endeavoured, however imperfectly, to enable non-specialists to judge of the character and extent of this work, and of the vast revolution it has effected in our conception of nature,a revolution altogether independent of the question whether the theory of "natural selection" is or is not as important a factor in bringing about changes of animal and vegetable forms as its author maintained. Let us consider for a moment the state of mind induced by the new theory and that which preceded it. So long as men believed that every species was the immediate handiwork of the Creator, and was therefore absolutely perfect, they remained altogether blind to the meaning of the countless variations and adaptations of the parts and organs of plants and animals. They who were always repeating, parrot-like, that every organism was exactly adapted to its conditions and surroundings by an all-wise being, were apparently dulled or incapacitated by this belief from any inquiry into the inner meaning of what they saw around them, and were content to pass over whole classes of facts as inexplicable, and to ignore countless details of structure under vague notions of a "general plan," or of variety and beauty being "ends in themselves"; while he whose teachings. were at first stigmatised as degrading or even atheistical, by devoting to the varied phenomena of living things the loving, patient, and reverent study of one who really had faith in the beauty and harmony and perfection of creation, was enabled to bring to light innumerable hidden adaptations, and to prove that the most insignificant parts of the meanest living things had a use and a purpose, were worthy of our earnest study, and fitted to excite our highest and most intelligent admiration. That he has done this is the sufficient answer to his critics and to his few detractors. However much our knowledge of nature may advance in the future, it will certainly be by following in the pathways he has made clear for us; and for long years to come the name of Darwin will stand for the typical example of what the student of nature ought to be. And if we glance back over the whole domain of science, we shall find none to stand beside him as equals; for in him we find a patient observation and collection of facts, as in Tycho Brahe; the power of using those facts in the determination of laws, as in Kepler, combined with the inspirational genius of a Newton, through which he was enabled to grasp fundamental principles, and so apply them as to bring order out of chaos, and illuminate the world of life as Newton illuminated the material universe. Paraphrasing the eulogistic words of the poet, we may say, with perhaps a greater approximation to truth "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night; God said, 'Let Darwin be,' and all was light." INDEX ABBOTT, C. C., on American palæo- | Ampelidæ, sexual colouring and nidifi- in, 437 cation of, 126 Ancient races of North and South Andaman islands, pale butterflies of, white-marked birds of, 388 Andes, very rich in humming-birds, 323 Angræcum sesquipedale, 146 its fertilisation by a large moth, Animal colours, how produced, 357 and plants under domestication, Anisocerinæ, 66 mimicry of, 67 Anthrocera filipendulæ, 84 Aleutian islands, ancient shell mounds Anthropologists, wide difference of Allen, Mr. Grant, on protective colours of fruits, 398 Alpine flowers, why so beautiful, 403 Amadina, sexual colouring and nidifi- opinion among, as to origin of conflicting views of, harmonised, Antiquity of man, 167, 180 in North America, 433 Amboyna, large-sized butterflies of, Ants, wasps, and bees, 278 385 numbers of, in India and Malaya, American monkeys, 306 278, 283 Ants, destructive to insect-specimens, Barbets, 297 281 between, 284 Bark, varieties in tropical forests, 243 and vegetation, special relation Barometer, range of, at Batavia, 234 Apathus, 70 Apatura and Heterochroa, resemblance of species of, 384 Apes, 306 Apparent exceptions to law of colour and nidification, 133 quantity at Batavia and Clifton, Archæopteryx, 165 Archegosaurus, 165 Architecture of most nations deriva- Grecian, false in principle, 114 flowers and fruits brightly on danger of song and gay plum- Batavia, meteorology of, 219 and London, diagram of mean greatest rainfall at, 235 his observations on Leptalis and his paper explaining the theory on climate at the equator, 235 on animal life in Amazon valley, on abundance of butterflies at Ega, on importance of study of butter- on leaf-cutting ants, 282 on bird-catching spider, 291 on use of Toucan's bill, 298 on large serpents, 304 on the habits of humming-birds, Aspects of nature as influencing man's Bats, 307 Assai of the Amazon, 250 Audubon, on the ruby humming- Azara, on food of humming-birds, 320 BALANCE in nature, 32 Bamboos, 257 uses of, 258-262 Banana, 254 Bananas, wild, 254 Barber, Mrs., on colour changes of Bayma, Mr., on "Molecular Me- Beagle, Darwin's voyage in, 455 not universal, 155 of flowers useful to them, 155 abundance of, in new forest clear- probable use of horns of, 372 on aspects of tropical vegetation, 268 Belt, Mr., on leaf-cutting ants, 283 on uses of ants to the trees they on a leaf-like locust, 288 on the habits of humming-birds, on uneatable bright-coloured frog, on use of light of glow-worm, 374 Bill of humming-birds, 315 dull colour of females, 80 refusing the gooseberry cater- why peculiar nest built by each on instincts of newly-hatched, 109 how many known, 312 Bryophila glandifera and B. perla pro- Bucconidæ, sexual colouring and Buff-tip moth, resembles a broken Buildings of various races do not Bullock on food of humming-birds, Buprestidæ, resembling bird's dung, similar colours in two sexes, 80 Butterflies, abundance of, in tropical conspicuousness in tropical forests, colours and form of, 273 females do not choose their part- with gaily coloured females, 373 influence of locality on colours CACIA anthriboides, 67 of, 382 Cælogynes, 257 cases of local variation of colour Calamus, 249 among, 387 Bombus hortorum, 64 Bombycilla garrula, Bombylius, 69 Calaveras skull found in auriferous colours and California, auriferous gravels of, 442 Bonelli, Mr., on the Sappho comet Callithea markii, 274 humming-bird, 318 Brain of the savage but slightly less Callizona acesta, protective colouring of, 43 size of, an important element of Campylopterus of savage races larger than their of man and of anthropoid apes Broca, Professor Paul, on the fine nacious and ornamental, 380 Capnolymma stygium, 67 Carabidæ, special protection among, similar colouring of two sexes, 80 |