Ivi THE DARWIN CENTENARY. [Februarys, 



brutal assaults upon it. Six months after the publication of the 



" Origin " he wrote to Hooker : 



I look at their attacks as proof that our work is worth the doing. It 

 makes me resolve to buckle on my armor. I see plainly that it will be a 

 long uphill fight. But think of Lyell's progress with geology. One thing 

 I see most plainly, that without Lyell's, yours, Huxley's and Carpenter's aid, 

 my book would have been a mere flash in the pan. But if we all stick to it 

 we shall surely gain the day. And I now see that the battle is worth fighting. 



Many a discovery, like that of Mendel, is launched meekly and 

 modestly into the world, to sink to oblivion or to be lost from sight, 

 only to be rediscovered at some future time. Not so with a militant 

 truth; it challenges and demands attention, and in the case of Dar- 

 win's theory it richly deserved it. 



Next to his friends Darwin owed most to his enemies ; the 

 attacks upon him and his theory were so violent, so brutal, so out 

 of reason, that his own sane, calm and absolutely honest course 

 shone with all the more luster. To these unreasonable attacks and 

 to the same reaction which was bound to follow, Darw^in, as well 

 as his great contemporary Lincoln, owed very much. 



But wholly apart from these circumstances which contributed 

 only temporarily to his reputation and influence, Darwin stands as 

 one of the leaders of science for the great work which he did ; work 

 of lasting value which has not yet been outgrown and which can 

 never be forgotten. He stands as a leader in science because of the 

 methods of his work; he was so broad and science has since become 

 so specialized that we can never hope to see his like again ; he was 

 so honest in dealing with objections to his theories and so sane in 

 judgment that he was never carried away by his own enthusiasm; 

 above all he was so patient in his work that his example may be 

 especially commended to this impatient age; on every one of his 

 principal works he spent from five to twenty years of the hardest 

 labor of which he was capable, and it is not to be wondered at that 

 this work has lasting value. Charles Darwin stands today and will 

 continue to stand for years to come as one of the most impressive 

 and influential figures in human history. 



Mr. President : I beg leave to introduce the following minute : 



On this hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin,. 



