CHARLES R. DARWIN. 3 



for Darwin's purpose. But no. " After five years' 

 work," lie says, " I allowed myself to speculate on the 

 subject, and drew up some short notes. These I 

 enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions 

 which seemed to me probable." But even then he 

 regarded his labours as only beginning. He was 

 engaged during many more years in steadily pursuing 

 the great object of his researches. Prevented by im- 

 paired health from working continuously for any 

 great length of time, he returned again and again to 

 his labours, affording, as Dr. Lankester has well re- 

 marked, "a noteworthy example of what difficulties 

 may be overcome by untiring zeal, great perseverance, 

 and a remarkable amiability and kindness of dis- 

 position." During the interval, too, which preceded 

 the publication of his " Opus Magnum," he published 

 many valuable contributions to scientific literature. 

 Among these may be specially mentioned his " Mono- 

 graph of the Family Cirripedia " that is of the class 

 of animals to which the familiar barnacles and sea 

 acorns belong. It is strange now to find that this 

 work was spoken of in 1856 as that on which Darwin's 

 future reputation would be founded. "His great 

 work," says his biographer in that year, " and that on 

 which his reputation as a zoologist will doubtless 

 depend, is his ' Monograph of Cirripedia/ The ex- 

 cellent style, the great addition made to the existing 

 knowledge of the family to which it is directed, and 

 the remarkable caution exercised by the author in 

 coming to his conclusions, render this work a model 



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