PEESIDENTS's ADDRESS. 173 



industry, under physical difficulties which would have lowered 

 nine men out of ten into aimless invalids ; it was not these quali- 

 ties, great as they were, which impressed those who were admit- 

 ted to his intimacy with involuntary veneration, but a certain 

 intense and almost passionate honesty by which all his thoughts 

 and actions were irradiated, as by a central fire." Tew of the 

 names of the students of l^ature have been so familiar, for the 

 last twenty years at any rate, as that of Darwin. Undoubtedly 

 the publication of his " Origin of Species" made an epoch in the 

 study of Natural History. Sir John Lubbock in his opening ad- 

 dress as President of the British Association last autumn stated, 

 as the axioms on which Darwin's theory was founded, ''1st, That 

 no two animals or plants in Nature are identical in all respects. 

 2. That the offspring tend to inherit the peculiarities of their 

 parents. 3. That of those which come into existence only a 

 small number reach maturity. 4. That those which are on the 

 whole best adapted to the circumstances in which they are placed 

 are most likely to leave descendants. That this work, the 

 "Origin of Species/' gave rise to much controversy, that the 

 views it propounded were eagerly adopted by some, and as strenu- 

 ously opposed by others, was what was to be expected. But 

 many even of those who opposed his views will agree with Sir 

 John Lubbock when he says, "^o one at any rate will question 

 the immense impulse which Darwin has given to the study of 

 Natural History, the number of new views he has opened up, 

 and the additional interest which he has aroused in and contri- 

 buted to Biology." One cannot too much deplore the tone which 

 some of his admirers and disciples have employed, and as it ap- 

 pears to me the unphilosophical language they have used, in their 

 eagerness to attack systems which they think stand in their way. 

 It is in such points as these that we find how superior Darwin 

 was in his earnest search after ' Truth ' to those who claim to 

 be his followers ; and then what a power of description he pos- 

 sessed ! How delightfully he pictured either natural objects or 

 the phases of Nature. I well remember with what delight when 

 a boy I first read his "Voyage of the Beagle." How one went 

 on charmed from chapter to chapter, and how beautiful are the 



