QUOTES FROM WALLACE’S
WRITINGS COMPILED BY GEORGE BECCALONI
These are some of my favorite quotes from Wallace's published and unpublished writings. They provide an overview of his life and work, as well as a sample of some of his best writing, and they have been arranged to roughly reflect the chronology of the events to which they refer. All have been carefully checked, but if you find any errors then please let me know (blaberus1@ntlworld.com):
[Wallace, describing how he became interested in botany whilst living near Neath, Wales in 1842...] "But I soon found that by merely identifying the plants I found in my walks I lost much time in gathering the same species several times, and even then not being always quite sure that I had found the same plant before. I therefore began to form a herbarium, collecting good specimens and drying them carefully between drying papers and a couple of boards weighted with books or stones. My brother[who was Wallace's employer], however, did not approve of my devotion to this study, even though I had absolutely nothing else to do, nor did he suggest any way in which I could employ my leisure more profitably. He said very little to me on the subject beyond a casual remark, but a letter from my mother showed me that he thought I was wasting my time. Neither he nor I could foresee that it would have any effect on my future life, and I myself only looked upon it as an intensely interesting occupation for time that would be otherwise wasted. Even when we were busy I had Sundays perfectly free, and used then to take long walks over the mountains with my collecting 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. At such times I experienced the joy which every discovery of a new form of life gives to the lover of nature, almost equal to those raptures which I afterwards felt at every capture of new butterflies on the Amazon, or at the constant stream of new species of birds, beetles, and butterflies in Borneo, the Moluccas, and the Aru Islands...
Now, I have some reason to believe that this was the turning-point of my life, the tide that carried me on, not to fortune but to whatever reputation I have acquired, and which has certainly been to me a never-failing source of much health of body and supreme mental enjoyment."(From Wallace's 1905 book My Life).
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[Wallace, writing to his friend Henry Walter Bates about evolution in the mid-1840's...] "'I have rather a more favourable opinion of the 'Vestiges' than you appear to have. I do not consider it a hasty generalization, but rather as an ingenious hypothesis strongly supported by some striking facts and analogies, but which remains to be proved by more facts and the additional light which more research may throw upon the problem. It furnishes a subject for every observer of nature to attend to; every fact he observes will make either for or against it, and it thus serves both as an incitement to the collection of facts, and an object to which they can be applied when collected...' [1845 letter]
'I begin to feel rather dissatisfied with a mere local collection; little is to be learnt by it. I should like to take some one family to study thoroughly, principally with a view to the theory of the origin of species. By that means I am strongly of opinion that some definite results might be arrived at...' [1847 letter]
These extracts from my early letters to Bates suffice to show that the great problem of the origin of species was already distinctly formulated in my mind; that I was not satisfied with the more or less vague solutions at that time offered; that I believed the conception of evolution through natural law so clearly formulated in the "Vestiges" to be, so far as it went, a true one; and that I firmly believed that a full and careful study of the facts of nature would ultimately lead to a solution of the mystery." (From Wallace's 1905 book My Life).
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[on the Amazon rainforest in Brazil...] "There is, however, one natural feature of this country, the interest and grandeur of which may be fully appreciated in a single walk: it is the "virgin forest." Here no one who has any feeling of the magnificent and the
sublime can be disappointed; the sombre shade, scarce illumined by a single
direct ray even of the tropical sun, the enormous size and height of the trees,
most of which rise like huge columns a hundred feet or more without throwing
out a single branch, the strange buttresses around the base of some, the spiny
or furrowed stems of others, the curious and even extraordinary creepers and
climbers which wind around them, hanging in long festoons from branch to
branch, sometimes curling and twisting on the ground like great serpents, then
mounting to the very tops of the trees, thence throwing down roots and fibres
which hang waving in the air, or twisting round each other form ropes and
cables of every variety of size and often of the most perfect regularity.
