Spiritualism 



wards Mrs. Fisher) reveal the extreme caution which he 

 both practised himself and advocated in others when fol- 

 lowing up any experimental phase of spiritual phenomena. 

 The same correspondence also gives a fairly clear outline 

 of his faith in the ascending scale from the physical 

 evidence of spirit -existence to the communication of some 

 actual knowledge of life as it exists beyond the veil. 



In spiritual matters, as in natural science, though at 

 times his head may have appeared to be ** in the clouds," 

 his feet were planted firmly on the earth. This is seen, 

 to note another curious instance, in his correspondence 

 with Sir Wm. Barrett, where he maintains a delicate 

 balance between natural science and " spirit impres- 

 sion " when discussing the much controverted reality of 

 " dowsing " for water. 



^ — It was this breadth of vision, unhampered by mere in- 

 tellectualism, but always kept within reasonable bounds by 

 scientific deduction and analysis, which constituted Alfred 

 Bussel Wallace a seer of the first rank. 

 V- Wallace lived foTsee the theory of evolution applied to 

 the life-history of the earth and the starry firmament, to 

 the development of nations and races, to the progress of 

 mind, morals and religion, ^ven to the origin of conscious- 

 ness and life — a conception which has completely revolu- 

 tionised man's attitude towards himself and the world 

 and God. Evolution became intelligible in the light of 

 that idea which came to him in his hut at Ternate and 

 changed the face of the universe. Surely it was enough 

 for any one man to be one of the two chief originators of 

 such a far-reaching thought and to witness its impact upon 

 the ancient story of special creations which it finally laid 

 in the dust. But Wallace was privileged beyond all the 

 men of his generation. He lived to see many of the results 

 of the theory of evolution tested by time and to foresee that 



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