76 DARWINIANISM. 



Darwin describes himself as eventually, with regard to 

 Zoonomia, " much disappointed, the proportion of specula- 

 tion being so large to the facts given." 



Now, with the exception of what relates to his 

 principle of, or for, modification, it is assumed to be 

 established that there is nothing in Charles Darwin 

 which was not already suggested by his grandfather 

 Erasmus. The declaration of the former (Charles) here, 

 then, whether as regards Erasmus or as regards Lamarck, 

 amounts to a denial on his part of any influence from 

 either. Mr. Darwin, never elsewhere otherwise as 

 regards Larnarck, and however otherwise elsewhere (in 

 the Krause-book), as regards his grandfather, is as usual 

 like himself when he finds he has made an assertion that 

 is possibly too sweeping. Apprehension comes to that 

 tender conscience of his with that idea here, and he 

 cannot help the postscript : " Nevertheless it is probable 

 that the hearing rather early in life such views main- 

 tained and praised may have favoured my upholding 

 them under a different form in my Origin of Species.'' 

 The claim here, " a different form " (which points to 

 no more than the exception already made), can mean 

 nothing additional to the claim for his father which we 

 have already seen on the part of Mr. Francis Darwin 

 (the passage quoted at p. 44 from the Life and Letters, 

 vol. ii. p. 189). 



In the hospital at Edinburgh, he avows, " some of the 

 cases (two operations among them) distressed rne a good 

 deal, and I have still vivid pictures before me of some of 

 them ; but I was not so foolish as to allow this to 

 lessen my attendance." Such facts as these throw 

 emphasis on his words, that his disposition was very 

 affectionate, and that he had many friends whom he 

 loved dearly. In them, too, we see the eminently good 

 young man who might have been the hero of the mutual 



