Early Years 



found to be more eflBlcacious than actual medicine! To the 

 end of his life Charles Darwin entertained the greatest 

 affection and reverence for his father, and frequently 

 spoke of him to his own children. 



From this brief summary of the family history it is easy 

 to perceive the inherited traits which were combined in the 

 attractive personality of the great scientist. From his early 

 forbears came the keen love of sport and outdoor exercise 

 (to which considerable reference is made in his youth and 

 early manhood) ; the close application of the philosopher ; 

 and the natural aptitude for collecting specimens of all 

 kinds. To his grandfather he was doubtless indebted for 

 his poetic imagination, which, consciously or unconsciously, 

 pervaded his thoughts and writings, saving them from the 

 cold scientific atmosphere which often chills the lay mind. 

 Lastly, the geniality of his father w^as strongly evidenced 

 by his own love of social intercourse, his courtesy and 

 ready wit, whilst the gentleness of his mother — who un- 

 fortunately died when he was 7 years old — left a delicacy 

 of feeling which pervaded his character to the very last. 



No such sure mental influences, reaching back through 

 several generations, can be traced in the records of the 

 Wallace family, although what is known reveals the source 

 of the dogged perseverance with which Wallace faced the 

 immense difficulties met with by all early pioneer travel- 

 lers, of that happy diversity of mental interests which 

 helped to relieve his periods of loneliness and inactivity, 

 and of that quiet determination to pursue to the utmost 

 limit every idea which impressed his mind as containing 

 the germ of a wider and more comprehensive truth than 

 had yet been generally recognised and accepted. 



The innate reticence and shyness of manner which 

 were noticeable all through his life covered a largehearted- 

 ness even in the most careful observation of facts, and 



7 



