PAET I 



I.— Wallace and Darwin— Early Years 



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 

 Tyndall, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Louis 

 Agassiz; w^hilst amongst statesmen and authors we recall 

 Bismarck, Gladstone, Lincoln, Tennyson, Longfellow, 

 Robert and Elizabeth Browning, Ruskin, John Stuart 

 Blackie and Oliver Wendell Holmes — a wonderful galaxy 

 of shining names. 



The first group is the one with which we are closely 

 associated in this section, in which we have brought together 

 the names of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace — 

 between whose births there was a period of fourteen years, 

 Darwin being born on the 12th of February, 1809, and 

 Wallace on the 8th of January, 1823. 



In each case we are indebted to an autobiography for an 

 account of their early life and work, written almost entirely 

 from memory when at an age which enabled them to take an 

 unbiased view of the past. 



The autobiography of Darwin was written for the 

 benefit of his family only, when he was 67; while the two 



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