66 



The Na.tuealist. 



was so strong a body of working naturalists in Yorkshire, but be was 

 pleased to learn that such was the fact, and to find, from the Trans- 

 actions that had been forwarded to him, that they were doing useful 

 work. Coming from such a body, the address was all the more 

 gratifying to him, though he still feared he hardly merited the good 

 things that had been said of him. The address which had been 

 presented to him, he and his family would for ever treasure and 

 preserve, and he desired to express his warmest thanks, both to the 

 deputation and those whom they represented, for it, and for the kind 

 and considerate manner in which everything connected with it had 

 been arranged. 



Subsecjuently the deputation were entertained at luncheon, and 

 having spent a short time ia familiar conversation with their 

 distinguished host and his family, took their departure amid mutual 

 expressions of kindness and regard. The following is the text of the 

 address, which is beautifully engrossed and illuminated by Mr. Chas. 

 Goodall, of Leeds, and very handsomely bound : — ^ 



To Charles Dabwin, LL.D., M.A., F.E.S., &c., &c. 



Sir — The Council and Members of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, all 

 of whom, with scarcely an exception, are working students in one or more 

 of the various branches of natural history, desire to express to you in a 

 most respectful manner, and jet with the greatest cordiality, their admir- 

 ation of your life-long devotion to original scientific research, and their 

 high appreciation of the almost unparalleled success of the investigations 

 by which you have contributed largely to the modern development and 

 progress of biological science. 



More especially do they desire to congratulate you on the fact that 

 your great work on " The Origin of Species " will come of age at an early 

 date, amd that your life has been spared long enough to enable you to see 

 the leading principles therein enunciated accepted by most of the eminent 

 naturalists of the day. On the conspicuous merits of that and your 

 other published works they need not dwell, as those merits have been 

 recognised and admitted even by those who have dissented most strongly 

 from the conclusions at which you have arrived. They may, neverthe- 

 less, be permitted to remind you that your writings have been instru- 

 mental in giving an impetus to biological and palseontological inquiries, 

 •which has no precedent in the history of science, except perhaps in that 

 which followed the promulgation of the gravitation theory by Newton, 

 and that which was due to the discovery of the circulation of the blood 

 by Harvey. 



One of the most important results of your long-continued labours, and 

 one for which you will be remembered with honour and reverence 

 wherever and as long as the human intellect exerts itself in the pursuit 