These, and many other novel features-the parasitic plants growing on the trunks
and branches, the wonderful variety of the foliage, the strange fruits and
seeds that lie rotting on the ground-taken altogether surpass description, and
produce feelings in the beholder of admiration and awe. It is here, too, that
the rarest birds, the most lovely insects, and the most interesting mammals and
reptiles are to be found. Here lurk the jaguar and the boa-constrictor, and
here amid the densest shade the bell-bird tolls his peal." (From a 1849 letter from Wallace to the
members of the Mechanics' Institution in Neath, Wales published in Wallace's
1905 book My Life).
........................................................................................................
[Wallace,
describing the sinking of his ship on the way back
to England from Brazil in a letter to his friend the botanist
Richard Spruce in 1852...] "I cannot
attempt to describe my feelings and thoughts during these events. I was
surprised to find myself very cool and collected. I hardly thought it possible
we should escape, and I remember thinking it almost foolish to save my watch
and the little money I had at hand. However, after being in the boats some days
I began to have more hope, and regretted not having saved some new shoes, cloth
coat and trousers, hat, etc, which I might have done with a little trouble. My
collections, however, were in the hold, and were irretrievably lost. And now I
began to think that almost all the reward of my four years of privation and
danger was lost. What I had hitherto sent home had little more than paid my
expenses, and what I had with me in the Helen I estimated would have realized about £500.
But even all this might have gone with little regret had not by far the richest
part of my own private collection gone also. All my private collection of
insects and birds since I left Para was with me, and comprised hundreds of new
and beautiful species, which would have rendered (I had fondly hoped) my
cabinet, as far as regards American species, one of the finest in Europe. Fancy
your regrets had you lost all your Pyrenean mosses on your voyage home, or
should you now lose all your South American collection, and you will have some
idea of what I suffer. But besides this, I have lost a number of sketches,
drawings, notes, and observations on natural history, besides the three most
interesting years of my journal, the whole of which, unlike any pecuniary loss,
can never be replaced; so you will see that I have some need of philosophic
resignation to bear my fate with patience and equanimity." (From an 1852 letter from Wallace to
Spruce published in Wallace's 1905 book My Life).
........................................................................................................
[on a
typical day's fieldwork with his assistant Charles
Allen in 1854...] "Singapore
is rich in beetles, and before I leave I think I shall have a beautiful
collection of them. I will tell you how my day is now occupied. Get up at
half-past five, bath, and coffee. Sit down to arrange and put away my insects
of the day before, and set them in a safe place to dry. Charles mends our
insect-nets, fills our pin-cushions, and gets ready for the day. Breakfast at
eight; out to the jungle at nine. We have to walk about a quarter mile up a
steep hill to reach it, and arrive dripping with perspiration. Then we wander
about in the delightful shade along paths made by the Chinese wood-cutters till
two or three in the afternoon, generally returning with fifty or sixty beetles,
some very rare or beautiful, and perhaps a few butterflies. Change clothes and
sit down to kill and pin insects, Charles doing the flies, wasps, and bugs; I
do not trust him yet with beetles. Dinner at four, then at work again till six:
coffee. Then read or talk, or, if insects very numerous, work again till eight
or nine. Then to bed."
(From an 1854 letter from Wallace to his mother published in Wallace's 1905
book My Life).
........................................................................................................
[on
insect collecting in Simunjan, Sarawak, Borneo...] "To give
English entomologists some idea of the collecting here, I will give a sketch of
one good day's work. Till breakfast I am occupied ticketing and noting the
captures of the previous day, examining boxes for ants, putting out
drying-boxes and setting the insects of any caught by lamp-light. About 10
o'clock I am ready to start. My equipment is, a rug-net, large collecting-box
hung by a strap over my shoulder, a pair of pliers for Hymenoptera, two bottles
with spirits, one large and wide-mouthed for average Coleoptera, &c., the
other very small for minute and active insects, which are often lost by
attempting to drop them into a large mouthed bottle. These bottles are carried
in pockets in my hunting-shirt, and are attached by strings round my neck; the
corks are each secured to the bottle by a short string. The morning is fine,
and thus equipped I first walk to some dead trees close to the house frequented
by Buprestidae. As I approach I see the bright golden back of one, as he moves
in sideway jerks along a prostrate trunk,--I approach with caution, but before
I can reach him, whizz!--he is off, and flies humming round my head. After one
or two circuits he settles again in a place rendered impassable by sticks and
bushes, and when he leaves it, it is to fly off to some remote spot in the
jungle. I then walk off into the swamp along the path of logs and tree-trunks,
picking my way cautiously, now glancing right and left on the foliage...I now
come to a bridge of logs across a little stream; this is another favourite
station of the Buprestidae, particularly of the elegant Belionota sumptuosa.
