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SCIENCE 



N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 763 



again to sons of Cambridge for spiritual re- 

 freshment, to the verse of Milton, of Byron, 

 of Wordsworth and Tennyson, all richly im- 

 bued with the nature spirit, or to the no less 

 masterly prose of Thackeray and Macaulay? 



Par away are the giant forces of our re- 

 public, the roar of her machinery and her 

 world of trade, yet the independence of her 

 development is more apparent than real. 

 There still prevails the potent unifying influ- 

 ence of mind and motive, bred in quiet places 

 like this, ever creating the new generations of 

 leaders in science, in literature and in govern- 

 ment, and ever renewing the strong bonds of 

 friendship and of union. 



What can we add to the chorus of apprecia- 

 tion of the great pupil of Christ's which has 

 come from college, press and pulpit since the 

 opening of this anniversary year ? Only a few 

 words of personal impression. 



To us, Darwin, more perhaps than any other 

 naturalist, seems greatest in the union of a 

 high order of genius with rare simplicity and 

 transparency of thought. Dwelling on this 

 lucid quality and on the vast range of his ob- 

 servation from the most minute to the grandest 

 relations in nature, does not the image arise 

 of a perfected optical instrument in which all 

 personal equation, aberration and refraction 

 is eliminated and through which, as it were, we 

 gaze with a new vision into the marvelous 

 forms and processes of the living world. With 

 this wondrous lens our countrymen, Cope and 

 Marsh, penetrated far deeper into fossil life 

 than their predecessor Joseph Leidy — thus 

 the arid deserts of the Kocky Mountain region 

 gave up their petrified dead as proofs of Dar- 

 winism. Through its new powers Hyatt, 

 Morse, Packard and Brooks saw far more than 

 their master Louis Agassiz, and drew fresh 

 testimonies of development from the historic 

 waters of New England. From the very end 

 of the new world, where the youthful Darwin 

 received his first impressions of the mutabil- 

 ity of the forms of life, we enjoy a clearer 

 vision of the ancient life of Patagonia. 

 What of Darwin's future influence? 

 While it is doubtful if human speculation 

 about life can ever again be so tangential as 



in our pre-Darwinian past of fifty years ago, 

 it is probable, in fact it is daily becoming 

 more evident, that the destiny of speculation 

 is less the tangent than the maze — the maze of 

 innumerable lesser principles, with as many 

 prophets calling to us to seek this turning or 

 that. There are those who in loyal advocacy 

 of his system feel that we shall not get much 

 nearer to life than Darwin did, but this is to 

 abandon his progressive leadership, for if ever 

 a master defined the unknown and pointed the 

 way of investigation, certainly it was Darwin. 

 In the wonderful round of addresses in his 

 honor of this Centennial Year, and in the re- 

 newed critical study of his life and writings — 

 the recognition that Darwin opened the way 

 has come to many with the force of a fresh 

 discovery. It is true that he left a system, 

 and that he loved it as his own, but his force- 

 ful, self-unsparing and suggestive criticism 

 show that if he were living in these days of 

 Waagen, of Weismann, of Mendel and of De 

 Vries, he would be in the front line of in- 

 quiry, armed with matchless assemblage of 

 fact, with experiment and verification, and 

 not least with incomparable candor and good 

 will. This bequest of a noble method is 

 hardly less precious than the immortal con- 

 tent of the " Origin of Species " itself. 



In conclusion, we delegates, naturalists and 

 friends, desire to present to Christ's College, 

 as a memorial of our visit, a portrait of 

 Charles Darwin in bronze, the work of our 

 countryman, William Couper, a portrait which 

 we trust will convey to this and future genera- 

 tions of Cambridge students, some impression 

 of the rugged simplicity, as well as of the in- 

 tellectual grandeur, of the man we revere and 

 honor. 



PERIDERMIVM STROBI KLEBABN IN 

 AMERICA 



During the past few years several millions 

 of young trees of white pine (Pinus Strohus) 

 have been imported from Europe and dis- 

 tributed in the northeastern states. This has 

 been done in spite of the obvious danger of 

 bringing in insect pests and the fungus Peri- 

 dermium Strohi Klebahn. The latter is not 



