 section one of the autobiography of Charles Darwin this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Adam Marsatich Alexandria Virginia June 2009 the autobiography of Charles Darwin edited by his son Francis Darwin section one preface my father's autobiographical recollections given in the present chapter were written for his children and written without any thought that they would ever be published many of this may seem an impossibility but those who my father will understand how it was not only possible but natural the autobiography bears the heading recollections of the development of my mind and character and end with the following note August 3 1876 this sketch of my life was begun about May 28th at Hope Dean Mr. Hensley Wedgewood house insert and since then I've written for nearly an hour on most afternoon will easily be understood that in a narrative of a personal and intimate kind written for his wife and children passages should occur which must here be omitted and I have not thought it necessary to indicate where such emissions are made it has been found necessary to make few corrections of obvious verbal slips but the number of such alterations has been kept down to the minimum Francis Darwin preface a German editor having written to me for an account of the development of my mind and character with some sketch of my autobiography I have thought that the attempt would amuse me and might possibly interest my children or their children I know that it would have interested me greatly to have read even so short and dull a sketch of the mind of my grandfather written by himself and what he thought and did and how he worked I have attempted to write following a count of myself as if I were a dead man in another world looking back at my own life nor have I found this difficult the life is nearly over with I've taken no pains about my style of writing I was born at Shrewsbury on February 12 1809 and my earliest recollection was back only to when I was a few months over four years old when we went near Abergeel for sea bathing and I recollect some events in places there with some little distinctness my mother died in july 1817 when I was a little over eight years old and it is odd that I can remember hardly anything about her except her death bed her black velvet gown and her curiously constructed work table in the spring of the same year I was sent to a day school in Shrewsbury where I stayed a year I've been told that I was much slower and learning than my younger sister Catherine and I believe that I was in many ways a naughty boy by the time I went to this day school kept by Reverend G. Case the minister of the Unitarian Chapel in the High Street Mrs. Darwin was a Unitarian and attended Mr. Case's chapel and my father was a little boy I went there with his elder sister but both he and his brother were christened and tended to belong to the Church of England and after his early boyhood he seems usually to have gone to church and not to Mr. Case's it appears St. James Gazette December 15 1883 that a mural tablet has been erected to his memory in the chapel which is known as the Free Christian Church my taste for natural history and more especially for collecting was well-developed I tried to make out the names of plants Reverend W. A. Layton who is a school fellow of my father's at Mr. Case's school remembers his bringing a flower to school and saying that his mother had taught him how by looking at the inside of the blossom the name of the plant could be discovered Mr. Layton goes on this greatly roused my attention and curiosity and I inquired of him repeatedly how this could be done but his lesson was naturally enough not transmissible Francis Darwin and I collected all sorts of things shells seals Frank's coins and minerals the passion for collecting which leads a man to be a systematic naturalist a virtuoso or a miser was very strong in me and was clearly an as none of my sister or brother even had this taste one little event during this year has fixed itself very firmly in my mind and I hope that it is done so for my conscience having been afterwards sorely troubled by it it is curious is showing that apparently I was interested at this early age in the variability of plants I told another little boy I believe it was Layton who afterwards became a well-known lycanologist and botanist that I could produce variously colored polyanthuses and print roses by watering them with certain colored foods which was of course a monstrous failure and had never been tried by me I may hear also confess that as a little boy I was much given to inventing deliberate falsehoods and this was always done for the sake of cosmic sight for instance I once gathered much valuable fruit from my father's trees and hid it in the shrubbery and then ran in breathless haste to spread the news that I had discovered a horde of stolen fruit I must have been a very simple little fellow when I first went to school a boy of the name of Garnett took me into a cake shop one day and bought some cakes for which he did not pay as the shopman trusted him when we came out I asked him why he did not pay for them and he instantly answered why do you not know that my uncle left a great sum of money to the town on condition that every tradesman should give whatever was wanted without payment to anyone who wore his old hat and moved it in a particular manner and he then showed me how it was moved he then went into another shop where he was trusted and asked for some small article moving his hat in the proper manner and of course obtained it without payment when we came out he said now if you like to go by yourself into that cake shop how well I remember its exact condition I will lend you my hat and you can get whatever you like if you move the hat on your head properly I gladly accepted the generous offer and went in and asked for some cakes moved the old hat and was walking out of the shop when the shopman made a rush at me so I dropped the cakes and ran for dear life and was astonished by being greeted with shouts of laughter by my false friend Garnett I can say in my own favor that I was as a boy