in the
world is directly due to man, not to God, and that when we once realise
this to its full extent we shall be able, not only to eliminate almost
completely what we now term evil, but shall then clearly perceive that
all those propensities and passions that under bad conditions of society
inevitably led to it, will under good conditions add to the variety and
the capacities of human nature, the enjoyment of life by all, and at the
same time greatly increase the possibilities of development of the whole
race. I myself feel confident that this is really the case, and that
such considerations, when followed out to their ultimate issues, afford
a complete solution of the great problem of the ages--the origin of
evil."[51]

Closely allied with the welfare of the child is another "reform" with
which Wallace's name will long be associated. That is his strong
denunciation of Vaccination. For seven years he laboured to show medical
and scientific men that statistics proved beyond doubt the futility of
this measure to prevent disease. A few were converted, but public
opinion is hard to move.

In his ideal of the future, Dr. Wallace gave a large and honoured sphere
to women. He considered that it was in the highest degree presumptuous
and irrational to attempt to deal by compulsory enactments with the most
vital and most sacred of all human relationships, regardless of the fact
that our present phase of social development is not only extremely
imperfect, but, as already shown, vicious and rotten to the core. How
could it be possible to determine by legislation those relations of the
sexes which shall be best alike for individuals and for the race in a
society in which a large proportion of our women are forced to work long
hours daily for the barest subsistence, with an almost total absence of
the rational pleasures of life, for the want of which thousands are
driven into uncongenial marriages in order to secure some amount of
personal independence or physical well-being. He believed that when men
and women are, for the first time in the course of civilisation, equally
free to follow their best impulses; when idleness and vicious and
hurtful luxury on the one hand, and oppressive labour and the dread of
starvation on the other, are alike unknown; when _all_ receive the best
and broadest education that the state of civilisation and knowledge will
admit; when the standard of public opinion is set by the wisest and the
best amo