One of these is now on the bridge,--he rises as I approach,-- flies with the
rapidity of lightning around me, and settles on the handle of my net! I watch
him with quiet admiration,--to attempt to catch him then is absurd; in a moment
he is off again, and then settles within a yard of me; I strike with all my
force, he rises at the same moment, and is now buzzing in my net, and in
another instant is transferred in safety to my bottle...In some distance now I
walk on, looking out carefully for whatever may appear; for near half-a-mile I
see not an insect worth capturing; then suddenly flies across the path a fine
Longicorn, new to me, and settles on a trunk a few yards off. I survey the soft
brown mud between us, look anxiously for some root to set my foot on, and then
cautiously advance towards him: one more step and I have him, but alas! My foot
slips off the root, down I go into the bog and the treasure escapes, perhaps a
species I may never obtain again." (From an 1855 letter from Wallace
published in Zoologist 13: 4803-4807)
........................................................................................................
[on
the delights of eating durian fruit...] "When
brought into a house the smell is often so offensive that some persons can
never bear to taste it. This was my own case when I first tried it in Malacca,
but in Borneo I found a ripe fruit on the ground, and, eating it out-of-doors,
I at once became a confirmed durion eater...
[The] pulp is the eatable part, and its consistency and flavour are
indescribable. A rich butter-like custard highly flavoured with almonds gives
the best general idea of it, but intermingled with it come wafts of flavour
that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, brown-sherry, and other
incongruities. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which
nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid, nor
sweet, nor juicy; yet one feels the want of none of these qualities, for it is
perfect as it is. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and the more you
eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact, to eat durions, is a new
sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience." (From
Wallace's 1869 book The Malay Archipelago).
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[on
dangerous fruits...] "Poets
and moralists, judging from our English trees and fruits, have thought that
there existed an inverse proportion between the size of the one and the other,
so that their fall should be harmless to man. Two of the most formidable fruits
known, however, the Brazil Nut (Bertholletia)
and the Durian, grow on lofty trees, from which they both fall as soon as they
are ripe, and often wound or kill those who seek to obtain them. From this we
may learn two things:—first, not to draw conclusions from a very partial view
of Nature; and secondly, that trees and fruits and all the varied productions
of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, have not been created solely for the use
and convenience of man." (From
Wallace's 1856 article "On the bamboo and durian of Borneo". Hooker's
Journal of Botany 8(8): 225-230).
........................................................................................................
[on
the capture of a new birdwing butterfly (Ornithoptera croesus) on Bacan Island, Indonesia...] "The
beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a
naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length
captured it. On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious wings, my
heart began to beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt much more
like fainting than I have done when in apprehension of immediate death. I had a
headache the rest of the day, so great was the excitement produced by what will
appear to most people a very inadequate cause." (From
Wallace's 1869 book The Malay Archipelago)
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[on
caring for a baby orang-utan whilst living in
Simunjan, Sarawak, Borneo...] "I must
now tell you of the addition to my household of an orphan baby...which I have
nursed now more than a month...I feed it four times a day, and wash it and
brush its hair every day, which it likes very much, only crying when it is
hungry or dirty...I am afraid you would call it an ugly baby, for it has a dark
brown skin and red hair, a very large mouth, but very pretty little hands and
feet...It has powerful lungs, and sometimes screams tremendously, so I hope it
will live.
