Only one year elapsed between the publication of the 'Descent of Man' and that of its next important successor, the 'Expression of the Emotions.' The occasion of this learned and bulky treatise1 in itself stands as an immortal2 proof of the conscientious3 way in which Darwin went to work to anticipate the slightest and most comparatively impertinent possible objections to his main theories. Sir Charles Bell, in one of the quaintly4 antiquated5 Bridgwater treatises6—those marvellous monuments of sadly misplaced teleological7 ingenuity—had maintained that man was endowed with sundry8 small facial muscles solely9 for the sake of expressing his emotions. This view was so obviously opposed to the belief in the descent of man from some lower form, 'that,' says Darwin, 'it was necessary for me to consider it;' and so he did, in a lengthy10 work, where the whole subject is exhaustively treated, and[Pg 156] Bell's idea is completely pulverised by the apt allegation of analogous11 expressions in the animal world. In his old age Darwin grew, in fact, only the more ceaselessly and wonderfully industrious13. In 1875, after three years of comparative silence, came the 'Insectivorous Plants,' a work full of minute observation on the habits and manners of the sundew, the butterwort, the Venus's fly-catcher, and the various heterogeneous14 bog-haunting species known by the common name of pitcher15 plants. The bare mass and weight of the facts which Darwin had collected for the 'Origin of Species' might well-nigh have stifled16 the very existence of that marvellous book: it was lucky that the premature17 publication of Wallace's paper compelled him to hurry on his 'brief abstract,' for if he had waited to select and arrange the whole series of observations that he finally published in his various later justificatory18 volumes, we might have looked in vain for the great systematic19 and organising work, which would no doubt have been 'surcharged with its own weight, and strangled with its waste fertility.' But the task that he himself best loved was to watch in minute detail the principles whose secret he had penetrated21, and whose reserve he had broken, working themselves out before his very eyes, naked and not ashamed—to catch Act?on-like the undraped form of nature herself in the actual process of her inmost being. He could patiently observe the red and slimy hair-glands of the drosera closing slowly and remorselessly round the insect prey22, and sucking from their bodies with sensitive tentacles23 the protoplasmic juices denied to its leaves by the poor and boggy24 soil, on which alone its scanty25 rootlets can[Pg 157] properly thrive. He could watch the butterwort curving round the edges of its wan26 green foliage27 upon the captured limbs of fly or aphis. He could note how the serried28 mass of finger-like processes in the utricles of the bladderwort slowly absorb organic matter from the larva of a gnat29, or the minute water-insects entangled30 within its living and almost animated31 lobster-pot. He could track the long line of treacherous32 honey-glands by which the sarracenia entices33 flies into the festering manure34-wells of its sticky pitchers35. The minuteness and skill of all his observations on these lesser36 problems of natural selection inevitably37 inspired faith among outsiders in the cautious judgment38 of the observer and experimenter; and day by day throughout his later years the evidence of the popular acceptance of his doctrine39, and of the dying away of the general ridicule40 with which it was first received by the unlearned public, was very gratifying to the great naturalist41.
A year later, in 1876, came the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom.' So far as regarded the world of plants, especially with respect to its higher divisions, this work was of immense theoretical importance; and it also cast a wonderful side-light upon the nature of that strange distinction of sex which occurs both in the vegetable and animal kingdom, and in each is the concomitant—one might almost say the necessary concomitant—of high development and complex organisation42. The great result attained43 by Darwin in his long and toilsome series of experiments on this interesting subject was the splendid proof of the law that cross-fertilisation produces finer and healthier offspring, while continuous self-fertilisation[Pg 158] tends in the long run to degradation45, degeneration, and final extinction46.
