HIS CHARACTER 



*SS 



and self-fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, on the 

 different forms of flowers in plants of the same species, 

 were mainly based on his own quiet work in the green- 

 house and garden at Down. His volumes on the 

 descent of man, and on the expression of the emotions 

 in man and animals, completed his contributions to the 

 biological argument. His last volume, published the 

 year before his death, treated of the formation of vege- 

 table mould, and the habits of earth-worms, and the 

 preparation of it enabled him to renew some of the 

 observations which had interested him in his younger 

 days, and to revive some of the geological enthusiasm 

 which so marked the earlier years of his life. 



Such, in briefest outline, was the work accomplished 

 by Charles Darwin. The admirable biography pre- 

 pared by his son enables us to follow its progress 

 from the beginning to the close. But higher even 

 than the intellect which achieved the work was the 

 moral character which shone through it all. As far as 

 it is possible for words to convey what Darwin was 

 to those who did not personally know him, this has 

 been done in the Life. His son has written a touching 

 chapter, entitled, ' Reminiscences of my Father's Every- 

 day Life,' in which the man as he lived and worked is 

 vividly pictured. From that sketch, and from Darwin's 

 own letters, the reader may conceive how noble was 

 the character of the great naturalist. His industry and 

 patience, in spite of the daily physical suffering that 

 marked the last forty years of his life ; his utter un- 

 selfishness and tender consideration for others ; his 

 lifelong modesty that led him to see the worst of his 

 own work and the best of that of other men ; his 



