20 
ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
for facts in relation to the origin of species, about which he says he “had 
long reflected.” For twenty-two years thereafter Mr. Darwin continued to 
pursue this revolutionizing subject with unexampled patience and, except 
as to two or three intimate friends, entirely within the privacy of his own 
mind. 
In September, 1842, he went into retirement at Down, an out-of-the- 
way village in Kent. There, partly compelled by ill-health, he dwelt as a 
recluse for forty years, serenely contemplating nature and diligently gather¬ 
ing information, but seldom emerging into the world from which his richly- 
stored and phenomenally creative intellect had little to gain but to which it 
never ceased to give, during the remainder of his life. Bare knowledge he 
welcomed from any source, but opinions and deductions he invariably 
produced for himself. What he wrote to H. W. Bates, who complained 
of a want of advice is true of Darwin himself: “Part of your great originality 
of views,” he said, “may be due to the necessity of self-exertion of thought.” 
What has been said by his son Francis is equally true of Mr. Darwin — one 
of his most striking characteristics was “that supreme power of seeing and 
thinking what the rest of the world had overlooked.” 
Mr. Darwin was what we are accustomed to call a genius, but I know 
of no good definition of a genius but a man of insight. The person who by 
his natural acuteness of perception is able to see into and through problems 
which to other men are baffling or insoluble, has the highest right to be con¬ 
sidered inspired. Darwin’s wonderful endowment in this respect constituted 
him, by divine right, a leader of men. The world has always justly honored 
its standard bearers and we are here to pay homage to the name of one of 
the most attractive and commanding of them all. In other parts of this city 
and of this land, our fellow-citizens are gathering to-day to pay grateful 
tribute to the estimable character, and to recall the memorable deeds of a 
great emancipator. We likewise are celebrating the beneficent acts of a 
man, simple and modest as that other, who, at a critical period, spoke 
courageous words which conferred freedom on millions of his fellow creatures. 
It is altogether fitting that the birthdays of these two benefactors should be 
the same. 
We now dedicate this monument, in this appropriate place, not only to 
the honor and memory of Charles Darwin the great thinker, whose life and 
personality we admire, but also to the encouragement and guidance of all 
who may hereafter frequent these halls — as a testimony to the power of 
self-reliance and independence of mind which Charles Darwin preeminently 
exemplified and illustrated. May this portrait of a noble truth-seeker which 
we now unveil, signify, for all time to come, to him who would advance the 
boundaries of scientific knowledge, that nature will yield up her secrets only 
when appealed to directly and in humility and purity of spirit. 
