Charles Robert Darwin. 27 



some fortune, which was doubtless much increased by his 

 marriage with the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, of cer- 

 amic name and fame, — a man of admirable qualities and 

 great force of character. Coming of such parents and such 

 grandparents, Charles Eobert Darwin was certainly well 

 born, with a hereditary claim upon the virtues of patience 

 and fidelity. If the scientific passion of Dr. Erasmus Dar- 

 win appeared in him, so did Josiah Wedgwood's sense of 

 form. " The Origin of Species " is as symmetrical as the 

 Portland vase of Wedgwood's admiration; its arguments 

 stand out in as clear relief as the figures on that thing of 

 beauty. But the life of Darwin was of a beauty even more 

 complete. 



Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, February 12, 1809. He 

 was sent to Edinburgh in 1825, it being intended that he 

 should follow the medical profession, and the Edinburgh 

 facilities for studying medicine were at that time unequaled. 

 But he took little interest in his studies, and made little pro- 

 gress. He was taken from Edinburgh after two years of 

 futility, and sent to Cambridge. If medicine could not ex- 

 cite his interest, might not theology ? Possibly it might 

 have done so if there had not been at Cambridge a Profes- 

 sor Henslow ; before meeting him he tells us the only ob- 

 jects of natural history that he cared for were foxes and 

 partridges, and his interest in these was hardly scientific. 

 But henceforth all was changed. His interest in natural 

 history became intense and all-engrossing. A field-excur- 

 sion under the guidance of Professor Henslow was his chief 

 delight. His name appeared for the first time in print as 

 the capturer of a certain bug on one of these occasions. 

 Little he dreamed, as thus he saw it, not without honor- 

 able pride, what a standard it was yet to be for men to ral- 

 ly under in the cause of Ormuzd, Prince of Light, against 

 Ahriman, the Prince of Darkness ! 



A description of Professor Henslow from his pen is said 

 by those who knew him well to be quite perfect as an ac- 

 count of his own character. " Nothing could be more sim- 

 ple, cordial, unpretending, than the encouragment which he 

 afforded all young naturalists. . . . When I reflect how im- 

 mediately we felt at perfect ease with a man older, and in 

 every way immensely our superior, I think it was as much 

 owing to the transparent sincerity of his character as to his 

 kindness of heart, and perhaps even still more to a highly 



