Early Years 



delays, the Beagle sailed from Plymouth on December 27th, 

 1831, and five years elapsed before Darwin set foot again on 

 English soil. The period, therefore, in Darwin's life which 

 we find covered by his term at Edinburgh and Cambridge, 

 until at the age of 22 he found himself suddenly launched 

 on an entirely new experience full of adventure and fresh 

 association, was spent by Wallace in a somewhat similar 

 manner in so far as his outward objective in life was more 

 or less distinct from the pursuits which gradually dawned 

 upon his horizon, though they were followed as a " thing 

 apart '' and not as an ultimate end. 



With Wallace's removal into Bedfordshire an entirely 

 new life opened up before him. His health, never very 

 good, rapidly improved; both brain and eye were trained 

 to practical observations which proved eminently valuable. 

 His descriptions of the people with whom he came in 

 contact during these years of country life reveal the 

 quiet toleration of the faults and foibles of others, 

 not devoid of the keen sense of humour and justice 

 which characterised his lifelong attitude towards his 

 fellow-men. 



The many interests of his new life, together with the 

 use of a pocket sextant, prompted him to make various 

 experiments for himself. The only sources from which he 

 could obtain helpful information, however, were some 

 cheap elementary books on mechanics and optics which he 

 procured from the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge; these he studied and ^^ puzzled over" for 

 several years. '' Having no friends of my own age," he 

 wrote, ^^ I occupied myself with various pursuits in which 

 I had begun to take an interest. Having learnt the use 

 of the sextant in surveying, and my brother having a book 

 on Nautical Astronomy, I practised a few of the simpler 

 observations. Among these were determining the meridian 



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