IX. 



CHARLES DARWIN '. A SKETCH. 

 (NATUXB, June 4, 1874, ACCOMPANYING A POBTBATT.) 



Two British naturalists, Robert Brown and Charles 

 Darwin, have, more than any others, impressed their 

 influence upon science in this nineteenth century. 

 Unlike as these men and their works were and are, 

 we may most readily subserve the present purpose in 

 what we are called upon to say of the latter by briefly 

 comparing and contrasting the two. 



Robert Brown died sixteen years ago, full of years 

 and scientific honors, and he seems to have finished, 

 several years earlier, all the scientific work that he had 

 undertaken. To the other, Charles Darwin, a fair 

 number of productive years may yet remain, and are 

 earnestly hoped for. Both enjoyed the great advan- 

 tage of being all their lives long free from exacting 

 professional duties or cares, and so were able in the 

 main to apply themselves to research without distrac 

 tion and according to their bent. Both, at the begin- 

 ning of their career, were attached to expeditions of 

 exploration in the southern hemisphere, where tney 

 amassed rich stores of observation and materials, and 

 probably struck out, while in the field, some of the 

 best ideas which they subsequently developed. They 

 worked in different fields and upon different methods; 



