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diff --git a/2010-0.txt b/2010-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0760ce8 --- /dev/null +++ b/2010-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2509 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, by Charles Darwin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: The Autobiography of Charles Darwin + From The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin + +Author: Charles Darwin + +Editor: [Charles Darwin’s son] Francis Darwin + +Release Date: December, 1999 [eBook #2010] +[Most recently updated: April 26, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Sue Asscher + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES DARWIN *** + + + + +THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF +CHARLES DARWIN + +From The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin + +By Charles Darwin + +Edited by his Son Francis Darwin + + +CONTENTS + +CAMBRIDGE 1828-1831. + “VOYAGE OF THE ‘BEAGLE’ FROM DECEMBER 27, 1831, TO OCTOBER 2, 1836.” + FROM MY RETURN TO ENGLAND (OCTOBER 2, 1836) TO MY MARRIAGE (JANUARY 29, 1839.) + FROM MY MARRIAGE, JANUARY 29, 1839, AND RESIDENCE IN UPPER GOWER STREET, TO OUR LEAVING LONDON AND SETTLING AT DOWN, SEPTEMBER 14, 1842. + RESIDENCE AT DOWN FROM SEPTEMBER 14, 1842, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1876. + MY SEVERAL PUBLICATIONS. + WRITTEN MAY 1ST, 1881. + + + + +[My father’s autobiographical recollections, given in the present +chapter, were written for his children,—and written without any thought +that they would ever be published. To many this may seem an +impossibility; but those who knew my father will understand how it was +not only possible, but natural. The autobiography bears the heading, +‘Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character,’ and end +with the following note:—“Aug. 3, 1876. This sketch of my life was +begun about May 28th at Hopedene (Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood’s house in +Surrey.), and since then I have written for nearly an hour on most +afternoons.” It will easily be understood that, in a narrative of a +personal and intimate kind written for his wife and children, passages +should occur which must here be omitted; and I have not thought it +necessary to indicate where such omissions are made. It has been found +necessary to make a few corrections of obvious verbal slips, but the +number of such alterations has been kept down to the minimum.—F.D.] + + +A German Editor having written to me for an account of the development +of my mind and character with some sketch of my autobiography, I have +thought that the attempt would amuse me, and might possibly interest my +children or their children. I know that it would have interested me +greatly to have read even so short and dull a sketch of the mind of my +grandfather, written by himself, and what he thought and did, and how +he worked. I have attempted to write the following account of myself, +as if I were a dead man in another world looking back at my own life. +Nor have I found this difficult, for life is nearly over with me. I +have taken no pains about my style of writing. + +I was born at Shrewsbury on February 12th, 1809, and my earliest +recollection goes back only to when I was a few months over four years +old, when we went to near Abergele for sea-bathing, and I recollect +some events and places there with some little distinctness. + +My mother died in July 1817, when I was a little over eight years old, +and it is odd that I can remember hardly anything about her except her +death-bed, her black velvet gown, and her curiously constructed +work-table. In the spring of this same year I was sent to a day-school +in Shrewsbury, where I stayed a year. I have been told that I was much +slower in learning than my younger sister Catherine, and I believe that +I was in many ways a naughty boy. + +By the time I went to this day-school (Kept by Rev. G. Case, minister +of the Unitarian Chapel in the High Street. Mrs. Darwin was a Unitarian +and attended Mr. Case’s chapel, and my father as a little boy went +there with his elder sisters. But both he and his brother were +christened and intended to belong to the Church of England; and after +his early boyhood he seems usually to have gone to church and not to +Mr. Case’s. It appears (“St. James’ Gazette”, Dec. 15, 1883) that a +mural tablet has been erected to his memory in the chapel, which is now +known as the ‘Free Christian Church.’) my taste for natural history, +and more especially for collecting, was well developed. I tried to make +out the names of plants (Rev. W.A. Leighton, who was a schoolfellow of +my father’s at Mr. Case’s school, remembers his bringing a flower to +school and saying that his mother had taught him how by looking at the +inside of the blossom the name of the plant could be discovered. Mr. +Leighton goes on, “This greatly roused my attention and curiosity, and +I enquired of him repeatedly how this could be done?”—but his lesson +was naturally enough not transmissible.—F.D.), and collected all sorts +of things, shells, seals, franks, coins, and minerals. The passion for +collecting which leads a man to be a systematic naturalist, a virtuoso, +or a miser, was very strong in me, and was clearly innate, as none of +my sisters or brother ever had this taste. + +One little event during this year has fixed itself very firmly in my +mind, and I hope that it has done so from my conscience having been +afterwards sorely troubled by it; it is curious as showing that +apparently I was interested at this early age in the variability of +plants! I told another little boy (I believe it was Leighton, who +afterwards became a well-known lichenologist and botanist), that I +could produce variously coloured polyanthuses and primroses by watering +them with certain coloured fluids, which was of course a monstrous +fable, and had never been tried by me. I may here also confess that as +a little boy I was much given to inventing deliberate falsehoods, and +this was always done for the sake of causing excitement. For instance, +I once gathered much valuable fruit from my father’s trees and hid it +in the shrubbery, and then ran in breathless haste to spread the news +that I had discovered a hoard of stolen fruit. + +I must have been a very simple little fellow when I first went to the +school. A boy of the name of Garnett took me into a cake shop one day, +and bought some cakes for which he did not pay, as the shopman trusted +him. When we came out I asked him why he did not pay for them, and he +instantly answered, “Why, do you not know that my uncle left a great +sum of money to the town on condition that every tradesman should give +whatever was wanted without payment to any one who wore his old hat and +moved [it] in a particular manner?” and he then showed me how it was +moved. He then went into another shop where he was trusted, and asked +for some small article, moving his hat in the proper manner, and of +course obtained it without payment. When we came out he said, “Now if +you like to go by yourself into that cake-shop (how well I remember its +exact position) I will lend you my hat, and you can get whatever you +like if you move the hat on your head properly.” I gladly accepted the +generous offer, and went in and asked for some cakes, moved the old hat +and was walking out of the shop, when the shopman made a rush at me, so +I dropped the cakes and ran for dear life, and was astonished by being +greeted with shouts of laughter by my false friend Garnett. + +I can say in my own favour that I was as a boy humane, but I owed this +entirely to the instruction and example of my sisters. I doubt indeed +whether humanity is a natural or innate quality. I was very fond of +collecting eggs, but I never took more than a single egg out of a +bird’s nest, except on one single occasion, when I took all, not for +their value, but from a sort of bravado. + +I had a strong taste for angling, and would sit for any number of hours +on the bank of a river or pond watching the float; when at Maer (The +house of his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood.) I was told that I could kill the +worms with salt and water, and from that day I never spitted a living +worm, though at the expense probably of some loss of success. + +Once as a very little boy whilst at the day school, or before that +time, I acted cruelly, for I beat a puppy, I believe, simply from +enjoying the sense of power; but the beating could not have been +severe, for the puppy did not howl, of which I feel sure, as the spot +was near the house. This act lay heavily on my conscience, as is shown +by my remembering the exact spot where the crime was committed. It +probably lay all the heavier from my love of dogs being then, and for a +long time afterwards, a passion. Dogs seemed to know this, for I was an +adept in robbing their love from their masters. + +I remember clearly only one other incident during this year whilst at +Mr. Case’s daily school,—namely, the burial of a dragoon soldier; and +it is surprising how clearly I can still see the horse with the man’s +empty boots and carbine suspended to the saddle, and the firing over +the grave. This scene deeply stirred whatever poetic fancy there was in +me. + +In the summer of 1818 I went to Dr. Butler’s great school in +Shrewsbury, and remained there for seven years till Midsummer 1825, +when I was sixteen years old. I boarded at this school, so that I had +the great advantage of living the life of a true schoolboy; but as the +distance was hardly more than a mile to my home, I very often ran there +in the longer intervals between the callings over and before locking up +at night. This, I think, was in many ways advantageous to me by keeping +up home affections and interests. I remember in the early part of my +school life that I often had to run very quickly to be in time, and +from being a fleet runner was generally successful; but when in doubt I +prayed earnestly to God to help me, and I well remember that I +attributed my success to the prayers and not to my quick running, and +marvelled how generally I was aided. + +I have heard my father and elder sister say that I had, as a very young +boy, a strong taste for long solitary walks; but what I thought about I +know not. I often became quite absorbed, and once, whilst returning to +school on the summit of the old fortifications round Shrewsbury, which +had been converted into a public foot-path with no parapet on one side, +I walked off and fell to the ground, but the height was only seven or +eight feet. Nevertheless the number of thoughts which passed through my +mind during this very short, but sudden and wholly unexpected fall, was +astonishing, and seem hardly compatible with what physiologists have, I +believe, proved about each thought requiring quite an appreciable +amount of time. + +Nothing could have been worse for the development of my mind than Dr. +Butler’s school, as it was strictly classical, nothing else being +taught, except a little ancient geography and history. The school as a +means of education to me was simply a blank. During my whole life I +have been singularly incapable of mastering any language. Especial +attention was paid to verse-making, and this I could never do well. I +had many friends, and got together a good collection of old verses, +which by patching together, sometimes aided by other boys, I could work +into any subject. Much attention was paid to learning by heart the +lessons of the previous day; this I could effect with great facility, +learning forty or fifty lines of Virgil or Homer, whilst I was in +morning chapel; but this exercise was utterly useless, for every verse +was forgotten in forty-eight hours. I was not idle, and with the +exception of versification, generally worked conscientiously at my +classics, not using cribs. The sole pleasure I ever received from such +studies, was from some of the odes of Horace, which I admired greatly. + +When I left the school I was for my age neither high nor low in it; and +I believe that I was considered by all my masters and by my father as a +very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard in intellect. To my +deep mortification my father once said to me, “You care for nothing but +shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to +yourself and all your family.” But my father, who was the kindest man I +ever knew and whose memory I love with all my heart, must have been +angry and somewhat unjust when he used such words. + +Looking back as well as I can at my character during my school life, +the only qualities which at this period promised well for the future, +were, that I had strong and diversified tastes, much zeal for whatever +interested me, and a keen pleasure in understanding any complex subject +or thing. I was taught Euclid by a private tutor, and I distinctly +remember the intense satisfaction which the clear geometrical proofs +gave me. I remember, with equal distinctness, the delight which my +uncle gave me (the father of Francis Galton) by explaining the +principle of the vernier of a barometer with respect to diversified +tastes, independently of science, I was fond of reading various books, +and I used to sit for hours reading the historical plays of +Shakespeare, generally in an old window in the thick walls of the +school. I read also other poetry, such as Thomson’s ‘Seasons,’ and the +recently published poems of Byron and Scott. I mention this because +later in life I wholly lost, to my great regret, all pleasure from +poetry of any kind, including Shakespeare. In connection with pleasure +from poetry, I may add that in 1822 a vivid delight in scenery was +first awakened in my mind, during a riding tour on the borders of +Wales, and this has lasted longer than any other aesthetic pleasure. + +Early in my school days a boy had a copy of the ‘Wonders of the World,’ +which I often read, and disputed with other boys about the veracity of +some of the statements; and I believe that this book first gave me a +wish to travel in remote countries, which was ultimately fulfilled by +the voyage of the “Beagle”. In the latter part of my school life I +became passionately fond of shooting; I do not believe that any one +could have shown more zeal for the most holy cause than I did for +shooting birds. How well I remember killing my first snipe, and my +excitement was so great that I had much difficulty in reloading my gun +from the trembling of my hands. This taste long continued, and I became +a very good shot. When at Cambridge I used to practise throwing up my +gun to my shoulder before a looking-glass to see that I threw it up +straight. Another and better plan was to get a friend to wave about a +lighted candle, and then to fire at it with a cap on the nipple, and if +the aim was accurate the little puff of air would blow out the candle. +The explosion of the cap caused a sharp crack, and I was told that the +tutor of the college remarked, “What an extraordinary thing it is, Mr. +Darwin seems to spend hours in cracking a horse-whip in his room, for I +often hear the crack when I pass under his windows.” + +I had many friends amongst the schoolboys, whom I loved dearly, and I +think that my disposition was then very affectionate. + +With respect to science, I continued collecting minerals with much +zeal, but quite unscientifically—all that I cared about was a +new-_named_ mineral, and I hardly attempted to classify them. I must +have observed insects with some little care, for when ten years old +(1819) I went for three weeks to Plas Edwards on the sea-coast in +Wales, I was very much interested and surprised at seeing a large black +and scarlet Hemipterous insect, many moths (Zygaena), and a Cicindela +which are not found in Shropshire. I almost made up my mind to begin +collecting all the insects which I could find dead, for on consulting +my sister I concluded that it was not right to kill insects for the +sake of making a collection. From reading White’s ‘Selborne,’ I took +much pleasure in watching the habits of birds, and even made notes on +the subject. In my simplicity I remember wondering why every gentleman +did not become an ornithologist. + +Towards the close of my school life, my brother worked hard at +chemistry, and made a fair laboratory with proper apparatus in the +tool-house in the garden, and I was allowed to aid him as a servant in +most of his experiments. He made all the gases and many compounds, and +I read with great care several books on chemistry, such as Henry and +Parkes’ ‘Chemical Catechism.’ The subject interested me greatly, and we +often used to go on working till rather late at night. This was the +best part of my education at school, for it showed me practically the +meaning of experimental science. The fact that we worked at chemistry +somehow got known at school, and as it was an unprecedented fact, I was +nicknamed “Gas.” I was also once publicly rebuked by the head-master, +Dr. Butler, for thus wasting my time on such useless subjects; and he +called me very unjustly a “poco curante,” and as I did not understand +what he meant, it seemed to me a fearful reproach. + +As I was doing no good at school, my father wisely took me away at a +rather earlier age than usual, and sent me (Oct. 1825) to Edinburgh +University with my brother, where I stayed for two years or sessions. +My brother was completing his medical studies, though I do not believe +he ever really intended to practise, and I was sent there to commence +them. But soon after this period I became convinced from various small +circumstances that my father would leave me property enough to subsist +on with some comfort, though I never imagined that I should be so rich +a man as I am; but my belief was sufficient to check any strenuous +efforts to learn medicine. + +The instruction at Edinburgh was altogether by lectures, and these were +intolerably dull, with the exception of those on chemistry by Hope; but +to my mind there are no advantages and many disadvantages in lectures +compared with reading. Dr. Duncan’s lectures on Materia Medica at 8 +o’clock on a winter’s morning are something fearful to remember. Dr.—— +made his lectures on human anatomy as dull as he was himself, and the +subject disgusted me. It has proved one of the greatest evils in my +life that I was not urged to practise dissection, for I should soon +have got over my disgust; and the practice would have been invaluable +for all my future work. This has been an irremediable evil, as well as +my incapacity to draw. I also attended regularly the clinical wards in +the hospital. Some of the cases distressed me a good deal, and I still +have vivid pictures before me of some of them; but I was not so foolish +as to allow this to lessen my attendance. I cannot understand why this +part of my medical course did not interest me in a greater degree; for +during the summer before coming to Edinburgh I began attending some of +the poor people, chiefly children and women in Shrewsbury: I wrote down +as full an account as I could of the case with all the symptoms, and +read them aloud to my father, who suggested further inquiries and +advised me what medicines to give, which I made up myself. At one time +I had at least a dozen patients, and I felt a keen interest in the +work. My father, who was by far the best judge of character whom I ever +knew, declared that I should make a successful physician,—meaning by +this one who would get many patients. He maintained that the chief +element of success was exciting confidence; but what he saw in me which +convinced him that I should create confidence I know not. I also +attended on two occasions the operating theatre in the hospital at +Edinburgh, and saw two very bad operations, one on a child, but I +rushed away before they were completed. Nor did I ever attend again, +for hardly any inducement would have been strong enough to make me do +so; this being long before the blessed days of chloroform. The two +cases fairly haunted me for many a long year. + +My brother stayed only one year at the University, so that during the +second year I was left to my own resources; and this was an advantage, +for I became well acquainted with several young men fond of natural +science. One of these was Ainsworth, who afterwards published his +travels in Assyria; he was a Wernerian geologist, and knew a little +about many subjects. Dr. Coldstream was a very different young man, +prim, formal, highly religious, and most kind-hearted; he afterwards +published some good zoological articles. A third young man was Hardie, +who would, I think, have made a good botanist, but died early in India. +Lastly, Dr. Grant, my senior by several years, but how I became +acquainted with him I cannot remember; he published some first-rate +zoological papers, but after coming to London as Professor in +University College, he did nothing more in science, a fact which has +always been inexplicable to me. I knew him well; he was dry and formal +in manner, with much enthusiasm beneath this outer crust. He one day, +when we were walking together, burst forth in high admiration of +Lamarck and his views on evolution. I listened in silent astonishment, +and as far as I can judge without any effect on my mind. I had +previously read the ‘Zoonomia’ of my grandfather, in which similar +views are maintained, but without producing any effect on me. +Nevertheless it is probable that the hearing rather early in life such +views maintained and praised may have favoured my upholding them under +a different form in my ‘Origin of Species.’ At this time I admired +greatly the ‘Zoonomia;’ but on reading it a second time after an +interval of ten or fifteen years, I was much disappointed; the +proportion of speculation being so large to the facts given. + +Drs. Grant and Coldstream attended much to marine Zoology, and I often +accompanied the former to collect animals in the tidal pools, which I +dissected as well as I could. I also became friends with some of the +Newhaven fishermen, and sometimes accompanied them when they trawled +for oysters, and thus got many specimens. But from not having had any +regular practice in dissection, and from possessing only a wretched +microscope, my attempts were very poor. Nevertheless I made one +interesting little discovery, and read, about the beginning of the year +1826, a short paper on the subject before the Plinian Society. This was +that the so-called ova of Flustra had the power of independent movement +by means of cilia, and were in fact larvae. In another short paper I +showed that the little globular bodies which had been supposed to be +the young state of Fucus loreus were the egg-cases of the wormlike +Pontobdella muricata. + +The Plinian Society was encouraged and, I believe, founded by Professor +Jameson: it consisted of students and met in an underground room in the +University for the sake of reading papers on natural science and +discussing them. I used regularly to attend, and the meetings had a +good effect on me in stimulating my zeal and giving me new congenial +acquaintances. One evening a poor young man got up, and after +stammering for a prodigious length of time, blushing crimson, he at +last slowly got out the words, “Mr. President, I have forgotten what I +was going to say.” The poor fellow looked quite overwhelmed, and all +the members were so surprised that no one could think of a word to say +to cover his confusion. The papers which were read to our little +society were not printed, so that I had not the satisfaction of seeing +my paper in print; but I believe Dr. Grant noticed my small discovery +in his excellent memoir on Flustra. + +I was also a member of the Royal Medical Society, and attended pretty +regularly; but as the subjects were exclusively medical, I did not much +care about them. Much rubbish was talked there, but there were some +good speakers, of whom the best was the present Sir J. +Kay-Shuttleworth. Dr. Grant took me occasionally to the meetings of the +Wernerian Society, where various papers on natural history were read, +discussed, and afterwards published in the ‘Transactions.’ I heard +Audubon deliver there some interesting discourses on the habits of N. +American birds, sneering somewhat unjustly at Waterton. By the way, a +negro lived in Edinburgh, who had travelled with Waterton, and gained +his livelihood by stuffing birds, which he did excellently: he gave me +lessons for payment, and I used often to sit with him, for he was a +very pleasant and intelligent man. + +Mr. Leonard Horner also took me once to a meeting of the Royal Society +of Edinburgh, where I saw Sir Walter Scott in the chair as President, +and he apologised to the meeting as not feeling fitted for such a +position. I looked at him and at the whole scene with some awe and +reverence, and I think it was owing to this visit during my youth, and +to my having attended the Royal Medical Society, that I felt the honour +of being elected a few years ago an honorary member of both these +Societies, more than any other similar honour. If I had been told at +that time that I should one day have been thus honoured, I declare that +I should have thought it as ridiculous and improbable, as if I had been +told that I should be elected King of England. + +During my second year at Edinburgh I attended ——’s lectures on Geology +and Zoology, but they were incredibly dull. The sole effect they +produced on me was the determination never as long as I lived to read a +book on Geology, or in any way to study the science. Yet I feel sure +that I was prepared for a philosophical treatment of the subject; for +an old Mr. Cotton in Shropshire, who knew a good deal about rocks, had +pointed out to me two or three years previously a well-known large +erratic boulder in the town of Shrewsbury, called the “bell-stone”; he +told me that there was no rock of the same kind nearer than Cumberland +or Scotland, and he solemnly assured me that the world would come to an +end before any one would be able to explain how this stone came where +it now lay. This produced a deep impression on me, and I meditated over +this wonderful stone. So that I felt the keenest delight when I first +read of the action of icebergs in transporting boulders, and I gloried +in the progress of Geology. Equally striking is the fact that I, though +now only sixty-seven years old, heard the Professor, in a field lecture +at Salisbury Craigs, discoursing on a trapdyke, with amygdaloidal +margins and the strata indurated on each side, with volcanic rocks all +around us, say that it was a fissure filled with sediment from above, +adding with a sneer that there were men who maintained that it had been +injected from beneath in a molten condition. When I think of this +lecture, I do not wonder that I determined never to attend to Geology. + +From attending ——’s lectures, I became acquainted with the curator of +the museum, Mr. Macgillivray, who afterwards published a large and +excellent book on the birds of Scotland. I had much interesting +natural-history talk with him, and he was very kind to me. He gave me +some rare shells, for I at that time collected marine mollusca, but +with no great zeal. + +My summer vacations during these two years were wholly given up to +amusements, though I always had some book in hand, which I read with +interest. During the summer of 1826 I took a long walking tour with two +friends with knapsacks on our backs through North Wales. We walked +thirty miles most days, including one day the ascent of Snowdon. I also +went with my sister a riding tour in North Wales, a servant with +saddle-bags carrying our clothes. The autumns were devoted to shooting +chiefly at Mr. Owen’s, at Woodhouse, and at my Uncle Jos’s (Josiah +Wedgwood, the son of the founder of the Etruria Works.) at Maer. My +zeal was so great that I used to place my shooting-boots open by my +bed-side when I went to bed, so as not to lose half a minute in putting +them on in the morning; and on one occasion I reached a distant part of +the Maer estate, on the 20th of August for black-game shooting, before +I could see: I then toiled on with the game-keeper the whole day +through thick heath and young Scotch firs. + +I kept an exact record of every bird which I shot throughout the whole +season. One day when shooting at Woodhouse with Captain Owen, the +eldest son, and Major Hill, his cousin, afterwards Lord Berwick, both +of whom I liked very much, I thought myself shamefully used, for every +time after I had fired and thought that I had killed a bird, one of the +two acted as if loading his gun, and cried out, “You must not count +that bird, for I fired at the same time,” and the gamekeeper, +perceiving the joke, backed them up. After some hours they told me the +joke, but it was no joke to me, for I had shot a large number of birds, +but did not know how many, and could not add them to my list, which I +used to do by making a knot in a piece of string tied to a button-hole. +This my wicked friends had perceived. + +How I did enjoy shooting! But I think that I must have been +half-consciously ashamed of my zeal, for I tried to persuade myself +that shooting was almost an intellectual employment; it required so +much skill to judge where to find most game and to hunt the dogs well. + +One of my autumnal visits to Maer in 1827 was memorable from meeting +there Sir J. Mackintosh, who was the best converser I ever listened to. +I heard afterwards with a glow of pride that he had said, “There is +something in that young man that interests me.” This must have been +chiefly due to his perceiving that I listened with much interest to +everything which he said, for I was as ignorant as a pig about his +subjects of history, politics, and moral philosophy. To hear of praise +from an eminent person, though no doubt apt or certain to excite +vanity, is, I think, good for a young man, as it helps to keep him in +the right course. + +My visits to Maer during these two or three succeeding years were quite +delightful, independently of the autumnal shooting. Life there was +perfectly free; the country was very pleasant for walking or riding; +and in the evening there was much very agreeable conversation, not so +personal as it generally is in large family parties, together with +music. In the summer the whole family used often to sit on the steps of +the old portico, with the flower-garden in front, and with the steep +wooded bank opposite the house reflected in the lake, with here and +there a fish rising or a water-bird paddling about. Nothing has left a +more vivid picture on my mind than these evenings at Maer. I was also +attached to and greatly revered my Uncle Jos; he was silent and +reserved, so as to be a rather awful man; but he sometimes talked +openly with me. He was the very type of an upright man, with the +clearest judgment. I do not believe that any power on earth could have +made him swerve an inch from what he considered the right course. I +used to apply to him in my mind the well-known ode of Horace, now +forgotten by me, in which the words “nec vultus tyranni,* etc.,” come +in. + +* Justum et tenacem propositi virum +Non civium ardor prava jubentium +Non vultus instantis tyranni +Mente quatit solida. + + + + +CAMBRIDGE 1828-1831. + + +After having spent two sessions in Edinburgh, my father perceived, or +he heard from my sisters, that I did not like the thought of being a +physician, so he proposed that I should become a clergyman. He was very +properly vehement against my turning into an idle sporting man, which +then seemed my probable destination. I asked for some time to consider, +as from what little I had heard or thought on the subject I had +scruples about declaring my belief in all the dogmas of the Church of +England; though otherwise I liked the thought of being a country +clergyman. Accordingly I read with care ‘Pearson on the Creed,’ and a +few other books on divinity; and as I did not then in the least doubt +the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible, I soon +persuaded myself that our Creed must be fully accepted. + +Considering how fiercely I have been attacked by the orthodox, it seems +ludicrous that I once intended to be a clergyman. Nor