64 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. VU. 



Creation" with a fervour of argument and declamation which 

 must have astonished the unacknowledged author of that once 

 popular speculation. Nor was he silent when the views of Dar- 

 win came to fill the void places of biological theory, against 

 which he not only used a pen of steel but made great use of his 

 heavy hammer. 



The vigour — vehemence we may call it — of his pen and ton- 

 gue in a matter which touched his sense of justice, morals, or 

 religion, might mislead one who did not thoroughly know his 

 truth and gentleness of heart, to suppose that anger was mixed 

 with his honest indignation ; but it was quite otherwise. In a 

 letter addressed to the writer, in reply to some suggestion of the 

 kind, he gave the assurance that he was resolved " no ill blood" 

 should be caused by the discussion which had become inevitable. 



He never failed in courtesy to the honest disputant whose 

 arguments he mercilessly " contunded." Taken altogether, 

 Professor Sedgwick was a man of grand proportion, cast in a 

 heroic mould. Pressed in early life through a strict course of 

 stady, he found himself stronger by that training than most of 

 his fellow geologists, but never made them feel his superiority. 

 Familiar with great principles, and tenacious of settled truths, 

 he was ready to welcome and encourage every new idea which 

 appeared to be based on facts truly observed, and not unprepared 

 or unwilling to stand, even if alone, against what he deemed un- 

 fair objection or unsubstantial hypothesis. 



This is not the place to speak of his private worth, or to in- 

 dulge in reminiscence of his playful and exuberant fancy, the 

 source of unfailing delight to those who knew him in his happier 

 hours. Unmarried, but surrounded by plenty of cheerful 

 relatives, his last hours of illness were soothed by sedulous affect- 

 ion ; his kindly disposition no suffering could conceal ; his lively 

 interest in passing events nothing could weaken. Ever 



" Against oppression, fraud, or wrong. 

 His voice rose high, his hand waxed strong." 



With collected mind, on the verge of the grave, he would express, 

 with undiminished interest, his latest conclusions on his own 

 Cambrian system, purely as a matter of scientific discussion, free 

 from all personal considerations. It will be well if this mode 

 of treatment be reverently followed by those who while speaking 

 of Protozoic and Palaeozoic Rocks, know enough to feel how 

 much they have been benefited by the disinterested labours of a 

 long and noble life. — From ^^ Nature y > 



