LECTURE VIII 



THE LIFE AND WORK OF DARWIN 



Hitherto we have been concerned with the great 

 theory with which Darwin's name is inseparably 

 connected ; we have dealt successively with its 

 birth and maturation ; we have tried to form some 

 idea of its wide-reaching influence, and of the effect 

 which it has had, not merely on biological thought, 

 but on other fields of science, literature, and art, 

 and branches of knowledge apparently widely re- 

 mote. We have seen how this theory has knit 

 together human knowledge, giving the word history 

 a new, a wider, a more wonderful significance than 

 was possible before. We have dealt, I admit too 

 briefly, with the main objections to the theory, and 

 have taken a single instance in detail as a test and 

 as an example of methods. 



There is no more fitting way of concluding this 

 series of lectures than by giving an outline of the 

 life and work of the man to whom this great advance, 

 this opening up of new fields, this widening of human 

 interests and human powers, is due. Concerning 

 his life, the progress of the events through which 

 such results were obtained, the methods by which 

 success was compelled, the successive steps in the 



