2 
more than any other to have been instrumental in leading Mr. 
Darwin to take a deep interest in natural science ; and not only 
to have ably assisted and advised him in his pursuits, hut to have 
gained his life-long admiration and esteem. Further, we are in- 
debted to Professor Henslow for urging Mr. Darwin (notwithstand- 
ing the objections offered that it might unsettle him for the Church) 
to accompany Captain Fitzroy in the “Beagle,” — a voyage in which 
we cannot but feel great interest, not only because of the enormous 
work Mr. Darwin accomplished single-handed, but more especially 
because it was during this voyage that the great generalisations oc- 
curred to him which will ever be associated with his name, and which 
mark a new epoch in biology, and have had a more profound influ- 
ence on science than any other doctrines ever published. 
Three years after returning from his voyage round the world, 
Mr. Darwin married, and in 1842 settled at Down, in Kent, where 
he remained living the quiet life of a country gentleman until his 
death on the 19 th of April last, 
Mr. Darwin was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Society in 
1865. 
Of Mr. Darwin’s work, the influence it has already had, and the 
influence it is likely to have in time to come, it is almost impossible 
to form any estimate, and still more difficult is it for us to realise 
his personal character, and the loss we have sustained in his 
death ; for however great he was as a worker, he was still greater 
as a man. We have only to be reminded of the wonderful mani- 
festations of reverence and regard which followed the announcement 
of his death, to understand how universal has been his influence, 
and how keenly his work has been everywhere appreciated. As 
has been well said, in the “ memorial notices,” his wholly irreparable 
loss is “ not merely because of his wonderfully genial, simple, and 
generous nature, his cheerful and animated conversation, and the 
infinite variety and accuracy of his information, but because the 
more one knew of him, the more he seemed the incorporated ideal 
of a man of science ; ” and that it was not his great reasoning 
powers, vast knowledge, and tenacious industry “which impressed 
those who were admitted to his intimacy with involuntary venera- 
tion, but a certain intense almost passionate honesty by which 
all his thoughts and actions were irradiated as by a central fire 
