14 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS, 
attacks year by year grew less frequent and less bitter, how whole 
sale denunciation gave place to legitimate questionings of par- 
ticular points, and how even personalities at last gave place to: 
general professions of esteem and respect, till at last, but a few 
short months ago, we witnessed the burial of his remains in the 
national mausoleum, and saw his coffin followed not only by 
scientists and laymen, but by priests of various religious denomina- 
tions, all of whom sought by their presence to testify to the 
recognition of his great worth, and perhaps some to atone in a 
measure for the unjust things which they might have said or 
thought about him when they were unacquainted with his 
character, and only half acquainted with the object and nature of 
his labours. But although our hearts are still sore at the remem- 
brance of our loss, there are many things the reflecting upon which 
may well console and reconcile us to it. In the first place, he had 
been spared to us till such a time as we were able to walk without 
further needing the assistance of his guidinghand. In the next place, 
his life, although far from having been free from suffering, had been 
prolonged to a green old age, and he was able and delighted to 
work almost to the very day of his death. He had the satisfaction 
of looking back ona long life happily and worthily spent, and of 
living to see the doctrines which he had promulgated gradually 
acknowledged, and finally universally accepted. He was surrounded 
by devoted friends, and regarded by all naturalists with a reverence 
and affection such as has fallen to the lot of none since the time of 
Linneeus,” 
There is still one further tribute to the beauty of 
Darwin’s character, and to the estimation in which he was held 
by his contemporaries in science, which, coming from the lips of 
the President of the Royal Society of England, should not be 
omitted. In his address at the anniversary meeting of the Society, 
on the 30th November last, Dr. Spottiswoode said: “Of Darwin 
and his works it is not for me to speak. Others with wider 2 
knowledge, after long intercourse and with greater authority, have 
said what was possible at the moment, and the full story of his life 
