INTRODUCTION. 23 



nothing, giving sign at once, both when his body was weary or 

 weak, and when his mind was gladdened, angered or annoyed. 



The record of some of his thoughts and work, all that 

 he had given to the world will be found in the following 

 pages. But who can tell the ideas which had passed into Iiis 

 quick brain, but which as yet were known only to himself, of 

 which he had given no sign up to that sad day on which he 

 made the fatal climb? And who can say whither he might 

 not have reached had he lived, and his bright young life ripened as 

 years went on ? This is not the place to attempt any judg- 

 ment of his work : that may be left to other times, and to 

 other hands; but it may be fitting to place here on record 

 a letter which shews how much the greatest naturalist of this 

 age appreciated his younger brother. Among Balfour's papers 

 was found a letter from Charles Darwin, acknowledging the 

 receipt of Vol. II. of the Comparative Embryology in the fol- 

 lowing words : 



"July 6, 1881. 



DOWN, BECKENHAM, KENT. 



MY DEAR BALFOUR, 



I thank you heartily for the present of your grand 

 book, and I congratulate you on its completion. Although I read 

 almost all of Vol. I. I do not feel that I am worthy of your present, 

 unless indeed the fullest conviction that it is a memorable work makes 

 me worthy to receive it. 



* * * * * 



Once again accept my thanks, for I am proud to receive a book 

 from you, who, I know, will some day be the chief of the English 

 Biologists. 



Believe me, 



Yours sincerely, 



CHARLES DARWIN." 



The loss of him was a manifold loss. He is mourned, 

 and will long be mourned, for many reasons. Some miss only 

 the brilliant investigator ; others feel that their powerful and 

 sympathetic teacher is gone ; some look back on his memory 



