OH ABLE S DAE WIN. 



CHAPTER L 



THE DATtWINS. 



Charles Robert Darwin was the second son of Dr. Robert 

 Waring Darwin, of Shrewsbury, where he was born on 

 February 12, 1809. Dr. Darwin was a son of Erasmus 

 Darwin, sometimes described as a poet, but more deservedly 

 known as physician and naturalist. Charles Darwin's mother 

 was Susannah, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the well-known 

 potter of Etruria, in Staffordshire. 



If such speculations are permissible, we may hazard the 

 guess that Charles Darwin inherited his sweetness of disposi- 

 tion from the Wedgwood side, while the character of his genius 

 came rather from the Darwin grandfather.* 



Robert Waring Darwin was a man of well-marked character. 

 He had no pretensions to being a man of science, no tendency 

 to generalise his knowledge, and though a successful physician 

 he was guided more by intuition and everyday observation than 

 by a deep knowledge of his subject. His chief mental charac- 

 teristics were his keen powers of observation, and his know- 

 ledge of men, qualities which led him to " read the characters 

 and even the thoughts of those whom he saw even for a short 

 time." It is not therefore surprising that his help should have 

 been sought, not merely in illness, but in cases of family 

 trouble and sorrow. This was largely the case, and his wise 

 sympathy, no less than his medical skill, obtained for him a 

 strong influence over the lives of a large number of people. 

 He was a man of a quick, vivid temperament, with a lively 

 interest in even the smaller details in the lives of those with 



* See Charles Darwin's biographical sketch of his grandfather, pre- 

 fixed to Ernst Krause's Frasmm Daricin. (Translated from the German 

 bv W. S. Dallas, 1878.) Also Miss Meteyard's Life of Josiah Wedgwood. 



B 



