Characteristics 



It is the great men who work for the work's sake without 

 regard to recognition, and who, as we might say, achieve 

 greatness in spite of themselves. 



" Alfred Russel Wallace was a most famous naturalist 

 and zoologist. He arrived by a flash of genius at the same 

 conclusions which Darwin had reached after sixteen years 

 of most minute toil and careful observation. ... It was a 

 unique example of the almost exact concurrence of two 

 great minds working upon the same subject, though in 

 different parts of the world, without collusion and with- 

 out rivalry. . . . Between Darwin and Wallace goodwill 

 and friendship were never interrupted. Wallace's life was 

 spent in the pursuit of various objects of intellectual and 

 philosophical interest, over which I need not here linger. 

 All will agree that it is fitting his medallion should be 

 placed next to that of Darwin, with whose great name his 

 own will ever be linked in the worlds of thought and 

 science. 



" All will acknowledge the propriety of these three great 

 names being honoured in this Abbey Church, even though 

 it be, to use Wordsworth's phrase, already 



* Filled with mementoes, satiate with its part 

 Of grateful England's overflowing dead.' 



" These are three men whose lifework it was to utilise 

 and promote scientific discovery for the preservation and 

 betterment of the human race.'' 



255 



