Charles Darwin. 



collecting eggs think of the rights of the birds? 

 Yet our young naturalist, while an indefatigable col- 

 lector of birds' eggs and nests, was invariably careful 

 to take but one egg from each nest, recognising in 

 this the rights of the lower animals. His humani- 

 tarian ideas were carried to what some would consider 

 extremes ; thus, hearing at his uncle Josiah Wedg- 

 wood's, that it was cruel to spit living worms, he 

 killed them first by a bath of salt and water. 



As a boy he was fond of solitary walks, and often 

 rambled away by himself, loving the quiet seclusion 

 of the forests, the haunts and fishing-pools at Maer, 

 or the old fortifications about Shrewsbury. At such 

 times he frequently became lost in meditation, so 

 that in one instance, while deeply absorbed, he 

 walked over a parapet, falling a distance of seven or 

 eight feet. In referring to this, he naively remarks : 

 " The number of thoughts which passed through my 

 mind during this very short, but sudden and wholly 

 unexpected, fall was astonishing, and seem hardly 

 compatible with what physiologists have, I believe, 

 proved about each thought requiring quite an ap- 

 preciable amount of time." 



The young naturalist early developed habits of 

 observation, and entered into investigations, espe- 

 cially of difficult and complex subjects, with an 

 ardour and interest that was infectious. He expe- 

 rienced intense pleasure in geometrical problems, 

 enjoying the reasoning that was involved, and 

 showed marked evidence of the care and patience 

 in attaining certain ends that produced such results 

 in his later career. The books which influenced his 



