death among his peers in Westminster | reason; the same ready humor; the Abbey by the will of the intelligence same sympathetic interest in all the of the nation.

ways and works of men. But instead of turning away from the problems of nature as hopelessly insoluble, our modern Philosopher devoted his whole life to attacking them in the spirit of HERACLITUS and of DEMOCRITUS, with results which are as the substance of which their specula tion were anticipatory shadows.

even

The due appreciation or enumeration of these results is neither practicable nor desirable at this moment. There is a time for all things -a time for glorying in our everextending conquests over the realm of nature, and a time for mourning over the heroes who have led us to victory.

It is not for us to allude to the sacred sorrows of the bereaved home at Down; but it is no secret that, outside that domestic group, there are many to whom Mr. DARWIN'S death is a wholly irreparable loss. And this not merely because of his wonderfully genial, simple, and generous nature; his cheerful and animated conversation, and the infinite variety and accuracy of his information; but because the more one knew of him, the more he seemed the incorporated ideal of a man of science. Acute as were his reasoning powers, vast as was his knowledge, marvelous as was his tenacious industry, under physical difficulties which would have convert- None have fought better, and none ed nine men out of ten into aimless have been more fortunate, than invalids; it was not these qualities, CHARLES DARWIN. He found a great as they were, which impressed great truth trodden under foot, rethose who were admitted to his inti- viled by bigots, and ridiculed by all macy with involuntary veneration, the world; he lived long enough but a certain intense and almost pas- to see it, chiefly by his own efforts, sionate honesty by which all his irrefragably established in science, thoughts and actions were irradiated, as by a central fire.

"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways—I to die, and you to live. Which is the better, God only knows."

inseparably incorporated with the common thoughts of men, and only It was this rarest and greatest of hated and feared by those who would endowments which kept his vivid revile, but dare not. What shall a imagination and great speculative man more desire than this? Once powers within due bounds; which more the image of SOCRATES rises uncompelled him to undertake the pro- bidden, and the noble peroration of digious labors of original investiga- the Apology rings in our ears as if it tion and of reading, upon which his were CHARLES DARWIN's farewell: published works are based; which made him accept criticisms and suggestions from any body and every body, not only without impatience, but with expressions of gratitude sometimes almost comically in excess of their value; which led him to allow neither himself nor others to be deceived by phrases, and to spare neither time nor pains in order to obtain clear and distinct ideas upon The object of this notice is to give every topic with which he occupied a brief account of the life, and a prohimself. portionately still more brief account One could not converse with DAR-of the work of Mr. DARWIN. WIN withcut being reminded of So- while we recognize in him perhaps the CRATES. There was the same desire greatest genius and the most fertile to find some one wiser than himself; thinker, certainly the most important the same belief in the sovereignty of generalizer and one of the few most

II, CHARACTER AND LIFE.

BY G. J. ROMANES, F.R.S.

But

successful observers in the whole histo-, younger men when the research ry of biological science, we feel that happens to have been their own. And no less great, or even greater than the indeed what we may call this fervid wonderful intellect was the character youthfulness of feeling extended of the man. Therefore it is in his through all Mr. DARWIN'S mind, givcase particularly and pre-eminently ing, in combination with his immense true that the first duty of biographers knowledge and massive sagacity, an will be to render some idea, not of indescribable charm to his manner what he did, but of what he was. And and conversation. Animated and this, unfortunately, is just the point fond of humor, his wit was of a where all his biographers must nec- singularly fascinating kind, not only essarily fail. For while to those because it was always brilliant and favored few who were on terms of amusing, but still more because it intimate friendship with him, any was always hearty and good-natured. language by which it is sought to Indeed, he was so exquisitely refined portray his character must seem in his own feelings, and so almost inadequate, to every one else the same painfully sensitive to any display of language must appear the result of questionable taste in others, that he 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 realized, 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 marvelous work of art; the thing must itself have been seen, if any description of it is to be understood.

could not help showing in his humor, as in the warp and woof of his whole nature, that in him the man of science and the philosopher were subordinate to the gentleman. His courteous consideration of others, also, which went far beyond anything that the ordinary usages of society require, was similarly prompted by his mere spontaneous instinct of benevolence.

For who can always act? but he,

To whom a thousand memories call
Not being less but more than all
The gentleness he seemed to be,

Best seem'd the thing he was, and join'd
Each office of the social hour

To noble manners, as the flower
And native growth of noble mind;

Nor ever narrowness or spite,
Or villain fancy fleeting by,

Drew in the expression of an eye,
Where God and nature met in light.

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 And this leads us to speak of his absorbing desire to seek out truth for kindness, which, whether we look to truth's sake, combined with a char- its depth or to its width, must certainacteristic disregard of self, led not ly be regarded as perhaps the most only to the caution, patience, and remarkable feature of his remarkable candor of his own work-which are disposition. The genuine delight proverbial-and to the generous sat- that he took in helping every one in isfaction which he felt on finding their work-often at the cost of much any of his thoughts or results inde- personal trouble to himself—in throwpendently attained by the work of ing out numberless suggestions for others; but also to a keen and vivid others to profit by, and in kindling freshness of interest in every detail the enthusiasm of the humblest tyro of a new research, such as we have in science; this was the outcome of sometimes seen approached by much a great and generous heart, quite as

much as it was due to a desire for the thoughtful wisdom, which, together

with his illimitable kindness to others and complete forgetfulness of himself, made a combination as lovable as it was venerable. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that no man ever passed away leaving behind him a greater void of enmity, or a depth of adoring friendship more profound.

