![]() Much of the naturalistic philosophy of Vestiges was derived from a work Wallace had already read, the phrenologist George Combe's Constitution of man (1828). ![]() Vestiges argued for the progressive physical "development" of all of nature from solar systems to the Earth and biological species, over time in a progressive, upward direction. Wallace also read the hugely controversial and anonymous popular science book Vestiges of the natural history of creation in 1845. All of these works are provided as supplementary works in Wallace Online. He also read Thomas Malthus's Essay on the principle of population (1826). Another major influence on Wallace was Charles Lyell's Principles of geology (1830-3). Alexander von Humboldt's Personal narrative (1814-1829) and Darwin's Journal of researches (1839) introduced Wallace to the exciting allure of scientific travel and collecting. In these years Wallace read some very influential works for his future life. Obviously he would not have been qualified to be a teacher if he had not completed his schooling. After a brief period of unemployment in early 1844 Wallace worked for over a year as a teacher at the Collegiate School at Leicester. With a decline in the demand for surveyors William no longer had sufficient work to employ Wallace. Courtesy of the National Library of Wales.įrom 1840-1843 Wallace remained employed as a surveyor in the west of England and Wales. Survey map of the parish of Neath (1845). From 1841 Wallace took up an amateur pursuit of botany by collecting plants and flowers. His days surveying in the open air of the countryside lead him to an interest in natural history. Wallace began to read about mechanics and optics, his first introduction to science. Here in Wallace Online you can see, for the first time, some of the original maps he contributed to click here. Although Wallace's parents were perfectly orthodox members of the Church of England, Wallace became a sceptic or freethinker.įrom 1837 Wallace joined his brother William to work as an apprentice land surveyor. The hall of science also introduced Wallace to the latest views of religious sceptics and secularists. Hence, if the social environment were improved, so would the morals and well being of the workers. Wallace would eventually be deeply impressed by Owen's utopian social ideals - with a stress on the role of environment in determining character and behaviour. In this context (according to his later recollections) Wallace encountered the socialist ideas of the reformer Robert Owen although the influence of such ideas only seem to appear in his later life. Here Wallace saw working-class people up close, but saw them as different from himself. Wallace spent his evenings in an educational "Hall of science" for working men. Wallace then left home to join his elder brother John, an apprentice builder in London. Wallace never attended university like almost everyone else at the time. This view probably arose from Wallace's touching recollections of the embarrassment he felt as his family's lack of money became obvious to his fellow students and because almost all modern writers on Wallace are not qualified historians of the period. Wallace was not forced to leave school early because of financial difficulties, as frequently claimed in recent works, but finished school at the normal age. Wallace left school aged fourteen in March 1837, shortly after Darwin returned from the Beagle voyage. Here Wallace attended Hertford Free Grammar School which advertised itself as a school for the sons of gentlemen, and offered a classical education, very much like Darwin's at Shrewsbury Free Grammar School, including Latin grammar, classical geography and "some Euclid and algebra". When Wallace was about six years old the family moved to Hertford, north of London, where he lived until he was fourteen. But financial circumstances declined so the family moved from London to a village near Usk, on the Welsh borders, where Wallace was born in the large Kensington Cottage on 8 January 1823. His English father, a solicitor by training, once had property sufficient to generate a gentleman's income of £500 per annum. Unlike Darwin, Wallace came from a rather humble and ordinary background. ![]() A biographical sketch by John van WyheĪlfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was a great English naturalist who is primarily remembered for conceiving of a theory of evolution by natural selection independently of Charles Darwin.
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