DARWIN. 157 



It was science, not the fame of science, that he loved, 

 and he helped science by the temper in which he ap- 

 proached it. He had to say things which were distasteful 

 to a large portion of the public, but he won the ear even 

 of his most adverse critics by the manifest absence of a 

 mere desire to shine, by his modesty, and by his courtesy. 

 He told honestly what he thought to be the truth, but he 

 told it without a wish to triumph or to wound. There is 

 an arrogance of unorthodoxy as well as an arrogance of 

 orthodoxy, and if ideas that a quarter of a century ago 

 were regarded with dread are now accepted without a 

 pang, the rapidity of the change of opinion, if not the 

 change itself, is largely due to the fact that the leading 

 exponent of these ideas was the least arrogant of men." 



Geniality and genuine humour must be remembered as 

 among the many delightful traits in Darwin's character. 

 Mr. Edmund Yates, in his " Celebrities at Home " 

 (second series), describes his as a laugh to remember, " a 

 rich Homeric laugh, round and full, musical and jocund." 

 " At a droll suggestion of Mr. Huxley's, or a humorous 

 doubt insinuated in the musical tones of the President of 

 the Royal Society (Sir Joseph Hooker), the eyes twinkle 

 under the massive overhanging brows, the Socratic head, 

 as Professor Tyndall loves to call it, is thrown back, and 

 over the long white beard rolls out such a laugh as we 

 have attempted to describe." 



Exceptionally good-hearted and sympathetic as a man, 

 Darwin discovered his life-work, and did it, in spite of a 

 most powerful hindrance, in the best possible manner, 

 with the least possible waste of force. But, more than 

 doing his work, he set others to work, incited them, 