advancement of science. Nothing seemed to give him a keener joy than being able to write to any of his friends a warm and glowing congratulation upon their gaining some success; and the exuberance of his feelings on such occassions generally led him to conceive a much higher estimate of the importance of the results attained But, as we have said, it is imthan he would have held had the suc- possible to convey in words any cess been achieved by himself. For adequate conception of a character the modesty with which he regarded which in beauty as in grandeur can his own work was no less remarkable only, with all sobriety, be called than his readiness enthusiastically to sublime. If the generations are ever admire the work of others; so that, to learn, with any approach to accuto any one who did not know him racy, what Mr. DARWIN was, his biogwell, this extreme modesty, from its raphers may best teach them by very completeness and unconscious- allowing this most extraordinary ness, might almost have appeared the man to speak for himself through the result of affectation. At least, speak- medium of his correspondence, as ing for ourselves, when we first met well as through that of his books; him, and happened to see him convers- and therefore, as a small foretaste of ing with a greatly younger man, the complete biography which will quite unknown either in science or some day appear, we shall quote a literature, we thought it must have letter in which he describes the charbeen impossible that Mr. DARWIN-acter of his great friend and teacher, then the law giver to the world of the late Prof. HENSLOW, of Cambridge. biology-could with honest sincerity We choose this letter to quote from be submitting, in the way he did, his on account of the singular manner in matured thought to the judgment of which the writer, while describing such a youth. But afterward we the character of another, is unconcame fully to learn that no one was sciously giving a most accurate deso unconscious of Mr. DARWIN's scription of his own. It is of imworth as Mr. DARWIN himself, and portance also that in any biographical that it was a fixed habit of his mind history of Mr. DARWIN, Professor to seek for opinions as well as facts HENSLOW's character should be duly from every available quarter. It considered, seeing that he exerted so must be added, however, that his tendency to go beyond the Scriptural injunction in the matter of self approval, and to think of others more highly than he ought to think, never clouded his final judgment upon the value of their opinions; but spontaneously following another of these injunctions, while proving all things, he held fast only to that which was good. "In malice be ye children, but in understanding be ye men."

great an influence upon the expanding powers of Mr. DARWIN's mind. We quote the letter from the Rev. L. JENYNS's Memoir of the late Prof. Henslow.

"I went to Cambridge early in the year 1828, and soon became acquainted, through some of my brother entomologists, with Prof. HENSLOW, for all who cared for any branch of natural history were equally encouraged by him. Nothing could be On the whole, then, we should say more simple, cordial, and unpretendthat Mr. DARWIN's character was ing than the encouragement which chiefly marked by a certain grand and he afforded to all young naturalists. cheerful simplicity, strangely and I soon became intimate with him, for beautifully united with a deep he had a remarkable power of mak

and

ing the young feel completely at ease | judge, accurate powers of observation, with him, though we were all awe- sound sense, and cautious judgment struck with the amount of his knowl- seemed to predominate. Nothing edge. Before I saw him, I heard seemed to give him so much enjoyone young man sum up his attain- ment as drawing conclusions from ments by simply saying that he minute observations. But his admiknew everything. When I reflect rable memoir on the geology of how immediately we felt at perfect Anglesea shows his capacity for exease with a man older, and in every tended observations and broad views. way so immensely our superior, I think Reflecting over his character with it was as much owing to the trans- gratitude and reverence, his moral parent sincerity of his character as to attributes rise, as they should do in his kindness of heart, and perhaps the highest characters, in pre-emieven still more to a highly remarkable nence, over his intellect." absence in him of all self-conscious- CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN Was ness. We perceived at once that he born at Shrewsbury on February 12, never thought of his own varied 1809. His father was Dr. R. W. knowledge or clear intellect, but sole- DARWIN, F.R.S., a physician of emily on the subject in hand. Another nence, who, as his son used frequently charm, which must have struck every to remark, had a wonderful power of one, was that his manner to a distin- diagnosing diseases, both bodily and guished person and to the youngest mental, by the aid of the fewest student was exactly the same: to all, possible questions; and his quickthe same winning courtesy. He ness of perception was such that he would receive with interest the most could even divine, in a remarkable trifling observation in any branch of manner, what was passing through natural history, and however absurd his patients' minds. That, like his a blunder one might make, he pointed son, he was benevolently inclined, it out so clearly and kindly that one may be inferred from a little anecdote left him in no way disheartened, but which we once heard Mr. DARWIN only determined to be more accurate tell of him while speaking of the the next time. So that no man curious kinds of pride which are could be better formed to win the sometimes shown by the poor. For entire confidence of the young and the benefit of the district in which he to encourage them in their pursuits... lived Dr. DARWIN offered to dispense 'During the years when I associa- medicines gratis to any one who apted so much with Prof. HENSLOW, I plied and was not able to pay. He never once saw his temper even ruf- was surprised to find that very few fled. He never took an ill natured of the sick poor availed themselves view of any one's character, though of his offer, and guessing that the very far from blind to the foibles of reason must have been a dislike to others. It always struck me that his becoming the recipients of charity, mind could not be well touched by he devised a plan to neutralize this any paltry feeling of envy, vanity, feeling. Whenever any poor persons or jealousy. With all this equability applied for medical aid, he told them of temper, and remarkable benev- that he would supply the medicine, olence, there was no insipidity of but that they must pay for the bottles. character. A man must have been This little distinction made all the blind not to have perceived that beneath this placid exterior there was a vigorous and determined will. When principle came into play, no power on earth could have turned him an hair's breadth.

66

difference, and ever afterward the poor used to flock to the doctor's house for relief as a matter of right.

Mr. DARWIN's mother was a daughter of JOSIAH WEDGWOOD. Little is at present known concerning his "In intellect, as far as I could early life, and it is questionable