ientific workers, Alfred Russel Wallace alone
survives, aged eighty-nine at this writing, still studying, earnestly
intent upon one of Nature's secrets that four of his great colleagues
years ago labeled "Unknown," and the other two marked "Unknowable."

To some it is an anomaly and contradiction that a lover of science,
exact, cautious, intent on certitude, should accept a belief in personal
immortality. Still, to others this is regarded as positive proof of his
superior insight.

All thinking men agree that we are surrounded by phenomena that to a
great extent are unanalyzed; but Herbert Spencer, for one, thought it a
lapse in judgment to attribute to spirit intervention, mysteries which
could not be accounted for on any other grounds. It was equal to that
sin against science which Darwin committed, and which he atoned for in
contrite public confession, when he said: "It surely must be this,
otherwise what is it? Hence we assume," and so on. Some recent writers
have sought to demolish Wallace's argument concerning Spiritism by
saying he is an old man and in his dotage. Wallace once wrote a booklet
entitled, "Vaccination a Fallacy," which created a big dust in Doctors'
Row, and was cited as corroborative proof, along with his faith in
Spiritism, that the man was mentally incompetent.

But this is a deal worse excuse for argument than anything Wallace ever
put forth. The real fact is that Wallace issued a book on Spiritism in
Eighteen Hundred Seventy-four, and in Eighteen Hundred Ninety-six
reissued it with numerous amendments, confirming his first conclusions.
So he has held his peculiar views on immortality for over thirty years,
and moreover his mental vigor is still unimpaired.

Whether the proof he has received as to the existence of disembodied
spirits is sufficient for others is very uncertain; but if it suffices
for himself, it is not for us to quibble. Wallace agrees to allow us to
have our opinions if we will let him have his.

His views are in no sense those of Christianity; rather, they might be
called those of Theosophy, as the personal God and the dogma of
salvation and atonement are entirely omitted.

The Doctrine of Evolution he carries into the realm of spirit. His
belief is that souls reincarnate themselves many times for the ultimate
object of experience, growth and development. He holds that this life is
the gateway to another, but that we should live each day as though it
were our last.

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