12 ANNIVERSARY ADDREss. 
his opening address, spoke of the “ irreparable loss science had 
sustained in the person of Charles Darwin, whose bold concep- 
tions, patient labour, and genial mind made him almost a type of 
unsurpassed excellence.” Professor Gamgee, President of the 
Biological Section, alluded to Darwin’s death in these terms:—“So 
much has lately been written concerning that veteran in science, 
Charles Darwin, who will figure in the history of the human 
intellect with such men as Socrates and N ewton, that I feel no 
words of mine are needed to add to your sentiments of admiration 
and respect. He has made for himself an imperishable reputation, 
as one of the subtlest, most patient, and most truthful observers of 
natural phenomena. His powers as an observer were, however, 
almost surpassed by his ingenuity as a reasoner and his power to 
frame the hypotheses most apt to the actual state of science, to 
reconcile all the facts which came within the range of his observa- 
tion. We remember the time when the name of Charles Darwin, 
and the mention of the theories connected with his name, 
awakened, on the part of many, sentiments of antagonism and of 
unreasonable opposition; but we have lived to witness what I 
may term a great reparation, Even those who did not know the 
man and the qualities of mind and heart which have endeared 
“him to so many, have come to recognize that in his work he was 
actuated by a single-hearted desire to discover the truth, and after 
calm reflection they have conceded that his studies and his views 
—like all studies and all views which are based upon the truth— 
not only are not irreconcilable with but add to our conceptions of 
the dignity and glory of God.” And here I may be allowed to 
remark that it is impossible to study the writings of Darwin, and 
especially the one in which he treats of “The Descent of Man,” 
without recognizing an undercurrent of reverent sentiment, which 
in one or two places finds expression in words, telling us that man 
differs from the animal creation, if not in physical characteristics 
which cannot be bridged over, at least in moral attributes, and in 
the ennobling belief in God, by his power of forming that concep- 
tion of the Deity which, to use Darwin’s own words, “is the 
Srand idea of God hating sin and loving righteousness.” 
