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[…]

He heard with great pleasure the panegyric which the lecturer pronounced upon the memory of the late Charles Darwin, who would be remembered a thousand years hence. He had the honour of personally knowing Mr. Darwin in his later days, and great as his admiration was for the work he had done he was even more impressed with the modesty and dignified simplicity of his nature. Mr. Darwin knew, and could not help knowing, that he had made an epoch in the history of human thought, but never in any human being was there a more entire absence of egotism or self-assertion. They could all imitate him in that, although they could not imitate him in his discoveries.