In Childhood and School Life 339 
in Darwin’s mind, and are able to record the story almost entirely in 
his own words?. 
From the point of view of the geologist, Darwin’s life naturally 
divides itself into four periods. In the first, covering twenty-two 
years, various influences were at work militating, now for and now 
against, his adoption of a geological career ; in the second period— 
the five memorable years of the voyage of the Beagle—the ardent 
sportsman with some natural-history tastes, gradually became the 
most enthusiastic and enlightened of geologists ; in the third period, 
lasting ten years, the valuable geological recruit devoted nearly all 
his energies and time to geological study and discussion and to 
preparing for publication the numerous observations made by him 
during the voyage ; the fourth period, which covers the latter half of 
his life, found Darwin gradually drawn more and more from geological 
to biological studies, though always retaining the deepest interest in 
the progress and fortunes of his “old love.” But geologists gladly 
recognise the fact that Darwin immeasurably better served their 
science by this biological work, than he could possibly have done by 
confining himself to purely geological questions. 
From his earliest childhood, Darwin was a collector, though up 
to the time when, at eight years of age, he went to a preparatory 
school, seals, franks and similar trifles appear to have been the only 
objects of his quest. But a stone, which one of his schoolfellows 
at that time gave to him, seems to have attracted his attention and 
set him seeking for pebbles and minerals ; as the result of this newly 
acquired taste, he says (writing in 1838) “I distinctly recollect the 
desire I had of being able to know something about every pebble 
in front of the hall door—it was my earliest and only geological 
aspiration at that time®” He further states that while at Mr Case’s 
school “I do not remember any mental pursuits except those of 
collecting stones,” etc....“I was born a naturalist®.” 
The court-yard in front of the hall door at the Mount House, 
Darwin’s birthplace and the home of his childhood, is surrounded 
by beds or rockeries on which lie a number of pebbles. Some of 
these pebbles (in quite recent times as I am informed) have been 
collected to form a “cobbled ” space in front of the gate in the outer 
wall, which fronts the hall door ; and a similar “cobbled area,” there 
is reason to believe, may have existed in Darwin’s childhood before 
the door itself. The pebbles, which were obtained from a neighbour- 
ing gravel-pit, being derived from the glacial drift, exhibit very 
1 The first of these works is indicated in the following pages by the letters L. L.; the 
second by M. L. 
2M. L.1. p. 3. 3M. L, 1. p. 4. 
22.—2 
