RISE OF EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT 433 



work which only entailed reasoning. Of course, he was a 

 great reader, but for books as books he had no respect, often 

 cutting large ones in two in order to make them easier to 

 hold while in use. 



Darwin's Early Life. — Charles Darwin was born in 1809 

 at Shrewsbury, England, of distinguished ancestry, his grand- 

 father being the famous Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the founder, 

 as we have seen, of a theory of evolution. In his youth he 

 gave no indication of future greatness. He was sent to 

 Edinburgh to study medicine, but that the work failed to 

 arouse in him an absorbing interest is shown by his charac- 

 terizing some of the lectures as "incredibly dull." After two 

 sessions, at the suggestion of his father, he left Edinburgh to 

 study for the Church. He then entered Christ's College, 

 Cambridge, where he remained for three years. After ta- 

 king his baccalaureate degree at Cambridge, where he had 

 manifested an interest in scientific study, and had been 

 encouraged by Professor Henslow, came the event Vvhich 

 proved, as Darwin says, "the turning-yjoint of my life." 

 This was his appointment as naturalist on the surveying 

 expedition about to be entered upon by the ship Beagle. 

 An amusing circumstance connected with his appointment 

 is that he was nearly rejected by Captain Fitz-Roy, who 

 doubted "whether a man with such a shaped nose could 

 possess sufficient energy and determination for the voyage." 



Voyage of the Beagle. — The voyage of the Beagle ex- 

 tended over five years (1831-183^), mainly along the west 

 coast of South America. It w^as on this voyage that Darwin 

 acquired the habit of constant industry. He had also oppor- 

 tunity to take long trips on shore, engaged in observation 

 and in making extensive collections. He observed nature in 

 the field under exceptional circumstances. As he traveled 

 he noted fossil forms in rocks as well as the living forms in 

 field and forest. He observed the correspondence in type 



