6 THE DARWIN FAMILY. 



Erasmus the love of exercise and of field-sports, so character- 

 istic of Charles Darwin as a young man, though he had, like 

 his grandson, an indomitable love of hard mental work. Be- 

 nevolence and sympathy with others, and a great personal 

 charm of manner, were common to the two. Charles Darwin 

 possessed, in the highest degree, that "vividness of imagina- 

 tion " of which he speaks as strongly characteristic of Eras- 

 mus, and as leading *'to his overpowering tendency to theo- 

 rise and generalise." This tendency, in the case of Charles 

 Darwin, was fully kept in check by the determination to test 

 his theories to the utmost. Erasmus had a strong love of all 

 kinds of mechanism, for which Charles Darwin had no taste. 

 Neither had Charles Darwin the literary temperament which 

 made Erasmus a poet as well as a philosopher. He writes of 

 Erasmus : * " Throughout his letters I have been struck with 

 his indifference to fame, and the complete absence of all signs 

 of any over-estimation of his own abilities, or of the success 

 of his works." These, indeed, seem indications of traits most 

 strikingly prominent in his own character. Yet we get no 

 evidence in Erasmus of the intense modesty and simplicity 

 that marked Charles Darwin's whole nature. But by the 

 quick bursts of anger provoked in Erasmus, at the sight of 

 any inhumanity or injustice, we are again reminded of 

 him. 



On the whole, however, it seems to me that we do not 

 know enough of the essential personal tone of Erasmus Dar- 

 win's character to attempt more than a superficial compari- 

 son ; and I am left with an impression that, in spite of many 

 resemblances, the two men were of a different type. It has 

 been shown that Miss Seward and Mrs. Schimmelpenninck 

 have misrepresented Erasmus Darwin's character.! It is, 

 however, extremely probable that the faults which they exag- 

 gerate were to some extent characteristic of the man ; and 

 this leads me to think that Erasmus had a certain acerbity or 

 severity of temper which did not exist in his grandson. 



* i 



Life of Erasmus Darwin,' p. 68. f Ibid., pp. 77, 79- &c» 



