Charles Darwin. 



"Zoonomia" (1794-6) and " Botanic Garden," while 

 others were " The Temple of Nature ; or, The Origin 

 of Society, a Poem, with Philosophical Notes," and 

 "The Shrine of Nature," a posthumous publication ; 

 " The Loves of the Plants," the second part of " The 

 Botanic Garden," was published anonymously in 

 1789, the entire poem appearing in 1791. This pro- 

 duction showed more scientific than poetic genius, 

 being especially remarkable for the grandiloquent 

 phraseology and high-sounding words and sentences 

 employed. It was caricatured by Canning in his 

 " Loves of the Triangles." The poem to-day is well 

 deserving a place among the curiosities of literature, 

 and while its decasyllabic rhymed couplets may not 

 be admired, they evidently emanated from no ordi- 

 nary mind. 



An interesting feature in his life is the fact that, 

 to quote his grandson, he undoubtedly " anticipated 

 the views and erroneous grounds of opinions of 

 Lamarck," the fundamental principle of the theory 

 of evolution being traced in his writings. Thus he 

 says " that one and the same kind of living filaments 

 is and has been the cause of all organic life " : 



"Would it be too bold to imagine that, in the 

 great length of time since the earth began to exist, 

 perhaps millions of ages before the commencement 

 of the history of mankind, would it be too bold to 

 imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen 

 from one living filament, which the great First Cause 

 endued with animality, with the power of acquiring 

 new parts, attended with new propensities, directed 

 by irritations, sensations, volitions, and associations, 



