CHARLES DARWIN. 449 



CHARLES DARWIN. 



Charles Darwin died on the 19th of April last, a few months 

 after the completion of his 73rd year; and on the '26th, the mortal 

 remains of the most celebrated man of science of the nineteenth 

 centnry were laid in Westminster Abbey, near to those of Newton. 



He was born at Shrewsbury, Feb. 12, 1809, and was named 

 Charles Robert Darwin. But the middle appellation was omitted 

 from his ordinary signature and from the title-pages of the volumes 

 which, within the last twenty-five years, have given such great renown 

 to an already distinguished name. His grandfather, Dr. Erasmus 

 Darwin, — who died seven years before his distinguished grandson 

 was born, — was one of the most notable and original men of his age ; 

 and his father, also a physician, was a person of very marked char- 

 acter and ability. His maternal grandfixther was Josiah Wedgwood, 

 who, beginning as an artisan potter, produced the celebrated Wedg- 

 wood ware, and became a Fellow of the Royal Society and a man of 

 much scientific mark. The importance of heritability, which is an 

 essential part of Darwinism, would seem to have had a significant 

 illustration in the person of its great expounder. He was educated at 

 the Shrewsbury Grammar School and at Edinburgh University, where, 

 following the example of his grandfather, he studied for two sessions, 

 having the medical profession in view, and where, at the close of the 

 year 1826, he made his first contribution to natural history in two 

 papers (one of them on the ova of Flustra). Soon finding the medi- 

 cal profession not to his liking, he proceeded to the University of 

 Cambridge, entering Christ's College, and took his bachelor's degree 

 in 1831 ; that of M.A. in 1837, after his return from South America. 



It is said that Darwin was a keen fox-hunter in his youth, — not a 

 bad pursuit for the cultivation of the observing powers. There is good 

 authority for the statement — though it has nowhere been made in 

 print — that at Cambridge he was disposed at one time to make the 

 Church his profession, following the example of Buckland and of his 

 teacher, Sedgwick. But in 1831, just as he was taking his bachelor's 

 degree, Captain Fitzroy offered to receive into his own cabin any 

 naturalist who was disposed to accompany him in the Beagle's survey- 

 ing voyage round the world. Mr. Darwin volunteered his services 

 without salary, with the condition only that he should have the dis- 

 posal of his own collections. And this expedition of nearly five 

 years — from the latter part of September, 1831, to the close of Octo- 



voL. XVII. (x. s. IX.) 29 



