Alfred Russel Wallace 



Spencer and Darwin and Weismann have thrown floods of 

 light on the phenomena of life, its essential nature and its 

 origin remain as great a mystery as ever. Whatever light 

 we do possess is from a source which Spencer and Darwin 

 neglected or ignored.''' 



In his presidential address to the Entomological Society 

 in 1872 Wallace made some special allusion to Spencer's 

 theory of the origin of instincts, and on receiving a copy 

 of the address Spencer wrote : ^^ It is gratifying to me to 

 find that your extended knowledge does not lead you to 

 scepticism respecting the speculation of mine which you 

 quote, but rather enables you to cite further facts in justi- 

 fication of it. Possibly your exposition will lead some of 

 those, in whose lines of investigation the question lies, to 

 give deliberate attention to it." A further proof of his 

 confidence was shown by asking Wallace (in 1874) to look 

 over the proofs of the first six chapters of his ^* Principles 

 of Sociology " in order that he might have the benefit of 

 his criticisms alike as naturalist, anthropologist, and 

 traveller. 



This brief reference to the illustrious group of men to 

 whom we owe the foundations of this new epoch of evolu- 

 tionary thought — and not the foundations only, but al^o 

 the patient building up of the structure upon which each 

 one continued to perform his allotted task — and the pre- 

 fatory notes and the footnotes attached to the letters will 

 serve to elucidate the historical correspondence between 

 Darwin and Wallace which follows. 



1 " My Life," ii. 23-4. 



126 



