iS77 DARWIN'S DISTINCTIVE MERITS 



515 



Stance an exemplification of the wise foresight of his revered 

 intellectual mother. Instead of offering her honours when they 

 ran a chance of being crushed beneath the accumulated marks 

 of approbation of the whole civilised world, the University has 

 waited until the trophy was finished, and has crowned the edifice 

 with the delicate wreath of academic appreciation. 



This is what I suppose Mr. Darwin might have said had he 

 been happily able to occupy my place. Let me now speak in my 

 own person and in obedience to your suggestion, let me state as 

 briefly as possible what appear to me to be Mr. Darwin's dis- 

 tinctive merits. 



From the time of Aristotle to the present day I know of but 

 one man who has shown himself Mr. Darwin's equal in one field 

 of research — and that is Reaumur. In the breadth of range o( 

 Mr. Darwin's investigations upon the ways and works of ani- 

 mals and plants, in the minute patient accuracy of his observa- 

 tions, and in the philosophical ideas which have guided them, I 

 know of no one who is to be placed in the same rank with him 

 except Reaumur. 



Secondly, looking back through the same long period of 

 scientific history, I know of but one man, Lyonnet, who not being 

 from his youth a trained anatomist, has published such an 

 admirable minute anatomical research as is contained in Mr. 

 Darwin's work on the Cirripedes. 



Thirdly, in that region which lies between Geology and 

 Biology, and is occupied by the problem of the influence of life 

 on the structure of the globe, no one, so far as I know, has done 

 a more brilliant and far-reaching piece of work than the famous 

 book upon Coral Reefs. 



I add to these as incidental trifles the numerous papers on 

 Geology, and that most delightful of popular scientific books, 

 the Journal of a Naturalist, and I think I have made out my 

 case for the justification of to-day's proceedings. 



But I have omitted something. There is the Origin of 

 Species, and all that has followed it from the same marvellously 

 fertile brain. 



Most people know Mr. Darwin only as the author of this 

 work, and of the form of evolutional doctrine which it advocates. 

 I desire to say nothing about that doctrine. My friend Dr. 

 Humphry has said that the University has by to-day's proceed- 

 ings committed itself to the doctrine of evolution. I can only 

 say " I am very glad to hear it." But whether that doctrine be 

 true or whether it be false, I wish to express the deliberate 



