200 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



the same time it will scarcely be denied that his 

 vision was as much marked by insight as by careful 

 observation, that his reasoning was logical and sin- 

 gularly tenacious, and his imagination vivid. It was 

 before this supreme seer that the panorama of ter- 

 restrial creation was displayed during a five years' 

 voyage. 



No one can read Darwin's Journal descriptive of 

 the voyage of the Beagle and continue to entertain 

 any doubts in reference to his aesthetic sense and 

 poetic appreciation of the various moods of nature. 

 Throughout the voyage the scenery was for him the 

 most constant and highest source of enjoyment. His 

 emotions responded to the glories of tropical vegeta- 

 tion in the Brazilian forests, and to the sublimity of 

 Patagonian wastes and the forest-clad hills of Tierra 

 del Fuego. " It is easy," writes the gifted adoles- 

 cent, " to specify the individual objects of admira- 

 tion in these grand scenes ; but it is not possible to 

 give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of won- 

 der, astonishment, and devotion, which fill and ele- 

 vate the mind." Similarly, on the heights of the 

 Andes, listening to the stones borne seaward day 

 and night by the mountain torrents, Darwin re- 

 marked : " The sound spoke eloquently to the geolo- 

 gist ; the thousands and thousands of stones, which 

 striking against each other, made the one dull uni- 

 form sound, were all hurrying in one direction. It 

 was like thinking on time, where the minute that 

 now glides past is irrecoverable. So was it with 

 these stones, the ocean is their eternity, and each 

 note of that wild music told of one more step towards 

 their destiny." 



