VII 

 The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin 1 



BY the universal consent of mankind, the name of 

 Charles Darwin was placed, even during his life- 

 time, among those of the few great leaders who stand 

 forth for all time as the creative spirits that have 

 founded and legislated for the realm of Science. It 

 is too soon to estimate with precision the full value 

 and effect of his work. The din of controversy that 

 rose around him has hardly yet died down, and the 

 influence of the doctrines he propounded is extending 

 into so many remote departments of human inquiry, 

 that a generation or two may require to pass away 

 before his true place in the history of thought can be 

 definitely fixed. But the judgment of his contem- 

 poraries as to his proud pre-eminence is not likely ever 

 to be called in question. He is enrolled among the Dii 

 Majorum Gentium^ and there he will remain to the end 

 of the ages. When he was laid beside the illustrious 

 dead in Westminster Abbey, there arose far and wide 

 a lamentation as of personal bereavement. Thousands 

 of mourners who knew only his writings, and judged 

 of the gentleness and courtesy of his nature from these 



1 Contemporary Review, Dec., 1887. 



