DARWIN MEMORIAL. 77 



aptitude to get at the significance and bearing of facts observed, as 

 well as the same readiness to deduce a theory which is only equaled 

 by the devotion with which he clings to the truth, whether favora 

 ble or unfavorable to the theory. 



In the light of Darwinism, insect structure and habit have come 

 to possess a new significance and a deeper meaning. It has, in 

 short, proved a new power to the working entomologist who, for all 

 time, will hold in reverence the name of him who, more than any 

 other man, helped to replace scholasticism by induction and who 

 gave to the philosophic study of insects as great an impetus as did 

 Linnaeus to their systematic study. 



In his private life Darwin has given us a lesson of patience, cour 

 tesy, and consideration, that will be best appreciated by those who 

 have the misfortune to be endowed with more irritable and ag 

 gressive natures. 



As the above account of Darwin's entomological work is doubt 

 less rather uninteresting to most of those gathered here, I will close, 

 by request, with a few personal impressions. 



I have had the pleasure on two occasions of visiting Darwin at 

 his invitation. On the first occasion, in the summer of 1871, I 

 was accompanied by Mr. J. Jenner Wier, one of his life-long 

 ft iends and admirers. From Mr. Weir I first learned that Darwin 

 was, in one sense, virtually a confirmed invalid, and that his work 

 had been done under physical difficulties which would have ren 

 dered most men of independent means vapid, self-indulgent, and 

 useless members of society. 



It is eloquent of the indomitable will and perseverance of the 

 man that, during the long voyage on the Beagle, he suffered so 

 from sea-sickness that he never fully recovered from the shock to 

 his system, and could not again venture on the ocean. He had, in 

 fact, on his return from the voyage, to go through a long course of 

 hydropathic treatment. We also now know that though he had 

 suffered much for some months past from weakness and recurring 

 fits of faintness, and had been confined to the house, yet as late as 