Here as elsewhere, however, Darwin's principle does not spring spontaneous, like Athene from the head of Zeus, a goddess full-formed, uncaused, inexplicable47: it arises gradually by a slow process of development and modification48 from the previous investigations50 of earlier biologists. At the close of the last century, in the terrible year of upheaval51 1793, a quiet German botanist52, Christian53 Konrad Sprengel by name, published at Berlin his long unheeded but intensely interesting work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers.' In the summer of 1789, while all Europe was ablaze54 with the news that the Bastille had been stormed, and a new era of humanity begun, the calm and peaceful Pomeranian observer was noting in his own garden the curious fact that many flowers are incapable55 of being fertilised without the assistance of flying insects, which carry pollen56 from the stamens of one blossom to the sensitive surface or ovary of the next. Hence he concluded that the secretion57 of honey or nectar in flowers, the contrivances by which it is protected from rain, the bright hues58 or lines of the corolla, and the sweet perfume distilled59 by the blossoms, are all so many cunning devices of nature to ensure fertilisation by the insect-visitors. Moreover, Sprengel observed that many flowers are of one sex only, and that in several others the sexes do not mature simultaneously60; 'so that,' said he, 'nature seems to intend that no flower shall be fertilised by means of its own pollen.' Indeed, in some instances, as he showed by experiments upon the yellow day lily, plants impregnated from their own stamens cannot be made to set[Pg 159] seed at all. 'So near,' says his able successor, Hermann Müller, 'was Sprengel to the distinct recognition of the fact that self-fertilisation leads to worse results than cross-fertilisation, and that all the arrangements which favour insect-visits are of value to the plant itself, simply because the insect-visitors effect cross-fertilisation!' As in most other anticipatory61 cases, however, it must be here remarked that Sprengel's idea was wholly teleological: he conceived of nature as animated by a direct informing principle, which deliberately62 aimed at a particular result; whereas Darwin rather came to the conclusion that cross-fertilisation as a matter of fact does actually produce beneficial results, and that therefore those plants which varied63 most in the direction of arrangements for favouring insect-visits were likely to be exceptionally fortunate in the struggle for existence against competitors otherwise arranged. It is just the usual Darwinian substitution of an efficient for a final cause.
Even before Sprengel, K?lreuter had recognised, in 1761, that self-fertilisation was avoided in nature; and his observations and experiments on intercrossing and on hybridism64 were largely relied upon by Darwin himself, to whom they suggested at an early period many fruitful lines of original investigation49. In 1799, again, Andrew Knight65, following up the same line of thought in England as Sprengel in Germany, declared as the result of his close experiments upon the garden pea, that no plant ever fertilises itself for a perpetuity of generations. But Knight's law, not being brought into causal connection with any great fundamental principle of nature, was almost entirely66 overlooked by the[Pg 160] scientific world until the publication of Darwin's 'Origin of Species,' half a century later. The same neglect also overtook Sprengel's immensely interesting and curious work on fertilisation of flowers. The world, in fact, was not yet ready for the separate treatment of functional67 problems connected with the interrelations of organic beings; so Knight and Sprengel were laid aside unnoticed on the dusty top bookshelves of public libraries, while the dry classificatory and systematic biology of the moment had it ail20 its own way for the time being on the centre reading-tables. So many separate and independent strands68 of thought does it ultimately require to make up the grand final generalisation which the outer world attributes in its totality to the one supreme69 organising intelligence.
But in the 'Origin of Species' itself Darwin reiterated70 and emphasised Knight's law as a general and all-pervading principle of nature, placing it at the same time on broader and surer biological foundations by affiliating71 it intimately upon his own great illuminating72 and unifying73 doctrine of natural selection. He also soon after rescued from oblivion Sprengel's curious and fairy-like book, showing in full detail in his work on orchids74 the wonderful contrivances by which flowers seek to attract and to secure the assistance of insects for the impregnation of their embryo75 seeds. In the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication76,' he further showed that breeding in-and-in diminishes the strength and productiveness of the offspring; while crossing with another stock produces, on the contrary, the best possible physical results in both directions. And now at last, in the 'Effects of[Pg 161] Cross and Self fertilisation,' he proved by careful and frequently repeated experiments that a constant infusion77 of fresh blood (so to speak) is essential to the production of the healthiest offspring. In the words of his own emphatic78 summing up, 'Nature abhors79 perpetual self-fertilisation.'
The immediate80 result of these new statements and this fresh rationale of Knight's law was to bring down Sprengel forthwith from the top shelf, where he had languished81 ingloriously for seventy years, and to set a whole school of ardent82 botanical observers working hard in the lines he had laid down upon the mutual83 correlations84 of insects and flowers. A vast literature sprang up at once upon this enchanting85 and long-neglected subject, the most eminent86 workers in the rediscovered field being Delpino in Italy, Hildebrand and Hermann Müller in Germany, Axel in Sweden, Lubbock in England, and Fritz Müller in tropical South America. Darwin found the question, in fact, almost taken out of his hands before he had time himself to treat of it; for Hildebrand's chief work was published as early as 1867, while Axel's appeared in 1869, both of them several years earlier than Darwin's own final essay on the subject in the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation.' No statement, perhaps, could more clearly mark the enormous impetus87 given to researches in this direction than the fact that D'Arcy Thompson, in his appendix to Müller's splendid work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers,' has collected a list of no less than eight hundred and fourteen separate works or important papers bearing on that special department of botany, almost all of them subsequent in date to the first publication[Pg 162] of the 'Origin of Species.' So widely did the Darwinian wave extend, and so profoundly did it affect every minute point of biological and psychological investigation.
