My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org
My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org
104 MY LIFEthen to take long walks over the mountains with mycollecting-box, which I brought home full of treasures.I first named the species as nearly as I could do so,and then laid them out to be pressed and dried. Atsuch times I experienced the joy which every discoveryof a new form of life gives to the lover of nature, almostequal to those raptures which I afterwards felt at everycapture of new butterflies on the Amazon, or at the constantstream of new species of birds, beetles, and butterfliesin Borneo, the Moluccas, and the Aru Islands.It must be remembered that my ignorance of plantsat this time was extreme. I knew the wild rose,bramble, hawthorn, buttercup, poppy, daisy, and foxglove,and a very few others equally common andpopular, and this was all. I knew nothing whateveras to genera and species, nor of the large numbers ofdistinct forms related to each other and grouped intonatural orders. My delight, therefore, was great whenI was now able to identify the charming little eyebright,the strange-looking cow-wheat and louse-wort,the handsome mullein and the pretty creeping toadflax,and to find that all of them, as well as the lordlyfoxglove, formed parts of one great natural order, andthat under all their superficial diversity of form therewas a similarity of structure which, when once clearlyunderstood, enabled me to locate each fresh specieswith greater ease.The Crucifers, the Pea tribe, theUmbelliferae, the Compositae, and the Labiates offeredgreat difficulties, and it was only after repeated effortsthat I was able to name with certainty a few of thespecies, after which each additional discovery becamea little less difficult, though the time I gave to thestudy before I left England was not sufficient for meto acquaint myself with more than a moderate proportionof the names of the species I collected.
SELF-EDUCATION IN SCIENCE, ETC. 105Now, I have some reason to believe that this wasthe . turning-point of my life^ the tide that carried meon, not to fortune but to whatever reputation I haveacquired, and which has certainly been to me a neverfailingsource of much health of body and suprememental enjoyment. If my brother had had constantwork for me so that I never had an idle day, and if Ihad continued to be similarly employed after I becameshould most probably have become entirelyof age, Iabsorbed in my profession, which, in its variousdepartments, I always found extremely interesting,and should therefore not have felt the need of anyother occupation or study.I know now, though I was ignorant of it at thetime, that my brother's life was a very anxious one,that the difficulty of finding remunerative work wasvery great, and that he was often hard pressed to earnenough to keep us both in the very humble way inwhich we lived. He never alluded to this that I canremember, nor did I ever hear how much our boardand lodging cost him, nor ever saw him make theweekly or monthly payments. During the sevenyears I was with him I hardly ever had more than afew shillings for personal expenses ;but every year ortwo, when I went home, what new clothes wereabsolutely necessary were provided for me, withperhaps ten shillings or a pound as pocket-money tillmy next visit, and this, I think, was partly or whollypaid out of the small legacy left me by my grandfather.This seemed very hard at the time, but I nowsee clearly that even this was useful to me, and wasreally an important factor in moulding my characterand determining my work in life. Had my fatherbeen a moderately rich man and had supplied me witha good wardrobe and ample pocket-money ; had my
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SELF-EDUCATION IN SCIENCE, ETC. 105Now, I have some reason to believe that this wasthe . turning-point <strong>of</strong> my <strong>life</strong>^ the tide that carried meon, not to fortune but to whatever reputation I haveacquired, <strong>and</strong> which has certainly been to me a neverfailingsource <strong>of</strong> much health <strong>of</strong> body <strong>and</strong> suprememental enjoyment. If my brother had had constantwork for me so that I never had an idle day, <strong>and</strong> if Ihad continued to be similarly employed after I becameshould most probably have become entirely<strong>of</strong> age, Iabsorbed in my pr<strong>of</strong>ession, which, in its variousdepartments, I always found extremely interesting,<strong>and</strong> should therefore not have felt the need <strong>of</strong> anyother occupation or study.I know now, though I was ignorant <strong>of</strong> it at thetime, that my brother's <strong>life</strong> was a very anxious one,that the difficulty <strong>of</strong> finding remunerative work wasvery great, <strong>and</strong> that he was <strong>of</strong>ten hard pressed to earnenough to keep us both in the very humble way inwhich we lived. He never alluded to this that I canremember, nor did I ever hear how much our board<strong>and</strong> lodging cost him, nor ever saw him make theweekly or monthly payments. During the sevenyears I was with him I hardly ever had more than afew shillings for personal expenses ;but every year ortwo, when I went home, what new clothes wereabsolutely necessary were provided for me, withperhaps ten shillings or a pound as pocket-money tillmy next visit, <strong>and</strong> this, I think, was partly or whollypaid out <strong>of</strong> the small legacy left me by my gr<strong>and</strong>father.This seemed very hard at the time, but I nowsee clearly that even this was useful to me, <strong>and</strong> wasreally an important factor in moulding my character<strong>and</strong> determining my work in <strong>life</strong>. Had my fatherbeen a moderately rich man <strong>and</strong> had supplied me witha good wardrobe <strong>and</strong> ample pocket-money ; had my
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