New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-05-13
DARWIN'S FUNERAL.
rur CEREMONY AND THE COMPANY IN
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

tttoM 'ih LONDON, April 20.
Laid in death among his peers III Westminster
Abbey by the will of the intelligence OF the Naion
- ,ha ,smark Of pa1win's greatest pupil upon the
nn,,,l Of his master Undoubtedly that is true ac-
.on,, If the matter Professor Huxley knows, as we
Al, .nos. that the Dean of Westminster and the adj
xsers of the Dean gave willing assent TO the pro-
pcsal than Darwin's body should rest beneath
the arches OF st. Peters. But the Dean
was only the official mouthpece OF
the Nation. The solemnity of to-day
was appointed with one mind by all classes OF men,
by men of all creeds and schools of thought. vi re-
cent funerals in the Abbey, none has been moro
notable than this in circumstance and character
Perhaps few were ever known anywhere 10 WHICH
the sincere grief and reverence of greater NUMBER
of hiph-minded men and women lent deeper iln-
pressiveness-
-Four policemen guarded the closed gateway Ih'o
Deans Yard At the entrance to the cios'eIS' more
policemen; at each angle, at each doorway anu aV
the foot of the stairway leading mp to the Chapter
JJonse there were both police and officials of the
Abbey In company with friend, found my way
along this avenue of constables little past this
wednesday morning Everybody was expected to
show his ticket pretty frequently Similar precau-
tons were taken at the other entrances to the ADJ
hey The number of admissions Issued
was carefully restrcted-necessar1y so. suppose
and a rigid order was maintained In the
distribution of visitors throughout nave and alsies
and choir. There was much esgerness to be pres
ent and the precautions against rush OF the un-
privileged public were the usual ones. IL Tor no
other reason Westminster Abbey STANDS In neigh
borhood capable of pouring forth at any moment
The human contents of some of the oulest slums In
London
The hcur of the funeral was noon. Holders of
m orr
later than half-paSt IL. AT that hour
a company of perhaps 200 people had as
sembled The coffin was placed in the cloister
arcade through which lay the approach to the
cbapter house-a coffin of plain oak, one heard. but
of which all one could see was pail OF black Vei-
vet and thick wreaths of flowers. The passages OF
fbe Abbey. never well lighted on the best OF days
were obscure with the dull gray haze OF an air
soaked with moisture true London morning
no rain but the constant menace OF ram; no
rlimpse of sun between the soft masses OF ciond
hardly CLEAN of daylight through the lattlced
windows. or within the raygreen enclosure OF the
cOisteTs. or past the smoke-siaIheu uutlesSoS anu
pinnacles of the chapel.
Ones first look at the group in the chapter house
showed how brlliant-f one may use such word
was the company gathered to pay the last tribute
to Darwin. Some of the greatest names i'll England
belonged TO the men who clustered at the top of the
stems The ten nearest are the pallbearers; life
long friends and disciples of Darwin some of them
Mr. UuxIev. whose rcsolute face is sOftened by the
sense of double bereavement, by the
loss of his leader and his comrade; Sir
Joseph Hooker, Mr.. Spottiswoode, president OF the
ROYAL Society; Sir John Lubbock, the Duke OF
Devonshire the Duke of Argyll the American MIN
lister Lord Derby Mr. A. r. Wallace, and Canon
Farrar The last gives rise to the same rerec-
tions which come to everybody who thinks Tor
moment of the significance of the burial of Darwin
in Westminster Abbey. What has Darwin to do
with the Abbey or the Abbey with him3 What
Mace has digntary of the Church of England by
the coffin of the foremost man of science of his
age Dean Stanley used to say the Abbey was some
thing more than q Church, that 1t was the hitting
tomb OF the heroes of England-their reSting-place
and monument; and so it Is. England, or SO much
of ENGLAND az is modern and Liberal, would have
cried ont at the exclusion of Darwin from the ma
tional shrine. And | suppose we may take canon
Tarras presence and his share in the ceremonial as
mn act of personal homage and of ecclesiastical com
pensation, Ii is not twenty years since dlvines
of the Church of England mathematical Darwin
MS a heretic-tO use harsher term Her advocates
said then what a Roman Catholic advocate has said
since Darwin's death-that a capable OF invent
ing a theory that led straight to atheism must he
kuoye fool or both The relative intelligence OF the
devotees of the two Churches-of Rome and
of England-may be measured by the breadth
of their divergence to-day on this point
The Duke of Argyll, all orthodox as he is i'll re-
lirion has hold enough science to explain his
presence here. But what does Lord Salisbury
homage meant The terrible Marquis dabbles In
chemistry but he belongs to the middle ages none
the less and TO the party of political medl@vallsm.
His presence is perhaps honor to Darwin it is
~. 1. ,lf A<rr ord tlI
bury and the Canon the only distinguished per
sons whose presence at this sOemnty gave rise to
comment. At least three other members of the late
Lord Beaconsfeld's Cabinet there: Sir Stat
ford Northcote Sir Richard Cross, and Mr.. w. IL.
Smith Both the members of each of the two great
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, all four
Conservatives were among the mOurners FOR Darwin
This is no place for politics and still less for the
ologv but how happens 1t that Conservatism III
public life bestows this marked regard on the great
est Radical of the agef This is. as a German
writer has apuy said, Darwins century. what
makes If Darwins century if 1t be not the discovery
of a great principle or law. the truth of which can
nv no ingenuity be reconced with the theories al
frmcd Inv the Church, The staunchest defenders
of Church and State are nevertheless here-nay,
Oxford herself is here in the persons not only OF
her two members of Parliament but of her Chan
ceIor none other than Lord Salisbury himself) her
Vice Chancellor and the most brilliant OF her heads OF
colleges the Master of Balio-not few of her best
professors as well. Is this the Oxford
stepped in sentiment, whispering from her
towers the lost entertainments of the Middle Age,
the home of lost causes and forsaken beliefs and i'm
possible oyalties on which Mr.. Arnold pronounced
his imperishabe panegyrcf Again | say, 1t Is
honorable 10 these types and incarnations OF Tory
reverence for the past and Tory hatred OF the
future that they seek TINS to offer their tribute 10
Darwin But this is a tribute which is more than
token of homage: il is a token OF defeat, and the
visible sign of the ascendancy of the new over the