as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved...as soon as facts are
shown to be opposed to it." Writing to Mr J. Scott, he says, "It is a
golden rule, which I try to follow, to put every fact which is opposed to
one's preconceived opinion in the strongest light. Absolute accuracy is
the hardest merit to attain, and the highest merit. Any deviation is
ruin."

He acted strictly in accordance with his determination expressed in a
letter to Lyell in 1844, "I shall keep out of controversy, and just give my
own facts." As was said of another son of Cambridge, Sir George Stokes,
"He would no more have thought of disputing about priority, or the
authorship of an idea, than of writing a report for a company promoter."
Darwin's life affords a striking confirmation of the truth of Hazlitt's
aphorism, "Where the pursuit of truth has been the habitual study of any
man's life, the love of truth will be his ruling passion." Great as was
the intellect of Darwin, his character, as Huxley wrote, was even nobler
than his intellect.

A.C. SEWARD.

Botany School, Cambridge,
March 20, 1909.


CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO THE EDITOR from SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, O.M.

II. DARWIN'S PREDECESSORS:
J. ARTHUR THOMSON, Professor of Natural History in the University of