Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/7

 

R. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, the co-discoverer with Mr. Darwin of the principle of natural selection as the main agent in the evolution of species, has in his published works travelled over a much more diversified range of subjects than Mr. Darwin. To books of travel, of philosophical and of systematic natural history, he has added others dealing with the causes of depression of trade, proposing land nationalisation, defending belief in miracles and in modern spiritualism, and attacking vaccination. Although it would not be right here to enter into a criticism of such controversial works, enough may be said to indicate that their author, admittedly a master-mind in regard to the philosophy and the details of evolution, is widely qualified in regard to political and social questions.

Born at Usk in Monmouthshire on the 8th of January, 1823, and educated at Hertford Grammar School, the future adventurous traveller early became a voyager on a small scale, during his residence with an elder brother, a land surveyor and architect. From 1836 to 1848 while so occupied he resided in various parts of England and Wales, and acquired some knowledge of agriculture and of the social and economic conditions of the labouring classes. While living in South Wales, about 1840, he first turned his attention to natural history, devoting all his spare time to collecting and preserving the native plants, and eagerly reading books of travel. While residing at Leicester in 1844-5 (as an English master in the Collegiate School), he made the acquaintance of Mr. H. W. Bates, an ardent entomologist, and when, some years later, the desire to visit tropical countries became too strong to be