85 
Dec, 81, 1909. The Queensl\xi> Natuealist. 
Little is known concerning the early life of Charles 
Darwin. 
He went to Shrewsbury Grammar School, then taught 
by Dr. Samuel Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield. 
There he picked up so much Latin and Greek as was then 
considered absolutely essential to the due production of 
an English gentleman. Happily, having little taste for 
classics", he escaped the ordeal with little injury to his 
individuality. Already he had made himself notable 
by his love of collecting shells, eggs, minerals, etc. At 
the age of 16 he was sent to Edinburgh, then the best 
medical school in Britain, with a view to taking up his 
father’s profession. At Edinburgh he gave the earliest 
distinct evidences of scientific tastes, by contributing to 
a local scientific society a paper on the floating eggs of the 
common sea- mat, in which he had even then succeeded 
in discovering for the first time organs of locomotion. 
The prospect of being a medical practitioner proving 
distasteful to him, after two sessions at Edinburgh, he 
removed to Christ’s College, Cambridge, intending to enter 
the Church. He took his B.A. in 1831, and his M.A. in 
1837. His degree was an ordinary one. At Cambridge, 
Darwin had the companionship of such men of science 
as Sedgwick, Airy, Ramsay, and others, whose intercourse 
must have done much to mould and form the coming 
philosopher. While at Cambridge he attracted the notice 
of Professor Henslow, who had previously left the chair 
of Geology for that of Botany. For this teacher, Charles 
Darwin felt the greatest love and respect. During his 
voyage in the Beagle, his letters overflow Avith feelings of 
veneration, aviection and gratitude for his accomplished 
master and dearest friend. He used to say that before he 
met Professor Henslow, the only objects of natural history 
for which he cared were foxes and partridges. This love 
of nature was mainly fostered by the field excursions Avhich 
supplemented the lectures given by HensloAV to his class. 
During one of these excursions, Professor Henslow told 
Darwin that he A\’as commissioned to of;er a competent 
young naturalist the opportunity of accompanying Captain 
Fitzroy as a guest on the sur\^eying voyage of the Beagle, 
and strongly urged him to accept the position. His father, 
Dr. Darwin, feared that the A^oyage might “ unsettle ” 
him for the church, but finally gave his consent, and in 
December, 1831, the expedition left England. This voyage 
lastc'i nearly five ycao^. from Der’ctnbor 'Slth I83i. 
October lind, lo.'lfi ; and proved the turning in the 
great naturediDtA quiet career. It left an abiding mark 
on all !iis subsequent Hfo and thinking. La mark and 
Erasmus Darwin were cabin'^t biologists, avIvo had never 
beheld the great Avorld and all that therein is ; Charles 
