Charles Darwin. 



years of age ; yet his paper, which was on the com- 

 mon Flustra, or sea-mat, attracted no Httle attention, 

 and was the first in an ever increasing series that 

 gave him in later years a world-wide reputation. 



While this was Darwin's first public appearance as 

 a naturalist, he had long been an ardent collector. 

 When but nine years of age he was the happy pos- 

 sessor of a collection of seals, franks, coins, and 

 minerals which were the admiration of his young 

 friends and acquaintances. 



Our hero was born at Shrewsbury in 1809, and 

 began his school-boy life at a day-school, later, in 

 18 1 8, attending the large establishment of Dr. Butler, 

 a mile from the old homestead. This school, like 

 many of the time, was a strictly classical institution, 

 where the young mind was regaled with ancient 

 geography and history almost exclusively. The 

 lessons, so he tells us, were " learned by heart," with 

 interminable verses, — a feature much esteemed by 

 educators of the day, and were mastered in boyish 

 fashion by a combination of the talent of the school. 

 He was singularly deficient in language, yet pos- 

 sessed, like other members of his family, a remarkable 

 memory, so that, as he writes in his quaint Autobi- 

 ography : '' Much attention was paid to learning by 

 heart the lessons of the previous day ; this I could 

 effect with great facility, learning forty or fifty lines 

 of Virgil or Homer whilst I was in morning chapel ; 

 but this exercise was utterly useless, for every verse 

 was forgotten in forty-eight hours." 



Our young hero, while manly and thoughtful, was 

 simple-hearted, and often a victim to the deceptions 