But I must now tell you how I
came to take charge of it. Don't be alarmed; I was the cause of its mother's
death. It happened as follows:-I was out shooting in the jungle and saw
something up a tree which I thought was a large monkey or orang-utan, so I
fired at it, and down fell this little baby-in its mother's arms...I have
preserved her skin and skeleton, and am trying to bring up her only daughter,
and hope some day to introduce her to fashionable society at the Zoological
Gardens. When its poor mother fell mortally wounded, the baby was plunged head
over ears in a swamp about the consistence of pea-soup, and when I got it out
looked very pitiful. It clung to me very hard when I carried it home, and
having got its little hands unawares into my beard, it clutched so tight that I
had great difficulty in extricating myself...From this short account you will
see that my baby is no common baby, and I can safely say, what so many have
said before with much less truth, 'There never was such a baby as my baby,' and
I am sure nobody ever had such a dear little duck of a darling of a little
brown hairy baby before."
(From an 1855 letter from Wallace to his mother published in Wallace's 1905
book My Life).
........................................................................................................
[on
the writing of Wallace's famous 'Sarawak Law'
paper...] "Before giving a general sketch
of my life and work in less known parts of the Archipelago, I must refer to an
article I wrote while in Sarawak, which formed my first contribution to the
great question of the origin of species. It was written during the wet season,
while I was staying in a little house at the mouth of the Sarawak river, at the
foot of the Santubong mountain. I was quite alone, with one Malay boy as cook,
and during the evenings and wet days I had nothing to do but to look over my
books and ponder over the problem which was rarely absent from my thoughts.
Having always been interested in the geographical distribution of animals and
plants...and having now myself a vivid impression of the fundamental
differences between the Eastern and Western tropics; and having also read
through such books as Bonaparte's "Conspectus,"...giving a mass of
facts as to the distribution of animals over the whole world, it occurred to me
that these facts had never been properly utilized as indications of the way in
which species had come into existence. The great work of Lyell had furnished me
with the main features of the succession of species in time, and by combining
the two I thought that some valuable conclusions might be reached. I accordingly
put my facts and ideas on paper, and the result seeming to me to be of some
importance, I sent it to The Annals and Magazine
of Natural History, in which
it appeared in the following September (1855). Its title was "On the Law
which has regulated the Introduction of New Species," which law was
briefly stated (at the end) as follows: "Every species has come into existence coincident both in
space and time with a pre-existing closely-allied species." This clearly pointed to some kind of
evolution. It suggested the when and the where of
its occurrence, and that it could only be through natural generation, as was
also suggested in the "Vestiges "; but the how was still a secret only to be
penetrated some years later." (From
Wallace's 1905 book My Life).
........................................................................................................
[on
the invisible line which would later bear Wallace's
name...] "In this Archipelago there are
two distinct faunas rigidly circumscribed, which differ as much as those of
South America and Africa, and more than those of Europe and North America: yet
there is nothing on the map or on the face of the islands to mark their limits.
The boundary line often passes between islands closer than others in the same
group. I believe the western part to be a separated portion of continental
Asia, the eastern the fragmentary prolongation of a former Pacific continent.
In mammalia and birds the distinction is marked by genera, families, and even
orders confined to one region; in insects by a number of genera
and little groups of peculiar species, the families of insects having
generally a universal distribution." (From an 1858 letter from Wallace to
Henry Walter Bates published in James Marchant's 1916 book Alfred
Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences).
........................................................................................................
[on
Wallace's discovery of natural selection...] "At the
time in question [February 1858, on the island
of Gilolo in Indonesia] I was
suffering from a sharp attack of intermittent fever, and every day during the
cold and succeeding hot fits had to lie down for several hours, during which
time I had nothing to do but to think over any subjects then particularly
interesting me. One day something brought to my recollection Malthus's
"Principles of Population," which I had read about twelve years
before. I thought of his clear exposition of "the positive checks to
increase" - disease, accidents, war, and famine - which keep down the
population of savage races to so much lower an average than that of more
civilized peoples. It then occurred to me that these causes or their
equivalents are continually acting in the case of animals also; and as animals
usually breed much more rapidly than does mankind, the destruction every year
from these causes must be enormous in order to keep down the numbers of each
species, since they evidently do not increase regularly from year to year, as
otherwise the world would long ago have been densely crowded with those that
breed most quickly. Vaguely thinking over the enormous and constant destruction
which this implied, it occurred to me to ask the question, Why do some die and
some live? And the answer was clearly, that on the whole the best fitted live.