you may but I owe this entirely to the instruction an example of my sisters I doubt indeed whether humanity is a natural or innate quality I was very fond of collecting eggs but I never took more than a single leg out of a birch nest except on a one single occasion when I took all not for their value but from a sort of bravado I had a strong taste for angling and would sit for any number of hours on the bank of the river or pond watching the float when at mayor the house of his uncle Josiah Wedgwood I was told that I could kill the worms with salt and water and from that day I never spitted a living worm though at the expense of probably of some loss of success once as a very little boy whilst at the day school or before that time I acted cruelly for I beat a puppy I believe simply from enjoying the sense of power but the beating could not have been severe for the puppy did not howl of which I feel sure as the spot was near the house the act lay heavily on my conscience as is shown by my remembering the exact spot where the crime was committed it probably lay up all the heavier for my love of dogs being then and for a long time afterwards a passion dogs seem to know this for I was an adept in robbing their love from their masters I remember clearly one other incident during this year while at Mr. Case's daily school namely the burial of a Dragoon soldier and it is surprising how clearly I can still see the horse with the man's empty boots and carbine suspended to the saddle and the firing over the grave this scene deeply stirred whatever poetic dance there was in me in the summer of 1818 I went to Dr. Butler's great school in Shrewsbury and remained there for seven years still mid-summer 1825 when I was 16 years old I boarded at this school so that I had the great advantage of living the life of a true schoolboy but as the distance was hardly more than a mile to my home I very often ran there in the longer intervals between the callings over and before locking up at night this I think was in many ways advantageous to me by keeping up home affections and interests I remember in the early part of my school life that I often had to run very quickly to be in time and from being a fleet runner was generally successful but when in doubt I prayed earnestly to God to help me and I well remember that I attributed my success to the prayers and not to my quick running and marveled how generally I was aided I have heard my father and elder sisters say that I had as a very young boy a strong taste for long solitary walks but what I thought about I knew not I often became quite absorbed and once while returning to school on the summit of the old fortifications Brown Shrewsbury which had been converted into a public footpath with no parapet on one side I walked off and fell to the ground but the height was only seven or eight feet nevertheless the number of thoughts which passed through my mind during this very short but sudden and wholly unexpected fall was astonishing and seem hardly compatible with what physiologists have I believe proved about each thought requiring quite an appreciable amount of time nothing could have been worse 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 is a means of education to me with simply a blank during my whole life I have been singularly incapable of mastering any language the special attention was paid to verse-making and this I could never do well I had many friends and got together a good collection of old verses which by patching together sometimes aided by other boys I could work into any subject much attention was paid to learning by heart the lessons of the previous day this I could affect with great facility learning 40 or 50 lines of Virgil or Homer while I was in one chapel but this exercise was utterly useless for every verse was forgotten in 48 hours I was not idle and with the exception of versification generally worked conscientiously at my classics not using cribs the sole pleasure I ever received from such studies was from some of the Odes of Horus which I admired greatly when I left the school I was from my age neither high nor low in it and I believed that I was considered by all my masters and my father as a very ordinary boy rather below the common standard in intellect to my deep mortification my father once said to me you care for nothing but shooting dogs and rat catching and you will be a disgrace to yourself and of all your family but my father who is the kindest man I ever knew and whose memory I loved with all my heart must have been angry and somewhat unjust when you use such words looking back as well as I can at my character during my school life the only qualities which at this period promised well for the future were that I had strong and diversified tastes much zeal for whatever interested me and a keen pleasure in understanding any complex subject or thing I was taught Euclid by a private tutor and I distinctly remember the intense satisfaction which the clear geometrical proofs gave me I remember with equal distinctness the delight which my uncle gave me the father of Francis Galton by explaining the principle of the veneer of a barometer with respect to diversified tastes independently of science I was fond of reading various books and I used to sit for hours reading historical plays of Shakespeare generally in an old window in the thick walls of the school I read also other poetry such as Thompson's Seasons and the recently published poems of Byron and Scott I mentioned this because later in life I wholly lost to my great regret all pleasure from poetry of any kind including Shakespeare in connection with pleasure from poetry I may add that in 1822 a vivid delight and scenery was first awakened in my mind during a writing tour on the borders of Wales and this has lasted longer than any other aesthetic pleasure early in my school days a boy had a copy of The Wonders of the World which I often read and disputed with other boys about the veracity of some of the statements and I believe that this book first gave me a wish to travel in remote countries which was ultimately fulfilled in the voyage of the Beagle