CHARLES DARWIN. I. CHARACTER AND LIFE. THE object of this notice is to give a brief account of the life, and a proportionately still more brief account of the work of Mr. Darwin. But while we recognise in him perhaps the greatest genius and the most fertile thinker, certainly the most important generaliser and one of the few most successful observers in the whole history of biological science, we feel that no less great, or even greater than the wonderful intellect was the character of the man. Therefore it is in his case particularly and preeminently true that the first duty of biographers will be to render some idea, not of what he did, but of what he was. And this, unfortunately, is just the B point where all his biographers must necessarily fail. For while to those favoured few who were on terms of intimate friendship with him, any language by which it is sought to portray his character must seem inadequate, to every one else the same language must appear the result of enthusiastic admiration, finding vent in extravagant panegyric. Whatever is great and whatever is beautiful in human nature found in him so luxuriant a development, that no place or chance was left for any other growth, and in the result we beheld a magnificence which, unless actually realised, we should scarcely have been able to imagine. Any attempt, therefore, to describe such a character must be much like an attempt to describe a splendid piece of natural scenery or a marvellous work of art; the thing must itself have been seen, if any description of it is to be understood. But without attempting to describe Mr. Darwin's character, if we were asked to indicate the features which stood out with most marked prominence, we should first mention those which, from being conspicuous in his writings, are already more or less known to all the world. Thus, the absorbing desire to seek out truth for truth's sake, combined with a |