CHARLES DARWIN. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE BOY DARWIN. 



The First Paper Taste for Natural History Birthplace Early 

 School Days Religious Nature Books Which Influenced Him 

 Associates Introduction to Scientific Men Taste for Sport. 



NE evening, in the year 

 1826, a tall, slender youth 

 rose at a meeting of the 

 Plinian Society of Edin- 

 burgh, and with some 

 embarrassment and hes- 

 itation unfolded a paper 

 and addressed the chair. 



The speaker was 

 Charles Darwin, and this 

 was his first public at- 

 tempt to convey to 



others information which he had acquired regarding 



natural object?. At this time Darwin was seventeen 



i 



