55° Analyses of Books. [September, 
difficult to meet because totally beside the question, without in- 
sisting that the author should have given the subject any prolonged 
and careful attention. 
The little work before us gives a fair, though brief, biography 
of Darwin, in as far as it can be furnished from sources generally 
open to the public. Of his descent from Erasmus Darwin, and 
of the generally intellectual character of the family, the public is 
already well aware. But it is interesting to learn that Robert, 
the father of Erasmus, had some scientific and poetical tastes, 
and that his wife was a very learned lady. Her husband does 
not seem to have admired her classical attainments, for he com- 
posed a kind of Litany, one verse of which runs — 
“ From a morning that doth shine, 
From a boy that drinketh wine, 
From a wife that talketh Latine, 
Good Lord deliver me.” 
The Darwin race seems to be an admirable instance of here- 
dity. They have almost invariably lived to a good age. For at 
least four generations the family has been far above the average 
run of civilised mankind in intellect, and in two instances it has 
reached the height of that rare attribute, genius. They have 
repeatedly intermarried with other families of an unusual mental 
calibre, — -'a faCt which will be at once recognised on noting that 
both the mother and the wife of the illustrious Evolutionist were 
descendants of Josiah Wedgwood. Another point to be noticed 
is their persistence in selecting professional careers. For 
260 years, when not country gentlemen, they have been physi- 
cians, less generally lawyers, or soldiers. We do not learn that 
any member of the family has been engaged in trade, nor have 
they aimed at a parliamentary career or at official position of any 
kind. They have been men of thought rather than of aCtion, in 
the ordinary sense of the word. 
The life of him whom we call the great Darwin was singularly 
quiet, and characterised by a philosophic simplicity rare in this 
age of turmoil, bustle, and ostentation. After his memorable 
voyage he rarely left his home, and lived mainly in his works. 
Though a member of several of the principal scientific societies 
of London, and warmly interested in their welfare, he rarely 
attended their meetings, save to communicate some of his results, 
and here, as in all his doings, he showed a most remarkable 
modesty and an “ evident unconsciousness of his own greatness.” 
Self, indeed, with him, was completely merged in his devotion to 
his subjeCt. He never delivered a public leCture, never filled the 
presidential chair of the British Association, or of any of its 
sections. Most singular, he took no part in the great Darwinian 
controversy, which began in 1859 with the appearance of his 
great work the “ Origin of Species.” To all reasonable, candid 
doubters and dissidents he was ready to reply in an exemplary 
