Charles Darwin. 455 



comfortable brick house in a few acres of pleasure-ground, a 

 pleasantly old-fashioned air about it, with a sense of peace and 

 silence ;" and here, attended bj every blessing except that of 

 vigorous health, he lived the secluded but busy life which best 

 suited his chosen pursuits and the simplicity of his character. 

 He was seldom seen even at scientific meetings, and never in 

 general society; but he could welcome his friends and fellow- 

 workers to his own house, where he was the most charming of 



At his home, without distraction and as continuously as his 

 bodily powers would permit, Mr. Darwin gave himself to his work. 

 At least ten of his scientific papers, of greater or less extent, 

 had appeared in the three years between his return to England 

 and his marriage; and in the latter year (1839) he published 

 the book by which he became popularly known, viz : the 

 "Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology 

 of the Countries visited during the Voyage of the Beagle," 

 which has been pronounced "the most entertaining book of 

 genuine travels ever written," and it certainly is one of the 

 most instructive. His work on "Coral Reels" appeared in 

 1842, but the substance had been communicated to the Geologi- 

 cal Society soon after his return to England : Ins papers on " Vol- 

 fcanic Islands," on the "Distribution of Erratic Boulders and 

 Contemporaneous Unstratiried Deposits in South America," on 

 the "Fine Dust which falls on Vessels in the Atlantic Ocean," 

 and some other geological as well as zoological researches, were 

 published previously to 1851. Between that year and 1855 he 

 brought out his most considerable contributions to systematic 

 zoology, his monographs on the Cirripedia and the Fossil 

 Lepadida'. 



We come to the first publication of what is now known as 

 Darwinism. It consists of a sketch of the doctrine of Natural 

 Selection, which was drawn up in the year 1839, and copied 

 and communicated to Messrs. Lyell and Hooker in 1844, being 

 a part of the manuscript of a chapter in his "Origin of Species;" 

 also of a private letter addressed to the writer of this memorial 

 in October, 1857, — the publication of which (in the Journal of 

 the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Zoological Part, iii, 

 45-53, issued in the summer of 1858) was caused by the recep- 



