For he had a singular humility, most notable and appealing in a man of such distinguished power and achievement. ‘A mind conspicuous for its powerful humility and strong gentleness,’ is Huxley’s vivid characterization.[278] Again and again he expresses distrust of his powers, sense of inadequacy and incompetence, keen consciousness of limitation. Such phrases as the following from the book on Orchids, are constantly recurring: ‘To any one with more knowledge than I possess, it would be an interesting subject to trace the gradations between the several species and groups of species in this great and closely-connected order.’[279] Sometimes the expression of humility is direct. ‘Any one with ordinary faculties, if he had _patience_ enough and plenty of time could have written my book.’[280] Sometimes there is a humorous assertion of the contrary which is quite as significant: ‘I should rather think there was a good chance of my becoming the most egotistical man in Europe. What a proud preëminence!’[281] Occasionally the profession of humility is so extreme, as in the sentence in regard to Owen, ‘The Londoners say he is mad with envy because my book has been talked about; what a strange man to be envious of a naturalist like myself, immeasurably his inferior!’[282] that critics disposed to find fault have discerned something of affectation in it. It is of the nature of the deepest humility always to expose itself to such accusations as this; but surely no one can study Darwin carefully, can be familiar with his work in all its aspects, and not set him down as one of the most sincerely humble spirits that ever lived. V This humility and feeling of his own incompetence made Darwin keenly alive to the difficulties connected with his great undertaking and gave him such a clear sense of them that at times he felt incapable of solving them at all. As he says in the sixth chapter of the ‘Origin’: ‘Long before the reader has arrived at this part of my work, a crowd of difficulties will have occurred to him. Some of them are so serious that to this day I can hardly reflect on them without being in some degree staggered.’[283]