20 Charles Darwin. 



Darwin, who had just graduated from Cambridge. 

 The latter returned from a geological trip to find 

 the communication, and to say that he was de- 

 lighted but faintly expresses it. He determined to 

 accept should his father not object, but, unfor- 

 tunately, the latter looked with great disfavour upon 

 the plan. He finally said that he would give his 

 consent if his son could find a sensible person who 

 would encourage it. 



Young Darwin very reluctantly gave up what 

 appeared to him a veritable dream of promise and 

 an opportunity to make for himself a scientific 

 career. As good-fortune would have it he men- 

 tioned the matter to his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood, 

 who offered to undertake the role of one sensible 

 person, and as a result the elder Darwin relented 

 and the position was accepted. This step was the 

 beginning of a new epoch in the life of the young 

 naturalist. It was, as he says, by far the most im- 

 portant event of his life, and in a letter to Captain 

 Fitz-Roy he wrote : " 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." 



After many delays attendant upon fitting a large 

 ship for a long voyage, the Beagle put to sea, and the 

 expedition, which had so material an effect, not only 

 upon Darwin, but upon preconceived ideas of many 

 natural-history questions, began. 



The Beagle was what we now term a barque, and 

 of two hundred and thirty-five tons burthen. She 

 represented a class facetiously known as coflfins by 



