A GREAT SCIENTIST.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1074, 13 March 1911, Page 6

A GREAT SCIENTIST.

DR, A. R. WALLACE'S 88th BIRTHDAY. INTERESTING INTERVIEW, The special correspondent of the London "Daily News," writing on January 7, states: Dr. Alfred Russel 'Wallace, the joint discoverer with Darwin of the principle of natural selection, and almost the last of the great group of scientists of "the wonderful century," attained his eightyeighth birthday to-day.. Lycll, Owen, Darwin, Huxley, Spencer, and Tyndall have gone: Hooker and Wallace are still with us, famous links in a famous chain. I came down yesterday to visit Dr. Russel Wallace, in his beautiful Dorset home, and 'to offer my respectful congratulations. "Old Orchard" is a picturesque, many-gabled house pcrcned high above the quiet -waters of Poole Harbour, giving from its windows everchanging views of the English Channel far below. I found Dr. Wallace in his study, clearly tho workshop of a thinker rather than tho retreat of a literary man. and the spare figure with tho student stoop which rose to greet me and grippal my hand so strongly, showed no trace of feebleness. Winter has.placed its.mark on the thick hair, white' as snow, on beard and bushy eyebrows, but tho eyes which glance so swiftly, challenging and humorously behind their glasses bear no traco of age. "I am better than I have been for years," said the doctor, "thanks to strict dieting. The secret of keeping well in old age is regularity of diet; medicines aro no good."

Novels as Relaxation. At Dr. Wallace's elbow I noticed lying Israel Queride's "Toil of Men." "Do you," I asked him, "jead many novelsf" "I read them every evening; they aro my relaxation. The modern psychological novel I don't care for a bit. 1 have just finished 'A Walking Gentleman,' by James Pryor, a very clever book of its kind, and am reading Toil of Men' because ■ it is about Dutch gardening, and I ani much interested in Dutch gardening. It is a terrible book, but a book of wonderful power. "Jtaarten Jlaartens is a favourito of mine," he went on; "so is Eden Phillpotts; Hardy's earlier novels I like, but not his later ones, and Jleredith I can't read, his style is so dreadfully mannered. One of the most perfect novels I know is The Silence of Dean Jutland,' by Jlaxwell Gray, and 'Tho Last Sentence,' by the same writer, is equally good. No, I have not read any of Galsworthy's or Arnold Bennett's works; William do Morgan I find too long for me." I turned to a subject in regard to which Dr. Wallace,could not fail to have the keenest interest. Did he think, I asked him, there was an increasing tendency to give a spiritual interpretation to tho universe? "Jtost decidedly I think there is. You mention Oliver Lodge's efforts, but Lodge is trying to harmonise Science and Theology, aud I don't think that at all the right way to go to work. Scientists aro less dogmatic than they were, though tho majority will have it that I have left the paths of science in touching on final causes in my books. They say it is speculation: I say it is no speculation to point out that any mechanical explanation of the universe really explains nothing, and that you must have an intellect, or a Being, or a scries of Beings."

Spiritual Phenomena. "How do you account for tho number of scientific men who as regards spiritual phenomena, are unscientific'in that they declino even to consider tho available evidence? 1 ' "Partly, I think, because scientific men are generally interested in one branch ef study, and in nothing else. A largo number are aware of the evidence to which you have referred, but hesitate to investigate it. They call themselves Mon>ists, an absurd name which means nothing and explains nothing. Nevertheless there are a greater number of scientiac men now than ever before who see that the deeper we go into things the more mystery there is, and the, more need for Mind rather than Force. Force explains nothing, becnuso of the infinite complexity of its results; moreover, force itself is inconceivable existing by itself. But these arc things the great sceptics, such as Uaeckcl, never go into; they assume force." "Your use of the word 'mind,' docto leads mo to ask if you think events can be influenced by prayer?" "I think prayer does affect those nearest and dearest to us who have died, and that they can in turn affect us. I think there is every bit as much evidence in support of this as'there is for what are called scientific facts. There aro innumerable and well-authenticated instances of warnings given of events that subsequently occurred which, if acted upon, would have saved from accident or death But unbelievers do not examine tho evi dpnec. No, I have not read Professor James's 'Varieties of Tteligious Experience,' but everyone tells mo I' must, and now I will." "A last question, Dr. Wallace. Who of all tho many men you have known most impressed you with his personality?" "Oli." said Dr. Wallace, ruminatively, "that is a difficult question to answer. For combined intellectual and moral qualities I cannot think of anyone I could place above Darwin. Darwin was not only a great thinker and worker, but. .\ really good man, thoroughly good," added tho doctor, "thoroughly kind, and thoroughly humane. Fore pure intellect T should placo Huxley above Darwin, and Spencer above either; Spencer was a great, a very great thinking machine."

The Origin of the Stars. In connection with tho statements in tho above interview regarding scientific explanations of the universe, tho following statement by Sir Kobcrt Ball, Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at Cambridge- Univorsitv, will bo of interest :— "It is true we believe—l tnvsclf certainly do—that our solar svstom"has originated from tho nebula, just as I believe tho adult camo from the child, but if von ask me whero that nebula. came from, well, wo may say it came from tho collision of two stars. But then comes the question, 'Where did tho two stars como from?' To that science really gives no answer; and as far as I can understand these things, tho very circumstances of tho heavens seem to mo to bear written on them tho impress of the fact that thev cannot have gone on from all timo a"s they aro now. There must have been, so far as wo can understand it, some beginning, some time at which there was an intervention of force and action such as scieuco is not ablo to take cognisanco of. llenco it is I cannot but express heartv sympathy with tho efforts, and successful efforts, which have been made to show that in our endeavours to understand the wonders of Nature, we have ever l/rou"ht before us the fact that there nre "innumerable mysteries in Nature which can never be accounted for by tho operations with which science makes us fnmiliar. hut which demands the intervention of some Higher Power than anything man's intellect can comprehend."