ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE. IxXXV. 



to the Malay Archipelago, then but little known ; this lasted 

 no less than eight years, and he brought back the vast store 

 of over 125,000 specimens. On the materials so collected and 

 his geographical studies were based his '* Island Life " and 

 '' Geographical Distribution of Animals," while we may also 

 note his discovery of what has been called l( Wallace's line," 

 dividing the Archipelago into two distinct regions, with 

 entirely different faunas. 



We may now turn to his epoch-making work, by which the 

 name of Wallace will ever be remembered. While still in the 

 Malay Archipelago he sent home to Darwin his essay '* On the 

 tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original 

 type," which, to the latter's amazement, proved to be in 

 theory and reasoning precisely similar to the great work on 

 which he himself was then engaged. It was eventually 

 arranged that a joint paper by Darwin and Wallace should be 

 read at the Linnsean Society, and in 1858 this was done. 

 After a stormy controversy the great theory of the survival 

 of the fittest has met with universal acceptation, and the 

 foundation-stone of modern biology stands firm and secure. 

 To us of the present day it is hard to realise that 

 what has been well called one of the driving forces of the 

 world, and which seems to us but a simple truth, should have 

 been found so hard to accept. Incidentally, we gain some 

 insight into the working of Wallace's mind, into which, after 

 a long period of, no doubt, unconscious preparation, decisions 

 flashed. The above conclusions came upon him suddenly, 

 and we know that he said of himself " I am a believer in inspir- 

 ation. All my best theories have come to me suddenly." 



Characteristic of his enquiring mind was it, that he never 

 considered the details of the theory as finally settled. He 

 was far from accepting the whole of the " Origin of Species " 

 verbatim, and, in later years, he endorsed the somewhat 

 diverging views of Weissman. Finally, in his " World of 

 Life," he expressed his disagreement with the view attributed 

 to Darwin, that man, like all other animals, has been produced 

 by the unaided operation of natural selection. 



