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Show 284 JJ.ARWINIAN.A. on1 y m· a s·m gl e I·nstance ' so far as .w e know, have they handled the same topic; and in thi~ th~ more ~enetratm. g m· s1· g ht of the younger naturalist m·t o ·a n m'fit ere· st- m· g· g enera1 prob lem may be appealed to m JUStl catwn 0 f a compan·s on which some will deem pres. umptu. ous. B e th1. s as I' t m ay, there will probab.l y .b e.l it.t le ilissent f rom the op·m i'o n that the ch.a rac.t enstw tr.a it commo.n t th t 0 is an unrivaled scientrfic sagamty. In tlus o e w h . h' these two naturalists seem to u~, ~ac . m IS way, pre- em.m ent . There is a characteristiC hken. ess, too-un- d er1 y m· g muc h di'fference-in their admuab1 e m.a nner of dealing with facts closely, and at £.rst han~, Without th interposition of the formal laws, vague Ideal con-cepe t1. 0ns,- or "0'1 :ttering generali· ti·e s " wh I'C h some ph I'l- 5 u osophical naturalists make large use of. . . A likeness may also be discerned m the way m h . h the works or contributions of predecessors and Wco nICte mporaries are referred to. The b n'e f hI' St ori.C a l summaries pre£.xed to many. of ~r. Brown's papers are models of judicial consCientiOusness. .And Mr. Darwin's evident delight at discovering that some one else has " said his good things before h~m," or has been on the verge of uttering them, seemmgl! equals that of makinO' the discovery himself. It remmds one of Goethe's i~sisting that his views in morphology must have been held before him and must be s?mewhere on record, so obvious did they appear to him. Considering the quiet and retired lives led ?Y both these men, and the prominent place they are hkely to occupy in the history of science, the contras~ betwel~: them as to contemporary and popular fame IS very.~ markable. While Mr. Brown was looked up ~o Wlt the greatest reverence by all the learned botl1.msts, he CHARLES DARWIN: A SKETCH. 285 was scarcely heard of by any one else; and out of bot. any he was unknown to science except as the discov. erer of the Brownian motion of minute particles, which discovery was promulgated in a privately-printed pam. phlet that few have ever seen. Although Mr. Darwin had been for twenty years well and widely known for his "Naturalist's Journal," his works on " Coral Isl. ands,'' on "Volcanic Islands," and especially for his researches on the Barnacles, it was not till about£.fteen years ago that his name became popularly famous. Ever since no scienti£.c name has been so widely spoken. Many others have had hypotheses or systems named after them, but no one else that we know of a department of bibliography. The nature of his latest researches accounts for most of the difference, but not for all. The Origin of Species is a fascinating topic, having interests an~ connections with every bl-anch of science, natural and moral. The investigation of rec. ondite affinities is very dry and special; its questions, · processes, and results alike-although in part generaUy presentable in the shape of morphology-are mainly, lik.e the higher mathematics, unintelligible except to those who make them a subject of serious study. They are especially so when presented in Mr. Brown's manner. Perhaps no naturalist ever recorded the results of his investigations in fewer words and with greater precision than Robert Brown: certainly no one ever took more pains to state nothing beyond the precise point in question. Indeed, we have sometimes fancied that he preferred to enwrap rather than to ex· plain his meaning; to put it into such a form that, unless you follow Solomon's injunctio:q. and dig for the wisdom as for bid treasure, you may hardly apprehend 13 |
