"We have ourselves," wrote Prof. H.F. Osborn in an account of Wallace's
scientific work which Wallace praised, "experienced a loss of confidence
with advancing years, an increasing humility in the face of
transformations which become more and more mysterious the more we study
them, although we may not join with this master in his appeal to an
organising and directing principle." But profound contemplation of
nature and of the mind of man led Wallace to belief in God, to accept
the Divine origin of life and consciousness, and to proclaim a hierarchy
of spiritual beings presiding over nature and the affairs of nations.
"Whatever," writes Dr. H.O. Forbes, "may be the last words on the deep
and mysterious problems to which Wallace addressed himself in his later
works, the unquestioned consensus of the highest scientific opinion
throughout the world is that his work has been for more than half a
century, and will continue to be, a living stimulus to interpretation
and investigation, a fertilising and vivifying force in every sphere of
thought."
It is perhaps unprofitable to go further than in previous chapters into
his so-called heresies--political, scientific or religious. Yet we may
imitate his boldness and ask whether he was not, perhaps, in advance of
his age and whether his heresies were not shrewd anticipations of some
truth at present but partially revealed. Take the example of
Spiritualism, which, I suppose, has more opponents than
anti-vaccination.
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