My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

MONEY MATTERS 375sure source of income. Shortly afterwards she wasvisiting Darwin, and mentioned it to him, and hethought that a pension might be granted me inrecognition of my scientific work. Huxley mostkindly assisted in drawing up the necessary memorialto the Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, to whomDarwin wrote personally. He promptly assented,and the next year, 1881, the first payment was made.Other of my scientific friends, I believe, signed thememorial, but it is especially to the three named thatI owe this very great relief from anxiety for theremainder of my life.I have already stated that what at the timeappeared to be the great misfortune of the loss ofabout half of my whole Amazonian collections by theburning of the ship in which I was coming home, wasin all probability a blessing in disguise, since it ledme to visit the comparatively unknown Malay Archipelago,and, perhaps, also supplied the conditionswhich led me to think out independently the theoryof natural selection. In like manner I am nowinclined to see in the almost total loss of the moneyvalue of my rich collections,another of those curiousindications that our misfortunes are often useful, oreven necessary for bringing out our latent powers. Iam, and have always been, constitutionally lazy, withoutany of that fiery energy and intense power ofwork possessed by such men as Huxley and CharlesKingsley. When I once begin any work in which Iam interested, I can go steadily on with it till it isfinished, but I need some definite impulse to set megoing, and require a good deal of time for reflectionwhile the work is being done. Every important bookI have undertaken has been due to an impulse or a