Page:Carroll Lane Fenton - Darwin and the Theory of Evolution.djvu/62

regard to anyone but himself, and without prejudice on one side nor the other, that one must venture much to disagree with it. Those who will compare the accomplishments of the man with his estimate of himself will see that there is but slight discrepancy. As Carlyle admitted, Charles Darwin was honest and hard-working, and had an unbreakable allegiance to facts. He was not greatly gifted in some respects, and lost some of the gifts which he did possess in youth. On the other hand, he possessed in abundance certain talents which are scanty in the average run of men, and often nearly absent in those of genius. He was a tireless worker, with boundless enthusiasm for his labor. He was patient and fair, willing to see every side of every question, even though it caused delays that ran into years. He had a boundless curiosity along those lines in which he was interested, and an irrepressible desire to theorize. He believed in the efficiency of the human mind to solve great problems, yet he realized only too clearly the errors into which the human mind may fall when it becomes over-hasty in drawing conclusions. He worked carefully and honestly, without thought of the cheaper fame or the practical value of his discoveries. As he wrote his old teacher, Henslow, "I believe there exists, and I feel within me, an instinct for truth, or knowledge, or discovery, of something the same nature as the instinct of virtue, and that our having such an instinct is reason enough for scientific researches without any practical value ensuing from them." It was in this spirit, and with these abilities, that Charles Darwin labored, and it