436 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



pretension ; and this is remarkable, considering how censure 

 and how praise were heaped upon him without stint. He 

 does not teach didactically, but takes the reader along with 

 him as his companion in observation and in experiment. 

 And in the same spirit, instead of showing pique to an oppo- 

 nent, he seems always to regard him as a helper in his search 

 for the truth. Those privileged to know him well will certify 

 that he was one of the most kindly and charming, unaffected, 

 simple-hearted, and lovable of men. 



How far and how long the Darwinian theory will hold 

 good, the future will determine. But in its essential elements, 

 apart from a priori philosophizing, with which its author had 

 nothing to do, it is an advance from which it is evidently im- 

 possible to recede. As has been said of the theory of the 

 Conservation of Energy, so of this : " The proof of this great 

 generalization, like that of all other generalizations, lies 

 mainly in the fact that the evidence in its favor is continually 

 augmenting, while that against it is continually diminishing, 

 as the progress of science reveals to us more and more of the 

 workings of the universe." 



