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
210 MY LIFEforms, which in the few cases recorded are quite distinctfrom each other, without intermediate gradations.This brief outline of the paper will, perhaps, enablemy readers to understand the intense interest I felt inworking out all these strange phenomena, and showinghow they could almost all be explained by that lawof " Natural Selection " which Darwin had discoveredmany years before, and which I had also been sofortunate as to hit upon.The series of papers on birds and insects nowdescribed, together with others on the physicalgeography of the archipelago and its various racesof man, furnished me with the necessary materialsfor that general sketch of the natural history of theislands and of the various interesting problems whicharise from its study, which has made my "MalayArchipelago " the most popular of my books. At thesame time it opened up so many fields of research asto render me indisposed for further technical work inthe mere description of my collections, which I shouldcertainly never have been able to complete. I thereforenow began to dispose of various portions of myinsects to students of special groups, who undertookto publish lists of them with descriptions of the newspecies, reserving for myself only a few boxes ofduplicates to serve as mementoes of the exquisite orfantastic organisms which I had procured during myeight years' wanderings.Having thus prepared the way by these preliminarystudies, I devoted the larger portion of my time in theyears 1867 and 1868 to writing my "Malay Archipelago."I had previously read what works I couldprocure on the islands, and had made numerousextracts from the old voyagers on the parts I myselfwas acquainted with. These added much to the
SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY WORK 211interest of my own accounts of the manners andcharacter of the people, and by means of a tolerablyfull journal and the various papers I had written, Ihad no difficulty in going steadily on with my work.As my publishers wished the book to be well illustrated,I had to spend a good deal of time in decidingon the plates and getting them drawn, either frommy own sketches, from photographs, or from actualspecimens, and having obtained the services of thebest artists and wood engravers then in London, theresult was, on the whole, satisfactory.The book was published in 1869, but during itsprogress, and while it was slowly passing through thepress, I wrote several important papers, among whichwas one in the Quarterly Review for April, 1869, on" Geological Climates and the Origin of Species,"which was in large part a review and eulogy of SirCharles Lyell's great work, "The Principles ofGeology," which greatly pleased him as well asDarwin. A considerable part of this article wasdevoted to a discussion of Mr. Croll's explanation ofthe glacial epoch, and, by a combination of his viewswith those of Lyell on the great effect of changeddistribution of sea and land, or of differences inaltitude, I showed how we might arrive at a betterexplanation than either view by itself could give us.As the article was too long, a good deal of it had tobe cut out, but it served as the foundation for mymore detailed examination of the whole questionwhen writing my "Island Life," twelve yearslater.As soon as the proofs of the " Malay Archipelago "were out of my hands, I began the preparation of asmall volume of my scattered articles dealing withvarious aspects of the theory of Natural Selection.
- Page 204 and 205: A. R. WALLACE. AGED 30.{To fact- p.
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- Page 230: i88MY LIFEwet in Celebes, while it
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- Page 271 and 272: LYELL AND DARWIN 225Sir Charles quo
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- Page 275 and 276: —LYELL AND DARWIN 229" My dear Wa
- Page 277 and 278: LYELL AND DARWIN 231I was so anxiou
- Page 279 and 280: LYELL AND DARWIN 233" Down, January
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210 MY LIFEforms, which in the few cases <strong>record</strong>ed are quite distinctfrom each other, without intermediate gradations.This brief outline <strong>of</strong> the paper will, perhaps, enablemy readers to underst<strong>and</strong> the intense interest I felt inworking out all these strange phenomena, <strong>and</strong> showinghow they could almost all be explained by that law<strong>of</strong> " Natural Selection " which Darwin had discoveredmany years before, <strong>and</strong> which I had also been s<strong>of</strong>ortunate as to hit upon.The series <strong>of</strong> papers on birds <strong>and</strong> insects nowdescribed, together with others on the physicalgeography <strong>of</strong> the archipelago <strong>and</strong> its various races<strong>of</strong> man, furnished me with the necessary materialsfor that general sketch <strong>of</strong> the natural history <strong>of</strong> theisl<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> the various interesting problems whicharise from its study, which has made my "MalayArchipelago " the most popular <strong>of</strong> my books. At thesame time it opened up so many fields <strong>of</strong> research asto render me indisposed for further technical work inthe mere description <strong>of</strong> my collections, which I shouldcertainly never have been able to complete. I thereforenow began to dispose <strong>of</strong> various portions <strong>of</strong> myinsects to students <strong>of</strong> special groups, who undertookto publish lists <strong>of</strong> them with descriptions <strong>of</strong> the newspecies, reserving for myself only a few boxes <strong>of</strong>duplicates to serve as mementoes <strong>of</strong> the exquisite orfantastic <strong>org</strong>anisms which I had procured during myeight years' w<strong>and</strong>erings.Having thus prepared the way by these preliminarystudies, I devoted the larger portion <strong>of</strong> my time in theyears 1867 <strong>and</strong> 1868 to writing my "Malay Archipelago."I had previously read what works I couldprocure on the isl<strong>and</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> had made numerousextracts from the old voyagers on the parts I myselfwas acquainted with. These added much to the
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