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MISCELLANEOUS.

Charles Darwin.

In the face of the many and often admirable eulogia of Charles Darwin that have appeared in nearly all languages during the last few days, we feel that to add to their number is in some degree a work of supererogation; but we cannot refrain from offering our tribute of respect to the memory of the illustrious naturalist who

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has so lately departed from among us. And we feel that it is the more incumbent upon us to give expression to our profound feeling of regret at the loss which the whole scientific world has just sustained, as we were at the first opposed to the doctrines put forward by Mr. Darwin, and have never been among the uncompromising supporters of the special form of the theory of evolution which was embodied in the 'Origin of Species.'

Of the character of his writings it is unnecessary for us to speak. Those who are capable of appreciating them know well how brilliantly the genius of true scientific investigation shines forth from every page; how marvellously all details are brought together that bear upon the subject under consideration; how the minutest points are seized and their indications followed until they lead to most important results; how patiently and carefully lines of experimental research are pursued; how every fact that seems to make against the author's views is candidly and conscientiously stated, often much more strongly than they could have been by his opponents themselves; and, finally, how grandly, and yet how cautiously, the enormous mass of facts accumulated is generalized. These qualities of his work must in time have brought about a change in the sentiments of the public towards Darwin and his opinions; but the amount of prejudice with which they had from the first to contend, rendered still more violent by the injudicious course taken by some of his followers, makes it truly a matter of wonder that the merits of the man and the value of his labours should have met with such almost universal recognition within so short a period.

One cause of this is no doubt to be found in the personal character of the great naturalist—the modesty and amiability, the extreme conscientiousness and candour which he displayed constantly in his life as in his works. Those of us who had the honour of his acquaintance can bear testimony to the manner in which these qualities came out in personal intercourse, rendering his conversation and correspondence always full of charm. In his writings also we find everywhere the workings of the same admirable qualities; he never attempts to bear down an opponent or to shirk a difficulty; weak arguments are acknowledged to be weak, and he never assumes a thing as a possibility in one page and adopts it as an established fact in the next, "as the manner of some is."

Among naturalists, however, another cause may have operated to bring about the rapid acceptance of the new doctrine. It was impossible for even a staunch believer in the independent creation

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of species to read that most remarkable book, the 'Origin of Species,' without feeling that, whether the hypothesis maintained in it were true or false, its perusal had given him a new and broader view of the relations of organisms to each other and to the world at large. In the light thrown on it by the genius of Darwin, systematic natural history assumed a new form; new methods and new purposes of research grew out of the new views; and the investigations of naturalists carried out in accordance with these speedily led to the recognition of the fact that the doctrine of the origin of species by descent with modification, was, if not absolutely true in the particular form given to it by Mr. Darwin, at any rate the best scientific explanation of the observed facts of natural history.

Thus, by his publications of the last twenty-four years, Mr. Darwin, already known as one of the best of English naturalists, has exerted a greater influence upon the study of biology than any one since the days of Linnaeus. But this is only the direct result of his labours; indirectly they have changed the whole current of modern thought, and led to a conception of nature and of man himself, the consequences of which are already widely felt in all civilized communities, and will infallibly, in course of time, effect a fundamental change in all our philosophies.

By the influence that he has exerted in this direction, Mr. Darwin will rank, not only as the greatest of English naturalists, but as one of the foremost men of all time; and we cannot but rejoice that the prejudices which for some time prevailed against his views have been so far dispelled as to permit the burial of his remains in the resting-place of those Englishmen whom their country delights to honour. Those who assisted at his funeral will not soon forget the spectacle presented by Westminster Abbey on that occasion.