THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



APRIL, 1909 

 LIFE AND WORKS OF DAEWIN^ 



By Dr. HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN 



COLUMBIA UXIVEESITY AND THE AJIERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



COLUMBIA UNIVEESITY is celebrating the liundredtli anniver- 

 sary of the birth of Darwin, the fiftieth anniversary of the publi- 

 cation of the " Origin of Species." In the year 1809 many illustrious 

 men^ were born, among them Darwin and Lincoln, one hundred years 

 ago to-day, February 12. So widely different in their lives, Darwin and 

 Lincoln were jet alike in simplicity of character and of language, in 

 love of truth, in abhorrence of slavery, and especially in unconsciousness 

 of their power. Both were at a loss to understand their influence over 

 other men. " I am nothing and truth is everything," once wrote Lin- 

 coln. In concluding his autobiography Darwin wrote : 



With such moderate abilities as I possess, it is truly surprising that I 

 should have influenced to a considerable extent the belief of scientific men on 

 some important points. My success as a man of science has been determined 

 as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and condi- 

 tions. Of these, the most important have been, the love of science, unbounded 

 patience in long reflecting over any subject, industry in observing and collecting 

 facts, a fair share of invention as well as of common sense. 



Lincoln's greatest single act was his death blow to slavery. Man 

 had been fighting for centuries for his freedom, in labor, in govern- 

 ment, in religion, and in mind. It is certainly notable that the final 

 victory for bodily liberty was won during the "very years which wit- 



^ Address delivered at Columbia University on the one hundredth anni- 

 versary of Darwin's birth, as the first of a series of nine lectures on " Charles 

 Darwin and His Influence on Science." 



^Alfred Tennyson, Edgar Allen Poe, Felix Mendelssohn, Oliver Wendell 

 Holmes, William Ewart Gladstone. 



