ABSTRACT
Th is seems to be one of the fi rst articulations of the ecological concern for vanishing species. Of importance is Wallace’s critical view of Western civilization,
which he avowed would disrupt the fi ne balance of nature and eradicate fascinating creatures living in the lands of ‘hopeless barbarism.’ Wallace was a Fabian socialist. His contemporary, Friedrich Engels, an eclectic thinker and collaborator with Marx, also saw that the Renaissance ideal of human domination of nature would eventually bear ‘unforeseen’ baneful results.
