Early Years 



civilised man. It is the difference between a wild and 

 tame animal.''' 



The last words suggest the seed-thought eventually 

 to be enlarged in ^' The Descent of Man," and there is 

 also perhaps a subtle suggestion of the points in which 

 Wallace differed from Darwin when the time came for 

 them to discuss this important section of the theory of 

 Evolution. It needed, however, the further eight years 

 spent by Wallace in the Malay Archipelago to bring about 

 a much wider knowledge of nature -science before he was 

 prepared in any way to assume the position of exponent of 

 theories not seriously thought of previously in the scientific 

 world. 



In the autumn of 1853, on the completion of his 

 '* Travels on the Amazon and Kio Negro,'' Wallace paid 

 his first visit to Switzerland, on a walking tour in com- 

 pany with his friend George Silk. On his return, and 

 during the winter months, he was constant in his attend- 

 ance at the meetings of the Entomological and Zoological 

 Societies. It was at one of these evening gatherings that 

 he first met Huxley, and he also had a vague recollection 

 of once meeting and speaking to Darwin at the British 

 Museum. Had it not been for his extreme shyness of dis- 

 position, and (according to his own estimation) *^ lack of 

 conversational powers," he would doubtless have become 

 far more widely known, and have enjoyed the friendship 

 of not a few of the eminent men who shared his interests, 

 during this interval before starting on his journey to 

 Singapore. 



It was due to his close study of the Insect and Bird 

 Departments of the British Museum that he decided on 

 Singapore as a new starting-point for his natural history 

 collections. As the region was generally healthy, and no 



^ ** Voyage of the Beagle," p. 535. 

 35 



