9 6 DARWINIANISM. 



straight-a-head autocrat that took on at once, with a 

 kind of young, high-spirited zest, his own peremptory 

 authority, and then again, with sharpened zeal, rose 

 fresh every morning to its exercise ! his very kindness 

 belonged to the character of such a bashaw. He was 

 the descendant of kings. He knew himself a gentleman 

 by blood and by birth, and in his very being. He was 

 high - placed by divine right : he could not but be 

 generous, he would see that those others who belonged 

 to him, who, in a certain way, were his had justice done 

 them. The keen-faced, keen-eyed, quick young man who, 

 the moment his authoritative foot was on the deck, saw ! 

 saw and shouted ! without a moment's misgiving, 

 without a thought, or a stop, or a pause, shouted ! 

 What was he there for? he must be hard and exact- 

 ing. In his own importance of place, lie would 

 act up to it. But he was most noble, high, true, 

 chivalrous. He was filled with his duty. If he was 

 absolute in command, he had been as absolute in his 

 obedience. He was transparently sincere. And Charles 

 Darwin, after all, was just the fellow to this man ; for, if 

 gentle gentlest of the gentle, he was strong too 

 strongest of the strong. As he said himself of Henslow, 

 " A man must have been blind not to have perceived 

 that beneath his placid exterior there was a vigorous and 

 determined will : when principle came into play, no 

 power on earth could have turned him one hair's-breadth." 

 It was this principle of the quiet inquirer that found no 

 possibility for itself to yield to the mere will of the 

 stormier man of action. 



But it was in these experiences that the unformed 

 collegian thawed thawed into the man and the gentle- 

 man of the world. That was what the voyage did for 

 the manhood of Charles Darwin, and it was more 

 important for him at least than what resulted for 



