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. 



