CHAKLES DABWTN. 105 



day, we arc indebted to Charles Robert Darwin infinitely more 

 than to any otlicr man. Many before liim luul advocated the 

 theory of the origin of species by evolution ; some had even 

 arrived at the conclusion that variations are perpetuated and 

 accumulated into specific dilferences by natural selection ; but 

 Darwin has brought forward a mass of evidence so overwhelming, 

 that however prejudiced against his theory anyone of at least 

 ordinary intelligence may be, after a thorough study of it the 

 conviction cannot be resisted that species are genetically allied, or 

 have been more or less gradually evolved one from another and not 

 separately created, the fittest only having survived and reproduced 

 their kind in the struggle for existence in which all living things 

 are perpetually engaged. 



Darwin has revolutionised modern thought. Owing to him, 

 Evolution, by the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence, 

 is no longer an hypothesis but an established scientific doctrine 

 which has affected every science and has brought several sciences 

 or departments of science into existence. Essentially biological, 

 its influence has been felt in every one of the natural sciences, and 

 that the fittest only will survive has become an axiom in philology, 

 sociology, and all the relations of human existence. The life of 

 Darwin ought therefore to possess an interest to all, and although 

 it has no special local interest to us, there is a link between Darwin 

 and this Society besides fellowship in our labours in the investi- 

 gation of Nature : he was one of our Honorary Members. 



Charles Robert Darwin was born on the 12th of February, 1809, 

 at The Mount, Shrewsbury. He was the second son of Dr. Robert 

 Waring Darwin, who for many years was the leading physician in 

 Shrewsbury, owing his success chiefly to his acuteness in the 

 diagnosis of disease, and his wonderful insight into the thoughts and 

 feelings of his patients. 



Both Charles Darwin's grandfathers were talented men, for 

 Dr. Darwin was the son of Erasmus Darwin, the well-known poet 

 and philosopher, and one of the earliest advocates of the doctrine of 

 evolution, and he married the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the 

 even better-known potter and philanthi^opist, inventor of the fine 

 earthenware which bears his name, and founder of the village and 

 pottery-works of Etruria. Six children resulted from this mar- 

 riage, two boys and four girls, and Charles was the fifth child. 



The Wedgwoods were Unitarians, and Charles Darwin, as a 

 little boy, went with his mother to the Unitarian Chapel in 

 Shrewsbury, but he was christened at St. Chad's, and brought up 

 as a member of the Church of England, usually attending church 



