"The central secret of his personal magnetism lay in his wide and unselfish sympathy," writes Prof. Poulton.[67] "It might be thought by those who did not know Wallace that the noble generosity which will always stand as an example before the world was something special—called forth by the illustrious man with whom he was brought in contact. This would be a great mistake. Wallace's attitude was characteristic, and characteristic to the end of his life.
"A keen young naturalist in the North of England, taking part in an excursion to the New Forest, called on Wallace and confided to him the dream of his life—a first-hand knowledge of tropical nature. When I visited 'Old Orchard' in the summer of 1903, I found that Wallace was intently interested in two things: his garden, and the means by which his young friend's dream might best be realised. The subject was referred to in seventeen letters to me; it formed the sole topic of some of them. It was a grand and inspiring thing to see this great man identifying himself heart and soul with the interests of one—till then a stranger—in whom he recognised the passionate longings [pg 228] of his own youth. By the force of sympathy he re-lived in the life of another the splendid years of early manhood."
The late Prof. Knight recalled meeting him at the British Association in Dundee, during the year 1867, when Wallace was his guest for the usual time of the gathering. He wrote:
I, and everyone else who then met him at my house, were struck, as no one could fail to be, by his rare urbanity, his social charm, his modesty, his unobtrusive strength, his courtesy in explaining matters with which he was himself familiar but those he conversed with were not; and his abounding interest, not only in almost every branch of Science, but in human knowledge in all its phases, especially new ones. He was a many-sided scientific man, and had a vivid sense of humour. He greatly enjoyed anecdote, as illustrative of character. During those days he talked much on the fundamental relations between Science and Philosophy, as well as on the connection of Poetry with both of them. When he left Dundee he went to Kenmore, that he might ascend Ben Lawers in search of some rare ferns.
In 1872 I saw him, after meeting Thomas Carlyle and Dean Stanley at Linlathen, when Darwin's theory was much discussed, and when our genial host—Mr. Erskine—talked so dispassionately but decidedly against evolution as explanatory of the rise of what was new. A little later in the same year Matthew Arnold discussed the same subject with some friends at the Athenæum Club, defending the chief aim of Darwin's theory, and enlarging from a different point of view what Wallace had done in the same direction. I remember well that he characterised the two men as fellow-workers, not as followers, or in any sense as copyists. Wallace's versatility not only continued, but grew in many ways with the advance of years. It was seen in his appreciation of the value of historical study. Quite late in life he wrote: "The nineteenth century is quite as wonderful in the domain of History as in [pg 229] that of Science." Comparatively few know, or remember, that he and his young brother Herbert—on whom he left an interesting chapter in memoriam—both wrote verses, some of which were of real value.
It may be safely said that few scientific men have sympathetically entered into bordering territories and therein excelled. The whole field of psychical research was familiar to him, and he might have been a leader in it.
My last meeting with him was at his final home, the "Old Orchard," Broadstone, in 1909. I was staying at Boscombe in Hants, and he asked me to "come and see his garden, while we talked of past days." He had then the freshness of boyhood, blent with the mellow wisdom of age.—W.A.K.
The eminent naturalist and traveller, Dr. Henry O. Forbes, who later explored the greater part of the lands visited by Wallace, contributes the following appreciation of the latter's scientific work:
As a traveller, explorer and working naturalist, Wallace will always stand in the first rank, compared even with the most modern explorers. It ought not to be forgotten, however, how great were the difficulties, the dangers and the cost of travel fifty years ago, compared with the facilities now enjoyed by his successors, who can command steam and motor transport to wellnigh any spot on the coasts of the globe, and who have to their hand concentrated and preserved foods, a surer knowledge of the causes of tropical diseases, and outfits of non-perishable medicines sufficient for many years within the space of a few cubic inches. Commissariat and health are the keys to all exploration in uncivilised regions. Wallace accomplished his work on the shortest of commons and lay weeks at a time sick through inability to replenish his medical stores.
He was no mere "trudger" over new lands. Where those before him, and even many after him, have been able to see only sterile objects, his discerning eyes perceived [pg 230] everywhere a meaning in the varying modes of organic life, and in response to his sympathetic mind Nature revealed to him more of her multitudinous secrets than to most others. Wallace's Amazonian travels were far from unfruitful, in spite of the irreparable loss he sustained in the burning of his notes and the bulk of his collections in the vessel by which he was returning home; but it was in the Malay Archipelago that his most celebrated years of investigation were passed, which marked him as one of the greatest naturalists of our time. As a methodical natural history collector—which is "the best sport in the world" according to Darwin—he has never been surpassed; and few naturalists, if any, have ever brought together more enormous collections than he. The mere statement, taken from his "Malay Archipelago," of the number of his captures in the Archipelago in six years of actual collecting, exceeding 125,000 specimens—a number greater than the entire contents of many large museums—still causes amazement. The value of a collection, however, depends on the full and accurate information attached to each specimen, and from this point of view only a few collections, including Darwin's and Bates's, have possessed the great scientific value of his.