CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. %Q{ 



lived at St. Helena, "within a stone's throw of 

 Napoleon's tomb." He became so deeply inter- 

 ested in his geological investigations in South 

 America, that he wrote his sister Susan : " I liter- 

 ally could hardly sleep at nighty for thinking over 

 my day's work. The scenery was so new, and so 

 majestic ; everything at an elevation of twelve 

 thousand feet bears so different an aspect from 

 that in a lower country." 



To another sister he wrote : " I trust and believe 

 that the time spent in this voyage, if thrown away 

 for all other respects, will produce its full worth in 

 Natural History ; and it appears to me the doing 

 what little we can to increase the general stock of 

 knowledge is as respectable an object of life as one 

 can in any likelihood pursue. . . . What fine op- 

 portunities for geology and for studying the infi- 

 nite host of living beings! Is not this a prospect 

 to keep up the most flagging spirit ? If I was to 

 throw it away, I don't think I should ever rest 

 quiet in my grave." 



Darwin says : " As far as I can judge of myself, 

 I worked to the utmost during the voyage, from 

 the mere pleasure of investigation, and from my 

 strong desire to add a few facts to the great mass 

 of facts in natural science. But I was also ambi- 

 tious to take a fair place among scientific men." 

 In studying the geology of St. Jago, " It then first 

 dawned on me that I might perhaps write a book 

 on the geology of the various countries visited, and 

 this made me thrill with delight. That was a 



