xiv Epitome of Charles Darwin's Life 



1836 Oct. 4. " Reached Shrewsbury after absence of 5 years and 2 days." 



" You cannot imagine how gloriously delightful my first visit was at home ; it 



was worth the banishment." 

 Dec. 13. Went to live at Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Street). 

 " The only evil I found in Cambridge was its being too pleasant." 



1837 "On my return home [in the Beagle] in the autumn of 1836 I immediately 

 began to prepare my journal for publication, and then saw how many facts 

 indicated the common descent of species.. ..In July (1837) I opened my first 

 note-book for facts in relation to the Origin of Species, about which I had 

 long reflected, and never ceased working for the next twenty years.... Had 

 been greatly struck from about the month of previous March on character of 

 South American fossils, and species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts 

 (especially latter), origin of all my views." 

 "On March 7, 1837 I took lodgings in [36] Great Marlborough Street in 

 London, and remained there for nearly two years, until I was married." 



1838 "In October, that is fifteen months after I had begun my systematic 

 enquiry, I happened to read for amusement ' Malthus on Population,' and 

 being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which every- 

 where goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals 

 and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable 

 variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be 

 destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here 

 then I had at last got a theory by which to work ; but I was so anxious to 

 avoid prejudice, that I determined not for some time to write even the 

 briefest sketch of it." 



1839 Married at Maer (Staffordshire) to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, daughter 

 of Josiah Wedgwood. 



" I marvel at my good fortune that she, so infinitely my superior in every single 

 moral quality, consented to be my wife. She has been my wise adviser and 

 cheerful comforter throughout life, which without her would have been 

 during a very long period a miserable one from ill-health. She has earned 

 the love of every soul near her " [Autobiography]. 



Dec. 31. "Entered 12 Upper Gower street" [now 110 Gower street, London]. 

 " There never was so good a house for me, and I devoutly trust you [his future 

 wife] will approve of it equally. The little garden is worth its weight in gold." 



Published Journal and Researches, being Vol. in. of the Narrative of the 

 Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle.... 



Publication of the Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, Fart il, Mam- 

 malia, by G. R. Waterhouse, with a Notice of their habits and ranges, 

 by Charles Darwin. 



1840 Contributed Geological Introduction to Part I. (Fossil Mammalia) of the 

 Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle by Richard Owen. 



