SCIENTIFIC WORKS 51 



statue of Darwin to the Prince of Wales as repre- 

 sentative of the trustees of the British Museum ; and 

 the third is Huxley's famous obituary notice of 

 Darwin for the Proceedings of the Royal Society. 

 In these tlu-ee chapters M^e get what is possibly the 

 most vi%dd, striking, and true estimate of Charles 

 Darwin's work and character. 



Huxley himself has said in one of his books that 

 titles or dignities should not be held by men of science 

 unless they involve an actual position, because only 

 scientific men can adequately estimate the value of 

 scientific work. If that be so, who was so competent 

 to pronounce a verdict upon the life and work of 

 Charles Darwin ? And it is not the least striking 

 thing in Huxley's estimate of Darwan that he puts 

 first the intense and almost passionate honesty by 

 wliich all Darwin's thoughts and actions were irradi- 

 ated. He pays his attribute to the great reasoning 

 powers, the vast knowledge, the marvellously tenaci- 

 ous industry persevered in under physical conditions 

 which would have crushed most men ; and after 

 duly weighing all these great gifts it is still Darwin's_ 

 transcendent honesty which appeals most to_Huxley's 

 own mind. It was tliis rarest and greatest of en- 

 dowments, he estimates, which restrained Darwin's 

 extraordinary imagination and power of scientific 

 specvJation ^^dthin reasonable bounds, and which 

 caused liim to undertake such immense tasks of 

 personal observations before he published his own 

 opinions. 



In his address as the President of the Royal Society 

 on the handing over of Darwdn's statue, Huxley draws 

 attention to the fact, which has so often been repeated 

 since, that since, and because of, the publication of 



