432 THE BIOCOSMOS HISTORICAL. 



tal turn very similar to that of his grandson. 

 For Dr. Erasmus Darwin wrote a work called 

 Zoonomia, which seeks to find the law of the 

 animal world, and in one passage (cited in the 

 Introduction to the Origin of Species) par- 

 tially anticipates Charles Darwin's doctrine 

 in regard to the transmutation of the species. 

 The grandfather also wrote a work called 

 Pliytologia, which has to do with plants. Or- 

 ganic life was therefore the main theme and 

 delight of this ancestor, wherein he is like his 

 famous descendent, who, however, did not 

 poetize it, though certainly gifted with im- 

 agination subordinate to science. It has been 

 noticed that children often skip their fathers, 

 and inherit from their grandfathers (a point 

 dwelt on by Goethe, by the way) ; some such 

 fact we may see in the case of Darwin. 



The first decided bent which Darwin notes 

 in himself as a boy was "my taste for Nat- 

 ural History" and also the passion for col- 

 lecting specimens of various objects, "which 

 was very strong in me and was clearly innate, 

 as none of my sisters or brother had this 

 taste." 



When nine years old he was sent to a "Dr. 

 Butler's great school in Shrewsbury," where 

 he stayed seven years. Here is the result in 

 his own language : ' ' Nothing could have been 

 worse for the development of my mind than 



