158 LIFE OF 



suggested to them, aided them, scattered among them 

 seeds which, finding fertile soil, sprang up and bore fruit 

 a hundredfold. His greatness is as much in what lie 

 caused others to do as in what he did himself. Even in 

 arousing antagonism, though by the gentlest means, he 

 did a great work, for he secured examination and criticism 

 in such bulk that the whole world was leavened by his 

 doctrine ; and in controversy no man has any disagree- 

 able reminiscence of him. Many have cause to bless the 

 day when they first came into communication with 

 Darwin, to find him welcome them, encourage them, 

 place his own vast stores of knowledge and thought at 

 their disposal, and, best of all, make them love him 

 naturally as a dear friend. 



Darwin's was one of those open and frank minds which 

 are entrenched behind no rampart of isolating prejudice, 

 and elevated on no platform of conscious superiority. It 

 was equally natural to him to ask and to give information. 

 No one ever was more accessible to all who genuinely 

 sought his aid in their inquiries or their projects ; no one 

 ever more truly sought information from all quarters 

 whence truth was attainable. Hence the mass of his 

 letters to all kinds of persons is enormous, and only a 

 small proportion, probably, will ever be published. His 

 letters are like his conversation, free, frank, without a 

 trace of arriere pensee, praising others where possible 

 and no man ever found it more possible to praise others 

 more genuinely depreciating himself and his work most 

 unduly. "You so overestimate the value of what I do," 

 he writes on one occasion, "that you make me feel 

 ashamed of myself, and wish to be worthy of such praise." 



