26 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



in the person of his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood, Jr. 

 Together they persuaded the father of the propriety 

 of giving to Charles this opportunity to follow out his 

 real tastGS and ambitions. Accordingly, at the age of 

 twenty-two, we find him embarked on a journey 

 around the world. In the cabin of the Beagle he had 

 abundant time, in his long sail across the Atlantic, to 

 read the two volumes of Lyell's "Elements of Geol- 

 ogy/' which Henslow had handed him, with the sug- 

 gestion that he read it, but on no account believe it. 

 Filled with the love of geology as Darwin was, this 

 epoch-making book was exactly the stimulus needed. 

 Lyell had just begun to persuade the world that to 

 understand the past we must study the present. In 

 the forces now at work he saw cause enough to ac- 

 count for all the history of the past of the earth. 



There is little doubt that this book was one of the 

 most potent factors in determining the bent of Dar- 

 win's mind. His entire educational experience had 

 failed to appeal to him. It is fortunate, we now 

 know, that this was the case. If the university course 

 of the time had really seized him it would have made 

 but one more student like hundreds it was turning out 

 each year. For most of us this is the happy event. 

 Now and then comes the rare spirit to whom all of 

 this fails to appeal because he is ready for something 

 better. Such was the spirit of Charles Darwin. He 



