CHARLES DARWIN 



AND THE 



THEOEY OF NATURAL SELECTION. 

 CHAPTER I 



THE SECRET OF DARWIN'S GREATNESS. 



CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN was bom at Shrewsbury 

 on February 12th, 1809, the year which witnessed 

 the birth of Alfred Tennyson, W. E. Gladstone, and 

 Abraham Lincoln. 



Oliver Wendell Holmes, born in the same year, 

 delighted to speak of the good company in which 

 he came into the world. On January 27th, 1894, 

 I had the great pleasure of sitting next to him at a 

 dinner of the Saturday Club in Boston, and he then 

 spoke of the subject with the same enthusiasm with 

 which he deals with it in his writings; mentioning 

 the four distinguished names, and giving a brief 

 epigrammatic description of each with characteristic 

 felicity. Dr. Holmes further said that he remembered 

 with much satisfaction an occasion on which he was 

 able to correct Darwin on a matter of scientific fact. 

 He could not remember the details, but we may hope 



