In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace ...

274 / In Darwin’s Shadow
When Darwin sought support for Wallace from the newly knighted Sir Joseph
Hooker, who well knew Wallace’s contributions to science, the latter recalled
with disdain Wallace’s involvement in the spiritualist movement, and in particular
the BAAS incident when the Barrett paper on psychic phenomena was
read in the biology section. Hooker complained to Darwin:
I have well considered the pros and cons of the proposal to enlist sympathy in
the matter of a pension for Wallace, and greatly doubt its advisability.
Wallace has lost caste terribly, not only for his adhesion to Spiritualism, but
by the fact of his having deliberately and against the whole voice of the committee
of his section of the British Association, brought about a discussion on
Spiritualism at one of its sectional meetings, when he was President of that
section.
This he is said to have done in an underhanded manner and I well remember
the indignation it gave rise to in the British Council, and amongst the members
atlarge....
I think that under these circumstances it would be very difficult to ask one’s
friends to sign an application to Govt. for a pension. Added to which Govt.
should in fairness be informed that the candidate is a public and leading
Spiritualist! 6
Despite his own misgivings about and disgust over Wallace’s endorsement
of and involvement in spiritualism, Darwin, who had supported Lankester
against Wallace in the Slade trial, nevertheless pressed Hooker to sign the
petition, and even wrote Prime Minister Gladstone directly, and in the end
had his way. Once again Darwin’s and Wallace’s paths met at a congenial
juncture and they remained close to the end of Darwin’s life in 1882.
The First Darwinian Brings Darwinism to America
At Darwin’s funeral Wallace shared pallbearer duties with James Russell Lowell,
of the Lowell Institute of Boston, who invited him to come to America
to be a speaker in their prestigious lecture series. Several years later, at a
youthful age sixty-three, Wallace once again sailed west for the Americas.
His opening lecture was on November 2, 1886, and the Boston Transcript
reported a favorable response: “The first Darwinian, Wallace, did not leave a
leg for anti-Darwinism to stand on when he got through his first Lowell lecture
last evening. Mr. Wallace, though not an orator, is likely to become a favourite
as a lecturer, his manner is so genuinely modest and straight-forward.” 7
On completion of his obligatory lectures Wallace fanned out across the
American landscape, both cultural and geographic. He was well known
enough on that side of the Atlantic to have garnered meetings with such
luminaries as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry George, William James, and
even President Grover Cleveland at the White House. After several months