LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



both parties had something to do with the arrange- 

 ment, and in this instance it was beautiful and welL 

 Q Darwin was married to his work, and no such fallacy 

 as marrying a woman in order to educate her filled his 

 mind. His wife was his mental mate, his devoted 

 helper and friend. 



It is no small matter for a wife to be the friend of her 

 husband. Mrs. Darwin had no small oval aspirations 

 of her own. She flew the futile Four-o'clock and 

 made no flannel nightgowns for Fijis. Twenty years 

 after his marriage, Darwin wrote thus : " It is probably 

 as you say — I have done an enormous amount of 

 work. And this was only possible through the devotion 

 of my wife, who, ignoring every idea of pleasure and 

 comfort for herself, arranged in a thousand ways to 

 give me joy and rest, peace and most valuable inspira- 

 tion and assistance. If I occasionally lost faith in 

 myself she most certainly never did. Only two hours 

 a day could I work, and these to her were sacred. She 

 guarded me as a mother guards her babe, and I look 

 back now and see how hopelessly undone I should have 

 been without her." 



In 1842, Darwin and his wife moved to the village of 

 Down, County of Kent. The place where they lived 

 was a rambling old stone house with ample garden. 

 The country was rough & unbroken, and one might have 

 imagined he w^as a thousand miles from London instead 

 of only twenty. There were no aristocratic neighbors, 

 no society to speak of. With the plain farmers and sim- 

 ple folk of the village Darwin was on good terms. He 

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