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The essay is full of Mr. Darwin's characteristic excellences. It is a most readable book; full of facts in natural history, old and new, of his collecting and of his observing; and all of these are told in his own perspicuous language, and all thrown into picturesque combinations, and all sparkle with the colours of fancy and the lights of imagination.
Darwin, stating the facts as they appeared to myself, and asking an explanation, which I would have gladly strained a good many points to have accepted. It is better, perhaps, that I should give my letter and Darwin's answer in full. My letter ran thus: January 2, 1880. CHARLES DARWIN, ESQ., F.R.S., &c. Dear Sir, Will you kindly refer me to the edition of Kosmos which contains the text of Dr.
Others he pointed out were architects playing with Noah's arks, ministers reading Darwin's "Theory of Evolution," lawyers sawing wood, tired-out society ladies talking Ibsen to the blue-sweatered sponge-holder, a neurotic millionaire lying asleep on the floor, and a prominent artist drawing a little red wagon around the room. "You look pretty strong," said the physician in charge to me.
Darwin's estimate of the "habit of mind" forced upon himself during this period may not inaptly be applied to both men: "Everything about which I thought or read was made to bear directly on what I had seen, or was likely to see; and this habit of mind was continued during the five years of the voyage. I feel sure that it was this training which enabled me to do whatever I have done in science."
But the battle had by no means subsided when one day came the sad news that Darwin's heart, so long feeble, so serious a hindrance to his work, had beaten its last on April 19, 1882. His own people wished to bury Darwin quietly at his home in Down, but Darwin now belonged to the nation.
Darwin did not probably intend that I should; but I assume with confidence that whether there is design in organism or no, there is at any rate design in this passage of Mr. Darwin's. This, we may be sure, is not a fortuitous variation; and moreover it is introduced for some reason which made Mr. Darwin think it worth while to go out of his way to introduce it.
Darwin who said, "That fruit is ripe," and shook it into his lap. With this Mr. Darwin's best friends ought to be content; his admirers are not well advised in representing him as endowed with all sorts of qualities which he was very far from possessing.
Darwin's work to which friends and foes have alike borne witness, it is his candour and fairness in admitting and discussing objections, what is to be thought of M. Flourens' assertion, that "M. Darwin ne cite que les auteurs qui partagent ses opinions."
The thistle, which has spread over the Pampas, to the destruction of native plants, has been more effectually "selected" by the unconscious operation of natural conditions than if a thousand agriculturists had spent their time in sowing it. It is one of Mr. Darwin's many great services to Biological science that he has demonstrated the significance of these facts.
Innumerable minor points which go to elucidate the breeders' experience, and with which we are now quite familiar, were unknown in Darwin's time. No wonder that he made mistakes, and laid stress on modes of descent, which have since been proved to be of minor importance or even of doubtful validity.
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