in the latter part of my school life I became passionately fond of shooting I do not believe that anyone could have shown more zeal for the most holy cause than I did for shooting birds how well I remember killing my first night and my excitement was so great that I had much difficulty in reloading my gun from the trembling of my hand this tastes long continued and I became a very good shot when at Cambridge I used to practice throwing up my gun to my shoulder before a looking glass to see that I threw it up straight another and better plan was to get a friend to wave about a lighted candle and then to fire at it with a cap on the nipple and if the aim was accurate the little puff of air will blow up the candle the explosion of the cap caused a sharp crack and I was told that the tutor of the college remarked what an extraordinary thing it is Mr. Darwin seems to spend hours in cracking a horse whip in his room for I often hear the crack when I pass under his windows I had many friends amongst the schoolboys whom I loved dearly and I think that my disposition was then very affectionate with respect to science I continued collecting minerals with much zeal but quite unscientific all that I cared about was a new named mineral and I hardly attempted to classify them I must have observed insects with some little care for when 10 years old in 1819 I went for three weeks to plos Edwards on the sea coast in Wales I was very much interested and surprised at seeing a large black and scarlet hemipterous insect many moths zygena and a sick and Ella which are not found in the Shropshire I almost made up my mind to begin collecting all the insects which I could find dead for on consulting my sister I concluded that it was not right to kill insects for the sake of making a collection from reading whites sell born I took much pleasure in watching the habits of birds and even made notes on the subject in my simplicity I remember wondering why every gentleman did not becoming ornithologist towards the close of my school life my brother worked hard at chemistry and made a fair laboratory with proper apparatus in the toolhouse in the garden and I was allowed to aid him as a servant in most of his experiments he made all the gases and many compounds and I read with great care several books on chemistry such as Henry and Park's chemical catechism the subject interested me greatly and we often used to go on working till rather late at night this was the best part of my education at school for it showed me practically the meaning of experimental science the fact that we worked at chemistry somehow got known at school and as it was an unprecedented fact I was nicknamed gas I was also once publicly reviewed by the headmaster Dr. Butler for thus wasting my time on such useless subjects and he called me very unjustly a poco corante and as I did not understand what he meant it seemed to me a fearful approach as I was doing no good at school my father wisely took me away at a rather earlier age than usual and sent me October 1825 to Edinburgh University with my brother where I stayed for two years per sessions my brother was completing his medical studies well I do not believe he ever really intended to practice and I was sent there to commenced but soon after this period I became convinced from various small circumstances that my father would leave me property enough to subsist on with some comfort though I never imagined that I should be so rich a man as I am but my belief was sufficient to check any strenuous efforts to learn medicine the instruction at Edinburgh was all together by lectures and these were intolerably dull with the exception of those on chemistry by hope but to my mind there are no advantages and many disadvantages in lectures compared with reading Dr. Duncan's lectures on Materia Medica at 8 o'clock on a winter's morning are something fearful to remember Dr. Blank made his lectures on human anatomy as dull as he was himself and the subject disgusted me it has proved one of the greatest evils in my life that I was not urged to practice dissection for I should soon have got over my disgust and the practice would have been invaluable for all my future work this has been an irremediable evil as well as my incapacity to draw I also attended regularly the clinical wards in the hospital some of the cases distressed me a good deal and I still have vivid pictures before me of some of them but I was not so foolish as to allow this to lessen my attendance I cannot understand why this part of my medical course did not interest me in a greater degree for during the summer before coming to Edinburgh I began attending some of the poor people chiefly children and women in Shrewsburg I wrote down as full an account as I could of the case with all the symptoms and read them allowed to my father who suggested further inquiries and advised me what medicines to give which I made up myself at one time I had at least a dozen patients and I felt a keen interest in the work my father who was by far the best judge of character whom I ever knew declared that I should make a successful position meaning by this one who would get many patients he maintained that the chief element of success was exciting confidence but what he saw in me which convinced him that I should create confidence I knew not I also attended on two occasions the operating theater in the hospital at Edinburgh and saw two very bad operations one on a child but I rushed away before they were completed nor did I ever attend again for hardly any inducement would have been strong enough to make me do so this being long before the blessed days of chloroform the two carieses barely haunted me for many a long year my brother stayed only one year at the university so that during the second year I was left to my own resources and this was an advantage for I became well acquainted with several young men found of natural science one of these was Ainsworth who afterwards published his travels in Assyria he was a Wernyrian geologist and knew a little about many subjects Dr. Coldstream was a very different young man prim formal highly religious