Each of these later works of Darwin's consists, as a rule, of an expansion of some single chapter or paragraph in the 'Origin of Species;' or, to speak more correctly, of an arrangement of the materials collected and the experiments designed for that particular portion of the great projected encyclop?dia of evolutionism, of which the 'Origin of Species' itself was but a brief anticipatory summary or rough outline. Thus, the book on Orchids, published in 1862, is already foreshadowed in a part of the chapter on the Difficulties of the Theory of Natural Selection; the 'Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants' (1865) is briefly88 summarised by anticipation89 in the long section on Modes of Transition; the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication' (1868) consists of the vast array of pièces justificatives for the first chapter of the 'Origin of Species;' and the germ of the 'Cross and Self Fertilisation' (1876) is to be seen in the passage 'On the Intercrossing of Individuals' in Chapter IV. of the same work. It was well indeed that Darwin began by publishing the shorter and more manageable abstract; the half, as the wise Greek proverb shrewdly remarks, is often more than the whole; and a world that eagerly devoured90 the first great deliverance of the Darwinian principle, might have stood aghast had it been asked to swallow it piecemeal91 in such gigantic treatises as those with which its author afterwards sought thrice to vanquish92 all his foes93 and thrice to slay94 the slain95.[Pg 163]
Yet, with each fresh manifestation96 of Darwin's inexhaustible resources, on the other hand, the opposition97 to his principles grew feebler and feebler, and the universality of their acceptance more and more pronounced, till at last, among biologists at least, not to be a Darwinian was equivalent to being hopelessly left behind by the general onward99 movement of the time. In 1874 Tyndall delivered his famous address at the Belfast meeting of the British Association; and in 1877, from the same presidential chair at Plymouth, Allen Thomson, long reputed a doubtful waverer, enforced his cordial adhesion to the Darwinian principles by his inaugural100 discourse101 on 'The Development of the Forms of Animal Life.' A new generation of active workers, trained up from the first in the evolutionary102 school, like Romanes, Ray Lankester, Thistleton Dyer, Balfour, Sully, and Moggridge, had now risen gradually around the great master; and in every direction he could see the seed he had himself planted being watered and nourished in fresh soil by a hundred ardent and enthusiastic young disciples103. Even in France, ever irresponsive to the touch of new ideas of alien origin, Colonel Moulinié's admirable and sympathetic translations were beginning to win over to the evolutionary creed104 many rising workers; while in Germany, Victor Carus's excellent versions had from the very first brought in the enthusiastic Teutonic biologists with a congenial 'swarmery' to the camp of the Darwinians. Correspondents from every part of the world kept pressing fresh facts and fresh applications upon the founder105 of the faith; and Darwin saw his own work so fast being taken out of his hands by specialist disciples that he[Pg 164] abandoned entirely his original intention of publishing in detail the basis of his first book, and contented106 himself instead with tracing out minutely some minor107 portions of his contemplated108 task as specimens109 of evolutionary method.
In 1877, in pursuance of this changed purpose, Darwin published his book on 'Forms of Flowers,' in which he dealt closely with the old problem of differently shaped blossoms on plants of the same species. It had long been known, to take a single example, that primroses110 existed in two forms, the pin-eyed and the thrum-eyed, of which the former has the pin-like summit of the pistil at the top of the tube, and the stamens concealed111 half way down its throat; while in the latter these relative positions are exactly reversed, the stamens answering in place to the pistil of the alternative form with geometrical accuracy. As early as 1862 Darwin had shown, in the 'Journal of the Linnean Society,' that this curious arrangement owed its development to the greater security which it afforded for cross-fertilisation, because in this way each flower had to be impregnated with the pollen, from a totally distinct blossom, growing on a different individual plant. In a series of successive papers read before the same Society in the years between 1863 and 1868, he had extended a similar course of explanation to the multiform flowers of the flaxes, the loosestrifes, the featherfoil, the auricula, the buckbean, and several other well-known plants. At last, in 1877, he gathered together into one of the now familiar green-covered volumes the whole of his observations on this strange peculiarity113, and proved by abundant illustration and[Pg 165] experiment that the diversity of form is always due through natural selection to the advantage gained by perfect security of cross-fertilisation, resulting as it invariably does in the production of the finest, strongest, and most successful seedlings114. Any variation, however peculiar112, which helps to ensure this constant infusion of fresh blood is certain to be favoured in the struggle for life, owing to the superior vitality115 of the stock it begets116. But it is worthy117 of notice, as showing the extreme minuteness and exhaustiveness of Darwin's method on the small scale, side by side with his extraordinary and unusual power of rising to the very highest and grandest generalisations, that the volume which he devoted118 to the elucidation119 of this minor factor in the question of hereditary120 advantages runs to nearly as many pages as the last edition of the 'Origin of Species' itself. So great was the wealth of observation and experiment which he could lavish121 upon the solution of a single, small, incidental problem.
