CHARLES DARWIN. 71 



fathers everyday life, and is the work of Mr. Francis 

 Darwin- The account in it is most minute and interest- 

 ing. Modest throughout, it is perfectly to be trusted. 

 Mr. Charles Darwin will, of course, go down to posterity 

 us one of the first of naturalists an observer only to 

 be classed with the Linnaeuses and the Cuviers. Mr. 

 Francis Darwin and, in the circumstances, it is not to 

 disparage him to say so will not, in all probability, 

 precisely do that ; but, with perhaps a more vigorous, or 

 more comprehensive, general intellect, he is otherwise, we 

 make bold to say, just about as good a man as his father 

 was, than whom, for genuine worth, it would not be easy 

 to find a better. 



Charles Darwin was born at Shrewsbury in Shropshire 

 on 12th February 1809 ; and he died at Down in Kent 

 on the 19th of April 1882. He was buried in West- 

 minster Abbey, " a few feet from the grave of Sir 

 Isaac Newton ; " his pall-bearers being among the most 

 illustrious in the land. 



Mr. Darwin is very minute on himself in his early 

 years, and in these he has no reason to be ashamed of 

 himself an innocent, susceptible little boy, very much 

 at the bidding and will of his sisters. Than one of 

 these, his younger sister, Catherine younger than him- 

 self, that is it is understood, it appears, that he was 

 " much slower in learning." She, probably, it was, after 

 consultation with whom, he " concluded that it was not 

 right to kill insects ; " and so it was that he made up 

 his mind " to begin collecting only all the insects which 

 he could find dead." So it was also that, with all 

 his "strong taste for angling" (he would "sit for any 

 number of hours watching the float ") he " never spitted 

 a living worm." Though " very fond of collecting eggs," 

 too, he " never took more than a single egg out of a 

 bird's nest " except once ! And then he took all ; but, 