was this +intention and my father’s wish ever formerly given up, but died a +natural death when, on leaving Cambridge, I joined the “Beagle” as +naturalist. If the phrenologists are to be trusted, I was well fitted +in one respect to be a clergyman. A few years ago the secretaries of a +German psychological society asked me earnestly by letter for a +photograph of myself; and some time afterwards I received the +proceedings of one of the meetings, in which it seemed that the shape +of my head had been the subject of a public discussion, and one of the +speakers declared that I had the bump of reverence developed enough for +ten priests. + +As it was decided that I should be a clergyman, it was necessary that I +should go to one of the English universities and take a degree; but as +I had never opened a classical book since leaving school, I found to my +dismay, that in the two intervening years I had actually forgotten, +incredible as it may appear, almost everything which I had learnt, even +to some few of the Greek letters. I did not therefore proceed to +Cambridge at the usual time in October, but worked with a private tutor +in Shrewsbury, and went to Cambridge after the Christmas vacation, +early in 1828. I soon recovered my school standard of knowledge, and +could translate easy Greek books, such as Homer and the Greek +Testament, with moderate facility. + +During the three years which I spent at Cambridge my time was wasted, +as far as the academical studies were concerned, as completely as at +Edinburgh and at school. I attempted mathematics, and even went during +the summer of 1828 with a private tutor (a very dull man) to Barmouth, +but I got on very slowly. The work was repugnant to me, chiefly from my +not being able to see any meaning in the early steps in algebra. This +impatience was very foolish, and in after years I have deeply regretted +that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of +the great leading principles of mathematics, for men thus endowed seem +to have an extra sense. But I do not believe that I should ever have +succeeded beyond a very low grade. With respect to Classics I did +nothing except attend a few compulsory college lectures, and the +attendance was almost nominal. In my second year I had to work for a +month or two to pass the Little-Go, which I did easily. Again, in my +last year I worked with some earnestness for my final degree of B.A., +and brushed up my Classics, together with a little Algebra and Euclid, +which latter gave me much pleasure, as it did at school. In order to +pass the B.A. examination, it was also necessary to get up Paley’s +‘Evidences of Christianity,’ and his ‘Moral Philosophy.’ This was done +in a thorough manner, and I am convinced that I could have written out +the whole of the ‘Evidences’ with perfect correctness, but not of +course in the clear language of Paley. The logic of this book and, as I +may add, of his ‘Natural Theology,’ gave me as much delight as did +Euclid. The careful study of these works, without attempting to learn +any part by rote, was the only part of the academical course which, as +I then felt and as I still believe, was of the least use to me in the +education of my mind. I did not at that time trouble myself about +Paley’s premises; and taking these on trust, I was charmed and +convinced by the long line of argumentation. By answering well the +examination questions in Paley, by doing Euclid well, and by not +failing miserably in Classics, I gained a good place among the oi +polloi or crowd of men who do not go in for honours. Oddly enough, I +cannot remember how high I stood, and my memory fluctuates between the +fifth, tenth, or twelfth, name on the list. (Tenth in the list of +January 1831.) + +Public lectures on several branches were given in the University, +attendance being quite voluntary; but I was so sickened with lectures +at Edinburgh that I did not even attend Sedgwick’s eloquent and +interesting lectures. Had I done so I should probably have become a +geologist earlier than I did. I attended, however, Henslow’s lectures +on Botany, and liked them much for their extreme clearness, and the +admirable illustrations; but I did not study botany. Henslow used to +take his pupils, including several of the older members of the +University, field excursions, on foot or in coaches, to distant places, +or in a barge down the river, and lectured on the rarer plants and +animals which were observed. These excursions were delightful. + +Although, as we shall presently see, there were some redeeming features +in my life at Cambridge, my time was sadly wasted there, and worse than +wasted. From my passion for shooting and for hunting, and, when this +failed, for riding across country, I got into a sporting set, including +some dissipated low-minded young men. We used often to dine together in +the evening, though these dinners often included men of a higher stamp, +and we sometimes drank too much, with jolly singing and playing at +cards afterwards. I know that I ought to feel ashamed of days and +evenings thus spent, but as some of my friends were very pleasant, and +we were all in the highest spirits, I cannot help looking back to these +times with much pleasure. + +But I am glad to think that I had many other friends of a widely +different nature. I was very intimate with Whitley (Rev. C. Whitley, +Hon. Canon of Durham, formerly Reader in Natural Philosophy in Durham +University.), who was afterwards Senior Wrangler, and we used +continually to take long walks together. He inoculated me with a taste +for pictures and good engravings, of which I bought some. I frequently +went to the Fitzwilliam Gallery, and my taste must have been fairly +good, for I certainly admired the best pictures, which I discussed with +the old curator. I read also with much interest Sir Joshua Reynolds’ +book. This taste, though not natural to me, lasted for several years, +and many of the pictures in the National Gallery in London gave me much +pleasure; that of Sebastian del Piombo exciting in me a sense of +sublimity. + +I also got into a musical set, I believe by means of my warm-hearted +friend, Herbert (The late John Maurice Herbert, County Court Judge of +Cardiff and the Monmouth Circuit.), who took a high wrangler’s degree. +From associating with these men, and hearing them play, I acquired a +strong taste for music, and used very often to time my walks so as to +hear on week days the anthem in King’s College Chapel. This gave me +intense pleasure, so that my backbone would sometimes shiver. I am sure +that there was no affectation or mere imitation in this taste, for I +used generally to go by myself to King’s College, and I sometimes hired +the chorister boys to sing in my rooms. Nevertheless I am so utterly +destitute of an ear, that I cannot perceive a discord, or keep time and +hum a tune correctly; and it is a mystery how I could possibly have +derived pleasure from music. + +My musical friends soon perceived my state, and sometimes amused +themselves by making me pass an examination, which consisted in +ascertaining how many tunes I could recognise when they were played +rather more quickly or slowly than usual. ‘God save the King,’ when +thus played, was a sore puzzle. There was another man with almost as +bad an ear as I had, and strange to say he played a little on the +flute. Once I had the triumph of beating him in one of our musical +examinations. + +But no pursuit at Cambridge was followed with nearly so much eagerness +or gave me so much pleasure as collecting beetles. It was the mere +passion for collecting, for I did not dissect them, and rarely compared +their external characters with published descriptions, but got them +named anyhow. I will give a proof of my zeal: one day, on tearing off +some old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and seized one in each hand; +then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so +that I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. +Alas! it ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so +that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as was the +third one. + +I was very successful in collecting, and invented two new methods; I +employed a labourer to scrape during the winter, moss off old trees and +place it in a large bag, and likewise to collect the rubbish at the +bottom of the barges in which reeds are brought from the fens, and thus +I got some very rare species. No poet ever felt more delighted at +seeing his first poem published than I did at seeing, in Stephens’ +‘Illustrations of British Insects,’ the magic words, “captured by C. +Darwin, Esq.” I was introduced to entomology by my second cousin W. +Darwin Fox, a clever and most pleasant man, who was then at Christ’s +College, and with whom I became extremely intimate. Afterwards I became +well acquainted, and went out collecting, with Albert Way of Trinity, +who in after years became a well-known archaeologist; also with H. +Thompson of the same College, afterwards a leading agriculturist, +chairman of a great railway, and Member of Parliament. It seems +therefore that a taste for collecting beetles is some indication of +future success in life! + +I am surprised what an indelible impression many of the beetles which I +caught at Cambridge have left on my mind. I can remember the exact +appearance of certain posts, old trees and banks where I made a good +capture. The pretty Panagaeus crux-major was a treasure in those days, +and here at Down I saw a beetle running across a walk, and on picking +it up instantly perceived that it differed slightly from P. crux-major, +and it turned out to be P. quadripunctatus, which is only a variety or +closely allied species, differing from it very slightly in outline. I +had never seen in those old days Licinus alive, which to an uneducated +eye hardly differs from many of the black Carabidous beetles; but my +sons found here a specimen, and I instantly recognised that it was new +to me; yet I had not looked at a British beetle for the last twenty +years. + +I have not as yet mentioned a circumstance which influenced my whole +career more than any other. This was my friendship with Professor +Henslow. Before coming up to Cambridge, I had heard of him from my +brother as a man who knew every branch of science, and I was +accordingly prepared to reverence him. He kept open house once every +week when all undergraduates, and some older members of the University, +who were attached to science, used to meet in the evening. I soon got, +through Fox, an invitation, and went there regularly. Before long I +became well acquainted with Henslow, and during the latter half of my +time at Cambridge took long walks with him on most days; so that I was +called by some of the dons “the man who walks with Henslow;” and in the +evening I was very often asked to join his family dinner. His knowledge +was great in botany, entomology, chemistry, mineralogy, and geology. +His strongest taste was to draw conclusions from long-continued minute +observations. His judgment was excellent, and his whole mind well +balanced; but I do not suppose that any one would say that he possessed +much original genius. He was deeply religious, and so orthodox that he +told me one day he should be grieved if a single word of the +Thirty-nine Articles were altered. His moral qualities were in every +way admirable. He was free from every tinge of vanity or other petty +feeling; and I never saw a man who thought so little about himself or +his own concerns. His temper was imperturbably good, with the most +winning and courteous manners; yet, as I have seen, he could be roused +by any bad action to the warmest indignation and prompt action. + +I once saw in his company in the streets of Cambridge almost as horrid +a scene as could have been witnessed during the French Revolution. Two +body-snatchers had been arrested, and whilst being taken to prison had +been torn from the constable by a crowd of the roughest men, who +dragged them by their legs along the muddy and stony road. They were +covered from head to foot with mud, and their faces were bleeding +either from having been kicked or from the stones; they looked like +corpses, but the crowd was so dense that I got only a few momentary +glimpses of the wretched creatures. Never in my life have I seen such +wrath painted on a man’s face as was shown by Henslow at this horrid +scene. He tried repeatedly to penetrate the mob; but it was simply +impossible. He then rushed away to the mayor, telling me not to follow +him, but to get more policemen. I forget the issue, except that the two +men were got into the prison without being killed. + +Henslow’s benevolence was unbounded, as he proved by his many excellent +schemes for his poor parishioners, when in after years he held the +living of Hitcham. My intimacy with such a man ought to have been, and +I hope was, an inestimable benefit. I cannot resist mentioning a +trifling incident, which showed his kind consideration. Whilst +examining some pollen-grains on a damp surface, I saw the tubes +exserted, and instantly rushed off to communicate my surprising +discovery to him. Now I do not suppose any other professor of botany +could have helped laughing at my coming in such a hurry to make such a +communication. But he agreed how interesting the phenomenon was, and +explained its meaning, but made me clearly understand how well it was +known; so I left him not in the least mortified, but well pleased at +having discovered for myself so remarkable a fact, but determined not +to be in such a hurry again to communicate my discoveries. + +Dr. Whewell was one of the older and distinguished men who sometimes +visited Henslow, and on several occasions I walked home with him at +night. Next to Sir J. Mackintosh he was the best converser on grave +subjects to whom I ever listened. Leonard Jenyns (The well-known Soame +Jenyns was cousin to Mr. Jenyns’ father.), who afterwards published +some good essays in Natural History (Mr. Jenyns (now Blomefield) +described the fish for the Zoology of the “Beagle”; and is author of a +long series of papers, chiefly Zoological.), often stayed with Henslow, +who was his brother-in-law. I visited him at his parsonage on the +borders of the Fens [Swaffham Bulbeck], and had many a good walk and +talk with him about Natural History. I became also acquainted with +several other men older than me, who did not care much about science, +but were friends of Henslow. One was a Scotchman, brother of Sir +Alexander Ramsay, and tutor of Jesus College: he was a delightful man, +but did not live for many years. Another was Mr. Dawes, afterwards Dean +of Hereford, and famous for his success in the education of the poor. +These men and others of the same standing, together with Henslow, used +sometimes to take distant excursions into the country, which I was +allowed to join, and they were most agreeable. + +Looking back, I infer that there must have been something in me a +little superior to the common run of youths, otherwise the +above-mentioned men, so much older than me and higher in academical +position, would never have allowed me to associate with them. Certainly +I was not aware of any such superiority, and I remember one of my +sporting friends, Turner, who saw me at work with my beetles, saying +that I should some day be a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the notion +seemed to me preposterous. + +During my last year at Cambridge, I read with care and profound +interest Humboldt’s ‘Personal Narrative.’ This work, and Sir J. +Herschel’s ‘Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy,’ stirred +up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the +noble structure of Natural Science. No one or a dozen other books +influenced me nearly so much as these two. I copied out from Humboldt +long passages about Teneriffe, and read them aloud on one of the +above-mentioned excursions, to (I think) Henslow, Ramsay, and Dawes, +for on a previous occasion I had talked about the glories of Teneriffe, +and some of the party declared they would endeavour to go there; but I +think that they were only half in earnest. I was, however, quite in +earnest, and got an introduction to a merchant in London to enquire +about ships; but the scheme was, of course, knocked on the head by the +voyage of the “Beagle”. + +My summer vacations were given up to collecting beetles, to some +reading, and short tours. In the autumn my whole time was devoted to +shooting, chiefly at Woodhouse and Maer, and sometimes with young Eyton +of Eyton. Upon the whole the three years which I spent at Cambridge +were the most joyful in my happy life; for I was then in excellent +health, and almost always in high spirits. + +As I had at first come up to Cambridge at Christmas, I was forced to +keep two terms after passing my final examination, at the commencement +of 1831; and Henslow then persuaded me to begin the study of geology. +Therefore on my return to Shropshire I examined sections, and coloured +a map of parts round Shrewsbury. Professor Sedgwick intended to visit +North Wales in the beginning of August to pursue his famous geological +investigations amongst the older rocks, and Henslow asked him to allow +me to accompany him. (In connection with this tour my father used to +tell a story about Sedgwick: they had started from their inn one +morning, and had walked a mile or two, when Sedgwick suddenly stopped, +and vowed that he would return, being certain “that damned scoundrel” +(the waiter) had not given the chambermaid the sixpence intrusted to +him for the purpose. He was ultimately persuaded to give up the +project, seeing that there was no reason for suspecting the waiter of +especial perfidy.—F.D.) Accordingly he came and slept at my father’s +house. + +A short conversation with him during this evening produced a strong +impression on my mind. Whilst examining an old gravel-pit near +Shrewsbury, a labourer told me that he had found in it a large worn +tropical Volute shell, such as may be seen on the chimney-pieces of +cottages; and as he would not sell the shell, I was convinced that he +had really found it in the pit. I told Sedgwick of the fact, and he at +once said (no doubt truly) that it must have been thrown away by some +one into the pit; but then added, if really embedded there it would be +the greatest misfortune to geology, as it would overthrow all that we +know about the superficial deposits of the Midland Counties. These +gravel-beds belong in fact to the glacial period, and in after years I +found in them broken arctic shells. But I was then utterly astonished +at Sedgwick not being delighted at so wonderful a fact as a tropical +shell being found near the surface in the middle of England. Nothing +before had ever made me thoroughly realise, though I had read various +scientific books, that science consists in grouping facts so that +general laws or conclusions may be drawn from them. + +Next morning we started for Llangollen, Conway, Bangor, and Capel +Curig. This tour was of decided use in teaching me a little how to make +out the geology of a country. Sedgwick often sent me on a line parallel +to his, telling me to bring back specimens of the rocks and to mark the +stratification on a map. I have little doubt that he did this for my +good, as I was too ignorant to have aided him. On this tour I had a +striking instance of how easy it is to overlook phenomena, however +conspicuous, before they have been observed by any one. We spent many +hours in Cwm Idwal, examining all the rocks with extreme care, as +Sedgwick was anxious to find fossils in them; but neither of us saw a +trace of the wonderful glacial phenomena all around us; we did not +notice the plainly scored rocks, the perched boulders, the lateral and +terminal moraines. Yet these phenomena are so conspicuous that, as I +declared in a paper published many years afterwards in the +‘Philosophical Magazine’ (‘Philosophical Magazine,’ 1842.), a house +burnt down by fire did not tell its story more plainly than did this +valley. If it had still been filled by a glacier, the phenomena would +have been less distinct than they now are. + +At Capel Curig I left Sedgwick and went in a straight line by compass +and map across the mountains to Barmouth, never following any track +unless it coincided with my course. I thus came on some strange wild +places, and enjoyed much this manner of travelling. I visited Barmouth +to see some Cambridge friends who were reading there, and thence +returned to Shrewsbury and to Maer for shooting; for at that time I +should have thought myself mad to give up the first days of +partridge-shooting for geology or any other science. + + + + +“VOYAGE OF THE ‘BEAGLE’ FROM DECEMBER 27, 1831, TO OCTOBER 2, 1836.” + + +On returning home from my short geological tour in North Wales, I found +a letter from Henslow, informing me that Captain Fitz-Roy was willing +to give up part of his own cabin to any young man who would volunteer +to go with him without pay as naturalist to the Voyage of the “Beagle”. +I have given, as I believe, in my MS. Journal an account of all the +circumstances which then occurred; I will here only say that I was +instantly eager to accept the offer, but my father strongly objected, +adding the words, fortunate for me, “If you can find any man of common +sense who advises you to go I will give my consent.” So I wrote that +evening and refused the offer. On the next morning I went to Maer to be +ready for September 1st, and, whilst out shooting, my uncle (Josiah +Wedgwood.) sent for me, offering to drive me over to Shrewsbury and +talk with my father, as my uncle thought it would be wise in me to +accept the offer. My father always maintained that he was one of the +most sensible men in the world, and he at once consented in the kindest +manner. I had been rather extravagant at Cambridge, and to console my +father, said, “that I should be deuced clever to spend more than my +allowance whilst on board the ‘Beagle’;” but he answered with a smile, +“But they tell me you are very clever.” + +Next day I started for Cambridge to see Henslow, and thence to London +to see Fitz-Roy, and all was soon arranged. Afterwards, on becoming +very intimate with Fitz-Roy, I heard that I had run a very narrow risk +of being rejected, on account of the shape of my nose! He was an ardent +disciple of Lavater, and was convinced that he could judge of a man’s +character by the outline of his features; and he doubted whether any +one with my nose could possess sufficient energy and determination for +the voyage. But I think he was afterwards well satisfied that my nose +had spoken falsely. + +Fitz-Roy’s character was a singular one, with very many noble features: +he was devoted to his duty, generous to a fault, bold, determined, and +indomitably energetic, and an ardent friend to all under his sway. He +would undertake any sort of trouble to assist those whom he thought +deserved assistance. He was a handsome man, strikingly like a +gentleman, with highly courteous manners, which resembled those of his +maternal uncle, the famous Lord Castlereagh, as I was told by the +Minister at Rio. Nevertheless he must have inherited much in his +appearance from Charles II., for Dr. Wallich gave me a collection of +photographs which he had made, and I was struck with the resemblance of +one to Fitz-Roy; and on looking at the name, I found it Ch. E. Sobieski +Stuart, Count d’Albanie, a descendant of the same monarch. + +Fitz-Roy’s temper was a most unfortunate one. It was usually worst in +the early morning, and with his eagle eye he could generally detect +something amiss about the ship, and was then unsparing in his blame. He +was very kind to me, but was a man very difficult to live with on the +intimate terms which necessarily followed from our messing by ourselves +in the same cabin. We had several quarrels; for instance, early in the +voyage at Bahia, in Brazil, he defended and praised slavery, which I +abominated, and told me that he had just visited a great slave-owner, +who had called up many of his slaves and asked them whether they were +happy, and whether they wished to be free, and all answered “No.” I +then asked him, perhaps with a sneer, whether he thought that the +answer of slaves in the presence of their master was worth anything? +This made him excessively angry, and he said that as I doubted his word +we could not live any longer together. I thought that I should have +been compelled to leave the ship; but as soon as the news spread, which +it did quickly, as the captain sent for the first lieutenant to assuage +his anger by abusing me, I was deeply gratified by receiving an +invitation from all the gun-room officers to mess with them. But after +a few hours Fitz-Roy showed his usual magnanimity by sending an officer +to me with an apology and a request that I would continue to live with +him. + +His character was in several respects one of the most noble which I +have ever known. + +The voyage of the “Beagle” has been by far the most important event in +my life, and has determined my whole career; yet it depended on so +small a circumstance as my uncle offering to drive me thirty miles to +Shrewsbury, which few uncles would have done, and on such a trifle as +the shape of my nose. I have always felt that I owe to the voyage the +first real training or education of my mind; I was led to attend +closely to several branches of natural history, and thus my powers of +observation were improved, though they were always fairly developed. + +The investigation of the geology of all the places visited was far more +important, as reasoning here comes into play. On first examining a new +district nothing can appear more hopeless than the chaos of rocks; but +by recording the stratification and nature of the rocks and fossils at +many points, always reasoning and predicting what will be found +elsewhere, light soon begins to dawn on the district, and the structure +of the whole becomes more or less intelligible. I had brought with me +the first volume of Lyell’s ‘Principles of Geology,’ which I studied +attentively; and the book was of the highest service to me in many +ways. The very first place which I examined, namely St. Jago in the +Cape de Verde islands, showed me clearly the wonderful superiority of +Lyell’s manner of treating geology, compared with that of any other +author, whose works I had with me or ever afterwards read. + +Another of my occupations was collecting animals of all classes, +briefly describing and roughly dissecting many of the marine ones; but +from not being able to draw, and from not having sufficient anatomical +knowledge, a great pile of MS. which I made during the voyage has +proved almost useless. I thus lost much time, with the exception of +that spent in acquiring some knowledge of the Crustaceans, as this was +of service when in after years I undertook a monograph of the +Cirripedia. + +During some part of the day I wrote my Journal, and took much pains in +describing carefully and vividly all that I had seen; and this was good +practice. My Journal served also, in part, as letters to my home, and +portions were sent to England whenever there was an opportunity. + +The above various special studies were, however, of no importance +compared with the habit of energetic industry and of concentrated +attention to whatever I was engaged in, which I then acquired. +Everything about which I thought or read was made to bear directly on +what I had seen or was likely to see; and this habit of mind was +continued during the five years of the voyage. I feel sure that it was +this training which has enabled me to do whatever I have done in +science. + +Looking backwards, I can now perceive how my love for science gradually +preponderated over every other taste. During the first two years my old +passion for shooting survived in nearly full force, and I shot myself +all the birds and animals for my collection; but gradually I gave up my +gun more and more, and finally altogether, to my servant, as shooting +interfered with my work, more especially with making out the geological +structure of a country. I discovered, though unconsciously and +insensibly, that the pleasure of observing and reasoning was a much +higher one than that of skill and sport. That my mind became developed +through my pursuits during the voyage is rendered probable by a remark +made by my father, who was the most acute observer whom I ever saw, of +a sceptical disposition, and far from being a believer in phrenology; +for on first seeing me after the voyage, he turned round to my sisters, +and exclaimed, “Why, the shape of his head is quite altered.” + +To return to the voyage. On September 11th (1831), I paid a flying +visit with Fitz-Roy to the “Beagle” at Plymouth. Thence to Shrewsbury +to wish my father and sisters a long farewell. On October 24th I took +up my residence at Plymouth, and remained there until December 27th, +when the “Beagle” finally left the shores of England for her +circumnavigation of the world. We made two earlier attempts to sail, +but were driven back each time by heavy gales. These two months at +Plymouth were the most miserable which I ever spent, though I exerted +myself in various ways. I was out of spirits at the thought of leaving +all my family and friends for so long a time, and the weather seemed to +me inexpressibly gloomy. I was also troubled with palpitation and pain +about the heart, and like many a young ignorant man, especially one +with a smattering of medical knowledge, was convinced that I had heart +disease. I did not consult any doctor, as I fully expected to hear the +verdict that I was not fit for the voyage, and I was resolved to go at +all hazards. + +I need not here refer to the events of the voyage—where we went and +what we did—as I have given a sufficiently full account in my published +Journal. The glories of the vegetation of the Tropics rise before my +mind at the present time more vividly than anything else; though the +sense of sublimity, which the great deserts of Patagonia and the +forest-clad mountains of Tierra del Fuego excited in me, has left an +indelible impression on my mind. The sight of a naked savage in his +native land is an event which can never be forgotten. Many of my +excursions on horseback through wild countries, or in the boats, some +of which lasted several weeks, were deeply interesting: their +discomfort and some degree of danger were at that time hardly a +drawback, and none at all afterwards. I also reflect with high +satisfaction on some of my scientific work, such as solving the problem +of coral islands, and making out the geological structure of certain +islands, for instance, St. Helena. Nor must I pass over the discovery +of the singular relations of the animals and plants inhabiting the +several islands of the Galapagos archipelago, and of all of them to the +inhabitants of South America. + +As far as I can judge of myself, I worked to the utmost during the +voyage from the mere pleasure of investigation, and from my strong +desire to add a few facts to the great mass of facts in Natural +Science. But I was also ambitious to take a fair place among scientific +men,—whether more ambitious or less so than most of my fellow-workers, +I can form no opinion. + +The geology of St. Jago is very striking, yet simple: a stream of lava +formerly flowed over the bed of the sea, formed of triturated recent +shells and corals, which it has baked into a hard white rock. Since +then the whole island has been upheaved. But the line of white rock +revealed to me a new and important fact, namely, that there had been +afterwards subsidence round the craters, which had since been in +action, and had poured forth lava. It then first dawned on me that I +might perhaps write a book on the geology of the various countries +visited, and this made me thrill with delight. That was a memorable +hour to me, and how distinctly I can call to mind the low cliff of lava +beneath which I rested, with the sun glaring hot, a few strange desert +plants growing near, and with living corals in the tidal pools at my +feet. Later in the voyage, Fitz-Roy asked me to read some of my +Journal, and declared it would be worth publishing; so here was a +second