Even fuller in minute original research was the work which Darwin published in 1880, on 'The Power of Movement in Plants,' detailing the result of innumerable observations on the seemingly irresponsible yet almost purposive rotations122 of the growing rootlets and young stems of peas and climbers. Anyone who wishes to see on what a wide foundation of irrefragable fact the great biologist built up the stately fabric123 of his vast theories cannot do better than turn for instruction to this remarkable124 volume, which the old naturalist gave to the world some time after passing the allotted125 span of threescore years and ten.
It was in the same year (1880) that Huxley delivered[Pg 166] at the Royal Institution his famous address on the Coming of Age of the 'Origin of Species.' The time was a favourable126 one for reviewing the silent and almost unobserved progress of a great revolution. Twenty-one years had come and gone since the father of modern scientific evolutionism had launched upon the world his tentative work. In those twenty-one years the thought of humanity had been twisted around as upon some invisible pivot127, and a new heaven and a new earth had been presented to the eyes of seers and thinkers. One-and-twenty years before, despite the influence of Hutton and of Lyell, the dominant128 view of the earth's past history revealed but one vast and lawless succession of hideous129 catastrophes130. Wholesale131 creations and wholesale extinctions, world-wide cataclysms132 followed by fresh world-wide births of interwoven faunas133 and floras—these, said Huxley, were the ordinary machinery134 of the geological epic135 brought into fashion by the misapplied genius of the mighty136 Cuvier. One-and-twenty years after, the opponents themselves had given up the game in its fullest form as lost beyond the hope of possible restitution137. Some hesitating thinkers, it is true, while accepting the evolutionary doctrine more or less in its earlier form, like Mivart and Meehan, yet refused their assent138 on one ground or another to the specific Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Others, like Wallace, made a special exception with regard to the development of the human species, which they supposed to be due to other causes from those implied in the remainder of the organic scale. Yet on the whole, biological science had fairly carried the day in favour of evolution, in one form or another, and not even the cavillers dared now to suggest[Pg 167] that whole systems of creation had been swept away en bloc139, and remade again in different forms for a succeeding epoch140, in accordance with the belief which was almost universal among geologists141 up to the exact moment of the publication of Darwin's masterpiece.
During the twenty-one years, too, as Huxley likewise pointed142 out, an immense number of new facts had come to strengthen the hands of the evolutionists at the very point where they had before felt themselves most openly vulnerable. Pal143?ontology had supplied many of those missing links in the organic chain whose absence from the interrupted and imperfect geological record had been loudly alleged144 against the Darwinian hypothesis in the earlier days of struggle and hesitation145. Two years after the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' the discovery of a winged and feathered creature, happily preserved for us in the Solenhofen slates146, with lizard-like head and teeth and tail, and bird-like pinions147, feet, and breast, had bridged over in part the great gap that yawns between the existing birds and reptiles148. A few years later, new fossil reptilian149 forms, erect150 on their hind98 legs like kangaroos, and with very singular peculiarities151 of bony structure, had helped still further to show the nature of the modifications152 by which the scale-bearing quadruped type passed slowly into that of the feather-bearing biped. In 1875, again, Professor Marsh153's discovery of the toothed birds in the American cretaceous strata154 completed the illustrative series of transitional forms over what had once been the most remarkable existing break in the continuity of organic development. Similarly, Hofmeister's investigations in the vegetable world[Pg 168] brought close together the flowering and flowerless plants, by indicating that the ferns and the horsetails were connected in curious unforeseen ways, through the pill-worts and club-mosses, with the earliest and simplest of forest trees, the firs and the puzzle-monkeys. In minor matters like progress was continually reported on every side. Gaudry found among the fossils of Attica the successive stages by which the ancient and undeveloped civets passed into the more modern and specialised tribe of the hy?nas; Marsh traced out in Western America the ancestry155 of the horse from a five-toed creature no bigger than a fox, through intermediate four-toed and three-toed forms, to the existing single solid-hoofed type with its digits156 reduced to the minimum of unity157; and Filhol unearthed158 among the phosphorites of Quercy the common progenitor159 of the most distinct among the recent carnivores, the cats and the dogs, the plantigrade bears and the digitigrade pumas160. 'So far as the animal world is concerned,' Professor Huxley said in conclusion, reviewing these additions to the evidence upon that memorable161 occasion, 'evolution is no longer a speculation162 but a statement of historical fact.' Of Darwin himself he remarked truly, 'He has lived long enough to outlast163 detraction164 and opposition, and to see the stone that the builders rejected become the head-stone of the corner.'
