74 



NA TURE 



{Nov. 24, 1887 



evenly balanced the reasons for and against acceptance 

 then seemed to be, and how nearly the offer was refused. 

 He wished to go, but Dr. Darwin, his father, for various 

 reasons — among them the fear that so long a voyage 

 would unsettle his son for life — was opposed to the plan. 

 Chiefly through the influence of Darwin's maternal uncle, 

 Mr. Josiah Wedgwood, the father's objections were over- 

 come. Capt. Fitzroy, however, who was a disciple of 

 Lavater, was nearly refusing his services because of the 

 shape of his nose, which was not sufficiently indicative of 

 determination and energy ! Considerable delay arose from 

 one cause or another, but the vessel finally sailed from 

 Plymouth on December 27, 1831. 



Though Henslow was Professor of Botany, it was im- 

 possible to know him without being infected with geology ; 

 so by this time the resolution against that science had 

 been rescinded, and Darwin had even accompanied Sedg- 

 wick on one of his journeys in North Wales. The tale of 

 the work during the voyage of the Beagle has been told 

 in the well-known volumes ; but we have here a series of 

 letters which record many incidents of the journey, and 

 indicate the development of the writer's mental powers 

 and the thoughts which were already beginning to quicken 

 into life. It is amusing to read that now the new love is 

 sometimes stronger than the old. " But geology carries the 

 day ; it is like the pleasure of gambling. Speculating on 

 first arriving what the rocks may be, I often mentally cry 

 out, 'Three to one Tertiary against Primitive,' but the latter 

 have hitherto won all the bets." Later there is a conflict even 

 in his geological preferences. " I am quite charmed with 

 geology, but, like the wise animal between two bundles of 

 hay, I do not know which to like the best, the old crys- 

 talline group of rocks or the softer and fossiliferous beds." 

 But notwithstanding these mental " lovers' quarrels,'' 

 notwithstanding the serious drawback of incessant suffer- 

 ing from sea-sickness, and one grave illness of an un- 

 known nature, a large number of specimens and a 

 wonderful store of observations were accumulated in 

 almost every department of natural history, which served 

 as the foundation for the great superstructure to which 

 his life was devoted. 



On Darwin's return to England in 1836, he oscillated 

 for a time between Cambridge and London, working at 

 the results of his voyage as hard as his health, now seri- 

 ously impaired, permitted. In 1839 he married, and after 

 residing in Gower Street till the autumn of 1842, moved, 

 in the hope of benefit from country air, to a house which 

 he purchased at Down, in Kent, and in which the 

 remainder of his life was spent. 



Here, after the immediate fruits of the Beagle voyage 

 were given to the world, he began to develop the great 

 idea of which the germ had been sown and quickened 

 during his wanderings. One chapter describes how " the 

 foundations of the Origin of Species were laid " between 

 the years 1837 and 1844 ; another narrates its growth. In 

 1856, partly in consequence of Lyell's advice, the book 

 was begun for which such long preparation had been 

 made, and by the month of June 1858 about one-half 

 was written. It was, however, on a much greater scale 

 than that which has now become classic in England, — 

 " three or four times as extensive." Then suddenly all 

 was changed by the receipt of a manuscript from Mr. 

 Wallace, from his distant sphere of work in the Malay 



Archipelago, which coincided so exactly with his own 

 views that, as Darwin writes to Lyell, " if Wallace had 

 my manuscript sketch written out in 1842, he could not 

 have made a better short abstract." The story of this 

 interesting episode, so honourable in every respect to all 

 concerned, is told, chiefly by means of letters, in one 

 chapter of the book. In these days, when too often the 

 stream of scientific life is ruffled by miserable personal 

 squabbles about priority in some trifling discovery, it is 

 well to learn how men acted whose hearts were as large 

 as their intellects were great. 



The result of the simultaneous announcement of the 

 hypothesis thus independently framed was that the plan 

 of the larger work was abandoned, and the " Origin 

 of Species by means of Natural Selection," or " An 

 Abstract of an Essay on the Origin of Species through 

 Natural Selection," as the author would have preferred to 

 call it, was published in 1859. It is needless to epitomize 

 the story of its reception by the public— of the opposition 

 which it encountered — of the storm which it aroused — of 

 its ultimate triumph : all this is admirably told by Prof. 

 Huxley in a chapter which he has contributed to the 

 work. 



Of all the accusations brought against Darwin, perhaps 

 the most unreasonable was the frequent one that he had 

 " abandoned the true Baconian method." I do not profess 

 to be very familiar with the philosophy of Bacon ; but if 

 accumulating a mass of facts, co-ordinating them, and 

 then drawing inductions, is not the true method of science, 

 I do not know of any other ; and this method inspires 

 every chapter of the " Origin of Species." 



In the correspondence which was written during the re- 

 mainder of the author's life, occupying nearly half the work, 

 we read of how the "Origin of Species" won its way, 

 edition following edition, and of the series of later works 

 and occasional papers which continued till within a few 

 months of the end. This came rather suddenly, though 

 in the fullness of years. For the last ten years of his life 

 his health had appeared somewhat better than formerly, 

 but in the early months of 1882 it gave repeated cause 

 for alarm, and at last, on April 19, after a brief period of 

 suffering, he ceased from that labour which only sickness 

 had ever made a burden. 



The quantity of work which he had accomplished is 

 astonishing when its quality — always the best that could 

 be done by the man — is considered. True, Darwin, though 

 only to be called wealthy towards the end of his life, was 

 always free from the necessity of bread-winning. But 

 then — and what a terrible set-off this implies — "for 

 nearly forty years he never knew one day of the health of 

 ordinary men, and thus his life was one long struggle 

 against the weariness and strain of sickness." 



In one respect Darwin was felix opportunitate vitce. 

 He lived before scientific literature had attained its 

 present overwhelming proportions. It is charming to read 

 such a passage as this : " Geology is a capital science to 

 begin, as it requires nothing but a little reading, thinking, 

 and hammering." We might add, " with the mind of a 

 Darwin," — at least to get such wonderful results as in the 

 " Geological Observations." If anyone of the present day 

 is getting proud of what he may have done in petrology, 

 I would prescribe Part I. of that work as a corrective. 

 But if now we learn much from others, and gain much 



