202 fjij'e am/ LethiK of Francis (,'alfoii 



a deep ^loom i>\er her husband; Imt It was followed hy his most productive 

 dewuie. Iiiterestw in psychological and in statisticjd investigations liJid 

 originated well l)efore this date, but as om- following chapters will show 

 they now liecanie prefloniinant and displaced to a large extent the more 

 biological aspect of the iiupiiries which we have associated in the second 

 half of this chapter with Darwin. The philosopher of Down was no longer 

 there either to check error or to restrain imagination. The miniature of 

 Darwin remained on the writing-table, but rather as a symlxjl of method, 

 than to suggest the warning voice of the revered master: 



Ignoramus, in hoc siyno lahoremus! 



NOTE I. ON THE MONUMENT TO ERASMUS DARWIN ERECTED BY 

 FRANCIS GALTON IN LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL, 1886. 



About the time when the question of a monument to Charles Dai-win in 

 Westminster Abbey was being raised, Galton determined to commemorate 

 the grandfather of both in Licntield Cathedral, and obtained the permission 

 of the Dean and Chapter for the erection of a memorial medallion. This was 

 executed by E. Onslow Ford. See our Plate XIX. The work of Krause and 

 Charles Darwin on the life and ideas of Erasmus Darwin luid drawn the 

 attention of Galton again to his gi-andfather, and he was more than inclined 

 to revise the opinion he had expressed to de Candolle in 1882 (see our Vol. i, 

 p. 13). Perhaps what weighed much with Galton were the lines from the 

 preface to the Zoonomia. 



The great Creator of all things has infinitel}' diversified the works of his hands, but has at 

 the same time stamped a certain similitude on the features of nature that demonstrate to us 

 that the whole is one family of one parent. 



There is not a doubt, I think, that Erasmus Darwin anticipated Lamarck 

 in propounding a doctrine of evolution based upon the inheritance of acquired 

 characters, and that he recognised a unity of origin for all forms of life. It 

 was with this impression strong upon him that Galton made his first draft 

 for the Lichfield inscription. It ran as follows : 



In memory of Erasmus Darwin, M.D., F.R.S., Physician, Philosopher, and Poet; Author of 

 Zoonomia, Botanic Gartl/-n, &c. ; Earliest propounder of the Theory j;reatly elaboratt-d by his 

 more distinguished grandson, Charles Darwin, which ascrilxw to the operations of animals and 

 plants, prompted in the first instance by their individual needs, the secondary and higher 

 function of mfxlifying through inheritance by various indirect and slow though certain methods, 

 the forms and instincts of their res[iective races, in incr(*asing adaptation to the habits of each 

 and to their physical surroundings and thus of furthering the development of organic nature 

 ■8 a whole. 



This inscription certainly accords with Erasmus Darwin's view, if it 

 does not lay as much stress on the element of ' will ' as Erasmus did. It 

 was, perhaps, not incompatible with Charles Darwin's opinion that at least 

 some acquned charactere are inherited. Galton sent it to Huxley for 

 criticism and Huxley replied with the following characteristic note : 