It was in 1881 that Darwin published his last volume, 'The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms.' In this singularly fascinating and interesting monograph165 he took in hand one of the lowliest and humblest of living forms, the common earthworm, and by an exhaustive study of its habits[Pg 169] and manners strove to show how the entire existence of vegetable mould—the ordinary covering of fertile soil upon the face of the earth—is due to the long but unobtrusive action of these little-noticed and ever-active architects. By the acids which they evolve, they appear to aid largely in the disintegration167 of the stone beneath the surface; by their constant practice of eating fallen leaves, which they drag down with them into their subterranean168 burrows169, they produce the fine castings of soft earth, so familiar to everybody, and thus reinstate the coating of humus above the bare rock as often as it is washed away again in the course of ordinary denudation170 by the rain and the torrents171. It is true that subsequent investigation has shown the possibility of vegetable mould existing under certain conditions without the intervention172 of worms to any marked extent; but, as a whole, there can be little doubt that over most parts of the world the presence of soil, and therefore of the vegetable growth rooted in it, is entirely due to the unsuspected yet ceaseless activity of these humble166 creatures.
The germ of the earthworm theory appears to me to have been first suggested to Darwin's mind by a passage in a work where one would little have suspected it—White's 'Natural History of Selborne.' 'Earthworms,' says the idyllic173 Hampshire naturalist, 'though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable174 chasm175. For to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely176 without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering[Pg 170] it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves into it; and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts, which, being their excrement177, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably provide new soils for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth away; and they affect slopes, probably, to avoid being flooded. Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former, because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work; and the latter, because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But these men would find, that the earth without worms would soon become cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation; and, consequently, sterile178.'
If Darwin ever read this interesting passage, which he almost certainly must at some time have done, it would appear that he had overlooked it in later life; for he, who was habitually179 so candid180 and careful in the acknowledgment of all his obligations, however great or however small, does not make any mention of it at all in his 'Vegetable Mould,' though he alludes181 incidentally to some other observations of Gilbert White's on the minor habits and manners of earthworms. But whether Darwin was originally indebted to White or not for the foundation of his theory on the subject of mould, the important point to notice is really this, that what with the observant parson of Selborne was but a casual glimpse, the mere182 passing suggestion of a fruitful idea, became with Darwin, in his wider fashion, a carefully elaborated and powerfully buttressed183 theory, supported by long and patient investigation, ample[Pg 171] experiment, and vast collections of minute facts. The difference is strikingly characteristic of the strong point of Darwin's genius. While he had all the breadth and universality of the profoundest thinkers, he had also all the marvellous and inexhaustible patience of the most precise and special microscopical184 student.
For years, indeed, Darwin studied the ways and instincts of the common earthworm with the same close and accurate observation which he gave to every other abstruse185 subject that engaged in any way his acute intellect. The lawyer's maxim186, 'De minimis lex non curat,' he used to say, never truly applies to science. As early as the year 1837 he read a paper, before the Geological Society of London, 'On the Formation of Mould,' in which he developed with some fulness the mother idea of his complete theory on the earthworm question. He there showed that layers of cinders187, marl, or ashes, which had been strewn thickly over the surface of meadows, were found a few years after at a depth of some inches beneath the turf, yet still forming in spite of their burial a regular and fairly horizontal stratum188. This apparent sinking of the stones, he believed, was due to the quantity of fine earth brought up to the surface by worms in the form of castings. It was objected to his theory at the time that the work supposed to be accomplished189 by the worms was out of all reasonable proportion to the size and numbers of the alleged actors. Here Darwin's foot was on his native heath; he felt himself immediately on solid ground again. The cumulative190 importance of separately infinitesimal elements is indeed the very keynote and special peculiarity of the great biologist's method of thinking. He[Pg 172] had found out in very truth that many a little makes a mickle, that the infinitely191 small, infinitely repeated, may become in process of infinite years infinitely important. So he set himself to work, with characteristic contempt of time, to weigh and measure worms and worm-castings.
He began by keeping tame earthworms in flower-pots in his own house, counting the number of worms and burrows in certain measured spaces of pasture or garden, and starting his long and slow experiment in his field at Down already alluded192 to. He tried issues on their senses, on their instincts, on their emotions, on their intelligence; he watched them darting193 wildly like rabbits into their holes when alarmed from without, overcoming engineering difficulties in dragging down oddly-shaped or unfamiliar194 leaves, and protecting the open mouths of their tunnels from intruders with a little defensive195 military glacis of rounded pebbles196. He found that more than 53,000 worms on an average inhabit every acre of garden land, and that a single casting sometimes weighs as much as three ounces avoirdupois. Ten tons of soil per acre pass annually197 through their bodies, and mould is thrown up by them at an average rate of 22 inches in a century. Careful observations on the stones of Stonehenge; on the tiled floors of buried buildings; on Roman ruins at Silchester and Wroxeter, and on his own meadows and pastures at Down, finally enabled the cautious experimenter to prove conclusively198 the truth of his thesis, and to present to the world the despised earthworm in a new character, as the friend of man and of agriculture, the producer and maintainer of the vegetable mould on our hills or[Pg 173] valleys, and the prime cause of the very existence of that cloak of greensward that clothes our lawns, our fields, and our pleasure-grounds.
