526 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



down more or less systematically his ideas on various subjects that inter- 

 ested him. His first literary efforts all bear dates of the autumn and 

 winter of 1843, when he was between nineteen and twenty years of age. 

 One of his first productions was the rough sketch of a popular lecture 

 on botany addressed to an audience supposed to be as ignorant as he was 

 when he began his observation of the native flowers. A second of these 

 early lectures was on the subject "The Advantages of "Varied Knowl- 

 edge/' which he considered of interest chiefly as showing the bent of 

 his mind at the time and indicating a disposition for discursive reading 

 and study. He also wrote at this time on the manners and customs of 

 the Welsh peasantry in Brecknockshire and Glamorganshire, and put 

 the matter in form for one of the London magazines, but it was declined. 



These early and serious studies in botany, continuing for four years, 

 prepared him for the plant wonders of the tropics. At the age of twenty- 

 one he came to London. He afterward regarded his difficulty in obtain- 

 ing employment as a great turning point in his career, " for otherwise," 

 he writes, "it seems very unlikely that I should ever have undertaken 

 what at that time seemed rather a wild scheme, a journey to the almost 

 unknown forests of the Amazon in order to observe nature and make a 

 living by collecting." 



In his autobiographic volumes of 1905, "My Life, a Record of 

 Events and Opinions," there is also an interesting sketch of his state of 

 mind at this time. 



I do not think that at this formative period I could be said to have 

 shown special superiority in any of the higher mental faculties, but I pos- 

 sessed a strong desire to know the causes of things, a great love of beauty in 

 form and color, and a considerable, but not excessive desire for order and ar- 

 rangement in whatever I had to do. If I had one distinct mental faculty more 

 prominent than another it was the power of correct reasoning from a review 

 of the known facts in any ease to the causes or laws which produced them, and 

 also in detecting fallacies in the reasoning of other persons. 



Elsewhere in his autobiography he observes that whatever reputa- 

 tion in science, literature and thought he may possess is the result of the 

 organs of comparison, causality and order, with firmness, acquisitiveness, 

 concentrativeness, constructiveness and wonder, all above the average, 

 but none of them excessively developed, combined with a moderate 

 faculty of language which 



enables me to express my ideas and conclusions in writing though but imper- 

 fectly in speech. I feel, myself, how curiously and persistently these faculties 

 have acted in various combinations to determine my tastes, disposition and 

 actions. 



Wallace shared Darwin's strong sentiment for justice as between 

 man and man, and abhorrence of tyranny and unnecessary interference 

 with the liberty of others. His retiring disposition enabled him to 

 enjoy long periods of reflection, receptiveness and solitude, both at home 



