Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. "Beagle" round the world. / by Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S., with a biographical introduction.

  • Charles Darwin
Date:
[1906]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. "Beagle" round the world. / by Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S., with a biographical introduction. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    themselves triumphs of perseverance, experiment, and thought. “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,” 1872; “Insectivorous Plants,” 1875; “The Effects of Cross and Self- Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom,” 1876; “The Different Forms of Flowers in Plants of the same Species,” 1877; “The Power of Movement in Plants,” 1880; “ Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms,” 1881; are monuments of toil, each yielding support to Darwin’s main theory, and including a multitude of observations and reflections of great interest in themselves. When it is remembered that they were the fruit of the labour of a man who could rarely work two hours at a time, who was subject to frequent attacks of sickness, indigestion, and other ailments, which made him practically an invalid for forty years, we cannot but be astounded at the results of his life-work. In personal character Darwin was most lovable, affectionate, and genial, ever ready to help students, ever ready to acknowledge others’ merits as greater than his own, ever prone to depreciate himself and despond about the value of his work. He was one who cheered and stimulated others, and set before them a char- acter of perfection in frankness, willingness to acknowledge and correct mistakes, and zeal for truth. All who candidly study his life will acknowledge the truth of his statement: “ I have never turned one inch out of my course to gain fame.” His death on April 19th, 1882, at Down, near Beckenham, was appro])riately followed by a public funeral in Westminster Abbey. G. T. B.