Those who wish to attain to some clear and definite solution of the
great problems which Mr. Darwin was the first person to set before us in
later times must base themselves upon the facts which are stated in his
great work, and, still more, must pursue their inquiries by the methods
of which he was so brilliant an exemplar throughout the whole of
his life. You must have his sagacity, his untiring search after the
knowledge of fact, his readiness always to give up a preconceived
opinion to that which was demonstrably true, before you can hope to
carry his doctrines to their ultimate issue; and whether the particular
form in which he has put them before us may be such as is finally
destined to survive or not is more, I venture to think, than anybody
is capable at this present moment of saying. But this one thing is
perfectly certain--that it is only by pursuing his methods, by that
wonderful single-mindedness, devotion to truth, readiness to sacrifice
all things for the advance of definite knowledge, that we can hope to
come any nearer than we are at present to the truths which he struggled
to attain.