The Presidential Address. 
67 
distinguished from a museum-naturalist. It was during the 
five years’ cruise of the ‘ Beagle,’ of which the personal 
narrative w T as given to the world in his celebrated ‘ Naturalist’s 
Voyage,’ that the future philosopher was first led to ponder 
over those phenomena of living nature with which he w T as 
brought into contact, and which, as he tells us in the ‘ Origin 
of Species,’ induced him on his return to speculate on the 
great problem indicated in the title of that work. When in 
later life he continued his studies in this country, it was 
always living animals and plants that were appealed to when 
possible; his most important experiments and observations 
were made upon materials growing in his greenhouse or 
garden, or were collected from the surrounding country; and 
in his broader generalisations, which necessitated a wider 
survey of facts, he always made use of the observations of 
those to whom Nature had spoken face to face. Even when 
failing health compelled him to abandon the great literary 
undertakings which were promised to supplement the ‘ Origin 
of Species,’ he delighted in minute observation as a 
recreation. 1 To his friend and co-worker, Mr. A. R. Wallace, he 
once remarked :—“When I am obliged to give up observation 
and experiment, I shall die.” Nature was to Darwin a 
living, organically-connected whole; with him science did 
not begin and end with the accumulation of series of dried 
and labelled specimens. 
In spite of all that has been written for and against the 
Darwinian theory, it is surprising how much this doctrine is 
still misunderstood by the general public. Ask any non- 
scientific person what he imagines to be conveyed by the 
word “Darwinism,” and he will probably tell you that it is 
the theory that man is descended from a monkey, which is 
about as explicit as saying that the Newtonian theory of 
gravitation is something to do with an apple. Indeed I may 
1 The difficulties besetting the experimental investigator are forcibly 
recalled to my mind by a remark once made to me by Mr. Darwin. 
Speaking on this subject I said that Nature, when thus questioned, often 
gives an evasive answer, to which he replied, “ She will tell you a direct 
lie if she can.” 
