380 CHARLES EGBERT DARWIN. 



when I have been contemptuously criticised, and 

 even when I have been overpraised, so that I have 

 felt mortified, it has been my greatest comfort to 

 say hundreds of times to myself, 'that I have 

 worked as hard and as well as I could, and no man 

 can do more than this.' " 



The " Origin " has been translated into French, 

 German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Swedish, and 

 many other languages. Huxley says of it, " Even 

 a cursory glance at the history of the biological 

 sciences during the last quarter of a century is 

 sufficient to justify the assertion that the most 

 potent instrument for the extension of the realm 

 of natural knowledge which has come into men's 

 hands since the publication of Newton's ' Prin- 

 cipia ' is Darwin's ' Origin of Species.' " 



The year after the " Origin " was published, 

 Darwin began arranging his notes for his two 

 large volumes, "Variation of Animals and Plants 

 under Domestication," which, however, were not 

 published till 1868. On these two books he spent 

 over four years. They are a wonderful collection 

 of facts, gathered from books and from his own 

 marvellous experiments and observations, confirm- 

 ing and illustrating the law of "Natural Selec- 

 tion " given in the " Origin." 



Darwin had already received the Copley medal 

 of the Royal Society, the greatest honor a scien- 

 tific man can receive in England, and the Prussian 

 Order "Pour le Merite," founded by Frederick II. 

 The order consists of thirty German members and 