It was his last work. Persistent199 ill-health and equally persistent study for seventy-three years had broken down a constitution never really strong, and consumed from within by the ceaseless fires of its own overpowering and undying energy. On Tuesday, April the 18th, 1882, he was seized at midnight by violent pains, and at four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon he died suddenly in his son's arms, after a very short but painful illness. So retired200 was the family life at Down that the news of the great biologist's death was not actually known in London itself till two days after he had breathed his last.
The universal regret and grief expressed at the loss in all civilised countries was the best measure of the immense change of front which had slowly come over the whole educated community, in the twenty-three years since the first publication of the 'Origin of Species.' No sooner was Darwin's death announced than all lands and all classes vied with one another in their eagerness to honour the name and memory of the great biologist. Indeed, the spontaneous and immediate nature of the outburst of regret and affectionate regard which followed hard upon the news of Darwin's death, astonished even those who had watched closely the extraordinary revolution the man himself had brought so well to its final consummation. In England, it was felt instinctively201 on every side that the great naturalist's proper place was in the aisles202 of Westminster, hard by the tomb of Newton, his immortal predecessor203. To[Pg 174] this universal and deep-seated feeling Darwin's family regretfully sacrificed their own natural preference for a quiet interment in the graveyard204 at Down. On the Wednesday morning next after his death, Charles Darwin's remains205 were borne with unwonted marks, of respect and ceremony, in the assembled presence of all that was noble and good in Britain, to an honoured grave in the precincts of the great Abbey. Wallace and Huxley, Lubbock and Hooker, his nearest peers in the domain206 of pure science, stood among the bearers who held the pall207. Lowell represented the republics of America and of letters. Statesmen, and poets, and philosophers, and theologians mingled208 with the throng209 of scientific thinkers who crowded close around the venerated210 bier. No incident of fitting pomp or dignity was wanting as the organ pealed211 out in solemn strains the special anthem212 composed for the occasion, to the appropriate words of the Hebrew poet, 'Happy is the man that findeth wisdom.' Even the narrow Philistine213 intelligence itself, which still knew Darwin only as the man who thought we were all descended214 from monkeys, was impressed with the sole standard of greatness open to its feeble and shallow comprehension by the mere solemnity and ceremony of the occasion, and began to enquire215 with blind wonderment what this thinker had done whom a whole people thus delighted to honour.
Of Darwin's pure and exalted216 moral nature no Englishman of the present generation can trust himself to speak with becoming moderation. His love of truth, his singleness of heart, his sincerity217, his earnestness, his modesty218, his candour, his absolute sinking of self and selfishness—these, indeed, are all conspicuous219 to every[Pg 175] reader, on the very face of every word he ever printed. Like his works themselves, they must long outlive him. But his sympathetic kindliness220, his ready generosity221, the staunchness of his friendship, the width and depth and breadth of his affections, the manner in which 'he bore with those who blamed him unjustly without blaming them in return,' these things can never so well be known to any other generation of men as to the three generations who walked the world with him. Many even of those who did not know him loved him like a father; to many who never saw his face, the hope of winning Charles Darwin's approbation222 and regard was the highest incentive223 to thought and action. Towards younger men, especially, his unremitting kindness was always most noteworthy: he spoke224 and wrote to them, not like one of the masters in Israel, but like a fellow-worker and seeker after truth, interested in their interests, pleased at their successes, sympathetic with their failures, gentle to their mistakes. Not that he ever spared rightful criticism; on the contrary, the love of truth was with him so overpowering and enthralling225 a motive226 that he pointed out what seemed to him errors or misconceptions in the work of others with perfect frankness, fully12 expecting them to be as pleased and delighted at a suggested amendment227 of their faulty writing as he himself was in his own case. But his praise was as generous as his criticism was frank; and, amid all the toil44 of his laborious228 life in his study at Down, he could always find time to read and comment at full length upon whatever fresh contributions to his own subjects the merest tyro229 might venture to submit for his consideration. He had the sympathetic receptivity[Pg 176] of all truly great minds, and when he died, thousands upon thousands who had never beheld230 his serene231 features and his fatherly eyes felt they had lost indeed a personal friend.
Greatness is not always joined with gentleness: in Charles Darwin's case, by universal consent of all who knew him, 'an intellect which had no superior' was wedded232 to 'a character even nobler than the intellect.'
