Charles Robert Darwin. 47 



DARWIN. 



(Read on the occasion of the preeedinp: Lecture, 'oy Mr. Chakles T. Catlin, 

 with the permission of the Author.] 



II K was a bold discoverer of tlie wise 

 And lucid order of the world, who bade 

 Men love the truth and speak it, and be glad 

 "When each ideal of superstition dies. 



The bigot cursed him, and, with flaming eyes, 

 Flashed hate upon him as one gone mad 

 "With stark God-enmity, althoitgh he had 

 No blacker sin than honest hearts devise. 



lie was a hero for the right of men 



To seek beyond their bibles, churches, creeds, 



Beyond the tyrannous will of pope or priest, 



Thought buried deep in nature ; holy when 



Revealed to us by any sonl that reads 



Tlie infinite mind in God and man and beast. 



Amid the harsh endeavors of old days 

 He strove supremely, and, with patient will, 

 Climbed masterfiilly onward, upward, till 

 He rose above men's bitter blame, or praise. 



He probed onr life along its secret ways; 

 Back througli historic centuries, farther still, 

 He traced the simple, clear designs which fill 

 Creation, as they fill a robin's lays. 



Amid the vast complexity of forms 

 Births from one primal ancestry he saw, 

 Like stars and planets from one chaos hurled. 



And showed, through aions of fire and Hood and storms. 

 The march of evolution and of law. 

 The beauty and the wonder of the world. 



