Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/528

524 mind of Wallace, because the young naturalist, fourteen years the junior of Darwin, took both "The Principles" of Lyell and "The Journal" of Darwin with him on his journey to South America, during which his career fairly began. From his record of observations during his life in the tropics of America and of Asia Wallace will be remembered not only as one of the independent discoverers of the theory of natural selection but next to Darwin as one of the great naturalists of the nineteenth century. His range and originality are astounding in these days of specialization. His main lines of thought, although in many instances suggested to his mind somewhat suddenly, were developed and presented in a deliberate and masterly way through the series of papers and books extending from 1850 to 1913. The highest level of his creative life was, however, reached at the age of thirty-five when with Darwin he published his sketch of the theory of natural selection. This outburst of original thought, on which his reputation will chiefly rest, came as an almost automatic generalization from his twelve years in the tropics.

Nature and nurture conspire to form a naturalist. Predisposition, an opportune period, and a happy series of events favored Alfred Russel Wallace.

Wallace was the son of Thomas Vere Wallace, of Hanworth, Middlesex, England, and Mary Anne Grennell, of Hertford. His ancestry is obscure. On the paternal side he is probably descended from one of the branches of Sir William Wallace, the popular national hero of Scotland, but nothing is known back of his grandfather, who was probably keeper of the inn on the estates of the Dukes of St. Albans, of Hanworth. The burial records of Hanworth mention an Admiral James Wallace. In his mother's family on the paternal side is the name Greenell, of Hertford, probably the "Greenaile" in 1579, French huguenot refugees after the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Her grandfather was for many years alderman and twice mayor of Hertford. One of the Greenells was an architect.

Wallace's father took up the profession of the law, but did not continue, and up to his marriage lived the life of a fairly well to do middle class gentleman. After his marriage he essayed the publishing of two magazines apparently devoted to art, antiquities and general literature, which were failures. He then moved from Marylebone to more rural districts where living was less expensive, first to St. Georges, Southward, and then to Usk, Monmouthshire. In this village Alfred Russel Wallace was born on January 8, 1823.

Wlien about six years of age the family moved to Hertford, and Wallace's education was begun in the old grammar school, which dated back to 1617. He left school too young to begin Greek but he studied Latin, and next to Latin grammar the most painful subject he learned