From the effects of disease the most healthy escaped; from enemies, the
strongest, the swiftest, or the most cunning; from famine, the best hunters or
those with the best digestion; and so on. Then it suddenly flashed upon me that
this self-acting process would necessarily improve the race, because in every generation the
inferior would inevitably be killed off and the superior would remain-that is, the fittest would survive...
The more I thought over it the
more I became convinced that I had at length found the long-sought-for law of
nature that solved the problem of the origin of species. For the next hour I
thought over the deficiencies in the theories of Lamarck and of the author of
the "Vestiges," and I saw that my new theory supplemented these views
and obviated every important difficulty. I waited anxiously for the termination
of my fit so that I might at once make notes for a paper on the subject. The
same evening I did this pretty fully, and on the two succeeding evenings wrote
it out carefully in order to send it to Darwin by the next post, which would
leave in a day or two." (From Wallace's 1905 book My
Life).
........................................................................................................
[on
the factors which led both Wallace and Darwin to
independently discover natural selection...] "Why did so many of the greatest intellects fail, while
Darwin and myself hit upon the solution of this problem-a solution
which...proves to have been (and still to be) a satisfying one to a large
number of those best able to form a judgment on its merits?...
On a careful consideration, we
find a curious series of correspondences, both in mind and in environment, which
led Darwin and myself, alone among our contemporaries, to reach identically the
same theory.
First (and most important, as I
believe), in early life both Darwin and myself became ardent beetle-hunters.
Now there is certainly no group of organisms that so impresses the collector by
the almost infinite number of its specific forms, the endless modifications of
structure, shape, colour, and surface-markings that distinguish them from each
other, and their innumerable adaptations to diverse environments...
Again, both Darwin and myself
had, what he terms "the mere passion of collecting,"-not that of
studying the minutiæ of structure, either internal or external. I should
describe it rather as an intense interest in the mere variety of living things-the variety that catches
the eye of the observer even among those which are very much alike, but which
are soon found to differ in several distinct characters...
[W]hen, as
in the case of Darwin and myself, the collectors were of a speculative turn of
mind, they were constantly led to think upon the "why" and the
"how" of all this wonderful variety in nature-this overwhelming, and,
at first sight, purposeless wealth of specific forms among the very humblest
forms of life.
Then, a little later (and with
both of us almost accidentally) we became travellers, collectors, and
observers, in some of the richest and most interesting portions of the earth;
and we thus had forced upon our attention all the strange phenomena of local
and geographical distribution, with the numerous problems to which they give
rise. Thenceforward our interest in the great mystery of how species came into existence was
intensified, and-again to use Darwin's expression-"haunted" us.
Finally, both Darwin and
myself, at the critical period when our minds were freshly stored with a
considerable body of personal observation and reflection bearing upon the
problem to be solved, had our attention directed to the system of positive
checks as expounded by
Malthus in his 'Principles of Population.' The effect of this was analogous to
that of friction upon the specially-prepared match, producing that flash of
insight which led us immediately to the simple but universal law of the
"survival of the fittest," as the long-sought effective cause of the continuous modification and
adaptation of living things." (From Wallace's acceptance speech on
receiving the Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1908, in The
Darwin-Wallace Celebration Held on Thursday, 1st July 1908, by the Linnean
Society of London. 1909)
........................................................................................................
[on
the beauty of a bird of paradise...] "Thus one of my objects in coming to the
far East was accomplished. I had obtained a specimen of the King Bird of
Paradise...The remote island in which I found myself situated, in an almost
unvisited sea, far from the tracks of merchant-fleets and navies; the wild
luxuriant tropical forest, which stretched far away on every side; the rude
uncultured savages who gathered round me-all had their influence in determining
the emotions with which I gazed upon this "thing of beauty." I
thought of the long ages of the past, during which the successive generations
of this little creature had run their course-year by year of being born, and
living and dying amid these dark and gloomy woods, with no intelligent eye to
gaze upon their loveliness-to all appearance such a wanton waste of beauty.
