NA TURE 



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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1887. 



CHARLES DARWIN. 

 The U/e and Letters of Charles Darwin, including 

 an Autobiographical Chapter. Edited by his Son, 

 Francis Darwin. In Three Volumes. (London : John 

 Murray, 1887.) 

 ^"'O write a biography is a task which is almost a 

 J- proverb for difficulty. It is no easier for a relative 

 than for a stranger, because, if a more intimate knowledge 

 of the details lightens the labour, affection is apt to warp 

 the judgment, and checks perfect freedom of expression. In 

 the biography, however, of Charles Darwin, there was no 

 temptation to reticence, no need for firmness. His was a 

 life, simple, noble, blameless. Still, this very simplicity 

 and unostentatious rectitude presented their own difficul- 

 ties. After the long and interesting voyage in early man- 

 hood, it was a life singularly uneventful, a life of patient 

 labour, one long struggle against sickness. Thus its record 

 when written might readily have been unexceptionable, 

 but dull. 



This cannot be said of the Life of Charles Darwin. It 

 will take its place, I venture to predict, with Boswell's 

 Life of Johnson, Lockhart's Life of Scott, Stanley's Life 

 of Arnold, and the comparatively small number of bio- 

 graphies which have attained to first-class rank in litera- 

 ture. Mr. Francis Darwin has made excellent use of the 

 materials at his disposal. These were considerable. 

 They consisted of a short sketch written in his later years 

 by Charles Darwin himself, for the information of his 

 family, and of a large number of letters. Mr. Francis 

 Darwin had, in addition, the special advantage of having 

 shared in the labours of his father during the last eight 

 years of his life. 



The chapters written by the editor are of the highest 

 interest and value, but as far as possible the story is told 

 by Charles Darwin himself; the letters being merely 

 strung together by occasional explanatory paragraphs, 

 which form a connecting thread. Selection must have 

 been no easy task, but it has been well done, and numer- 

 ous as are the letters and large as is the book one almost 

 wishes they had been more and it had been larger. Yet 

 Darwin was hardly what most people would call a good 

 letter-writer. His letters were often written hurriedly, and 

 bear the marks of hasty composition ; but there is not 

 seldom a terseness of phrase, and always a vigour of 

 expression, which makes them peculiarly attractive. 

 These letters, too, are thoroughly characteristic of the 

 man. They breathe the quenchless energy, the " dogged " 

 endurance, the hidden tenderness, the sweet reasonable- 

 ness, the imperturbable equanimity, of his nature ; and 

 they show, on rare occasions, that capacity for indignation 

 without which a character so amiable might have 

 degenerated into weakness. 



The autobiographical sketch tells us the particulars of 

 Charles Darwin's early life. Born at Shrewsbury in 1809, 

 the son of a physician in large practice, and grandson 

 of the well-known Dr. Erasmus Darwin, author of 

 "Zoonomia," Charles Darwin was educated at the grammar- 

 school of that town, under Dr. Butler, one of its most 

 noted head masters. Neither in childhood nor in boy- 

 VoL xxxvii— No 943. 



hood does he appear to have given promise of exceptional 

 powers, though the taste for collecting manifested itself 

 at a very early age, and he was obviously more thoughtful 

 and determined to understand things thoroughly than the 

 average boy. But the school system of education which, 

 as usual then, was wholly classical, did nothing to 

 bring out the special powers of his mind. Indeed, be 

 was once even rebuked by the head master for wasting his 

 time on such a useless subject as chemistry. He passed, 

 in short, through Shrewsbury school as a well-conducted 

 boy of ordinary ability, perhaps a little below the average. 

 "A good lad, but not quick or particularly studious," 

 would probably have been the verdict of his masters. 



After leaving Shrewsbury, Darwin studied for a couple 

 of years at the University of Edinburgh, attending 

 medical lectures, with the idea of adopting that profes- 

 sion. But for the surgical side of it he already felt a 

 disinclination ; and unfortunately for him, as he relates, 

 the dreariness of the lectures on anatomy indirectly 

 deterred him from the practice of dissection, which would 

 have been a useful training for his later life. He made, 

 however, friends, who aided in developing his love for 

 natural history, though he tells us that the dullness of the 

 geological lectures produced in him "the determination 

 never as long as I lived to read a book in geology, or in 

 any way to study the science." A resolve, happily, before 

 long rescinded. 



From Edinburgh, Charles Darwin went to Cambridge. 

 Here he entered at Christ's College, where his elder 

 brother, Erasmus, was already a student. There was 

 then an idea that, as he clearly had no strong taste for 

 medicine, he should be ordained. As he says, " Consider- 

 ing how fiercely I have been attacked by the orthodox, it 

 seems ludicrous that I once intended to be a clergyman." 

 Darwin had at no time of his life any tendency to super- 

 stition, otherwise one might observe that extremes in 

 religious opinion are not so wide apart as the remark just 

 quoted seems to imply. At the same time he tells us that 

 a German phrenologist had declared that he " had the 

 bump of reverence developed enough for ten priests." 



He brought little classical knowledge from Shrewsbury, 

 and left much of that behind at Edinburgh ; he had no 

 taste for mathematics, and natural science was not then re- 

 cognized in the curriculum at Cambridge. So he read 

 little, and took an ordinary degree. Thus he doubtless 

 appeared to be wasting his time, and accuses himself of so 

 doing. But one can see that the groundwork was being laid 

 for the future. He acquired friends, some of Hke tastes ; 

 his interest in natural history increased, and was developed 

 by the opportunities which the district afforded, especially 

 for collecting beetles, then the ruling passion. His health, 

 too, at this time appears to have been good ; he was an 

 active pedestrian and a keen sportsman, enjoying society, 

 and not without a love of music. 



But the friendship of Henslow was probably the greatest 

 boon which he owed to Cambridge. Acquaintance soon 

 ripened into steadfast friendship, and the wider know- 

 ledge and formed habits of the older man produced, as 

 Darwin gratefully admits, the best possible influence on 

 the younger. Through Henslow also, shortly after Darwin 

 had taken his degree, the offer was made to join the 

 Beagle as naturalist, which may fairly be called the 

 turning-point of his life. It is interesting to see how 



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