CHARLES DARWIN: A SKETCH. 285 



was scarcely heard of by any one else ; and out of bot- 

 any lie was unknown to science except as the discov- 

 erer of the Brownian motion of minute particles, which 

 discovery was promulgated in a privately-printed pam- 

 phlet that few have ever seen. Although Mr. Darwin 

 had been for twenty years well and widely known for 

 his " Naturalist's Journal," his works on " Coral Isl- 

 ands," on " Volcanic Islands," and especially for his 

 researches on the Barnacles, it was not till about fifteen 

 years ago that his name became popularly famous. 

 Ever since no scientific name has been so widely spo- 

 ken. Many others have had hypotheses or systems 

 named after them, but no one else that we know of a 

 department of bibliography. The nature of his latest 

 researches accounts for most of the difference, but not 

 for all. The Origin of Species is a fascinating topic, 

 having interests and connections with every branch of 

 science, natural and moral. The investigation of rec- 

 ondite affinities is very dry and special ; its questions, 

 processes, and results alike — although in part generally 

 presentable in the shape of morphology — are mainly, 

 like the higher mathematics, unintelligible except to 

 those who make them a subject of serious study. 

 They are especially so when presented in Mr. Brown's 

 manner. Perhaps no naturalist ever recorded the re- 

 sults of his investigations in fewer words and with 

 greater precision than Eobert Brown : certainly no 

 one ever took more pains to state nothing beyond the 

 precise point in cpaestion. Indeed, we have sometimes 

 fancied that he preferred to enwrap rather than to ex- 

 plain his meaning ; to put it into such a form that, 

 unless you follow Solomon's injunction and dig for the 



wisdom as for hid treasure, you may hardly apprehend 

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