376 EVOLUTION [Chap. V 



We owe to Professor Judd the following interesting recollections of 

 Mr. Darwin, written about 1883 : — 



Letter 286 '• On this last occasion, when I congratulated him on his 

 seeming better condition of health, he told me of the cause 

 for anxiety which he had in the state of his heart. Indeed, I 

 cannot help feeling that he had a kind of presentiment that 

 his end was approaching. When I left him, he insisted on 

 conducting me to the door, and there was that in his tone 

 and manner which seemed to convey to me the sad intelli- 

 gence that it was not merely a temporary farewell, though he 

 himself was perfectly cheerful and happy. 



"It is impossible for me adequately to express the im- 

 pression made upon my mind by my various conversations 

 with Mr. Darwin. His extreme modesty led him to form the 

 lowest estimate of his own labours, and a correspondingly 

 extravagant idea of the value of the work done by others. 

 His deference to the arguments and suggestions of men 

 greatly his juniors, and his unaffected sympathy in their 

 pursuits, was most marked and characteristic ; indeed, he, 

 the great master of science, used to speak, and I am sure 

 felt, as though he were appealing to superior authority for 

 information in all his conversations. It was only when a 

 question was fully discussed with him that one became 

 conscious of the fund of information he could bring to its 

 elucidation, and the breadth of thought with which he had 

 grasped it. Of his gentle, loving nature, of which I had so 

 many proofs, I need not write ; no one could be with him, 

 even for a few minutes, without being deeply impressed by 

 his grateful kindliness and goodness." 



Letter 287 To Count Saporta. 1 



Down, August 15th, 1878. 



I thank you very sincerely for your kind and interesting 

 letter. It would be false in me to pretend that I care very 



1 The Marquis of Saporta (1823-95) devoted himself to the study of 

 fossil plants, and by his untiring energy and broad scientific treatment of 

 the subject he will always rank as one of the pioneers of Vegetable 

 Palaeontology. In addition to many important monographs on Tertiary 

 and Jurassic floras, he published several books and papers in which Darwin's 

 views are applied to the investigation of the records of plant-life furnished 

 by rocks of all ages. (" Le Marquis G. de Saporta, sa Vie et ses Travaux," 

 by R. Zeiller. Bull. Soc. Geol. France, Vol. XXIV., p. 197, 1896.) 



