116 J. HOPKINSON AiraTVEKSAUT ADDRESS: 



A greater and more endurin" monument has been raised by 

 Darwin to himself in his writings than any that could be raised 

 to him by others. "He thought," said 'The Times' on the day 

 of his funeral, "and his thoughts have passed into the substance 

 of facts of the universe. . . . The Abbey has its orators and 

 ministers who have convinced senates and swayed nations. Not 

 one of them all has wielded a power over men and their in- 

 telligence more complete than that which for the last twenty- 

 three years has emanated from a simple country house in Kent. 

 . . . Darwin, as he searched, imagined. Every microscopic fact 

 his patient eyes unearthed, his fancy caught up and set in its 

 proper niche in a fabric as stately and grand as ever the creative 

 company of Poets' Corner wove from sunbeams and rainbows." 



But interment in Westminster Abbey was not destined to be the 

 only public honour paid to Darwin's memory. A movement for 

 a national memorial of him was set on foot, and over £4000 were 

 raised by subscription. About half the amount was expended on 

 a statue, executed by Sir Edgar Boehm, R.A., and erected in 

 the great hall of the British (Natural History) Museum at South 

 Kensington, where it was unveiled by the Prince of "Wales on 

 the 9th of June, 1885 ; and the balance was entrusted to the 

 Eoyal Society to be invested for the promotion of biological 

 research. 



Charles Darwin left a widow, five sons, and two daughters. His 

 eldest son, William Erasmus, is a banker in Southampton ; the 

 second, George, is Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge 

 University, and a Eellow of the Royal Society; the third, Francis, 

 has done valuable botanical work, and is also a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society; the fourth, Leonard, is an officer in the Royal 

 Engineers, and has done good work in astronomy ; and the fifth, 

 Horace, is a mechanician, and his talents have been successfully 

 devoted to the development of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument 

 Company. 



Every book which Darwin wrote is the result of keen obser- 

 vation, industrious collection of facts, and deeply thoughtful 

 deduction, while most of his conclusions have only been arrived at 

 after reflecting and experimenting for many years. His life shows 

 what may be accomplished by iudefatigable industry and dogged 

 perseverance, without any remarkable original genius, unless the 

 power to observe accurately and take infinite pains be genius. 

 He was not a fluent writer, expressing his thoughts with diffi- 

 culty, and he had neither a quick apprehension nor a retentive 

 memory. But he rightly gives himself credit for " some power 



