xiv 
1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 
1840 
Epitome of Charles Darwin's Life 
Oct. 4. “Reached Shrewsbury after absence of 5 years and 2 days.” 
“You cannot imagine how gloriously delightful my first visit was at home ; it 
was worth the banishment.” 
Dec. 13. Went to live at Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Street). 
“The only evil I found in Cambridge was its being too pleasant.” 
“On my return home [in the Beagle] in the autumn of 1836 I immediately 
began to prepare my journal for publication, and then saw how many facts 
indicated the common descent of species....In July (1837) I opened my first 
note-book for facts in relation to the Origin of Species, about which I had 
long reflected, and never ceased working for the next twenty years....Had 
been greatly struck from about the month of previous March on character of 
South American fossils, and species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts 
(especially latter), origin of all my views.” 
“On March 7, 1837 I took lodgings in [36] Great Marlborough Street in 
London, and remained there for nearly two years, until I was married.” 
“In October, that is fifteen months after I had begun my systematic 
enquiry, I happened to read for amusement ‘Malthus on Population, and 
being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which every- 
where goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals 
and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable 
variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be 
destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here 
then I had at last got a theory by which to work; but I was so anxious to 
avoid prejudice, that I determined not for some time to write even the 
briefest sketch of it.” 
Married at Maer (Staffordshire) to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, daughter 
of Josiah Wedgwood. 
“T marvel at my good fortune that she, so infinitely my superior in every single 
moral quality, consented to be my wife. She has been my wise adviser and 
cheerful comforter throughout life, which without her would have been 
during a very long period a miserable one from ill-health. She has earned 
the love of every soul near her” [Autobiography]. 
Dee. 31. “Entered 12 Upper Gower street” [now 110 Gower street, London]. 
“There never was so good a house for me, and I devoutly trust you [his future 
wife] will approve of it equally. The little garden is worth its weight in gold.” 
Published Journal and Researches, being Vol. 111. of the Narrative of the 
Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle.... 
Publication of the Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, Part 1, Mam- 
malia, by G. R. Waterhouse, with a Notice of their habits and ranges, 
by Charles Darwin. 
Contributed Geological Introduction to Part I. (Fossil Mammalia) of the 
Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle by Richard Owen. 
