THE DARWIN MEMORIAL. 533 



of every branch of culture, from the Prince of Wales and the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury to the opposite extremes of radicalism and free 

 thought. Indeed, it is not too much to say that there can scarcely 

 ever have been an occasion on which so many illustrious men of oppo- 

 site ways of thinking have met to express a common agreement upon 

 a man to whom they have felt that honor is due. The international 

 memorial could not in any nation have found a more worthy site than 

 the one in which it has been placed ; but, if anything could have added 

 to the "solemn gladness " with which the personal friends of Mr. Dar- 

 win witnessed the presentation of this memorial, it must have been the 

 evidence which the assembly yielded that, among the innumerable dif- 

 ferences of opinion which it represented, his memory must henceforth 

 be always and universally regarded as a changeless monument of all 

 that is greatest in human nature, as well as of all that is greatest in 

 human achievement. 



Concerning the statue itself, we have only to speak in terms of 

 almost unqualified praise. It is, in the truest sense of the phrase, a 

 noble work of art. The attitude is not only easy and dignified, but 

 also natural and characteristic ; the modeling of the head and face is 

 unexceptionable, and the portrait is admirable. The only criticism we 

 have to advance has reference to the hands, which not only do not 

 bear the smallest resemblance to those of Mr. Darwin, but are of a 

 kind which, had they been possessed by him, would have rendered im- 

 possible the accomplishment of much of his work. Although this mis- 

 representation is a matter to be deplored, it is not one for which the 

 artist can be justly held responsible. Never having had the advantage 

 of seeing Mr. Darwin, Mr. Boehm has only to be congratulated upon 

 the wonderful success which has attended his portraiture of the face 

 and figure ; the hands were no doubt supplied by guess-work, and 

 therefore we have only to regret that the guess did not happen to be 

 more fortunate. 



The following is the address made by Professor Huxley, in the 

 name of the Darwin Memorial Committee, on handing over the statue 

 to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, as representative of the 

 Trustees of the British Museum : 



Your Royal Highness : It is now three years since the announce- 

 ment of the death of our famous countryman, Charles Darwin, gave 

 rise to a manifestation of public feeling, not only in these realms, 

 but throughout the civilized world, which, if I mistake not, is with- 

 out precedent in the modest annals of scientific biography. 



The causes of this deep and wide outburst of emotion are not far 

 to seek. We had lost one of those rare ministers and interpreters of 

 Nature whose names mark epochs in the advance of natural knowl- 

 edge. For, whatever be the ultimate verdict of posterity upon this or 

 that opinion which Mr. Darwin had propounded ; whatever adumbra- 



