Alfred Russel Wallace 



Letters and Reminiscences 



PART III 



I.— Wallace's WorRs on Biology and Geographical 



Distribution 



" I have long recognised how much clearer and deeper your insight into 

 matters is than mine." 



" I sometimes marvel how truth progresses, so diflQcult is it for one man 

 to convince another, unless his mind is vacant." 



" I grieve to difler from you, and it actually terrifies me, and makes me 

 constantly distrust myself. I fear we shall never quite understand each other." 

 — Darwin to Wallace. 



DURING the period covered by the reception, exposi- 

 tion, and gradual acceptance of the theory of 

 Natural Selection, both Wallace and Darwin were 

 much occupied with closely allied scientific work. 



The publication in 1859 of the "Origin of Species"^ 

 marked a distinct period in the course of Darwin's scientific 

 labours; his previous publications had, in a measure, pre- 

 pared the way for this, and those which immediately fol- 

 lowed were branches growing out from the main line of 

 thought and argument contained in the " Origin," an 

 overflow of the " mass of facts " patiently gathered during 

 the preceding years. With Wallace, the end of the first 

 period of his literary work was completed by the publica- 

 tion of his two large volumes on " The Geographical Dis- 

 * " It is no doubt the chief work of my life." — C. Darwin. 



