20 



The Naturalist. 



whicli has changed, and is still more to change, the life of the world. 

 After five years he returned, in 1836, nursing in his mind this 

 fruitful thought, which, as I have said, was to be the seed of all his 

 future life. He published several works as the result of the discov- 

 eries and observations made during this voyage. His " Journal of 

 Researches into the Natural History and Geology " of the counties he 

 visited, has been pronounced the most entertaining book of genuine 

 travels ever written," and it at once carried the author's name far 

 beyond the comparatively narrow limits of scientific fame ; but while 

 this and subsequent publications prepared scientific circles to expect 

 something good at his hands, there was no public trace yet, nor for 

 years, of that which was to create an impression at once so deep, so 

 wide, and so immediate. 



In 1839 Mr. Darwin married his cousin, Miss Emma Wedgwood, 

 grand-daughter of Josiah Wedgwood; and in 1842 went to live at 

 Down, near Bromley, in Kent, where he resided throughout his 

 subsequent life. He has had a family of seven — five sons and two 

 daughters. Several of his sons have already acquired some dis- 

 tinction, having largely assisted him in the preparation of his works, 

 and in the investigations on which they are based. More than one 

 of them has made valuable contributions to science ; and the eldest 

 son, George H. Darwin, is an examiner for the Mathematical Tripos 

 at Cambridge, and an occasional contributor to scientific and other 

 magazines. 



Darwin's life was remarkably uneventful so far as personal incidents 

 of any special interest to the general public are concerned; but it 

 may be said of him that in the recesses of his closet he was turning 

 the intellectual world upside down. The dates of the production of 

 his numerous works are the principal milestones to mark the period 

 of his long and laborious career. The work he has accomplished 

 could have oaly been got through by a most methodical devotion and 

 the firmest determination of purpose. In a cursory and sketchy paper 

 like this there is no room — and indeed for the present audience there 

 is no need — to sketch even the outlines of that work on the direct lines* 

 of his theory, as contained in the series of volumes on " The Origin of 

 Species," " Variations of Animals and Plants under Domestication," 

 " The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals," " The Descent 

 of Man," and " Selection in Relation to Sex." And still more space 

 would be required to specify the topics and their treatment, which fill 

 a subsidiary series of volumes, such as " The Fertilization of Orchids 