Such ideas excite a feeling of melancholy. It seems sad that on the one hand
such exquisite creatures should live out their lives and exhibit their charms
only in these wild inhospitable regions, doomed for ages yet to come to
hopeless barbarism; while on the other hand, should civilized man ever reach
these distant lands, and bring moral, intellectual, and physical light into the
recesses of these virgin forests, we may be sure that he will so disturbed the
nicely-balanced relations of organic and inorganic nature as to cause the
disappearance, and finally the extinction, of these very beings whose wonderful
structure and beauty he alone is fitted to appreciate and enjoy. This
consideration must surely tell us that all living things were not made
for man. Many of them have no relation to him. The cycle of their existence has
gone on independently of his, and is disturbed or broken by every advance in
man's intellectual development; and their happiness and enjoyment, their loves
and hates, their struggles for existence, their vigorous life and early death,
would seem to be immediately related to their own well-being and perpetuation
alone, limited only by the equal well-being and perpetuation of the numberless
other organisms with which each is more or less intimately connected." (From Wallace's 1869
book The Malay Archipelago).
........................................................................................................
[on
the importance of collecting natural history
specimens...] "It is for such inquiries that the modern naturalist
collects his materials; it is for this that he still wants to add to the
apparently boundless treasures of our national museums, and will never rest
satisfied as long as the native country, the geographical distribution, and the
amount of variation of any living thing remains imperfectly known. He looks
upon every species of animal and plant now living as the individual letters
which go to make up one of the volumes of our earth's history; and, as a few
lost letters may make a sentence unintelligible, so the extinction of numerous
forms of life which the progress of cultivation invariably entails will
necessarily obscure this invaluable record of the past. It is, therefore, an
important object, which governments and scientific institutions should
immediately take steps to secure, that in all tropical countries colonised by
Europeans the most perfect collections possible in every branch of natural
history should be made and deposited in national museums, where they may be
available for study and interpretation.
If this is not done, future
ages will certainly look back upon us as a people so immersed in the pursuit of
wealth as to be blind to higher considerations. They will charge us with having
culpably allowed the destruction of some of those records of Creation which we
had it in our power to preserve; and while professing to regard every living
thing as the direct handiwork and best evidence of a Creator, yet, with a
strange inconsistency, seeing many of them perish irrecoverably from the face
of the earth, uncared for and unknown." (From
Wallace's 1863 article On the physical geography of the Malay Archipelago. Journal
of the Royal Geographical Society 33: 217-234).
........................................................................................................
[on
the subject of religious belief...] "In my
early youth I heard, as ninety-nine-hundredths of the world do, only the
evidence on one side, and became impressed with a veneration for religion which
has left some traces even to this day. I have since heard and read much on both
sides, and pondered much upon the matter in all its bearings...I have since
wandered among men of many races and many religions. I have studied man, and
nature in all its aspects, and I have sought after truth. In my solitude I have
pondered much on the incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and
death. I think I have fairly heard and fairly weighed the evidence on both
sides, and I remain an utter disbeliever in almost all that you consider the most
sacred truths. I will pass over as utterly contemptible the oft-repeated
accusation that sceptics shut out evidence because they will not be governed by
the morality of Christianity. You I know will not believe that in my case, and I know its
falsehood as a general rule...To the mass of mankind religion of some kind is a
necessity. But whether there be a God and whatever be His nature; whether we
have an immortal soul or not, or whatever may be our state after death, I can
have no fear of having to suffer for the study of nature and the search for
truth, or believe that those will be better off in a future state who have
lived in the belief of doctrines inculcated from childhood, and which are to
them rather a matter of blind faith than intelligent conviction." (From an 1861 letter from Wallace to
his brother-in-law Thomas Sims published in James Marchant's 1916 book Alfred
Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences).
........................................................................................................
