Excerpt from University of Arkansas Bulletin, Vol. 3: September, 1909 But interesting as it would be to discuss more fully those great principles we must hurry on. I should like tosay a word, however about a phase of evolution which is seldom discussed, and that is, the personality of Darwin. He was not only great in what he gave the world, but great in himself, and wholly unconsciously. Born to wealth he became great in spite of it and labored with a zeal and industry rar-ely equaled. He was a lifelong invalid, having inherited a weakness of the stomach that made him subject to severe illness upon protracted mental effort. That would have discouraged many men. It proved a burden, but in some respects an advantage since it forced him into a secluded quiet life congenial to high intellectual efforts. His patience was a remarkable characteristic. After beginning work upon his theories in 1837, accumulating all sorts of facts and observations, it was five years before he allowed himself to speculate upon the subject. It was seven years before he allowed himself to outline any conclusions. From that day on he pursued steadily the same object and not till after twenty-two years of incessant toil and research did he venture to give to the world his views in the form of a book. His diligence in searching for truth, his care in stating it, his courage in announcing conclusions which he must have known would bring down upon his head the censure and ridicule of the world all make him the master investigator that he was - the Baconian ideal. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.