730 EEPOBT— 1887. 



been so doing you will have some excuse, but I trust j-ou will think that I also 

 have some excuse in thus recurring to what may be almost deemed a portion of 

 ancient history when I state that in my belief this year 1887 will in future be 

 remembered as that in which ' The Life and Letters ' of our great biologist, 

 Charles Darwin, appeared ; and I hope that in a few minutes you will admit that 

 in accordance with the tituess of thiuofs it is meet and right that this should be so. 

 There can be little doubt that before the end of this year that work which all 

 naturalists have been expecting with so much anxiety will be published, and 

 published moreover in three languages. It can hardly fail to be accounted bj- 

 biologistH as the chief event of the year. By favour of its author, Mr. Francis 

 Darwin, I have been allowed to see some of his proof-sheets, and 1 am sanguine 

 that it will not disappoint the expectations of its readers. On one point I venture 

 to speak with some certainty. The noble character of the man will be made 

 manifest to the world in words and deeds that cannot be spoken against, and we 

 may feel assured that in future 



Whatever record leap to light, 

 He never shall be shamed. 



He is unsparing of his own mistakes or shortcomings ; and, while admitting 

 with the utmost generosity the assistance he received from others, the dignified 

 way in which he thought and expressed himself toward the many who attacked 

 him, often unscrupulously and in a manner which he could not but deeply feel, 

 will ever redound to his credit, and prove him to have been that great philosopher 

 which all his friends and adherents would wish to believe him. Do not mistake 

 me, however, in one respect ; there were times when he ' did well to be angry ' ; 

 but his anger was slowly excited, and his occasional vehemence soon subsided into 

 his wonted calm. More than all this, you will find that the childlike simplicity 

 of his mind and the single-heartedness of his devotion to the study of Nature which 

 characterised the beginning of his scientific career endured unto the end. His ad- 

 mission at the outset of ' utter ignorance whetlier I note the right facts ' ; his 

 confession that he was 'nothing more than a lions' provider'; his unfeigned 

 astonishment at discovering that his early observations wei'e of any worth — are all 

 of a piece with the humility he subsequently displayed when his success was de- 

 clared. As he found, one after another, many of his contemporaries and still more 

 of the younger generation of naturalists adopting his views, his joy was great ; but 

 that joj' was not alloyed by auj' feeling of pride. He did not care for making a 

 convert to ' Darwinism' — his exultation was that the strength of truth, of reason, 

 and of observation had prevailed. In the same lowly spiiit he, when at the height 

 of his fame, expressed his gratitude to those, whosoever tliev might be, that helped 

 him in his labours; and, if I might be critical on this point, I should say that his 

 inherent goodness of heart often caused him to exaggerate the importance of the 

 help they gave. Not a spark of jealousy was kindled in his mind; and at what 

 may be considered the most trying moment of all, when the theorj' he had for 

 twenty years been testing by every means in his power, the theory on which he 

 built all his hopes of future recognition, the theory which he not unnaturally be- 

 lieved to be his pecuhar possession — when this theory, I say, was independently 

 conceived by another naturalist, his conduct was emphatically that of a man of 

 honour. It pained hiiu acutely to think that this naturalist, a trusted correspondent, 

 an esteemed philosophical observer, and at the very time a wanderer far from 

 home, should be deprived of the full glory of his ingenuity ; and, but for the counsel 

 of judicious friends (whose good advice on this occasion is indisputable), Mr. 

 Darwin would have withdrawn every claim of his own to this great discovery, and 

 left it entirely to Mr. Wallace ! In the history of science and invention I think 

 there are few cases like this. When you come to read the book you will find that 

 though he unreservedly placed the matter in the hands of Sir Charles Lyell and of 

 Sir Joseph Hooker, it was some time before he could reconcile himself to the notion 

 that they were not unduly favouring hioi at the expense of his competitor. Such 

 was the man ! Though you are doubtless all aware of the fact, it would be wrong 

 in me if I omitted to remind you that Mr. Wallace's conduct under these circum- 



