198 THE APPOINTMENT TO THE 'BEAGLE.' ALTAT. 22. [1831. 



Josiah Wedgivood to R. W. Darwin. 



Maer, August 31, 1831. 



[Read this last.] * 



MY DEAR DOCTOR, 



I feel the responsibility of your application to me on 

 the offer that has been made to Charles as being weighty, but 

 as you have desired Charles to consult me, I cannot refuse to 

 give the result of such consideration as I have been able to 

 [give ?] it. 



Charles has put down what he conceives to be your prin- 

 cipal objections, and I think the best course I can take will 

 be to state what occurs to me upon each of them. 



1. I should not think that it would be in any degree dis- 

 reputable to his character as a Clergyman. I should on the 

 contrary think the offer honourable to him ; and the pursuit of 

 Natural History, though certainly not professional, is very 

 suitable to a clergyman. 



2. I hardly know how to meet this objection, but he 

 would have definite objects upon which to employ himself, 

 and might acquire and strengthen habits of application, and I 

 should think would be as likely to do so as in any way in 

 which he is likely to pass the next two years at home. 



3. The notion did not.occur to me in reading the letters ; 

 and on reading them again with that object in my mind I see 

 no ground for it. 



4. I cannot conceive that the Admiralty would send out 

 ;a bad vessel on such a service. As to objections to the expe- 

 dition, they will differ in each man's case, and nothing would, 

 I think, be inferred in Charles's case, if it were known that 

 others had objected. 



5. You are a much better judge of Charles's character 

 than I can be. If on comparing this mode of spending the 

 next two years with the way in which he will probably spend 



* In C. Darwin's writing. 



