476 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY. 



their career, were attaclied to expeditions of exploration in the South- 

 ern Hemisphere, where they amassed rich stores of observation and 

 materials, and probably struck out, while in the field, some of the best 

 ideas which they subsequently developed. They worked in difierent 

 fields and upon different methods ; only in a single instance, so far as 

 we know, have they handled the same topic ; and in this the more 

 penetrating insight of the younger naturalist into an interesting gen- 

 eral j^roblem may be appealed to in justification of a comj)arison which 

 some will deem presumptuous. Be this as it may, there will probably 

 be little dissent from the opinion that the characteristic trait common 

 to the two is an unrivaled scientific sagacity. In this these two nat- 

 uralists seem to us, each in his way, preeminent. There is a charac- 

 teristic likeness, too — underlying much diflerence — in their admirable 

 manner of dealing with facts closely and at first hand, without the in- 

 terposition of the formal laws, vague ideal conceptions, or " glittering 

 generalities," which some philosophical naturalists make large use of. 



A likeness may also be discerned in the way in which the works or 

 contributions of predecessors and contemporaries are referred to. The 

 brief historical summaries prefixed to many of Mr. Brown's papers are 

 models of judicial conscientiousness. And Mr. Darwin's evident de- 

 light at discovering that some one else has " said his good things be- 

 fore him," or has been on the verge of uttering them, seemingly equals 

 that of making the discovery himself. It reminds one of Goethe's in- 

 sisting that his views in morphology must have been held before him 

 and must be somewhere on record, so obviously just and natural did 

 they a^^pear to him. 



Considering the quiet and retired lives led by both these men, and 

 the prominent place they are likely to occupy in the history of Sci- 

 ence, the contrast between them as to contemporary and popular fame 

 is very remarkable. While Mr. Brown was looked up to with the 

 greatest reverence by all the learned botanists, he was scarcely heard 

 of by any one else ; and out of botany he was unknown to Science ex- 

 cept as the discoverer of the BrowTiian motion of minute particles, 

 which discovery was promulgated in a privately-printed pamphlet 

 that few have ever seen. Although Mr. Darwin had been for twenty 

 years well and widely known for his " Naturalist's Journal," his works 

 on *' Coral Islands," on "Volcanic Islands," and especially for his re- 

 searches on the Barnacles, it was not till about fifteen years ago that 

 his name became popularly famous. Ever since no scientific name has 

 been so widely spoken. Many others have had hypotheses or systems 

 named after them, but no one else, that we know of, a department of 

 bibliography. The nature of his latest researches accounts for most 

 of the difference, but not for all. The Origin of Species is a fascina- 

 ting topic, having interests and connections with every branch of Sci- 

 ence, natural and moral. The investigation of recondite afiinities is 

 very dry and special ; its questions, processes, and results alike — al- 



