CHARLES DARWIN 



CHAPTER I 



AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT, AND EARLY LETTERS 



1809 1842 



IN the process of removing the remainder of Mr. Darwin's books and 

 papers from Down, the following autobiographical notes, written in 1838, 

 came to light. They seem to us worth publishing both as giving some 

 new facts, and also as illustrating the interest which he clearly felt in 

 his own development. Many words are omitted in the manuscript, and 

 some names incorrectly spelled ; the corrections which have been made 

 are not always indicated. 



My earliest recollection, the date of which I can approxi- 

 mately tell, and which must have been before I was four 

 years old, was when sitting on Caroline's l knee in the drawing 

 room, whilst she was cutting an orange for me, a cow ran by 

 the window which made me jump, so that I received a bad 

 cut, of which I bear the scar to this day. Of this scene I 

 recollect the place where I sat and the cause of the fright, 

 but not the cut itself, and I think my memory is real, and not 

 as often happens in similar cases, [derived] from hearing the 

 thing often repeated, [when] one obtains so vivid an image, 

 that it cannot be separated from memory : because I clearly 

 remember which way the cow ran, which would not probably 

 have been told me. My memory here is an obscure picture, 

 in which from not recollecting any pain I am scarcely 

 conscious of its reference to myself. 



1813. When I was four years and a half old I went to 

 the sea, and stayed there some weeks. I remember many 



1 His sister, Caroline Darwin, 1800-88. 



