Mr. Charles Darwin was made Doctor of Laws by the
Univer- sity of Cambridge last Saturday, the public orator addressing him in a very neat Latin speech, which commemorated his father, his school (Shrewsbury), his Cambridge career, where he belonged, it seems, to Milton's College (Christ's), his study of the origin of the coral-reef, of the laws of human expression, of the fructifi- -cation of flowers by bees, of the fly-catching flower, of the modifica- tion of the different varieties of pigeons from the original stock, of 'the effect of bright plumage on the specific modifications of birds, and of the natural selection which explains our own like- mew to the ape. Further he commemorated the admirable lucidity -of Mr. Darwin as a naturalist, in describing and discussing the phenomena he had observed, and spoke in praise of the devotion of his youth to the studies which have enabled him to teach so 'well in his maturity. He ended with what is almost a pun, though a pun luckily which translates, by welcoming the illus- trious discoverer of the "Laws of Nature" to the Cambridge degree of "Doctor of Laws." Or has Cambridge really enlarged the sense in which it employs that degree, to include a proficient in the laws of nature as well as a proficient in the jurisprudence of man?
Previous page