and most kind-hearted the afterwards published some good zoological articles a third young man was hardy who would I think have made a good botanist but died early in India lastly Dr. Grant my senior by several years but how I became acquainted with him I cannot remember he published some first-rate zoological papers but after coming to London as professor in University College he did nothing more in science the fact which has always been inexplicable to me I knew him well he was dry and formal manner with munch enthusiasm beneath his outer crust he one day when we were walking together burst forth in high admiration of Walmart and his views on evolution I listened in silent astonishment and as far as I can judge without any effect on my mind I had previously read the zoological of my grandfather in which similar views are maintained but without producing any effect on me nevertheless it is probable that the hearing rather early in life such views maintained and praised may have favored my upholding them in a different form in my origin of species at this time I admired greatly the zoologia but on reading it a second time after an interval of 10 or 15 years I was much disappointed the proposition of speculation being so large to the facts given doctors Grant and Coldstream attended much to marine zoology and I often accompanied the former to collect animals in the tidal pools which I dissected as well as I could I also became friends with some of the New Haven fishermen and sometimes accompanied them when they trawled for oysters and thus got many specimens but from not having had regular practice in dissection and from possessing only a wretched microscope my attempts were very poor nevertheless I made one interesting little discovery and read about the beginning of the year 1826 a short paper on the subject before the Pleinians society this was what the so-called Ova of Flustra had the power of independent movement by means of cilia and we're in fact larvae in another short paper I showed that the little globular bodies which had been supposed to be the young state of hukus lorius were the egg cases of the worm like Ponsubtela muricada the Pleinian society was encouraged and I believe founded by professor James it consisted of students and met in an underground room in the university for the sake of reading papers on natural science and discussing them I use regularly to attend and the meetings had a good effect on me in stimulating my zeal and giving me new congenial acquaintances one evening a poor young man got up and after stammering for a prodigious length of time washing crimson he had last slowly got out the words Mr. President I have forgotten what I was going to say the poor fellow looked quite overwhelmed and all the members were so surprised that no one could think of a word to say to cover his confusion the papers which were read to our little society were not printed so that I had not the satisfaction of seeing my paper and print but I believe Dr. Grant noticed my small discovery in his excellent memoir on flustrum I was also a member of the Royal Medical Society and attended pretty regularly as the subjects were exclusively medical I did not care much about much rubbish was talked there but there were some good speakers of whom the best was the president sir J. K. shuttle Dr. Grant took me occasionally to the meetings of the Wernyronan Society where various papers on natural history were read discussed and afterwards published in the transactions I heard Audubon deliver there some interesting discourses on the habits of North American birds sneering somewhat unjustly at warranted by the way a Negro lived in Edinburgh who had traveled with Waterton and gained his livelihood by stuffing birds which he did excellently he gave me lessons for payment and I used often to sit with him for he was a very pleasant intelligent that Dr. Leonard Horner also took me once to a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh where I saw Sir Walter Scott in the chair as president and he apologized to the meeting is not feeling fitted for such a position I looked at him in the whole scene with some odd reverence and I think it was owing to this visit during my youth into my having attended the Royal Medical Society that I felt the honor of being elected a few years ago an honorary member of both societies more than any other similar honor if I had been told at the time that I should one day have been thus honored I declare that I should have thought it as ridiculous and improbable as if I had told that I should be elected King of England during my second year at Edinburgh I attended Dr. X's lectures on geology and zoology but they were incredibly dull the sole effect they produced on me was a determination never as long as I live to read a book on geology or in any way study the science yet I feel sure that I was prepared for a philosophical treatment of the subject for an old Dr. Cotton in Shropshire who knew a good deal about rocks had pointed out to me two or three years previously a well-known large erratic boulder in the town of Shrewsbury called the Bellstone he told me there was no rock of the same kind nearer than Cumberland or Scotland and he solemnly assured that the world would come to an end before anyone would be able to explain how this stone came where it now lay this produced a deep impression on me and I meditated over this wonderful stone so that I felt the keenest delight when I first read of the action of icebergs in transporting boulders and I gloried in the progress of geology equally striking is the fact that I they're not only 67 years old heard the professor in a field lecture at Salisbury craigs discoursing on a trap-dike with amygdalaudal regions and the strata indurated on each side with volcanic rocks all around us say that it was a fissure filled with sediment from above adding with a sneer that there were men who maintained that it had been injected from beneath in a molten condition when I think of this lecture I do not wonder that I determined never to attend to geology from attending Dr. X's lectures I became acquainted with the