book in prospect! + +Towards the close of our voyage I received a letter whilst at +Ascension, in which my sisters told me that Sedgwick had called on my +father, and said that I should take a place among the leading +scientific men. I could not at the time understand how he could have +learnt anything of my proceedings, but I heard (I believe afterwards) +that Henslow had read some of the letters which I wrote to him before +the Philosophical Society of Cambridge (Read at the meeting held +November 16, 1835, and printed in a pamphlet of 31 pages for +distribution among the members of the Society.), and had printed them +for private distribution. My collection of fossil bones, which had been +sent to Henslow, also excited considerable attention amongst +palaeontologists. After reading this letter, I clambered over the +mountains of Ascension with a bounding step, and made the volcanic +rocks resound under my geological hammer. All this shows how ambitious +I was; but I think that I can say with truth that in after years, +though I cared in the highest degree for the approbation of such men as +Lyell and Hooker, who were my friends, I did not care much about the +general public. I do not mean to say that a favourable review or a +large sale of my books did not please me greatly, but the pleasure was +a fleeting one, and I am sure that I have never turned one inch out of +my course to gain fame. + + + + +FROM MY RETURN TO ENGLAND (OCTOBER 2, 1836) TO MY MARRIAGE (JANUARY 29, +1839.) + +These two years and three months were the most active ones which I ever +spent, though I was occasionally unwell, and so lost some time. After +going backwards and forwards several times between Shrewsbury, Maer, +Cambridge, and London, I settled in lodgings at Cambridge (In +Fitzwilliam Street.) on December 13th, where all my collections were +under the care of Henslow. I stayed here three months, and got my +minerals and rocks examined by the aid of Professor Miller. + +I began preparing my ‘Journal of Travels,’ which was not hard work, as +my MS. Journal had been written with care, and my chief labour was +making an abstract of my more interesting scientific results. I sent +also, at the request of Lyell, a short account of my observations on +the elevation of the coast of Chile to the Geological Society. +(‘Geolog. Soc. Proc. ii. 1838, pages 446-449.) + +On March 7th, 1837, I took lodgings in Great Marlborough Street in +London, and remained there for nearly two years, until I was married. +During these two years I finished my Journal, read several papers +before the Geological Society, began preparing the MS. for my +‘Geological Observations,’ and arranged for the publication of the +‘Zoology of the Voyage of the “Beagle”.’ In July I opened my first +note-book for facts in relation to the Origin of Species, about which I +had long reflected, and never ceased working for the next twenty years. + +During these two years I also went a little into society, and acted as +one of the honorary secretaries of the Geological Society. I saw a +great deal of Lyell. One of his chief characteristics was his sympathy +with the work of others, and I was as much astonished as delighted at +the interest which he showed when, on my return to England, I explained +to him my views on coral reefs. This encouraged me greatly, and his +advice and example had much influence on me. During this time I saw +also a good deal of Robert Brown; I used often to call and sit with him +during his breakfast on Sunday mornings, and he poured forth a rich +treasure of curious observations and acute remarks, but they almost +always related to minute points, and he never with me discussed large +or general questions in science. + +During these two years I took several short excursions as a relaxation, +and one longer one to the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy, an account of +which was published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions.’ (1839, pages +39-82.) This paper was a great failure, and I am ashamed of it. Having +been deeply impressed with what I had seen of the elevation of the land +of South America, I attributed the parallel lines to the action of the +sea; but I had to give up this view when Agassiz propounded his +glacier-lake theory. Because no other explanation was possible under +our then state of knowledge, I argued in favour of sea-action; and my +error has been a good lesson to me never to trust in science to the +principle of exclusion. + +As I was not able to work all day at science, I read a good deal during +these two years on various subjects, including some metaphysical books; +but I was not well fitted for such studies. About this time I took much +delight in Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s poetry; and can boast that I +read the ‘Excursion’ twice through. Formerly Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ +had been my chief favourite, and in my excursions during the voyage of +the “Beagle”, when I could take only a single volume, I always chose +Milton. + + + + +FROM MY MARRIAGE, JANUARY 29, 1839, AND RESIDENCE IN UPPER GOWER +STREET, TO OUR LEAVING LONDON AND SETTLING AT DOWN, SEPTEMBER 14, +1842. + + +(After speaking of his happy married life, and of his children, he +continues:—) + +During the three years and eight months whilst we resided in London, I +did less scientific work, though I worked as hard as I possibly could, +than during any other equal length of time in my life. This was owing +to frequently recurring unwellness, and to one long and serious +illness. The greater part of my time, when I could do anything, was +devoted to my work on ‘Coral Reefs,’ which I had begun before my +marriage, and of which the last proof-sheet was corrected on May 6th, +1842. This book, though a small one, cost me twenty months of hard +work, as I had to read every work on the islands of the Pacific and to +consult many charts. It was thought highly of by scientific men, and +the theory therein given is, I think, now well established. + +No other work of mine was begun in so deductive a spirit as this, for +the whole theory was thought out on the west coast of South America, +before I had seen a true coral reef. I had therefore only to verify and +extend my views by a careful examination of living reefs. But it should +be observed that I had during the two previous years been incessantly +attending to the effects on the shores of South America of the +intermittent elevation of the land, together with denudation and the +deposition of sediment. This necessarily led me to reflect much on the +effects of subsidence, and it was easy to replace in imagination the +continued deposition of sediment by the upward growth of corals. To do +this was to form my theory of the formation of barrier-reefs and +atolls. + +Besides my work on coral-reefs, during my residence in London, I read +before the Geological Society papers on the Erratic Boulders of South +America (‘Geolog. Soc. Proc.’ iii. 1842.), on Earthquakes (‘Geolog. +Trans. v. 1840.), and on the Formation by the Agency of Earth-worms of +Mould. (‘Geolog. Soc. Proc. ii. 1838.) I also continued to superintend +the publication of the ‘Zoology of the Voyage of the “Beagle”.’ Nor did +I ever intermit collecting facts bearing on the origin of species; and +I could sometimes do this when I could do nothing else from illness. + +In the summer of 1842 I was stronger than I had been for some time, and +took a little tour by myself in North Wales, for the sake of observing +the effects of the old glaciers which formerly filled all the larger +valleys. I published a short account of what I saw in the +‘Philosophical Magazine.’ (‘Philosophical Magazine,’ 1842.) This +excursion interested me greatly, and it was the last time I was ever +strong enough to climb mountains or to take long walks such as are +necessary for geological work. + +During the early part of our life in London, I was strong enough to go +into general society, and saw a good deal of several scientific men, +and other more or less distinguished men. I will give my impressions +with respect to some of them, though I have little to say worth saying. + +I saw more of Lyell than of any other man, both before and after my +marriage. His mind was characterised, as it appeared to me, by +clearness, caution, sound judgment, and a good deal of originality. +When I made any remark to him on Geology, he never rested until he saw +the whole case clearly, and often made me see it more clearly than I +had done before. He would advance all possible objections to my +suggestion, and even after these were exhausted would long remain +dubious. A second characteristic was his hearty sympathy with the work +of other scientific men. (The slight repetition here observable is +accounted for by the notes on Lyell, etc., having been added in April, +1881, a few years after the rest of the ‘Recollections’ were written.) + +On my return from the voyage of the “Beagle”, I explained to him my +views on coral-reefs, which differed from his, and I was greatly +surprised and encouraged by the vivid interest which he showed. His +delight in science was ardent, and he felt the keenest interest in the +future progress of mankind. He was very kind-hearted, and thoroughly +liberal in his religious beliefs, or rather disbeliefs; but he was a +strong theist. His candour was highly remarkable. He exhibited this by +becoming a convert to the Descent theory, though he had gained much +fame by opposing Lamarck’s views, and this after he had grown old. He +reminded me that I had many years before said to him, when discussing +the opposition of the old school of geologists to his new views, “What +a good thing it would be if every scientific man was to die when sixty +years old, as afterwards he would be sure to oppose all new doctrines.” +But he hoped that now he might be allowed to live. + +The science of Geology is enormously indebted to Lyell—more so, as I +believe, than to any other man who ever lived. When [I was] starting on +the voyage of the “Beagle”, the sagacious Henslow, who, like all other +geologists, believed at that time in successive cataclysms, advised me +to get and study the first volume of the ‘Principles,’ which had then +just been published, but on no account to accept the views therein +advocated. How differently would anyone now speak of the ‘Principles’! +I am proud to remember that the first place, namely, St. Jago, in the +Cape de Verde archipelago, in which I geologised, convinced me of the +infinite superiority of Lyell’s views over those advocated in any other +work known to me. + +The powerful effects of Lyell’s works could formerly be plainly seen in +the different progress of the science in France and England. The +present total oblivion of Elie de Beaumont’s wild hypotheses, such as +his ‘Craters of Elevation’ and ‘Lines of Elevation’ (which latter +hypothesis I heard Sedgwick at the Geological Society lauding to the +skies), may be largely attributed to Lyell. + +I saw a good deal of Robert Brown, “facile Princeps Botanicorum,” as he +was called by Humboldt. He seemed to me to be chiefly remarkable for +the minuteness of his observations, and their perfect accuracy. His +knowledge was extraordinarily great, and much died with him, owing to +his excessive fear of ever making a mistake. He poured out his +knowledge to me in the most unreserved manner, yet was strangely +jealous on some points. I called on him two or three times before the +voyage of the “Beagle”, and on one occasion he asked me to look through +a microscope and describe what I saw. This I did, and believe now that +it was the marvellous currents of protoplasm in some vegetable cell. I +then asked him what I had seen; but he answered me, “That is my little +secret.” + +He was capable of the most generous actions. When old, much out of +health, and quite unfit for any exertion, he daily visited (as Hooker +told me) an old man-servant, who lived at a distance (and whom he +supported), and read aloud to him. This is enough to make up for any +degree of scientific penuriousness or jealousy. + +I may here mention a few other eminent men, whom I have occasionally +seen, but I have little to say about them worth saying. I felt a high +reverence for Sir J. Herschel, and was delighted to dine with him at +his charming house at the Cape of Good Hope, and afterwards at his +London house. I saw him, also, on a few other occasions. He never +talked much, but every word which he uttered was worth listening to. + +I once met at breakfast at Sir R. Murchison’s house the illustrious +Humboldt, who honoured me by expressing a wish to see me. I was a +little disappointed with the great man, but my anticipations probably +were too high. I can remember nothing distinctly about our interview, +except that Humboldt was very cheerful and talked much. + +—reminds me of Buckle whom I once met at Hensleigh Wedgwood’s. I was +very glad to learn from him his system of collecting facts. He told me +that he bought all the books which he read, and made a full index, to +each, of the facts which he thought might prove serviceable to him, and +that he could always remember in what book he had read anything, for +his memory was wonderful. I asked him how at first he could judge what +facts would be serviceable, and he answered that he did not know, but +that a sort of instinct guided him. From this habit of making indices, +he was enabled to give the astonishing number of references on all +sorts of subjects, which may be found in his ‘History of Civilisation.’ +This book I thought most interesting, and read it twice, but I doubt +whether his generalisations are worth anything. Buckle was a great +talker, and I listened to him saying hardly a word, nor indeed could I +have done so for he left no gaps. When Mrs. Farrer began to sing, I +jumped up and said that I must listen to her; after I had moved away he +turned around to a friend and said (as was overheard by my brother), +“Well, Mr. Darwin’s books are much better than his conversation.” + +Of other great literary men, I once met Sydney Smith at Dean Milman’s +house. There was something inexplicably amusing in every word which he +uttered. Perhaps this was partly due to the expectation of being +amused. He was talking about Lady Cork, who was then extremely old. +This was the lady who, as he said, was once so much affected by one of +his charity sermons, that she _borrowed_ a guinea from a friend to put +in the plate. He now said “It is generally believed that my dear old +friend Lady Cork has been overlooked,” and he said this in such a +manner that no one could for a moment doubt that he meant that his dear +old friend had been overlooked by the devil. How he managed to express +this I know not. + +I likewise once met Macaulay at Lord Stanhope’s (the historian’s) +house, and as there was only one other man at dinner, I had a grand +opportunity of hearing him converse, and he was very agreeable. He did +not talk at all too much; nor indeed could such a man talk too much, as +long as he allowed others to turn the stream of his conversation, and +this he did allow. + +Lord Stanhope once gave me a curious little proof of the accuracy and +fulness of Macaulay’s memory: many historians used often to meet at +Lord Stanhope’s house, and in discussing various subjects they would +sometimes differ from Macaulay, and formerly they often referred to +some book to see who was right; but latterly, as Lord Stanhope noticed, +no historian ever took this trouble, and whatever Macaulay said was +final. + +On another occasion I met at Lord Stanhope’s house, one of his parties +of historians and other literary men, and amongst them were Motley and +Grote. After luncheon I walked about Chevening Park for nearly an hour +with Grote, and was much interested by his conversation and pleased by +the simplicity and absence of all pretension in his manners. + +Long ago I dined occasionally with the old Earl, the father of the +historian; he was a strange man, but what little I knew of him I liked +much. He was frank, genial, and pleasant. He had strongly marked +features, with a brown