The amazing thing is that he didn't seem to mind missing out on all that fame. In fact in his letters he actually implies he was rather pleased not to have been put in the public eye. Perhaps it actually gave him more time to work on his extraordinary collection, which of course was his real passion. He could have been buried in Westminster Abbey next to Darwin, but his family declined. Instead he was buried in the local graveyard here in Dorset, close to trees and countryside, and of course his beloved insects. When it came to insects, Wallace was the supreme authority. When Darwin confidently predicted the existence of a moth that nobody had ever seen before, it was Wallace who helped him work on his theory.


另外值得敬佩的一点是，他似乎一点不在意默默无闻。他的信件中甚至表达了，他甚至更希望自己不为人知。也许是因为只有这样，他才有更多时间专注于他的收藏。这才是他真正的热情所在，他本可以长眠西敏寺，相伴达尔文左右。但是他家里人拒绝了这个提议，于是他被葬在多塞郡当地的墓园里。英国郊外，绿树成荫，周围是他所爱的昆虫们。华莱士是昆虫方面的权威专家，达尔文当年曾预言，存在着一种从未被发现的飞蛾，正是华莱士帮助他完成相关理论。