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DARWIN.

CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN, whose death is announced in our telegraphic columns, was a man who has probably done more to influence the thought of the present generation than any philosopher among his contemporaries. It may be said that he was born a scientist. His grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, of Lichfield, was a man of great note in his day, and his father, Dr. Robert Waring Darwin, F. R. S., possessed sound and extensive scientific acquirements. Charles Darwin was born in 1809, and had ample opportunities for education, on which he fully availed himself, having studied first at the University of Edinburgh and afterwards at Cambridge. For some years he remained unknown, diligently fitting himself for the career in which he became afterwards so distinguished. It was his good fortune to possess sufficient pecuniary means to enable him to devote himself entirely to science, and he married in 1831 his cousin, Miss Emma Wedgewood -- a descendant of the well-known potter of that name, who brought him an accession to his means. Immediately after the honeymoon he embraced the opportunity of joining the scientific cruise of H. M. S. Beagle, which was despatched to circumnavigate the globe. She was absent five years, and during that time the young naturalist gathered immense stores of practical knowledge. He had agreed to serve without salary, stipulating only for the entire right of disposing of his collections. After his return he issued several scientific works, which at once attracted attention, and secured for their author a high place in the scientific world. But it was not till 1859 that his great work on the "Origin of Species" made its appearance. Like other books of which the appearance has marked an epoch in the history of human thought, the "Origin of Species" was not entirely original. At least the author sized a number of unformed theories and vague ideas floating in the region of scientific thought, combined them into a harmonious theory, clearly set forth and abundantly illustrated. It was a book which supplied the key to a great problem which had made itself obvious to thinking minds. And, though encountered by the same storm of execration which has always broken forth whenever a notable scientific advance has been made, the theory which Mr. Darwin set out to establish in this work has now been accepted by every philosopher of repute in Europe, and by the great majority of educated men. It has established a fresh basis from which natural science has taken a new departure, and the theory of the work has already almost dis appeared from sight beneath the great superstructure which has been raised upon it. And it is the work by which he will always best be known, although he has published many more valuable contributions to natural science, and has filled in several details of the great theory laid down in the "Origin of Species."

Mr. Darwin brought to the pursuit of science the same exalted conscientiousness which men of a former generation applied to theology. He was absolutely truthful. It has been said of him that the keystone of the Darwinian philosophy was "the pursuit of truth through all difficulties, and without regard to consequences." To a man so constituted the virulent attacks of his critics were quite innocuous. He seemed quite free from the nervous irritability from which scientists are no more exempt than theologians; all he cared about was whether what his opponent said was true--the manner in which he said it was of no importance to him. His life was a happy one. Unvexed by the sordid pecuniary cares which so often hamper men who devote themselves to so profitless a pursuit as that of science, he has also been happy in his family. His five sons are all established, or in a fair way of being honourably established in life, and of his two daughters one is happily married. Nor did his devotion to science diminish his capacity for enjoying simple pleasures; as a young man he was fond of field sports, in his old age he was as ardent a reader of popular novels as any haunter of a circulating library. He has lived over the allotted term of seventy years, and after a pure and well spent life, devoted to the pursuit of truth, he leaves behind him a name which will always rank high among the intellectual aristocracy of Great Britain.