Decbmbee 19, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



871 



and perfecting these tools, the two chief 

 means by which mankind is making prog- 

 ress in our day ? What sort of work is it ? 

 It is hard; it is no child's play; it is the 

 work of maturity and strong purpose. The 

 material rewards are few; probably not 

 many of your generation will appreciate 

 your labors, and most of you perhaps will 

 not be heard of after your day. But you 

 will leave mankind a heritage of profit 

 forever, you will hasten the day when all 

 men will know that their chief benefactors 

 are those who delve into the secrets of 

 nature and reveal them to their fellows. 

 Does that work appeal to you? 



R. D. Caemichael 



RECOLLECTIONS OF BE. ALFRED RVSSEL 

 WALLACE 



It is impossible for any man to discuss ade- 

 quately the life work of Alfred Eussel Wallace. 

 His activities covered such a long period, and 

 were so varied, that no one living is in a posi- 

 tion to critically appreciate more than a part 

 of them. We are very much interested, of 

 course, and have our opinions ; but we need not 

 pretend to any final or complete judgment 

 All must agree that a great and significant 

 career has just been closed, but its full meas- 

 ure will probably never be known to any single 

 man. 



On the other hand, it may be possible to 

 gain a clear idea of the character and aims of 

 Dr. Wallace; and for our purposes this is per- 

 haps the more important thing, since his 

 guiding principles may also become ours, 

 while the work he did is his alone. I once 

 asked him about the origin of his interest in 

 biology, and in the course of his reply^ he said : 

 " As to my interest in biology, ... I doubt if 

 I had or have any special aptitude for it, but I 

 have a natural love for classification and an 

 inherent desire to explain things; also a great 

 love of beauty of form and color." Again, in 

 writing to the biology students of the Univer- 

 sity of Colorado, he said:^ 



^Popular Science Monthly, April, 1903, p. 517. 



2 Science, March 29, 1912, p. 487. 



The wonders of nature have been the delight 

 and solace of my life. . . . From the day when I 

 first saw a bee-orchis in ignorant astonishment . . . 

 nature has afforded me an ever-increasing rapture, 

 and the attempt to solve some of her myriad prob- 

 lems an ever-growing sense of mystery and awe. 



This is the spirit of the amateur, using that 

 word in its best and true sense. When Wal- 

 lace had been long in the Malay Archipelago, 

 a relative wrote urging him to return, and in 

 his reply he gave the reasons why he could not 

 do so, and said: 



So far from being angry at being called an en- 

 thusiast (as you seem to suppose), it is my pride 

 and glory to be worthy to be so called. Who ever 

 did anything good or great who was not an en- 

 thusiast ? 



This was his attitude to the end of his life, 

 and only those who have some measure of the 

 same feeling can understand it. The worldly 

 wisdom of a professional threading his way 

 through the maze of opportunity to one of the 

 prizes of life was wholly foreign to his nature ; 

 he was, instead, the " irresponsible enthusiast," 

 keenly aiisious to see and know, loving nature 

 and man, always wishing to communicate to 

 others some of the pleasure and knowledge he 

 had gained. To some his frequent advocacy 

 of unpopular causes suggested perfect indiffer- 

 ence to public opinion, and a total disregard of 

 ordinary prudence. Whether, in this or that 

 matter, we believe him to have been right or 

 wrong, we must admire a man who always had 

 the courage of his convictions ; and so far from 

 being indifferent to the feelings and opinions 

 of others, his sympathetic nature and longing 

 for fellowship caused him to so zealously ex- 

 pound what he believed would be helpful to 

 other men. 



I had of course revelled in " The Malay 

 Archipelago " when a boy, but my first 

 personal relations with Dr. Wallace arose from 

 a letter I wrote him after reading his " Dar- 

 winism," then (early in 1890) recently pub- 

 lished. The book delighted me, but I found a 

 number of little matters to criticize and dis- 

 cuss, and with the impetuosity of youth, pro- 

 ceeded to write to the author, and also send a 

 letter on some of the points to Nature. I have 



