author. Allthese things when the life-stories are marked by simplicity, while making the work especially precious directness and sincerity. They bring us into to family and friends, hold no personal inter personalrapport with the aristocracy of brain est for the general reader and tend to take and soul-the men who have enlightened and from the interest and value of the work. This lifted the world. Doubly valuable are these fault, however, is insignificant in comparison works when the men in question have lived with the general excellence of the life story. fine, true, simple and noble lives while in a which merits the widest reading. large way pushing forward the frontiers of human knowledge, enriching all future ages II. THE EARLY LIFE OF DR. WALLACE. by calling forth great truths that have hitherto The careers of few men of the nineteenth slumbered in the womb of mystery. century are so rich in lessons of worth for the In the recently published autobiography thoughtful young men and women of our day of Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace we have such as is that of Alfred Russel Wallace, while the a life-story. The author was not only the story of his labors, discoveries and conclu co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the sions cannot fail to broaden and deepen the evolutionary theory and one of the greatest, culture of those wise enough to follow the if not indeed the greatest working naturalist simple, earnest, truth-loving philosopher as of the nineteenth century, but he was and is a from youth to a victorious and fruitful old sane, enlightened and progressive reformer age he has tirelessly striven to enlarge the with a true statesman's vision, and a broad borders of knowledge in the realm of science minded philosopher whose noble humanita- and philosophy and to better the condition My Life A Record of Events and Opinions. By Alfred of the millions of earth. Russel Wallace Two volumes. Cloth. Price, $6.00 net. New York : Dodd, Mead & Company. He was born in a humble home. His Alfred Russel Wallace. 203 father was a man of education, but somewhat social reform and liberal thought, while the lacking in energetic peneverance, especially social philosophy of Robert Owen made a when engaged in labors along practical lines, life-long impression on his mind. and the finances of the family suffered as the In the early summer of 1887 he set out as years pasaed, 110 it was impossible to give the aid to his brother William in surveying, and children who came into the home the liberal for the next few years the two brothers were education that they craved. Alfred Russel, thus engaged. Very beautiful is the descrip in common with his brothers, received only tion of the simple and wholesome life they led the ordinary grammar-school education of as they journeyed through England and Wales the time, though this was supplemented by wherever their work chanced to call them. home training and education which probably Both brothers were great lovers of nature, counted for quite as much as that which he but to Alfred the marvels of the Great Mother received in school. The father belonged to a appealed with irresistible charm. The won circulating library association which enabled derful wild flora and the multitudinous plants him to obtain the latest and best books. of England and Wales were an unfailing These heread aloud to the family during the source of pure delight. Yet he longed to eveningsand in this way all the little group know the names of the plants, their habits, gained a love for literature and a breadth of and the great families to which they belonged. culture in certain directions that many youths He had time to study during rainy days, on with far better scholastic advantages do not Sundays, and frequently in the evenings, and acquire. Later the father was librarian in at length he obtained a small work on botany, an exceIlent library, and many afternoons published by the Society for the Diffusion of after school was out, Alfred went to the library Knowledge. Later, by saving up his money, and devoured the contents of choice books he was enabled to buy a Iarge and authorita until it grew too dark to read longer. tive work on the subject, while a friend loaned But the time came, and that when the youth him an encyclopedia of the plant life of Great wasonly fourteen years of age, when the Britain. This in large part he copied. pasting father could no longer support the boy and it the leaves in his botany. Thus equipped he became necessary for him to leave the home began a systematic study of the plants with roof and earn his own livelihood. It was ar which he came in contact. Soon he had ob ranged that he should go in company with tained a far better knowledge of botany than his elder brother William, a surveyor by pro most youths who had gone through the books fession, and as his aid earna sufficient amount at achool but who had not had the subjects to maintain himself while learning land sur illustrated and impressed on the brain by veying.As the elder brother was not quite seeing and examining the plants of which ready to start on his labors, Alfred spent a they had read. During spare moments young period of four or five months with his brother Wallace, who possessed a wonderfully me John who wae apprenticed to a carpentering thodical mind, drew charts and tables for firm in London. This time waswell spent the classification of the plant life of England. in increasing his general education. Thus he pursued his study in the painstaking Al that time Robert Owen's social philos and eager manner of the specialist in love ophy was being preaented to the English peo- with his work and possessing a quenchless ple and it had already attracted quite a large thirst for knowledge. Later he studied following in London. Headquarters had geology, ornithology and entomology in the been opened under the somewhat pretentious same painstaking manner. When in London name of " Hall of Science," and here lectures he visited the great museums to familiarize were given explaining Mr. Owen's theories himself with the birds, butterflies, beetles and and describing the wonderful work that he other animal life of the world described in the had achieved at New Lanark. There were various textbooks he had set out to master, also reading-rooms and rooms for physical and which he did master more completely exercise in the Hall of Science, and hither than most specialists in natural history of his young Wallace and his brother John were wont age. to go of an evening. Thus a new world of In 1844 Mr. Wallace came of age, having thought opened before the youth during the been bornon the eighth of January, 1823. By impressionable and formative period of life. this time his brother had filled all the engage He read with great avidity many works of ments he had been able to secure for survey- Alfred Russel Wallace. ing. and new work was so difIicult to obtain They were enc:ourapl in their purpoee by that it became neceuary for Alfred to eeek Mr.Edward Doubleday. who bad charge 01 other employment. Be therefore eecured. the department of butterflies in the British after a little waiting. a position aa teacher in Museum. Be stated that if they collected the Collegiate School at Leicester. kept by land shells. birds aDd mammals aa weD as the Rev. Abraham Hill. a position which he insects. be lelt sure they could eaaily pay aU retained a little over a year. or until the sudden their expenses. Thus encourased. and after death of his brother William. when it became making arrangements with a party to act as neceuary for him to devote his time to wind agent in London. the two young men took ing up his elder brother's business affairs. passage in a sailing vessel lor Para in the During the time which he spent aa teacher springof 1848. in the Leicester Collegiate School be bad access to a fine library aDd aa a 1"e5ult be made III. FOUR YEARS ON THE AMAZON AND great advance in his self-education through RIO NEGRO. systematic study of standard works. Among For four years Alfred Russel Wallace de the boob mastered at this time which he voted bimselI tireleuly aDd with unflagging states bad a special intIuence on his life were to his labors. He aplored the banks of Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travelsthe Amazon. Rio Negro and many 01 their inSouth America a work which awakened a tributaries aDd sent home enough specimens desire to travel in the tropics. and Malthus' to pay his expenses. but be saved the greater Principles of Population, a work without number of his collections to take with him which.