Alfred Russel Wallace 



the storm of criticism had waxed and waned ; subsiding for 

 a time only to burst out afresh from some new quarter where 

 the theory bade fair to jeopardise some ancient belief in 

 which scientist or theologian had rested with comparative 

 satisfaction until so rudely disturbed. 



During this period Wallace had been quietly pursuing 

 his researches in the Malay Archipelago, though not with- 

 out a keen interest in all that was taking place at home in 

 so far as this reached him by means of correspondence 

 and newspaper reports — his only means of keeping in 

 touch with the world beyond the boundaries of the semi- 

 civilised countries in which he was then living. 



In order to follow the story of how the conception of 

 the theory of Natural Selection grew and eventually took 

 definite form in Wallace's mind, independently of the same 

 development in the mind of Darwin, we must go back to a 

 much earlier period in his life, and as nearly as possible 

 link up the scattered remarks which here and there act as 

 signposts pointing towards the supreme solution which has 

 made his name famous for all time. 



In Part I., Section I., many passages occur which 

 clearly reveal his awakening to the study of nature. A 

 chance remarl; overheard in conversation in the quiet 

 street of Hertford touched the hidden spring of interest 

 in a subject which was to become the one great purpose 

 of his life. Then his enthusiastic yielding to the simple 

 and natural attraction which flowers and trees have always 

 exerted upon the sympathetic observer led step by step to 

 the study of groups and families, until, on his second 

 sojourn at Neath, and about a year before his journey to 

 South America with H. W. Bates, we find him deliberately 

 pondering over the problem which many years later he de- 

 scribed by saying that he " had in fact been bitten by the 

 passion for species and their description.'' 



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