CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 3^7 



land was in fact regularly ploughed, and still con- 

 tinues to be thus ploughed, by earthworms. It 

 may be doubted whether there are many other 

 animals which have played so important a part in 

 the history of the world as have these lowly or- 

 ganized creatures." 



In three years eighty-five hundred copies of the 

 " Earthworms " were sold. 



Mr. Darwin was now seventy-two years old. 

 Already many honors had come to him, after the 

 severe and bitter censure. In 1877, he received 

 the degree of LL.D. from Cambridge University. 

 In 1878, he was elected a corresponding member 

 of the French Institute, and of the Berlin Academy 

 of Sciences. In 1879, he received the Baly Medal 

 of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1879, from 

 the Royal Academy of Turin, the Bressa Prize of 

 twelve thousand francs. He valued highly two 

 photographic albums sent from Germany and Hol- 

 land ; one containing the pictures of one hundred 

 and fifty -four noted scientific men ; the other, of 

 two hundred and seventeen lovers of natural sci- 

 ence in the Netherlands. He wrote in thanks : " I 

 am well aware that my books could never have 

 been written, and would not have made any im- 

 pression on the public mind, had not an immense 

 amount of material been collected by a long series 

 of admirable observers ; and it is to them that 

 honor is chiefly due. I suppose that every worker 

 at science occasionally feels depressed, and doubts 

 whether what he has published has been worth the 



