DARWINIANISM. 



any power on earth. There had been a check, too, at 

 first, on the part of the captain of the ship ; Darwin's 

 nose lacked energy, he thought ; and he threw for a 

 time cold water on his going. It is remarkable that on 

 such small circumstances as his uncle's drive and the 

 shape of his nose depended that whole voyage of the 

 Baoujh and all that came of it for Darwin in a word, 

 his life and work. Mr. Darwin himself says this ; and 

 of course there is truth in it, though it may not be quite 

 right to credit circumstances so that if Alexander the 

 Great had not bathed in the river Cydnus, there would 

 not have been any voyage of the Beagle, at all. A man 

 may go round to his house by the street on the east, or 

 by the street on the west : almost absolutely, it will not 

 make the difference of sixpence in his bank-book by the 

 end of the year ! 



" What a glorious day the 4th of November will be to 

 me ! My second life will then commence, and it shall be 

 as a birthday for the rest of my life." In this sanguine 

 way writes Charles Darwin in October ; but it was the 

 27th December before the Beagle was allowed by circum- 

 stances finally to set sail. From Tuesday, this 27th 

 December 1831, till the evening of Sunday, the 2nd 

 October 1836, Charles Darwin was a wanderer round 

 the world. He reached his home at Shrewsbury on the 

 morning of Tuesday the 4th at breakfast time, when his 

 delighted father, the good old doctor, in his lively falsetto 

 gave the cry, " Why, the shape of his head is quite 

 altered ! " In five yearsy and such five years, change 

 enough there must have been. The callow youth, with 

 his fresh cheek, and his ready assent, was now a man. 

 Reflection gave the vigour of line to the face ; and his 

 keen observing eyes were deep within their, now much 

 more gravely, overhanging brows. The expression of 

 the head, consequently, its movable contour, might be 



