434 THE BIOCOSMOS HISTORICAL. 



the youth kicked out of the transmitted traces 

 and pursued his own course in some irregular 

 studies of Natural History. He loved to hunt 

 and to sport with animals. His father in des- 

 peration once hurled at him a little thunder- 

 bolt: "You care for nothing but shooting, 

 dogs and rat-catching, and you will be a dis- 

 grace to yourself and all the family.'' Evi- 

 dently he will not fit into any paternal model ; 

 he quits Edinburgh with its medicine after 

 two years, he will not become a doctor and fol- 

 low in the footsteps of his sire. What to do 

 with the inadjustable boy must have 'been the 

 chief problem of the Darwin household. For- 

 tunately he pays a visit to his uncle, Mr. Jo- 

 siah Wedgwood, who at once discerned the 

 bent of the youth, and what was still better, be- 

 came sympathetic with it. Mark this uncle, 

 for he speaks the pivotal word at the right 

 moment, and thereby renders possible the fu- 

 ture career of Charles Darwin. 



The well-intentioned father, striving still to 

 keep his son in the ready-cut groove of a trans- 

 mitted vocation, proposes to mould him into 

 a clergyman of the Anglican Church. So the 

 young man betakes him to the University of 

 Cambridge to study for a degree, where he re- 

 mains three years (1828-31). But it is the 

 same old story. He had to brush up his class- 

 ics which he had forgotten with delight, and 



