46z THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



slowly developed in his mind the theory which bears his name. In 1833 he 

 married his cousin Hannah Wedgwood. Her wealth added to his own made 

 it possible for him during his remaining years to lead the quiet life of a pri- 

 vate scholar, which in fact became in time an absolute necessity, owing to 

 his increasing ill health. Three years after his marriage he left London and 

 settled in Down, a small town in Kent, where he spent the rest of his life 

 in his own comfortable house, with a delightful garden. Even in these cir- 

 cumstances, however, his health did not improve; he suffered from a nerv- 

 ous stomachic trouble, which occasioned constant vomitings and frequent 

 insomnia. It was only through living a painfully regular life under the self- 

 sacrificing care of his wife that he was able to hold out as long as he did. 

 His days passed with brief but intensively concentrated periods of work, al- 

 ternating with medical attention, walks, and literary diversion; journeys 

 and social life were restricted to a minimum. During this period there was 

 given to the world that unique production — considerable even in its extent 

 — which made his name immortal. His bodily existence, so full of suffering, 

 was compensated for throughout his life by a rare spiritual poise; complete 

 freedom from passion, from hate, envy, and ambition, and an almost tender 

 amiability, which certainly found it difficult to refuse a petition, however 

 unreasonable, but which also made it easy for him to enjoy and find child- 

 like pleasure in the narrow life to which his ill health restricted him. His 

 was no critical character; towards the statements of others he used to show, 

 as Johannsen says, "an amiable credulity," and his own experiments were 

 often consciously childish. His sensitiveness, however, was in no way as- 

 sociated with weakness of character; on the contrary, few students of nature 

 have striven with such unbending determination for years and years towards 

 a given goal, and adhered to a point of view when once adopted with such 

 firm conviction. His ideas were, as is well known, both unreservedly praised 

 and violently vituperated; attacks were met by him with unfailing stead- 

 fastness and a noble calm, so that he never allowed himself to be involved 

 in personal polemics, but he always took note of and parried material ob- 

 jections. Thanks to these qualities, Darwin came in the course of years to 

 enjoy personal esteem such as seldom falls to the lot of scientists. Occupied 

 in constant work, his life moved quietly towards its close. He died in i88z 

 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, not far from Newton, followed to 

 the grave by the most distinguished men in the country both in the social 

 and in the scientific world. Shortly before his death he had wTitten down in 

 some notes on his own life the oft-quoted words: "As for myself, I believe 

 that I have acted rightly in steadily following and devoting my life to sci- 

 ence. I feel no remorse from having committed any great sin, but have often 

 and often regretted that I have not done more direct good to my fellow 

 creatures." 



