252 THE DARWIN MEMORIAL IX 
It only remains for me, your Royal Highness, 
my Lords and Gentlemen, Trustees of the British 
Museum, in the name of the Darwin Memorial 
Committee, to request you to accept this statue of 
Charles Darwin. 
We do not make this request for the mere sake 
of perpetuating a memory ; for so long as men 
occupy themselves with the pursuit of truth, the 
name of Darwin runs no more risk of oblivion 
than does that of Copernicus, or that of Harvey. 
Nor, most assuredly, do we ask you to preserve 
the statue in its cynosural position in this: 
entrance-hall of our National Museum of Natural 
History as evidence that Mr. Darwin’s views have 
received your official sanction ; for science does not 
recognise such sanctions, and commits suicide 
when it adopts a creed. 
No; we beg you to cherish this Memorial as a 
symbol by which, as generation after generation of 
students of Nature enter yonder door, they shall 
be reminded of the ideal according to which they 
must shape their lives, if they would turn to the 
best account the opportunities offered by the 
great institution under your charge. 
