Where Australia Collides with AsiaWallace delighted in the countryside, going for long walks in his spare time, but
knew nothing about insects, birds, flowers and trees because none of this was taught
in school. Surprised there was such a subject as botany, he used what little money he
had to buy a book called The Elements of Botany to help identify the plants he saw on
his rambles. He then experienced the joy that every new discovery gives to a lover of
nature:
I found in my walks that I lost much time in gathering the same species several times. I
therefore began to form a herbarium, collecting good specimens and drying them carefully
... My brother, however did not approve of my devotion to this study, even though I had
absolutely nothing else to do ... Neither he nor I could foresee that it would have any effect
on my future life.Throughout Britain the mechanics’ institutes were being founded for young men
like Wallace to educate themselves in practical skills. Following his interests, Wallace
learned that the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus had developed the discipline of
taxonomy by organizing flora and fauna into classes, orders, genera and species.
Wallace then borrowed an encyclopaedia of British plants and spent months copying
the genera and species of all the native flora into his own copy of Elements of Botany,
thus becoming an impressive amateur botanist.
Wallace believed that it was through education and specifically science that the
human race could develop. Inspired by his own efforts at self-education he wrote, at
the age of eighteen, a five-page article ‘On the Best Method of Conducting the Kington
Mechanics’ Institute’. With the rapid industrialization of Britain, local businessmen
saw that it was in their interest to fund the mechanics’ institutes, because they helped
provide the educated workers they needed. This and the local lending library provided
a means of self-education for intelligent young men like Alfred Russel Wallace, eager
to soak up knowledge about the world around them.
A downturn in surveying jobs meant that William had to ask his brother to look
for other work. Alfred thought that teaching might be a possibility and he found a
position at the Collegiate School in Leicester. The headmaster, Mr Hill, engaged him
as an assistant master to teach English, geometry and drawing, as well as to live in the
schoolhouse and oversee the evening preparation of about twenty boarders. Wallace,
now twenty years old, probably had his own room for the first time in his life, and
from his own description seemed very comfortable:
There were two assistant masters, both pleasant men. In drawing I had only beginners; but I
soon found I had to improve myself, so I sketched a great deal ... I had a very comfortable102
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