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Marchant, James

"Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1"

What has seemed for years so
chaotic, so contradictory, and so problematic takes at once its
proper position within an harmonious whole. Out of the wild
confusion of facts and from behind the fog of
guesses--contradicted almost as soon as they are born--a stately
picture makes its appearance, like an Alpine chain suddenly
emerging in all its grandeur from the mists which concealed it the
moment before, glittering under the rays of the sun in all its
simplicity and variety, in all its mightiness and beauty. And when
the generalisation is put to a test, by applying it to hundreds of
separate facts which seemed to be hopelessly contradictory the
moment before, each of them assumes its due position, increasing
the impressiveness of the picture, accentuating some
characteristic outline, or adding an unsuspected detail full of
meaning. The generalisation gains in strength and extent; its
foundations grow in width and solidity; while in the distance,
through the far-off mist on the horizon, the eye detects the
outlines of new and still wider generalisations.


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