complexion, and his clothes, when I saw him, +were all brown. He seemed to believe in everything which was to others +utterly incredible. He said one day to me, “Why don’t you give up your +fiddle-faddle of geology and zoology, and turn to the occult sciences!” +The historian, then Lord Mahon, seemed shocked at such a speech to me, +and his charming wife much amused. + +The last man whom I will mention is Carlyle, seen by me several times +at my brother’s house, and two or three times at my own house. His talk +was very racy and interesting, just like his writings, but he sometimes +went on too long on the same subject. I remember a funny dinner at my +brother’s, where, amongst a few others, were Babbage and Lyell, both of +whom liked to talk. Carlyle, however, silenced every one by haranguing +during the whole dinner on the advantages of silence. After dinner +Babbage, in his grimmest manner, thanked Carlyle for his very +interesting lecture on silence. + +Carlyle sneered at almost every one: one day in my house he called +Grote’s ‘History’ “a fetid quagmire, with nothing spiritual about it.” +I always thought, until his ‘Reminiscences’ appeared, that his sneers +were partly jokes, but this now seems rather doubtful. His expression +was that of a depressed, almost despondent yet benevolent man; and it +is notorious how heartily he laughed. I believe that his benevolence +was real, though stained by not a little jealousy. No one can doubt +about his extraordinary power of drawing pictures of things and men—far +more vivid, as it appears to me, than any drawn by Macaulay. Whether +his pictures of men were true ones is another question. + +He has been all-powerful in impressing some grand moral truths on the +minds of men. On the other hand, his views about slavery were +revolting. In his eyes might was right. His mind seemed to me a very +narrow one; even if all branches of science, which he despised, are +excluded. It is astonishing to me that Kingsley should have spoken of +him as a man well fitted to advance science. He laughed to scorn the +idea that a mathematician, such as Whewell, could judge, as I +maintained he could, of Goethe’s views on light. He thought it a most +ridiculous thing that any one should care whether a glacier moved a +little quicker or a little slower, or moved at all. As far as I could +judge, I never met a man with a mind so ill adapted for scientific +research. + +Whilst living in London, I attended as regularly as I could the +meetings of several scientific societies, and acted as secretary to the +Geological Society. But such attendance, and ordinary society, suited +my health so badly that we resolved to live in the country, which we +both preferred and have never repented of. + + + + +RESIDENCE AT DOWN FROM SEPTEMBER 14, 1842, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1876. + + +After several fruitless searches in Surrey and elsewhere, we found this +house and purchased it. I was pleased with the diversified appearance +of vegetation proper to a chalk district, and so unlike what I had been +accustomed to in the Midland counties; and still more pleased with the +extreme quietness and rusticity of the place. It is not, however, quite +so retired a place as a writer in a German periodical makes it, who +says that my house can be approached only by a mule-track! Our fixing +ourselves here has answered admirably in one way, which we did not +anticipate, namely, by being very convenient for frequent visits from +our children. + +Few persons can have lived a more retired life than we have done. +Besides short visits to the houses of relations, and occasionally to +the seaside or elsewhere, we have gone nowhere. During the first part +of our residence we went a little into society, and received a few +friends here; but my health almost always suffered from the excitement, +violent shivering and vomiting attacks being thus brought on. I have +therefore been compelled for many years to give up all dinner-parties; +and this has been somewhat of a deprivation to me, as such parties +always put me into high spirits. From the same cause I have been able +to invite here very few scientific acquaintances. + +My chief enjoyment and sole employment throughout life has been +scientific work; and the excitement from such work makes me for the +time forget, or drives quite away, my daily discomfort. I have +therefore nothing to record during the rest of my life, except the +publication of my several books. Perhaps a few details how they arose +may be worth giving. + + + + +MY SEVERAL PUBLICATIONS. + + +In the early part of 1844, my observations on the volcanic islands +visited during the voyage of the “Beagle” were published. In 1845, I +took much pains in correcting a new edition of my ‘Journal of +Researches,’ which was originally published in 1839 as part of +Fitz-Roy’s work. The success of this, my first literary child, always +tickles my vanity more than that of any of my other books. Even to this +day it sells steadily in England and the United States, and has been +translated for the second time into German, and into French and other +languages. This success of a book of travels, especially of a +scientific one, so many years after its first publication, is +surprising. Ten thousand copies have been sold in England of the second +edition. In 1846 my ‘Geological Observations on South America’ were +published. I record in a little diary, which I have always kept, that +my three geological books (‘Coral Reefs’ included) consumed four and a +half years’ steady work; “and now it is ten years since my return to +England. How much time have I lost by illness?” I have nothing to say +about these three books except that to my surprise new editions have +lately been called for. (‘Geological Observations,’ 2nd Edit.1876. +‘Coral Reefs,’ 2nd Edit. 1874.) + +In October, 1846, I began to work on ‘Cirripedia.’ When on the coast of +Chile, I found a most curious form, which burrowed into the shells of +Concholepas, and which differed so much from all other Cirripedes that +I had to form a new sub-order for its sole reception. Lately an allied +burrowing genus has been found on the shores of Portugal. To understand +the structure of my new Cirripede I had to examine and dissect many of +the common forms; and this gradually led me on to take up the whole +group. I worked steadily on this subject for the next eight years, and +ultimately published two thick volumes (Published by the Ray Society.), +describing all the known living species, and two thin quartos on the +extinct species. I do not doubt that Sir E. Lytton Bulwer had me in his +mind when he introduced in one of his novels a Professor Long, who had +written two huge volumes on limpets. + +Although I was employed during eight years on this work, yet I record +in my diary that about two years out of this time was lost by illness. +On this account I went in 1848 for some months to Malvern for +hydropathic treatment, which did me much good, so that on my return +home I was able to resume work. So much was I out of health that when +my dear father died on November 13th, 1848, I was unable to attend his +funeral or to act as one of his executors. + +My work on the Cirripedia possesses, I think, considerable value, as +besides describing several new and remarkable forms, I made out the +homologies of the various parts—I discovered the cementing apparatus, +though I blundered dreadfully about the cement glands—and lastly I +proved the existence in certain genera of minute males complemental to +and parasitic on the hermaphrodites. This latter discovery has at last +been fully confirmed; though at one time a German writer was pleased to +attribute the whole account to my fertile imagination. The Cirripedes +form a highly varying and difficult group of species to class; and my +work was of considerable use to me, when I had to discuss in the +‘Origin of Species’ the principles of a natural classification. +Nevertheless, I doubt whether the work was worth the consumption of so +much time. + +From September 1854 I devoted my whole time to arranging my huge pile +of notes, to observing, and to experimenting in relation to the +transmutation of species. During the voyage of the “Beagle” I had been +deeply impressed by discovering in the Pampean formation great fossil +animals covered with armour like that on the existing armadillos; +secondly, by the manner in which closely allied animals replace one +another in proceeding southwards over the Continent; and thirdly, by +the South American character of most of the productions of the +Galapagos archipelago, and more especially by the manner in which they +differ slightly on each island of the group; none of the islands +appearing to be very ancient in a geological sense. + +It was evident that such facts as these, as well as many others, could +only be explained on the supposition that species gradually become +modified; and the subject haunted me. But it was equally evident that +neither the action of the surrounding conditions, nor the will of the +organisms (especially in the case of plants) could account for the +innumerable cases in which organisms of every kind are beautifully +adapted to their habits of life—for instance, a woodpecker or a +tree-frog to climb trees, or a seed for dispersal by hooks or plumes. I +had always been much struck by such adaptations, and until these could +be explained it seemed to me almost useless to endeavour to prove by +indirect evidence that species have been modified. + +After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the +example of Lyell in Geology, and by collecting all facts which bore in +any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and +nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject. My +first note-book was opened in July 1837. I worked on true Baconian +principles, and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale +scale, more especially with respect to domesticated productions, by +printed enquiries, by conversation with skilful breeders and gardeners, +and by extensive reading. When I see the list of books of all kinds +which I read and abstracted, including whole series of Journals and +Transactions, I am surprised at my industry. I soon perceived that +selection was the keystone of man’s success in making useful races of +animals and plants. But how selection could be applied to organisms +living in a state of nature remained for some time a mystery to me. + +In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my +systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement ‘Malthus on +Population,’ and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for +existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of +the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these +circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and +unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the +formation of new species. Here then I had at last got a theory by which +to work; but I was so anxious to avoid prejudice, that I determined not +for some time to write even the briefest sketch of it. In June 1842 I +first allowed myself the satisfaction of writing a very brief abstract +of my theory in pencil in 35 pages; and this was enlarged during the +summer of 1844 into one of 230 pages, which I had fairly copied out and +still possess. + +But at that time I overlooked one problem of great importance; and it +is astonishing to me, except on the principle of Columbus and his egg, +how I could have overlooked it and its solution. This problem is the +tendency in organic beings descended from the same stock to diverge in +character as they become modified. That they have diverged greatly is +obvious from the manner in which species of all kinds can be classed +under genera, genera under families, families under sub-orders and so +forth; and I can remember the very spot in the road, whilst in my +carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me; and this was long +after I had come to Down. The solution, as I believe, is that the +modified offspring of all dominant and increasing forms tend to become +adapted to many and highly diversified places in the economy of nature. + +Early in 1856 Lyell advised me to write out my views pretty fully, and +I began at once to do so on a scale three or four times as extensive as +that which was afterwards followed in my ‘Origin of Species;’ yet it +was only an abstract of the materials which I had collected, and I got +through about half the work on this scale. But my plans were +overthrown, for early in the summer of 1858 Mr. Wallace, who was then +in the Malay archipelago, sent me an essay “On the Tendency of +Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original Type;” and this +essay contained exactly the same theory as mine. Mr. Wallace expressed +the wish that if I thought well of his essay, I should sent it to Lyell +for perusal. + +The circumstances under which I consented at the request of Lyell and +Hooker to allow of an abstract from my MS., together with a letter to +Asa Gray, dated September 5, 1857, to be published at the same time +with Wallace’s Essay, are given in the ‘Journal of the Proceedings of +the Linnean Society,’ 1858, page 45. I was at first very unwilling to +consent, as I thought Mr. Wallace might consider my doing so +unjustifiable, for I did not then know how generous and noble was his +disposition. The extract from my MS. and the letter to Asa Gray had +neither been intended for publication, and were badly written. Mr. +Wallace’s essay, on the other hand, was admirably expressed and quite +clear. Nevertheless, our joint productions excited very little +attention, and the only published notice of them which I can remember +was by Professor Haughton of Dublin, whose verdict was that all that +was new in them was false, and what was true was old. This shows how +necessary it is that any new view should be explained at considerable +length in order to arouse public attention. + +In September 1858 I set to work by the strong advice of Lyell and +Hooker to prepare a volume on the transmutation of species, but was +often interrupted by ill-health, and short visits to Dr. Lane’s +delightful hydropathic establishment at Moor Park. I abstracted the MS. +begun on a much larger scale in 1856, and completed the volume on the +same reduced scale. It cost me thirteen months and ten days’ hard +labour. It was published under the title of the ‘Origin of Species,’ in +November 1859. Though considerably added to and corrected in the later +editions, it has remained substantially the same book. + +It is no doubt the chief work of my life. It was from the first highly +successful. The first small edition of 1250 copies was sold on the day +of publication, and a second edition of 3000 copies soon afterwards. +Sixteen thousand copies have now (1876) been sold in England; and +considering how stiff a book it is, this is a large sale. It has been +translated into almost every European tongue, even into such languages +as Spanish, Bohemian, Polish, and Russian. It has also, according to +Miss Bird, been translated into Japanese (Miss Bird is mistaken, as I +learn from Prof. Mitsukuri.