M. de Quatrefages on Charles Darwin. 473 



liere that is displayed in the fullest light a trait of character 

 and intellect that I must at least indicate, unless I would 

 leaye a serious hiatus in this too rapid sketch. 



The enthusiastic disciples of Darwin assert that he has 

 explained every thing in the organic world. The language 

 of the master is quite difierent. No doubt he allows himself too 

 frequently to be carried away by the vivacity of his thoughts. 

 Nevertheless, also very frequently, he retains sufficient cool- 

 ness to recognize, even in his own works, the arguments and 

 facts which are in favour of his adversaries. Then he hastens 

 to indicate them with a loyalty which has something chivalrous 

 about it. He is the first to declare that he knows nothing 

 about the appearance of the archetype, the ancestor of all 

 organized beings ; he rejects, as being in disagreement with 

 the results of experiment, the belief in spontaneous generation, 

 which would so easily have completed his doctrine ; he recog- 

 nizes that the struggle for existence and natural selection 

 cannot explain the appearance in an organism of any thing 

 really new ; he makes the same avowal with regard to the 

 unfertility which must at some given moment physiologically 

 separate forms issuing from the same stock and convert them 

 into distinct species. This constant good faith gives to some 

 of Darwin's pages a peculiar charm. We follow with interest, 

 even in his mistakes, this thinker, who is entirely occupied 

 in the endeavour to make us adopt his beliefs, but who never- 

 theless places in our hands, with true candour, the arms best 

 fitted to combat him. We put down his books with a great 

 increase of our high esteem for the philosopher, of our affec- 

 tionate sympathy with the man. 



In these almost improvised pages, no more than in my 

 other writings, could 1 pass in silence over what separates me 

 from Darwin. As on all other occasions, I have done it with 

 regret. On the other hand, it is from the bottom of my heart 

 that I have tried to render him a last and just homage. 



In acting thus it seems to me that I must find myself in 

 accord with the general sentiment of the Academy. At first 

 the Academy did not favourably receive Darwin's candidature 

 as a Correspondent. It has been reproached for this by some 

 of the adherents of the English naturalist ; but unjustly. For 

 them Darwin's merit consisted especially in his theory. By 

 its first hesitation the Academy showed that it could not join 

 in this judgment. Then, by welcoming the author of the 

 book ' On the Origin of Species,' it proved that it had been 

 able to recognize all that was important and durable in the 

 complex work of the illustrious naturalist, and to render 

 justice to his true merits. It has therefore in all particulars 