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
treatise
|
|
| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
immortal
|
|
| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
conscientious
|
|
| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
quaintly
|
|
| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
antiquated
|
|
| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
treatises
|
|
| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
teleological
|
|
| adj.目的论的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
sundry
|
|
| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
solely
|
|
| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
lengthy
|
|
| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
analogous
|
|
| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
industrious
|
|
| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
heterogeneous
|
|
| adj.庞杂的；异类的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
pitcher
|
|
| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
stifled
|
|
| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
premature
|
|
| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
justificatory
|
|
| 起辩护作用的，用以辩解的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
19
systematic
|
|
| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
ail
|
|
| v.生病，折磨，苦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
penetrated
|
|
| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
prey
|
|
| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
tentacles
|
|
| n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 )；触角；触须；触毛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
boggy
|
|
| adj.沼泽多的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
scanty
|
|
| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
wan
|
|
| (wide area network)广域网 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
foliage
|
|
| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
serried
|
|
| adj.拥挤的；密集的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
gnat
|
|
| v.对小事斤斤计较，琐事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
entangled
|
|
| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
animated
|
|
| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
treacherous
|
|
| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
entices
|
|
| 诱惑，怂恿( entice的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
manure
|
|
| n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
pitchers
|
|
| 大水罐( pitcher的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
lesser
|
|
| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
inevitably
|
|
| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
judgment
|
|
| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
doctrine
|
|
| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
ridicule
|
|
| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
naturalist
|
|
| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
organisation
|
|
| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
attained
|
|
| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
toil
|
|
| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
degradation
|
|
| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
extinction
|
|
| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
inexplicable
|
|
| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
modification
|
|
| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
investigation
|
|
| n.调查，调查研究 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
investigations
|
|
| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
upheaval
|
|
| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
botanist
|
|
| n.植物学家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
Christian
|
|
| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
ablaze
|
|
| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
incapable
|
|
| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
pollen
|
|
| n.[植]花粉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
secretion
|
|
| n.分泌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
hues
|
|
| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
distilled
|
|
| adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
simultaneously
|
|
| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
anticipatory
|
|
| adj.预想的，预期的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
deliberately
|
|
| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
varied
|
|
| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
hybridism
|
|
| n.杂种，杂交 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
65
knight
|
|
| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
functional
|
|
| adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
strands
|
|
| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
reiterated
|
|
| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
affiliating
|
|
| 使隶属于，接纳…为成员( affiliate的现在分词 )； 加入，与…有关，为…工作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
illuminating
|
|
| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
unifying
|
|
| 使联合( unify的现在分词 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
orchids
|
|
| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
embryo
|
|
| n.胚胎，萌芽的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
domestication
|
|
| n.驯养，驯化 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
infusion
|
|
| n.灌输 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
emphatic
|
|
| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
abhors
|
|
| v.憎恶( abhor的第三人称单数 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
immediate
|
|
| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
languished
|
|
| 长期受苦( languish的过去式和过去分词 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
ardent
|
|
| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
mutual
|
|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
correlations
|
|
| 相互的关系( correlation的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
enchanting
|
|
| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
eminent
|
|
| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
impetus
|
|
| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
anticipation
|
|
| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
devoured
|
|
| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
piecemeal
|
|
| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
vanquish
|
|
| v.征服，战胜；克服；抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
foes
|
|
| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
slay
|
|
| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
slain
|
|
| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
manifestation
|
|
| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
opposition
|
|
| n.反对，敌对 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
hind
|
|
| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
onward
|
|
| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
inaugural
|
|
| adj.就职的；n.就职典礼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
discourse
|
|
| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
evolutionary
|
|
| adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
disciples
|
|
| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
creed
|
|
| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
Founder
|
|
| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
contented
|
|
| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
minor
|
|
| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
contemplated
|
|
| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
specimens
|
|
| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
primroses
|
|
| n.报春花( primrose的名词复数 )；淡黄色；追求享乐（招至恶果） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
concealed
|
|
| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
peculiarity
|
|
| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
seedlings
|
|
| n.刚出芽的幼苗( seedling的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
vitality
|
|
| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
begets
|
|
| v.为…之生父( beget的第三人称单数 )；产生，引起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
devoted
|
|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
elucidation
|
|
| n.说明，阐明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
hereditary
|
|
| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
lavish
|
|
| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
rotations
|
|
| 旋转( rotation的名词复数 )； 转动； 轮流； 轮换 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
fabric
|
|
| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
allotted
|
|
| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
favourable
|
|
| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
pivot
|
|
| v.在枢轴上转动；装枢轴，枢轴；adj.枢轴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
dominant
|
|
| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
hideous
|
|
| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
catastrophes
|
|
| n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
wholesale
|
|
| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
cataclysms
|
|
| n.（突然降临的）大灾难( cataclysm的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
133
faunas
|
|
| 动物群 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
machinery
|
|
| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
epic
|
|
| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
restitution
|
|
| n.赔偿；恢复原状 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
assent
|
|
| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
bloc
|
|
| n.集团；联盟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
epoch
|
|
| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
geologists
|
|
| 地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
pal
|
|
| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
alleged
|
|
| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
hesitation
|
|
| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
slates
|
|
| （旧时学生用以写字的）石板( slate的名词复数 )； 板岩； 石板瓦； 石板色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
pinions
|
|
| v.抓住[捆住]（双臂）( pinion的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
reptiles
|
|
| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
reptilian
|
|
| adj.（像）爬行动物的；（像）爬虫的；卑躬屈节的；卑鄙的n.两栖动物；卑劣的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
erect
|
|
| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
peculiarities
|
|
| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
152
modifications
|
|
| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
marsh
|
|
| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
154
strata
|
|
| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
155
ancestry
|
|
| n.祖先，家世 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
156
digits
|
|
| n.数字( digit的名词复数 )；手指，足趾 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
157
unity
|
|
| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
158
unearthed
|
|
| 出土的（考古） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
159
progenitor
|
|
| n.祖先，先驱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
160
pumas
|
|
| n.美洲狮( puma的名词复数 )；彪马；于1948年成立于德国荷索金劳勒(Herzogenaurach)的国际运动品牌；创始人：鲁道夫及达斯勒。 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
161
memorable
|
|
| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
162
speculation
|
|
| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
163
outlast
|
|
| v.较…耐久 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
164
detraction
|
|
| n.减损；诽谤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
165
monograph
|
|
| n.专题文章，专题著作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
166
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
167
disintegration
|
|
| n.分散，解体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
168
subterranean
|
|
| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
169
burrows
|
|
| n.地洞( burrow的名词复数 )v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的第三人称单数 )；翻寻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
170
denudation
|
|
| n.剥下；裸露；滥伐；剥蚀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
171
torrents
|
|
| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
172
intervention
|
|
| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
173
idyllic
|
|
| adj.质朴宜人的，田园风光的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
174
lamentable
|
|
| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
175
chasm
|
|
| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
176
lamely
|
|
| 一瘸一拐地，不完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
177
excrement
|
|
| n.排泄物，粪便 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
178
sterile
|
|
| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
179
habitually
|
|
| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
180
candid
|
|
| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
181
alludes
|
|
| 提及，暗指( allude的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
182
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
183
buttressed
|
|
| v.用扶壁支撑，加固( buttress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
184
microscopical
|
|
| adj.显微镜的，精微的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
185
abstruse
|
|
| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
186
maxim
|
|
| n.格言，箴言 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
187
cinders
|
|
| n.煤渣( cinder的名词复数 )；炭渣；煤渣路；煤渣跑道 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
188
stratum
|
|
| n.地层，社会阶层 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
189
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
190
cumulative
|
|
| adj.累积的，渐增的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
191
infinitely
|
|
| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
192
alluded
|
|
| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
193
darting
|
|
| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
194
unfamiliar
|
|
| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
195
defensive
|
|
| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
196
pebbles
|
|
| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
197
annually
|
|
| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
198
conclusively
|
|
| adv.令人信服地，确凿地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
199
persistent
|
|
| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
200
retired
|
|
| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
201
instinctively
|
|
| adv.本能地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
202
aisles
|
|
| n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
203
predecessor
|
|
| n.前辈，前任 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
204
graveyard
|
|
| n.坟场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
205
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
206
domain
|
|
| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
207
pall
|
|
| v.覆盖，使平淡无味；n.柩衣，棺罩；棺材；帷幕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
208
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
209
throng
|
|
| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
210
venerated
|
|
| 敬重（某人或某事物），崇敬( venerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
211
pealed
|
|
| v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
212
anthem
|
|
| n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
213
philistine
|
|
| n.庸俗的人；adj.市侩的，庸俗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
214
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
215
enquire
|
|
| v.打听，询问；调查，查问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
216
exalted
|
|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
217
sincerity
|
|
| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
218
modesty
|
|
| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
219
conspicuous
|
|
| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
220
kindliness
|
|
| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
221
generosity
|
|
| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
222
approbation
|
|
| n.称赞；认可 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
223
incentive
|
|
| n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
224
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
225
enthralling
|
|
| 迷人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
226
motive
|
|
| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
227
amendment
|
|
| n.改正，修正，改善，修正案 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
228
laborious
|
|
| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
229
tyro
|
|
| n.初学者；生手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
230
beheld
|
|
| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
231
serene
|
|
| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
232
wedded
|
|
| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |