CHARLES DARWIN. 1 1 7 



of reasoniniz:," " a fair share of invention and of common sense 

 or judgmeut," superiority "to the common run of men in noticing 

 things which easily escape attention, and in observing them 

 carefully," industry " in the observation and collection of facts," 

 a "steady and ardent love of natural science," and "patience 

 to reflect or ponder for any number of years over any unexplained 

 problem." Even with these qualities it is truly wonderful that 

 he has accomplislied so much without being able "to remember 

 for more than a few days a single date or a line of poetry." 

 He much regretted his want of mathematical knowledge, saying 

 that men endowed with it " seem to have an extra sense." 



Although the name of Darwin will always be chiefly associated 

 with the theory of the origin of species by means of natural 

 selection, few men have done so much as he did to advance the 

 sciences of geology, botany, and zoology, irrespective of the light 

 thrown upon them by his theory. 



His earliest geological researches were made during his voyage 

 round the world, and the principal results were published in 

 the three volumes of the ' Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle.' 

 Of the first of these volumes, ' The Structure and Distribution 

 of Coral Eeefs,' Sir Archibald Geikie says: "This well-known 

 treatise, the most original of all its author's works, has become 



one of the classics of geological literature No more 



admirable example of scientific method was ever given to the 

 "world, and even if he had written nothing else, this treatise 

 alone would have placed Darwin in the very front of investigators 

 of nature." The last work which issued from his pen, ' The 

 Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of AVorms,' 

 has doubtless had quite as powerful an influence upon geological 

 thought, in showing the great results which are brought about 

 by small causes long continued. But the chapter in the ' Origin 

 of Species,' on the "Imperfection of the Geological Record," 

 threw quite a new light upon the "Record of the Rocks." It 

 is perhaps not too much to say that Darwin, in this single 

 chapter, revolutionised the science of geology as completely as 

 Lyell had done in the greatest geological work which has ever 

 been written — ' The Principles of Geology.' Lyell taught that 

 we must intei-pret the past from our knowledge of the present, 

 while Darwin showed how extremely fragmentary our record 

 of the past must necessarily be, letting a flood of light upon 

 some of the most perplexing problems with which geologists 

 and palaeontologists have to deal in applying existing agencies 

 to the elucidation of past changes in the history of our earth. 



TOL. VII. — PART IV. 9 



