4 [308] 



DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 



much as it was due to a desire for the 

 advancement of science. Nothing 

 seemed to give him a keener joy than 

 being able to write to any of his 

 friends a warm and glowing congratu- 

 lation upon their gaining some success ; 

 and the exuberance of his feelings on 

 such occassions generally led him to 

 conceive a much higher estimate of 

 the importance of the results attained 

 than he would have held had the suc- 

 cess been achieved by himself. For 

 the modesty with which he regarded 

 his own work was no less remarkable 

 than his readiness enthusiastically to 

 admire the work of others ; so that, 

 to any one who did not know him 

 well, this extreme modesty, from its 

 very completeness and unconscious- 

 ness, might almost have appeared the 

 result of affectation. At least, speak- 

 ing for ourselves, when we first met 

 him, and happened to see him convers- 

 ing with a greatly younger man, 

 quite unknown either in science or 

 literature, we thought it must have 

 been impossible that Mr. Darwin — 

 then the law giver to the world of 

 biology — could with honest sincerity 

 be submitting, in the way he did, his 

 matured thought to the judgment of 

 such a youth. But afterward we 

 came fully to learn that no one was 

 so unconscious of Mr. Darwin's 

 worth as Mr. Darwin himself, and 

 that it was a fixed habit of his mind 

 to seek for opinions as well as facts 

 from every available quarter. It 

 must be added, however, that his 

 tendency to go beyond the Scriptural 

 injunction in the matter of self- 

 approval, and to think of others more 

 highly than he ought to think, never 

 clouded his final judgment upon the 

 value of their opinions ; but spontane- 

 ously following another of these in- 

 junctions, while proving all things, he 

 held fast only to that which was 

 good. " In malice be ye children, 

 but in understanding be ye men." 



On the whole, then, we should say 

 that Mr. Darwin's character was 

 chiefly marked by a certain grand and 

 cheerful simplicity, strangely and 

 beautifully united with a deep and 



thoughtful wisdom, which, together 

 with his illimitable kindness to others 

 and complete forgetfulness of him- 

 self, made a combination as lovable 

 as it was venerable. It is, therefore, 

 not to be wondered at that no man 

 ever passed away leaving behind him 

 a greater void of enmity, or a depth 

 of adoring friendship more profound. 



But, as we have said, it is im- 

 possible to convey in words any 

 adequate conception of a character 

 which in beauty as in grandeur can 

 only, with all sobriety, be called 

 sublime. If the generations are ever 

 to learn, with any approach to accu- 

 racy, what Mr. Darwin was, his biog- 

 raphers may best teach them by 

 allowing this most extraordinary 

 man to speak for himself through the 

 medium of his correspondence, aa 

 well as through that of his books; 

 and therefore, as a small foretaste of 

 the complete biography which will 

 some day appear, we shall quote a 

 letter in which he describes the char- 

 acter of his great friend and teacher, 

 the late Prof. Henslow, of Cambridge. 

 We choose this letter to quote from 

 on account of the singular manner in 

 which the writer, while describing 

 the character of another, is uncon- 

 sciously giving a most accurate de- 

 scription of his own. It is of im- 

 portance also that in any biographical 

 history of Mr. Darwin, Professor 

 Henslow's character should be duly 

 considered, seeing that he exerted so 

 great an influence upon the expanding 

 powers of Mr. Darwin's mind. We 

 quote the letter from the Rev. L. 

 Jenyns's Memoir of the late -Prof. 

 Hensloio. 



"I went to Cambridge early in the 

 year 1828, and soon became acquaint- 

 ed, through some of my brother 

 entomologists, with Prof. Henslow, 

 for all who cared for any branch of 

 natural history were equally en- 

 couraged by him. Nothing could be 

 more simple, cordial, and unpretend- 

 ing than the encouragement which 

 he afforded to all young naturalists. 

 I soon became intimate with him, for 

 he had a remarkable power of mak- 



