18 
ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Thus he became, in all important respects, self-taught and, driven to his own 
resources, his natural inclination to consider his path of life as lying far aside 
from the common highway was confirmed and strengthened. This sense of 
solitariness followed him to the end of his life and was, no doubt, an impor¬ 
tant factor in the formation and preservation of his extraordinary individ¬ 
uality and faith in his own powers. Darwin’s followers may therefore bless 
even the obtuseness and shortsightedness of his preceptors who failed to spoil 
him by their unwise treatment. 
When, in 1825, Doctor Robert Darwin concluded that his son Charles 
was lacking in natural aptitude for scholarship, he sent him to Edinburgh 
University, intending that he should follow in the footsteps of his father 
and of his grandfather by becoming a physician. But here, again, the 
young man found himself unable to receive what was offered him on the 
strength of ancient authority. The instruction dispensed in that hoary 
institution was, to him, perfunctory and uninspiring and he was once more 
forced to seek the real enlargement of his knowledge by self-directed methods. 
In this way he appears to have obtained, at Edinburgh, some sort of ac¬ 
quaintance with the fundamental principles of scientific research, but, as 
the learning thus acquired was not in the line of his intended profession, it 
was not appreciated by his family and friends. Accordingly, after two 
sessions spent at that university, it was decided that his regular studies 
had been entirely misdirected and he was therefore withdrawn and sent to 
Cambridge. There he was still worse misguided in the endeavor to educate 
him in theology. Again was repeated the old story of an uncongenial 
curriculum ostensibly conformed to but in reality shirked and avoided in 
favor of natural history privately followed by side paths. The unwilling 
student wished to be obedient to his father’s direction, but native bent 
proved stronger than conventional rule — the call of destiny louder than the 
voice of filial duty. 
His father, in most things a wise man, saw in his son’s insect- and bird- 
hunting proclivity a tendency to the life of “an idle sporting man” and 
was sorely grieved and disappointed when he was obliged to concede the 
failure of his plan to connect the house of Darwin with the Church of England. 
Fortunately, however, the troublesome student came under the influence, at 
Cambridge, of a teacher endowed with more than ordinary discernment and, 
in this particular matter, with somewhat unusual independence and courage 
and he took the budding naturalist and his lawless pursuits under his patron¬ 
age and protection. To the faith and friendship of Professor J. S. Henslow 
Darwin was indebted for his appointment to the Beagle expedition, and to 
Professor Henslow, who robbed the church to enrich science, the world owes 
an incalculable debt of gratitude for the discovery, if not for the development, 
of one of its loftiest geniuses. 
