DARWIN. 49 



volunteer in the cause of science, observed that his perse- 

 verance might be estimated from the fact that he never 

 ceased to be a martyr to sea-sickness ; while his interest 

 in science and his public spirit were evident from his 

 having presented his valuable collections to the public. 



The concluding pages of the Journal are both eloquent 

 and instructive. Everywhere there had been fascinating 

 visions, and attractive problems remained unsolved. 

 Was it not significant of future studies that the contrast 

 between barbarian and civilised man should have been 

 so impressed upon the future author of " The Descent of 

 Man " ? He writes thus on this subject, " Of individual 

 objects, perhaps no one is more certain to create aston- 

 ishment than the first sight in his native haunt of a real 

 barbarian, of man in his lowest and most savage state. 

 One's mind hurries back over past centuries, and then 

 asks, could our progenitors have been such as these ? 

 Men, whose very signs and expressions are less intelli- 

 gible to us than those of the domesticated animals ; men, 

 who do not possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet 

 appear to boast of human reason, or at least of arts con- 

 sequent on that reason. I do not believe it is possible 

 to describe or paint the difference between savage and 

 civilised man. It is the difference between a wild and 

 tame animal : and part of the interest in beholding a 

 savage, is the same which would lead every one to 

 desire to see the lion in his desert, the tiger tearing his 

 prey in the jungle, the rhinoceros on the wide plain, or 

 the hippopotamus wallowing in the mud of some African 

 river." 



We have dwelt thus at length upon the history of this 

 4 