—F.D.), and is there much studied. Even an +essay in Hebrew has appeared on it, showing that the theory is +contained in the Old Testament! The reviews were very numerous; for +some time I collected all that appeared on the ‘Origin’ and on my +related books, and these amount (excluding newspaper reviews) to 265; +but after a time I gave up the attempt in despair. Many separate essays +and books on the subject have appeared; and in Germany a catalogue or +bibliography on “Darwinismus” has appeared every year or two. + +The success of the ‘Origin’ may, I think, be attributed in large part +to my having long before written two condensed sketches, and to my +having finally abstracted a much larger manuscript, which was itself an +abstract. By this means I was enabled to select the more striking facts +and conclusions. I had, also, during many years followed a golden rule, +namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought +came across me, which was opposed to my general results, to make a +memorandum of it without fail and at once; for I had found by +experience that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape +from the memory than favourable ones. Owing to this habit, very few +objections were raised against my views which I had not at least +noticed and attempted to answer. + +It has sometimes been said that the success of the ‘Origin’ proved +“that the subject was in the air,” or “that men’s minds were prepared +for it.” I do not think that this is strictly true, for I occasionally +sounded not a few naturalists, and never happened to come across a +single one who seemed to doubt about the permanence of species. Even +Lyell and Hooker, though they would listen with interest to me, never +seemed to agree. I tried once or twice to explain to able men what I +meant by Natural Selection, but signally failed. What I believe was +strictly true is that innumerable well-observed facts were stored in +the minds of naturalists ready to take their proper places as soon as +any theory which would receive them was sufficiently explained. Another +element in the success of the book was its moderate size; and this I +owe to the appearance of Mr. Wallace’s essay; had I published on the +scale in which I began to write in 1856, the book would have been four +or five times as large as the ‘Origin,’ and very few would have had the +patience to read it. + +I gained much by my delay in publishing from about 1839, when the +theory was clearly conceived, to 1859; and I lost nothing by it, for I +cared very little whether men attributed most originality to me or +Wallace; and his essay no doubt aided in the reception of the theory. I +was forestalled in only one important point, which my vanity has always +made me regret, namely, the explanation by means of the Glacial period +of the presence of the same species of plants and of some few animals +on distant mountain summits and in the arctic regions. This view +pleased me so much that I wrote it out in extenso, and I believe that +it was read by Hooker some years before E. Forbes published his +celebrated memoir (‘Geolog. Survey Mem.,’ 1846.) on the subject. In the +very few points in which we differed, I still think that I was in the +right. I have never, of course, alluded in print to my having +independently worked out this view. + +Hardly any point gave me so much satisfaction when I was at work on the +‘Origin,’ as the explanation of the wide difference in many classes +between the embryo and the adult animal, and of the close resemblance +of the embryos within the same class. No notice of this point was +taken, as far as I remember, in the early reviews of the ‘Origin,’ and +I recollect expressing my surprise on this head in a letter to Asa +Gray. Within late years several reviewers have given the whole credit +to Fritz Muller and Hackel, who undoubtedly have worked it out much +more fully, and in some respects more correctly than I did. I had +materials for a whole chapter on the subject, and I ought to have made +the discussion longer; for it is clear that I failed to impress my +readers; and he who succeeds in doing so deserves, in my opinion, all +the credit. + +This leads me to remark that I have almost always been treated honestly +by my reviewers, passing over those without scientific knowledge as not +worthy of notice. My views have often been grossly misrepresented, +bitterly opposed and ridiculed, but this has been generally done, as I +believe, in good faith. On the whole I do not doubt that my works have +been over and over again greatly overpraised. I rejoice that I have +avoided controversies, and this I owe to Lyell, who many years ago, in +reference to my geological works, strongly advised me never to get +entangled in a controversy, as it rarely did any good and caused a +miserable loss of time and temper. + +Whenever I have found out that I have blundered, or that my work has +been imperfect, and when I have been contemptuously criticised, and +even when I have been overpraised, so that I have felt mortified, it +has been my greatest comfort to say hundreds of times to myself that “I +have worked as hard and as well as I could, and no man can do more than +this.” I remember when in Good Success Bay, in Tierra del Fuego, +thinking (and, I believe, that I wrote home to the effect) that I could +not employ my life better than in adding a little to Natural Science. +This I have done to the best of my abilities, and critics may say what +they like, but they cannot destroy this conviction. + +During the two last months of 1859 I was fully occupied in preparing a +second edition of the ‘Origin,’ and by an enormous correspondence. On +January 1st, 1860, I began arranging my notes for my work on the +‘Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication;’ but it was not +published until the beginning of 1868; the delay having been caused +partly by frequent illnesses, one of which lasted seven months, and +partly by being tempted to publish on other subjects which at the time +interested me more. + +On May 15th, 1862, my little book on the ‘Fertilisation of Orchids,’ +which cost me ten months’ work, was published: most of the facts had +been slowly accumulated during several previous years. During the +summer of 1839, and, I believe, during the previous summer, I was led +to attend to the cross-fertilisation of flowers by the aid of insects, +from having come to the conclusion in my speculations on the origin of +species, that crossing played an important part in keeping specific +forms constant. I attended to the subject more or less during every +subsequent summer; and my interest in it was greatly enhanced by having +procured and read in November 1841, through the advice of Robert Brown, +a copy of C.K. Sprengel’s wonderful book, ‘Das entdeckte Geheimniss der +Natur.’ For some years before 1862 I had specially attended to the +fertilisation of our British orchids; and it seemed to me the best plan +to prepare as complete a treatise on this group of plants as well as I +could, rather than to utilise the great mass of matter which I had +slowly collected with respect to other plants. + +My resolve proved a wise one; for since the appearance of my book, a +surprising number of papers and separate works on the fertilisation of +all kinds of flowers have appeared: and these are far better done than +I could possibly have effected. The merits of poor old Sprengel, so +long overlooked, are now fully recognised many years after his death. + +During the same year I published in the ‘Journal of the Linnean +Society’ a paper “On the Two Forms, or Dimorphic Condition of Primula,” +and during the next five years, five other papers on dimorphic and +trimorphic plants. I do not think anything in my scientific life has +given me so much satisfaction as making out the meaning of the +structure of these plants. I had noticed in 1838 or 1839 the dimorphism +of Linum flavum, and had at first thought that it was merely a case of +unmeaning variability. But on examining the common species of Primula I +found that the two forms were much too regular and constant to be thus +viewed. I therefore became almost convinced that the common cowslip and +primrose were on the high road to become dioecious;—that the short +pistil in the one form, and the short stamens in the other form were +tending towards abortion. The plants were therefore subjected under +this point of view to trial; but as soon as the flowers with short +pistils fertilised with pollen from the short stamens, were found to +yield more seeds than any other of the four possible unions, the +abortion-theory was knocked on the head. After some additional +experiment, it became evident that the two forms, though both were +perfect hermaphrodites, bore almost the same relation to one another as +do the two sexes of an ordinary animal. With Lythrum we have the still +more wonderful case of three forms standing in a similar relation to +one another. I afterwards found that the offspring from the union of +two plants belonging to the same forms presented a close and curious +analogy with hybrids from the union of two distinct species. + +In the autumn of 1864 I finished a long paper on ‘Climbing Plants,’ and +sent it to the Linnean Society. The writing of this paper cost me four +months; but I was so unwell when I received the proof-sheets that I was +forced to leave them very badly and often obscurely expressed. The +paper was little noticed, but when in 1875 it was corrected and +published as a separate book it sold well. I was led to take up this +subject by reading a short paper by Asa Gray, published in 1858. He +sent me seeds, and on raising some plants I was so much fascinated and +perplexed by the revolving movements of the tendrils and stems, which +movements are really very simple, though appearing at first sight very +complex, that I procured various other kinds of climbing plants, and +studied the whole subject. I was all the more attracted to it, from not +being at all satisfied with the explanation which Henslow gave us in +his lectures, about twining plants, namely, that they had a natural +tendency to grow up in a spire. This explanation proved quite +erroneous. Some of the adaptations displayed by Climbing Plants are as +beautiful as those of Orchids for ensuring cross-fertilisation. + +My ‘Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication’ was begun, as +already stated, in the beginning of 1860, but was not published until +the beginning of 1868. It was a big book, and cost me four years and +two months’ hard labour. It gives all my observations and an immense +number of facts collected from various sources, about our domestic +productions. In the second volume the causes and laws of variation, +inheritance, etc., are discussed as far as our present state of +knowledge permits. Towards the end of the work I give my well-abused +hypothesis of Pangenesis. An unverified hypothesis is of little or no +value; but if anyone should hereafter be led to make observations by +which some such hypothesis could be established, I shall have done good +service, as an astonishing number of isolated facts can be thus +connected together and rendered intelligible. In 1875 a second and +largely corrected edition, which cost me a good deal of labour, was +brought out. + +My ‘Descent of Man’ was published in February, 1871. As soon as I had +become, in the year 1837 or 1838, convinced that species were mutable +productions, I could not avoid the belief that man must come under the +same law. Accordingly I collected notes on the subject for my own +satisfaction, and not for a long time with any intention of publishing. +Although in the ‘Origin of Species’ the derivation of any particular +species is never discussed, yet I thought it best, in order that no +honourable man should accuse me of concealing my views, to add that by +the work “light would be thrown on the origin of man and his history.” +It would have been useless and injurious to the success of the book to +have paraded, without giving any evidence, my conviction with respect +to his origin. + +But when I found that many naturalists fully accepted the doctrine of +the evolution of species, it seemed to me advisable to work up such +notes as I possessed, and to publish a special treatise on the origin +of man. I was the more glad to do so, as it gave me an opportunity of +fully discussing sexual selection—a subject which had always greatly +interested me. This subject, and that of the variation of our domestic +productions, together with the causes and laws of variation, +inheritance, and the intercrossing of plants, are the sole subjects +which I have been able to write about in full, so as to use all the +materials which I have collected. The ‘Descent of Man’ took me three +years to write, but then as usual some of this time was lost by ill +health, and some was consumed by preparing new editions and other minor +works. A second and largely corrected edition of the ‘Descent’ appeared +in 1874. + +My book on the ‘Expression of the Emotions in Men and Animals’ was +published in the autumn of 1872. I had intended to give only a chapter +on the subject in the ‘Descent of Man,’ but as soon as I began to put +my notes together, I saw that it would require a separate treatise. + +My first child was born on December 27th, 1839, and I at once commenced +to make notes on the first dawn of the various expressions which he +exhibited, for I felt convinced, even at this early period, that the +most complex and fine shades of expression must all have had a gradual +and natural origin. During the summer of the following year, 1840, I +read Sir C. Bell’s admirable work on expression, and this greatly +increased the interest which I felt in the subject, though I could not +at all agree with his belief that various muscles had been specially +created for the sake of expression. From this time forward I +occasionally attended to the subject, both with respect to man and our +domesticated animals. My book sold largely; 5267 copies having been +disposed of on the day of publication. + +In the summer of 1860 I was idling and resting near Hartfield, where +two species of Drosera abound; and I noticed that numerous insects had +been entrapped by the leaves. I carried home some plants, and on giving +them insects saw the movements of the tentacles, and this made me think +it probable that the insects were caught for some special purpose. +Fortunately a crucial test occurred to me, that of placing a large +number of leaves in various nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous fluids of +equal density; and as soon as I found that the former alone excited +energetic movements, it was obvious that here was a fine new field for +investigation. + +During subsequent years, whenever I had leisure, I pursued my +experiments, and my book on ‘Insectivorous Plants’ was published in +July 1875—that is, sixteen years after my first observations. The delay +in this case, as with all my other books, has been a great advantage to +me; for a man after a long interval can criticise his own work, almost +as well as if it were that of another person. The fact that a plant +should secrete, when properly excited, a fluid containing an acid and +ferment, closely analogous to the digestive fluid of an animal, was +certainly a remarkable discovery. + +During this autumn of 1876 I shall publish on the ‘Effects of Cross and +Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom.’ This book will form a +complement to that on the ‘Fertilisation of Orchids,’ in which I showed +how perfect were the means for cross-fertilisation, and here I shall +show how important are the results. I was led to make, during eleven +years, the numerous experiments recorded in this volume, by a mere +accidental observation; and indeed it required the accident to be +repeated before my attention was thoroughly aroused to the remarkable +fact that seedlings of self-fertilised parentage are inferior, even in +the first generation, in height and vigour to seedlings of +cross-fertilised parentage. I hope also to republish a revised edition +of my book on Orchids, and hereafter my papers on dimorphic and +trimorphic plants, together with some additional observations on allied +points which I never have had time to arrange. My strength will then +probably be exhausted, and I shall be ready to exclaim “Nunc dimittis.” + + + + +WRITTEN MAY 1ST, 1881. + + +‘The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation’ was published in the +autumn of 1876; and the results there arrived at explain, as I believe, +the endless and wonderful contrivances for the transportal of pollen +from one plant to another of the same species. I now believe, however, +chiefly from the observations of Hermann Muller, that I ought to have +insisted more strongly than I did on the many adaptations for +self-fertilisation; though I was well aware of many such adaptations. A +much enlarged edition of my ‘Fertilisation of Orchids’ was published in +1877. + +In this same year ‘The Different Forms of Flowers, etc.,’ appeared, and +in 1880 a second edition. This book consists chiefly of the several +papers on Heterostyled flowers originally published by the Linnean +Society, corrected, with much new matter added, together with +observations on some other cases in which the same plant bears two +kinds of flowers. As before remarked, no little discovery of mine ever +gave me so much pleasure as the making out the meaning of heterostyled +flowers. The results of crossing such flowers in an illegitimate +manner, I believe to be very important, as bearing on the sterility of +hybrids; although these results have been noticed by only a few +persons. + +In 1879, I had a translation of Dr. Ernst Krause’s ‘Life of Erasmus +Darwin’ published, and I added a sketch of his character and habits +from material in my possession. Many persons have been much interested +by this little life, and I am surprised that only 800 or 900 copies +were sold. + +In 1880 I published, with [my son] Frank’s assistance, our ‘Power of +Movement in Plants.’ This was a tough piece of work. The book bears +somewhat the same relation to my little book on ‘Climbing Plants,’ +which ‘Cross-Fertilisation’ did to the ‘Fertilisation of Orchids;’ for +in accordance with the principle of evolution it was impossible to +account for climbing plants having been developed in so many widely +different groups unless all kinds of plants possess some slight power +of movement of an analogous kind. This I proved to be the case; and I +was further led to a rather wide generalisation, viz. that the great +and important classes of movements, excited by light, the attraction of +gravity, etc., are all modified forms of the fundamental movement of +circumnutation. It has always pleased me to exalt plants in the scale +of organised beings; and I therefore felt an especial pleasure in +showing how many and what admirably well adapted movements the tip of a +root possesses. + +I have now (May 1, 1881) sent to the printers the MS. of a little book +on ‘The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms.’ +This is a subject of but small importance; and I know not whether it +will interest any readers (Between November 1881 and February 1884, +8500 copies have been sold.), but it has interested me. It is the +completion of a short paper read before the Geological Society more +than forty years ago, and has revived old geological thoughts. + +I have now mentioned all the books which I have published, and these +have been the milestones in my life, so that little remains to be said. +I am not conscious of any change in my mind during the last thirty +years, excepting in one point presently to be mentioned; nor, indeed, +could any change have been expected unless one of general +deterioration. But my father lived to his eighty-third year with his +mind as lively as ever it was, and all his faculties undimmed; and I +hope that I may die before my mind fails to a sensible extent. I think +that I have become a little more skilful in guessing right explanations +and in devising experimental tests; but this may probably be the result +of mere practice, and of a larger store of knowledge. I have as much +difficulty as ever in expressing myself clearly and concisely; and this +difficulty has caused me a very great loss of time; but it has had the +compensating advantage of forcing me to think long and intently about +every sentence, and thus I have been led to see errors in reasoning and +in my own observations or those of others. + +There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at +first my statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form. Formerly +I used to think about my sentences before writing them down; but for +several years I have found that it saves time to scribble in a vile +hand whole pages as quickly as I possibly can, contracting half the +words; and then correct deliberately. Sentences thus scribbled down are +often better ones than I could have written deliberately. + +Having said thus much about my manner of writing, I will add that with +my large books I spend a good deal of time over the general arrangement +of the matter. I first make the rudest outline in two or three pages, +and then a larger one in several pages, a few words or one word +standing for a whole discussion or series of facts. Each one of these +headings is again enlarged and often transferred before I begin to +write in extenso. As in several of my books facts observed by others +have been very extensively used, and as I have always had several quite +distinct subjects in hand at the same time, I may mention that I keep +from thirty to forty large portfolios, in cabinets with labelled +shelves, into which I can at once put a detached reference or +memorandum. I have bought many books, and at their ends I make an index +of all the facts that concern my work; or, if the book is not my own, +write out a separate abstract, and of such abstracts I have a large +drawer full. Before beginning on any subject I look to all the short +indexes and make a general and classified index, and by taking the one +or more proper portfolios I have all the information collected during +my life ready for use. + +I have said that in one respect my mind has changed during the last +twenty or thirty years. Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry +of many kinds, such as the works of Milton, Gray, Byron, Wordsworth, +Coleridge, and Shelley, gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy +I took intense delight in Shakespeare, especially in the historical +plays. I have also said that formerly pictures gave me considerable, +and music very great delight. But now for many years I cannot endure to +read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and +found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost +lost my taste for pictures or music. Music generally sets me thinking +too energetically on what I have been at work on, instead of giving me +pleasure. I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause +me the exquisite delight which it formerly did. On the other hand, +novels which are works of the imagination, though not of a very high +order, have been for years a wonderful relief and pleasure to me, and I +often bless all novelists. A surprising number have been read aloud to +me, and I like all if moderately good, and if they do not end +unhappily—against which a law ought to be passed. A novel, according to +my taste, does not come into the first class unless it contains some +person whom one can thoroughly love, and if a pretty woman all the +better. + +This curious and lamentable loss of the higher aesthetic tastes is all +the odder, as books on history, biographies, and travels (independently +of any scientific facts which they may contain), and essays on all +sorts of subjects interest me as much as ever they did. My mind seems +to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large +collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of +that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I +cannot conceive. A man with a mind more highly organised or better +constituted than mine, would not, I suppose, have thus suffered; and if +I had to live my life again, I would have made a rule to read some +poetry and listen to some music at least once every week; for perhaps +the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active +through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may +possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral +character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature. + +My books have sold largely in England, have been translated into many +languages, and passed through several editions in foreign countries. I +have heard it said that the success of a work abroad is the best test +of its enduring value. I doubt whether this is at all trustworthy; but +judged by this standard my name ought to last for a few years. +Therefore it may be worth while to try to analyse the mental qualities +and the conditions on which my success has depended; though I am aware +that no man can do this correctly. + +I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable +in some clever men, for instance, Huxley. I am therefore a poor critic: +a paper or book, when first read, generally excites my admiration, and +it is only after considerable reflection that I perceive the weak +points. My power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought +is very limited; and therefore I could never have succeeded with +metaphysics or mathematics. My memory is extensive, yet hazy: it +suffices to make me cautious by vaguely telling me that I have observed +or read something opposed to the conclusion which I am drawing, or on +the other hand in favour of it; and after a time I can generally +recollect where to search for my authority. So poor in one sense is my +memory, that I have never been able to remember for more than a few +days a single date or a line of poetry. + +Some of my critics have said, “Oh, he is a good observer, but he has no +power of reasoning!” I do not think that this can be true, for the +‘Origin of Species’ is one long argument from the beginning to the end, +and it has convinced not a few able men. No one could have written it +without having some power of reasoning. I have a fair share of +invention, and of common sense or judgment, such as every fairly +successful lawyer or doctor must have, but not, I believe, in any +higher degree. + +On the favourable side of the balance, I think that I am superior to +the common run of men in noticing things which easily escape attention, +and in observing them carefully. My industry has been nearly as great +as it could have been in the observation and collection of facts. What +is far more important, my love of natural science has been steady and +ardent. + +This pure love has, however, been much aided by the ambition to be +esteemed by my fellow naturalists. From my early youth I have had the +strongest desire to understand or explain whatever I observed,—that is, +to group all facts under some general laws. These causes combined have +given me the patience to reflect or ponder for any number of years over +any unexplained problem. As far as I can judge, I am not apt to follow +blindly the lead of other men. I have steadily endeavoured to keep my +mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I +cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon as facts are shown +to be opposed to it. Indeed, I have had no choice but to act in this +manner, for with the exception of the Coral Reefs, I cannot remember a +single first-formed hypothesis which had not after a time to be given +up or greatly modified. This has naturally led me to distrust greatly +deductive reasoning in the mixed sciences. On the other hand, I am not +very sceptical,—a frame of mind which I believe to be injurious to the +progress of science. A good deal of scepticism in a scientific man is +advisable to avoid much loss of time, but I have met with not a few +men, who, I feel sure, have often thus been deterred from experiment or +observations, which would have proved directly or indirectly +serviceable. + +In illustration, I will give the oddest case which I have known. A +gentleman (who, as I afterwards heard, is a good local botanist) wrote +to me from the Eastern counties that the seed or beans of the common +field-bean had this year everywhere grown on the wrong side of the pod. +I wrote back, asking for further information, as I did not understand +what was meant; but I did not receive any answer for a very long time. +I then saw in two newspapers, one published in Kent and the other in +Yorkshire, paragraphs stating that it was a most remarkable fact that +“the beans this year had all grown on the wrong side.” So I thought +there must be some foundation for so general a statement. Accordingly, +I went to my gardener, an old Kentish man, and asked him whether he had +heard anything about it, and he answered, “Oh, no, sir, it must be a +mistake, for the beans grow on the wrong side only on leap-year, and +this is not leap-year.” I then asked him how they grew in common years +and how on leap-years, but soon found that he knew absolutely nothing +of how they grew at any time, but he stuck to his belief. + +After a time I heard from my first informant, who, with many apologies, +said that he should not have written to me had he not heard the +statement from several intelligent farmers; but that he had since +spoken again to every one of them, and not one knew in the least what +he had himself meant. So that here a belief—if indeed a statement with +no definite idea attached to it can be called a belief—had spread over +almost the whole of England without any vestige of evidence. + +I have known in the course of my life only three intentionally +falsified statements, and one of these may have been a hoax (and there +have been several scientific hoaxes) which, however, took in an +American Agricultural Journal. It related to the formation in Holland +of a new breed of oxen by the crossing of distinct species of Bos (some +of which I happen to know are sterile together), and the author had the +impudence to state that he had corresponded with me, and that I had +been deeply impressed with the importance of his result. The article +was sent to me by the editor of an English Agricultural Journal, asking +for my opinion before republishing it. + +A second case was an account of several varieties, raised by the author +from several species of Primula, which had spontaneously yielded a full +complement of seed, although the parent plants had been carefully +protected from the access of insects. This account was published before +I had discovered the meaning of heterostylism, and the whole statement +must have been fraudulent, or there was neglect in excluding insects so +gross as to be scarcely credible. + +The third case was more curious: Mr. Huth published in his book on +‘Consanguineous Marriage’ some long extracts from a Belgian author, who +stated that he had interbred rabbits in the closest manner for very +many generations, without the least injurious effects. The account was +published in a most respectable Journal, that of the Royal Society of +Belgium; but I could not avoid feeling doubts—I hardly know why, except +that there were no accidents of any kind, and my experience in breeding +animals made me think this very improbable. + +So with much hesitation I wrote to Professor Van Beneden, asking him +whether the author was a trustworthy man. I soon heard in answer that +the Society had been greatly shocked by discovering that the whole +account was a fraud. (The falseness of the published statements on +which Mr. Huth relied has been pointed out by himself in a slip +inserted in all the copies of his book which then remained unsold.) The +writer had been publicly challenged in the Journal to say where he had +resided and kept his large stock of rabbits while carrying on his +experiments, which must have consumed several years, and no answer +could be extracted from him. + +My habits are methodical, and this has been of not a little use for my +particular line of work. Lastly, I have had ample leisure from not +having to earn my own bread. Even ill-health, though it has annihilated +several years of my life, has saved me from the distractions of society +and amusement. + +Therefore my success as a man of science, whatever this may have +amounted to, has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and +diversified mental qualities and conditions. Of these, the most +important have been—the love of science—unbounded patience in long +reflecting over any subject—industry in observing and collecting +facts—and a fair share of invention as well as of common sense. With +such moderate abilities as I possess, it is truly surprising that I +should have influenced to a considerable extent the belief of +scientific men on some important points. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES DARWIN *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. 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