November 7, 1913

From My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions (1905) the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, we quote:

[A]s illustrations of the interest in common things conferred by a knowledge of the elementary laws of physical science, I remark[:]

“Many who marvel at the rolling thunder care not to inquire what causes the sound which is heard when a tightly-fitting cork is quickly drawn from a bottle, or when a whip is cracked or a pistol fired; and while they are struck with awe and admiration at the dazzling lightning, look upon the sparks drawn from a cat’s back on a frosty evening and the slight crackle that accompanies them as being only fit to amuse a child ; yet in each case the cause of the trifling and of the grand phenomena is the same. He who has extended his inquiries into the varied phenomena of nature learns to despise no fact, however small, and to consider the most apparently insignif cant and common occurrences as much in need of explanation as those of a grander and more imposing character. He sees in every dewdrop trembling on the grass causes at work analogous to those which have produced the spherical figure of the earth and planets; and in the beautiful forms of crystallization on his window-panes on a frosty morning he recognizes the action of laws which may also have a part in the production of the similar forms of plants and of many of the lower animal types. Thus the simplest facts of everyday life have to him an inner meaning, and he sees that they depend upon the same general laws as those that are at work in the grandest phenomena of nature.”

Alfred Russell Wallace (January 8, 1823 to November 7, 1913) discovered, among other things, the modern theory of evolution. It was in fact only when he outlined his ideas to Darwin, that the latter was moved to present his own parallel thinking to the public. It was all done graciously. Darwin presented introduced both their ideas at a scientific conference.

But what is still amazing to me about Russell's ideas, is what we call the Wallace Line which divides the species of Australia and Borneo from those of East Asia, including the Philippines. The animals are different on either side of what to me seems like an arbitrary line in the water. Now I have read the explanations. They just don't really seem plausible.

Wallace was not wealthy, nor did he invest money well. He had no family connections, or occupational position, to fall back on. Darwin pressured the government to give Alfred R. Wallace a small pension in 1881.