Abstract
IN the short address which ho delivered at the dedication of Darwin's home to the nation on June 7 (NATURE, June 8, p. 875), Sir Arthur Keith touched upon the relationship between sentiment and science. When sentiment enters a laboratory by the back door science takes the earliest opportunity to escape by the front, yet, since life is as it is, science cannot easily be cut adrift from personality. The value of such a gift as that which Mr. Buckston Browne has made to the British Association lies in the power of the personal associations of its material contents and surroundings to throw the visitor back into the very atmosphere of the century and of the place in which Darwin moved and thought. So a background of sentiment is formed which illumines and may help to interpret the development of the man—s mind and the direction of his labours. Down House is a memorial, not to Darwin's science, which will outlast our buildings, but to his personality. It is especially appropriate, therefore, that the donor should have expressed the wishes that the house and grounds should be maintained in a state as near as possible to that in which Darwin modelled them, and that they should be used to advance the cause of science, in ways in which the Council of the British Association thinks best. “If any place can provide inspiration for research it should be Darwin's own gardens.”
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[News and Views]. Nature 123, 919–923 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/123919a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/123919a0