330 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



marck's time had been prodigious. Again, even 

 this combination of temperament and circum- 

 stance might have failed but for Darwin's rare 

 education direct from Nature upon the voyage 

 of the Beagle. He had gained little or nothing 

 from the routine methods of education in school 

 and university, as we learn in his own words: 

 "My scientific tastes appear to have been cer- 

 tainly innate. ... I consider that all I have 

 learnt of any value has been self-taught. . . . 

 My innate taste for natural history strongly con- 

 firmed and directed by the voyage of the 

 Beagle'' Humboldt's Personal Narrative and 

 Herschel's Introduction to the Study of Nat- 

 ural Philosophy aroused his enthusiasm. His nat- 

 ural taste for geology, chilled by earlier teachers, 

 was revived during an excursion with Professor 

 Sedgwick, from whom he learned "that science 

 consists in grouping facts so that general laws 

 and conclusions may be drawn from them." This 

 was in 1831 ; upon his return from the excursion 

 he entered upon his 'Voyage.' 



His training for such an undertaking had been 

 slight, and when we read what he saw during 

 these three years, between the age of twenty-two 

 and twenty-five, we realize the greatness of his 

 genius. The procession of life in time had al- 

 ready come passingly before him. He now learnt 

 for himself the great lesson of uniformity of 

 past and present causes, that for Nature 'time is 



