Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace OM FRSwas a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection; his paper on the subject was jointly published with some of Charles Darwin's writings in 1858. This prompted Darwin to publish his own ideas in On the Origin of Species. Wallace did extensive fieldwork, first in the Amazon River basin and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the faunal divide now...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth8 January 1823
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, and then surveying carefully the surface of the smooth round log I am walking on.
But I think that a little consideration will show you that belief is quite independent of our will, and our common expressions show it.
Nature seems to have taken every precaution that these, her choicest treasures, may not lose value by being too easily obtained.
The foregoing considerations lead us to the very important conclusion, that matter is essentially force, and nothing but force; that matter, as popularly understood, does not exist, and is, in fact, philosophically inconceivable.
I have since wandered among men of many races and many religions.
I am thankful I can see much to admire in all religions.
I am decidedly of the opinion that in very many instances we can trace such a necessary connexion, especially among birds, and often with more complete success than in the case which I have here attempted to explain.
In my solitude I have pondered much on the incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and death.