1 66 Charles Darwin. 



sion, we seem to gain in its vividness. Erasmus 

 Darwin has passed away in old age, yet his memory 

 retains something of a youthful fragrance ; his in- 

 fluence gave much happiness, of a kind usually 

 associated with youth, to many lives besides the 

 illustrious one whose records justify, though cer- 

 tainly they do not inspire, the wish to place this 

 fading chaplet on his grave." 



From such an ancestry, distinguished for its liter- 

 ary and scientific traits, our hero sprang, the bright 

 light in a long line of men and women eminent for 

 their intellectual superiority. 



