532 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that must not be overlooked, which is the fact that, with our present 

 high rates of labor in this country, many of our finest grades of orna- 

 mental stones can not compete in the market with the imported article, 

 even though greatly exceeding them in point of beauty. In the ma- 

 jority of marbles those lines or spots that give to any stone its peculiar 

 attractiveness are in reality flaws, and hence their presence must add 

 greatly to the cost of working. It is safe to say that the beautiful 

 breccia marble from the French Pyrenees, which has been used for 

 wall-panels in the cash-room of the Treasury Building at Washington, 

 would not be worked to any extent from quarries in this country, so 

 long as the imported article can be obtained at present rates. This 

 fact is rendered probable by the cases of the Maryland breccia and 

 the Vermont verd-antique already mentioned. Neither of these is 

 in the market, simply because the imported marble can be furnished 

 at lower prices. With improved machinery and methods of workman- 

 ship there seems, however, no doubt but we may in time compete 

 with foreign cheap labor not only in our own markets, but foreign ones 

 as well. 







THE DARWIN MEMORIAL. 



THE ADDKESS OF PEOFESSOE HUXLEY, AND THE EEPLY OF THE 



PEINCE OF WALES. 



IT is not often that the unveiling of a statue is attended with an inter- 

 est at all comparable with that which characterized this ceremony 

 as performed last Tuesday [June 9th] in the great hall of the Natural 

 History Museum. If the greatness of a man is to be estimated by the 

 measure in which he has influenced the thoughts of men, it is scarcely 

 open to question that the greatest man of our century is Charles Dar- 

 win. As Professor Huxley remarked in the course of his singularly 

 judicious and well-balanced address, Mr. Darwin's work has not only 

 reconstructed the science of biology, but has spread with an organizing 

 influence through almost every department of philosophical thought. 

 Yet it was not merely the greatness of the naturalist which invested 

 the proceedings in the Natural History Museum with an interest so 

 unique. It was known to the whole assembly that the man whom 

 they delighted to honor was one whose moral nature had been cast in 

 the same lines of simple grandeur as those which belonged to his intel- 

 lectual nature. It therefore only needed a passing allusion from Pro- 

 fessor Huxley to enable the whole assembly to reflect that it was due 

 as much to massiveness of character as to massiveness of work that 

 within three years of his death Mr. Darwin's name should constitute a 

 new center of gravity in every system of thought. And it was this 

 reflection which gave to the ceremony so unusual a measure of inter- 

 est. Around the statue were congregated the most representative men 



