LECTURE VIII

THE LIFE AND WORK OF DARWIN

HITHERTO we have been concerned with the great theory with which Darwin's name is inseparably connected; we have dealt successively with its birth and maturation; we have tried to form some idea of its wide-reaching influence, and of the effect which it has had, not merely on biological thought, but on other fields of science, literature, and art, and branches of knowledge apparently widely remote. We have seen how this theory has knit together human knowledge, giving the word history a new, a wider, a more wonderful significance than was possible before. We have dealt, I admit too briefly, with the main objections to the theory, and have taken a single instance in detail as a test and as an example of methods.

There is no more fitting way of concluding this series of lectures than by giving an outline of the life and work of the man to whom this great advance, this opening up of new fields, this widening of human interests and human powers, is due. Concerning his life, the progress of the events through which such results were obtained, the methods by which success was compelled, the successive steps in the development and ripening of the great theory; all these must have much of interest, much that will repay the hearing. Concerning his works, although the "Origin of Species" remains by far his greatest achievement, yet it must not be supposed that Darwin gained one great victory and then rested. No more conscientiously industrious man ever lived ; and besides his masterpiece he has left us a great series of books, each dealing with a separate group of problems in animal or in plant life; each based on long-continued and scrupulously exact observations; each breaking entirely new ground; and each contributing powerfully to the advancement and widening of knowledge. While never forgetting that the "Origin of Species" stands foremost, it is well that the other works should not be overlooked; for had the "Origin of Species" never been written, these works-as yet hardly mentioned in our course -would have given Darwin a foremost place among the biologists of all nations and of all ages.

FAMILY HISTORY.

Charles Darwin was born on February 12th, 1809, at Shrewsbury. His mother was a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of the great pottery works at Etruria. His father, Robert Waring Darwin, was a physician in large practice at Shrewsbury; a man of marked individuality of character, a quick and acute observer, with a great power of reading character and of winning the confidence of his patients. He was highly esteemed for his skill in diagnosis, but was not a man of special scientific ability. By his large practice he accumulated a considerable fortune, and was able to leave his children in easy circumstances. Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, 1731-1802, was a physician of great repute, and the author of "Zoonomia," an ambitious treatise, showing extensive rather than profound acquaintance with natural phenomena; containing many bold, ingenious, and at times fantastic speculations. He was also the author of numerous and voluminous poetical works. He propounded a hypothesis as to the manner in which species of animals and plants have acquired their character, which is identical in principle with that subsequently rendered famous by Lamarck.

Charles Darwin in his childhood and youth gave no indication that he would do anything out of the common. He was a strong, well-grown, active lad, interested keenly in field sports. "In fact," says Huxley, "the prognostications of the educational authorities into whose hands he first fell were distinctly unfavourable, and they counted the only boy of original genius who is known to have come under their hands as no better than a dunce." From 1818 to 1825 Darwin was at Shrewsbury School under Dr. Butler, leaving at the age of sixteen. "Nothing could have been worse," he says, "for the development of my mind than Dr. Butler's school, as it was strictly classical, nothing else being taught except a little ancient geography and history. The school as a means of education to me was simply a blank." Yet, not incapable of appreciation, he writes: "The sole pleasure I ever received from such studies was from some of the Odes of Horace, which I admired greatly." He also says: "I used to sit for hours reading the historical plays of Shakespeare."

He was interested in chemistry, and fond of making experiments with his brother in the toolhouse at home. He writes : "The subject interested me greatly, and we often used to go on working till rather late at night." This became known at the school, and earned for him from his schoolfellows the nickname of "Gas"; and from the head-master a public rebuke for "wasting his time on such useless subjects."

Doing no good at school, he was sent to Edinburgh in 1825, with the intention of studying medicine. This, however, was not much of an improvement, for, as he writes: "The instruction at Edinburgh was altogether by lectures, and these were intolerably dull." The Professor of Anatomy made his lectures "as dull as he was himself"; and the lectures on Materia Medica were "something fearful to remember," even forty years later. But the climax seems to have been attained by the Professor of Geology and Zoology, whose prælections were so "incredibly dull" that they produced in their hearer the determination-fortunately for the world not adhered to "never to read a book on geology, or in any way to study the science." He, however, became acquainted with some good practical naturalists, and got lessons in bird-stuffing, and also became a good shot.

After two sessions at Edinburgh his father

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decided that he had little or no taste for the life of a physician, and fearing that he might sink into an idle sporting man, proposed that he should go to an English University with the view of becoming a clergyman. So far as the direct results of academic training were concerned, the change of Universities was hardly a success, for he writes: "During the three years which I spent at Cambridge my time was wasted, so far as the academical studies were concerned, as completely as at Edinburgh and at school."

And yet it would appear that the fault lay rather with the method than the man; for he speaks of Algebra and Euclid as giving him much pleasure. He also studied Paley's "Evidences" very thoroughly, and expresses himself as being much delighted with the logic of the book, and charmed by the long line of argumentation. He was fond of outdoor sports, especially riding and shooting.

He was devoted to collecting insects, or, as he expresses it, “mad on beetles." This was a point of much importance, as it brought him in contact with Henslow, the Professor of Botany, a man of singularly extensive acquirements, who took a keen pleasure in gathering young men around him, and in acting as their counsellor and friend : "A man of winning and courteous manners; free from every tinge of vanity or other petty feeling."

At Henslow's advice Darwin was led to break his vow never to touch geology, and through him he obtained permission to accompany Professor Sedgwick on a geological excursion in Wales, by which