Darwin

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By Gamaliel Bradford


DARWIN. Illustrated. A NATURALIST OF SOULS. THE SOUL OF SAMUEL
PEPYS. Illustrated. DAMAGED SOULS. Illustrated. AMERICAN PORTRAITS.
Illustrated. A PROPHET OF JOY. PORTRAITS OF AMERICAN WOMEN.
Illustrated. PORTRAITS OF WOMEN. Illustrated. UNION PORTRAITS.
Illustrated. CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS. Illustrated. LEE THE AMERICAN.
Illustrated.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON AND NEW YORK




DARWIN

[Illustration: _Ch. Darwin_ (signature)]




DARWIN

BY

GAMALIEL BRADFORD

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

[Illustration: Decoration]

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press Cambridge

1926




COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY GAMALIEL BRADFORD

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


The Riverside Press

CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.




TO

MARSHALL LIVINGSTON PERRIN

WHO TAUGHT ME TO WRITE

AND TO THINK




_On se lasse de tout sauf de comprendre_ SAINTE-BEUVE (from Virgil?)




CONTENTS


I. THE OBSERVER 3

II. THE THINKER 44

III. THE DISCOVERER 83

IV. THE LOSER 128

V. THE LOVER 168

VI. THE DESTROYER 208

VII. THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 248

INDEX 307




ILLUSTRATIONS


CHARLES DARWIN _Frontispiece_

Photograph taken in 1881 by Elliott & Fry, London, reproduced in
_More Letters of Charles Darwin_


CHARLES DARWIN AS A CHILD WITH HIS SISTER CATHERINE 4

From a chalk drawing reproduced in _Emma Darwin: A Century of Family
Letters_


THE BEAGLE LAID ASHORE FOR REPAIRS AT RIVER SANTA CRUZ, PATAGONIA 14

From _Life and Letters of Charles Darwin_


DOWN HOUSE FROM THE GARDEN 44

From a woodcut in _The Century Magazine_ reproduced in _Life and
Letters_


FACSIMILE OF A PAGE FROM A NOTEBOOK OF 1837 88

From _Life and Letters_


THE STUDY AT DOWN 128

From a woodcut in _The Century Magazine_ reproduced in _Life and
Letters_


EMMA DARWIN AT THIRTY-ONE 190

From the portrait painted by George Richmond, R.A., reproduced in
_Emma Darwin_


CHARLES DARWIN ABOUT 1854 248

Photograph by Maull & Fox, reproduced in _More Letters_




DARWIN




CHRONOLOGY


CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN

Born, Shrewsbury, February 12, 1809.

At Edinburgh University, 1826.

At Cambridge, 1827-1831.

Absent with the Beagle, 1831-1836.

Married Emma Wedgwood, January 29, 1839.

Settled at Down, in Kent, 1842.

‘The Origin of Species’ published, November 24, 1859.

‘The Descent of Man’ published, February 24, 1871.

Died, Down, April 19, 1882.




DARWIN




CHAPTER I

THE OBSERVER


I

Any formal life of Darwin should be written by a thoroughly trained
and equipped scientist, and indeed no such life could be better than
that written by Darwin’s son forty years ago. But one who, without
special scientific qualifications, is profoundly interested in the
characters and souls of men, all men, may perhaps be justified in
making an intimate study of a man whose influence upon other men, for
good and evil both, has been enormous, and who was himself one of the
simplest, purest, noblest, most candid, most lovable, most Christian
souls that ever lived.

By an extraordinary coincidence Charles Robert Darwin was born in
Shrewsbury, England, on the same day, February 12, 1809, on which
Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky. Darwin belonged
to an excellent old English family on his father’s side and his
mother was one of the Wedgwoods, of ceramic fame. His paternal
grandfather, Erasmus, was a physician, a poet, and a scientist.
Darwin’s father was an able and successful physician. He would have
liked his son to be the same, but the son had not the taste for it.
Failing medicine, the church was considered, but seemed equally
unpromising. Education at Edinburgh and at Cambridge did not yield
very much. In those days the classics were the basis and this boy had
little interest in the classics. He liked field sports and outdoor
life. Above all, he liked animals and plants, liked to observe and to
describe them, and to record his observations, and this interest grew
more and more absorbing.

[Illustration: CHARLES DARWIN AS A CHILD

With his sister Catherine]

In 1831, at the age of twenty-two, Darwin obtained the position of
naturalist on the government ship, Beagle, and for five years he was
absent from England, exploring the southern hemisphere and carefully
recording his observations on every sort of scientific subject, which
were later published in his printed journal. Soon after his return
home, he married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, a noble and charming
woman, and a little later, in 1842, he settled at the small village
of Down, in the county of Kent, and made his home there until his
death in 1882. He inherited a considerable property, which was
later increased from his books. He had a large family of sons and
da