Alfred Russel Wallace 



considerable portion of his spare time was spent in his 

 garden, in the management of which Mrs. Wallace, who 

 had much knowledge and experience of gardening, very 

 cordially assisted him. Here his characteristic energy and 

 restlessness were conspicuously displayed. He was always 

 designing some new feature, some alteration in a flower- 

 bed, some special environment for a new plant ; and always 

 he was confident that the new schemes would be found to 

 have all the perfections which the old ones lacked. From 

 all parts of the world botanists and collectors sent him, 

 from time to time, rare or newly discovered plants, bulbs, 

 roots or seeds, which he, with the help of Mrs. Wallace's 

 practical skill, would try to acclimatise, and to persuade 

 to grow somewhere or other in his garden or conservatory. 

 Nothing disturbed his cheerful confidence in the future, and 

 nothing made him happier than some plan for reforming the 

 house, the garden, the kitchen boiler, or the universe. And, 

 truth to say, he displayed great ingenuity in all these enter- 

 prises of reformation. Although they were never in effect 

 what they were expected to be by their ingenious author, 

 they were often sufficiently successful ; but, successful or 

 not, he was always confident that the next would turn out 

 to be all that he expected of it. With the same confidence 

 he made up his mind upon many a disputable subject ; but, 

 be it said, never without a laborious examination of the 

 necessary data, and the acquisition of much knowledge. In 

 argument, of which intellectual exercise he was very fond, 

 he was a formidable antagonist. His power of handling 

 masses of details and facts, of showing their inner mean- 

 ings and the principles underlying them, and of making 

 them intelligible, was very great ; and very few men of 

 his time had it in equal measure. 



But the most striking feature in his conversation was 

 his masterly application of general principles : these he 

 handled with extraordinary skill. In any subject with 

 which he was familiar, he would solve, or suggest a plaus- 

 ible solution of, difficulty after difficulty by immediate re- 

 ference to fundamental principles. This would give to his 

 conclusions an appearance of inevitableness which usually 



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