106 DARWINIANISM. 



himself speaks (ill 143) of " the intolerable desire he had 

 not to be utterly baffled." 



It is sufficiently remarkable that the same man that 

 stood doggedly by his own self, was no less softly conces- 

 sive to everybody else. AVe have but to remind ourselves 

 in this respect of his own daughter's felicitous phrase, 

 " the singular modesty and graciousness of his nature." 

 And no doubt, generally speaking, one's own children are 

 the best witnesses as to what may be called the distinctive 

 peculiarity of one's character and conduct on the whole. 

 If at all capable in themselves, they have certainly beside 

 them the means of judgment. Of such evidence there is 

 assuredly no want in the case of Mr. Darwin ; and if we 

 have not seen the whole of it, we have at least seen as 

 much of it as is conclusively ample. The testimony here, 

 it is right to point out, is exchanged too. If they speak 

 well of him, he speaks well of them. Of Mrs. Darwin, 

 he says once, " No one can be too kind to my dear wife, 

 who is worth her weight in gold many times over." At 

 another time when, in reference to his health, he cannot 

 help sighing out, " I hope my life may be very short," the 

 reason that saddens him is, " for to lie on a sofa all day 

 and do nothing but give trouble to the best and kindest 

 of wives and good dear children is dreadful." He is 

 within a year of his death when he writes to Mr. 

 Wallace, " I have everything to make me happy and con- 

 tented, but life becomes very wearisome to me." Very 

 different was his health both of body and of mind when, 

 more than a score of years earlier, from a Water-Cure, as 

 alluded to already, he wrote to his wife charmingly, " The 

 weather is quite delicious. Yesterday, after writing to 

 you, I strolled a little beyond the glade for an hour and 

 a half, and enjoyed myself the fresh yet dark green of 

 the grand Scotch firs, the brown of the catkins of the old 

 birches, with their white stems, and a fringe of distant 