[on
eugenics...] "Why, never by word or deed have
I given the slightest countenance to eugenics. Segregation of the unfit,
indeed! It is a mere excuse for establishing a medical tyranny. And we have
enough of this kind of tyranny already. Even now, the lunacy laws give
dangerous powers to the medical fraternity. At the present moment, there are
some perfectly sane people incarcerated in lunatic asylums simply for believing
in spiritualism. The world does not want the eugenist to set it straight. Give
the people good conditions, improve their environment, and all will tend
towards the highest type. Eugenics is simply the meddlesome interference of an
arrogant, scientific priestcraft." (From an interview with Wallace in
1912 - see http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S750.htm).
........................................................................................................
[on
human avarice...] "The struggle for wealth...ha[s] been accompanied by a reckless destruction
of the stored-up products of nature, which is even more deplorable because more
irretrievable. Not only have forest-growths of many hundreds of years been
cleared away, often with disastrous consequences, but the whole of the mineral
treasures of the earth's surface, the slow products of long-past eons of time
and geological change, have been and are still being exhausted, to an extent
never before approached, and probably not equalled in amount during the whole
preceding period of human history." (From Wallace's 1898 book The
Wonderful Century; Its Successes and Its Failures).
........................................................................................................
[on
the evils of capitalism...] "This
variety and beauty, even the strangeness, the ugliness, and the unexpectedness
we find everywhere in nature, are, and therefore were intended to be, an
important factor in our mental development; for they excite in us admiration
wonder, and curiosity—the three emotions which stimulate first our attention,
then our determination to learn the how and the why, which are the basis of
observation and experiment and therefore of all science and all philosophy.
These considerations should lead us to look upon all the works of nature,
animate or inanimate, as invested with a certain sanctity, to be used by us but not abused,
and never to be recklessly destroyed or defaced. To pollute a spring or a
river, to exterminate a bird or beast, should be treated as moral offences and
as social crimes; while all who profess religion or sincerely believe in the Deity—the designer and maker
of this world and of every living thing—should, one would have thought, have
placed this among the first of their forbidden sins, since to
deface or destroy that which has been brought into existence for the use and enjoyment,
the education and elevation of the human race, is a direct denial of the wisdom
and goodness of the Creator, about which they so loudly and persistently prate
and preach.
Yet during the past century,
which has seen those great advances in the knowledge of Nature of which we are so proud, there
has been no corresponding development of a love or reverence for her works; so
that never before has there been such widespread ravage of the earth's surface
by destruction of native vegetation and with it of much animal life, and such
wholesale defacement of the earth by mineral workings and by pouring into our
streams and rivers the refuse of manufactories and of cities; and this has been
done by all the greatest nations claiming the first place for civilisation and
religion! And what is worse, the greater part of this waste and devastation has
been and is being carried on, not for any good or worthy purpose, but in the
interest of personal greed and avarice; so that in every case, while wealth has
increased in the hands of the few, millions are still living without the bare
necessaries for a healthy or a decent life, thousands dying yearly of actual
starvation, and other thousands being slowly or suddenly destroyed by hideous
diseases or accidents, directly caused in this cruel race for wealth, and in
almost every case easily preventable. Yet they are not
prevented, solely because to do so would somewhat diminish the profits of the
capitalists and legislators who are directly responsible for this almost world-wide
defacement and destruction, and virtual massacre of the ignorant and
defenceless workers.
The nineteenth century saw the
rise, the development, and the culmination of these crimes against God and man.
Let us hope that the twentieth century will see the rise of a truer religion, a
purer Christianity; that the conscience of our rulers will no longer permit a
single man, woman, or child to have its life shortened or destroyed by any
preventable cause, however profitable the present system may be to their
employers; that no one shall be allowed to accumulate wealth by the labour of
others unless and until every labourer shall have received sufficient, not only
for a bare subsistence, but for all the reasonable comforts and enjoyments of life, including ample
recreation and provision for a restful and happy old age. Briefly, the support
of the labourers without any injury to health or shortening of life should be a first
charge upon the products
of labour. Every kind of labour that will not bear this charge is immoral and
is unworthy of a civilised community." (From Wallace's 1910 book The
World of Life).
For more quotes see http://www.iol.ie/~spice/quotes.htm
and http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/quotes.htm