The following is an excerpt of an article that appears in the latest issue of Pique newsletter. It was written by Phil Appleman and reprinted from the May-June, 2006 issue of The Humanist magazine.
"Darwin on his deathbed could look back to forty-five years of devotion to a loving wife. Forty-five years of devotion to a grand idea. At the end he had one characteristic regret: that he could not somehow have lived two lives, so that one could have been spent in full-time philanthropic work. The mind is tyrannically ambitious; the flesh cannot keep pace with it. Still, Darwin was content: he had made his commitments, and he had kept them. In an often hostile and bewildering world, he had lived honestly and decently: Darwin understood that that is the only ‘Heaven’ we will ever know. And is the only one we need."

Bob