My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

238 MY LIFEof the pall-bearers, along with nine of his most distinguishedfriends or admirers, among whom was J.Russell Lowell, as the representative of Americanscience and literature. Among the many obituarynoticesof Darwin, that by Huxley (in NaUire, of April27) is one of the shortest, most discriminating, andmost beautiful. It is published also in the secondvolume of his "Collected Essays." For those whohave not read this true and charming estimate of hisfriend, I may quote one passage :" One could notconverse with Darwin without being reminded ofSocrates. There was the same desire to find someone wiser than himself; the same belief in thesovereignty of reason ; the same ready humour ; thesame sympathetic interest in all the ways and worksof men. But instead of turning away from theproblems of nature as wholly insoluble, our modernphilosopher devoted his whole life to attacking themin the spirit of Heraclitus and Democritus, with resultswhich are as the substance of which their speculationswere anticipatory shadows."