curator of the museum Mr. McGillard gravy who afterwards published a large and excellent book on the birds of Scotland I had much interesting natural history talk with him and he was very kind to me he gave me some rare shells for I at the time collected marine mollusca but with no great zeal my summer vacations during these two years were wholly given up to amusements though I always had some book in hand which I read with interest during the summer of 1826 I took a long walking tour with two friends with knapsacks on our backs through north Wales we walked 30 miles most days including one day the ascent of snow I also went with my sister on a riding tour in north Wales a servant with saddlebags carrying our clothes the autumns were devoted to shooting chiefly at mr. Owens at woodhouse and at my uncle Joe's Josiah Wedchwood the son of the founder of the etiore awards at my year my zeal was so great that I used to place my shooting boots open beside my bedside when I went to bed so it's not to lose half a minute and putting them on in the morning and on one occasion I reached a distant part of a mayor estate on the 20th of August for black game shooting before I could see then I toiled on the gamekeeper the whole day through thick heat and young scotch furs I kept an exact record of every bird which I shot through the whole season one day when shooting at woodhouse with captain illett the eldest son and major hill his cousin afterwards Lord Burwick both of them who I liked very much I thought myself shamefully used for every time after I had fired and thought I had killed a bird one of the two acted as if loading his gun and cried out you must not count that bird for I fired at the same time and the gamekeeper perceiving the joke back them up after some hours they told me the joke but it was no joke to me for I had shot a large number of birds but did not know how many and could not add them to my list which I used to do by making a knot in a piece of string tied to a buttonhole this my wicked friends had pursued how I did enjoy shooting but I think that I must have been half consciously ashamed of my zeal for I tried to persuade myself that shooting was almost an intellectual employment it required so much skill to judge where to find the most game and to hunt the dogs well one of my autumnal visits to mayor in 1827 was memorable for meeting there sir Jay Macintosh who is the best converser I ever listened to I heard afterwards with a glow of pride that he had said there are something in that young man that interests me this must have been chiefly due to his proceeding that I'm listening with much interest to everything which he said for I was as ignorant as a pig about his subjects of history politics moral philosophy to hear praise from an eminent person though no doubt apt or certain to excite vanity is I think good for a young man as it helps to keep him on the right course my visits to mayor during these two or three succeeding years were quite delightful independently of the autumnal shooting life there was perfectly free the country was very pleasant for walking or riding and in the evening there was much very agreeable conversation not so personally as it generally is in large family parties together with music in the summer the whole family used often to sit on the steps of the old portico with the flower garden in front and with the steep wooded bank opposite the house reflected in the lake with here and there a fish rising on a water bird paddling about nothing has left a more vivid picture on my mind than these evenings at mayor I was also attached to and greatly revered my uncle Joe's he was silent and reserved so as to be a rather awful man but he sometimes talked openly with me he was a very type of an upright man with the clearest judgment I do not believe that any power on earth could have made him swerve an inch from what he considered the right course I used to apply to him in my mind the well-known ode of course now forgotten by me in which the words neck vultus tyranny etc come in justin at ten awesome cross pity vera non-civium ardor prava Juventil non-vultus instantis tyranny mentee qualitat solida end of section one section two of the autobiography of Charles Darwin this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Adam Marsatich Alexandria Virginia June 2009 the autobiography of Charles Darwin edited by his son Francis Darwin section two Cambridge 1828 to 1831 after having spent two sessions in Edinburgh my father perceived or he heard from my sisters that I did not like the thought of being a physician so he proposed that I should become a clergyman he was very properly vehement against my turning into an idle sporting man which then seemed my probable destination I asked for some time to consider as from what little I had heard or thought on the subject I had scruples about declaring my belief in all the dogmas of the Church of England though otherwise I liked the thought of being a country clergyman accordingly I read with care Pearson on the Creed and a few other books on divinity and as I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible I soon persuaded myself that our Creed must be fully accepted considering how fiercely I have been attacked by the orthodox it seems ludicrous that I once intended to be a clergyman nor was this intention and my father's wish ever formerly given up but died a natural death when on leaving Cambridge I joined the Beagle as a naturalist if the phrenologists are to be trusted I was well-fitted in one respect to be a clergyman a few years ago the secretaries of a German psychological society asked me earnestly by letter for a photograph of myself and some time afterwards I received the proceedings of one of the meetings in which it seemed that the shape of my head had been the subject of a public discussion and one of the speakers declared that I had the bump of reverence developed enough for ten priests as it was decided that I should be a clergyman it was necessary that I should go to one of the English universities and take a degree but as I had never opened a classical book since leaving school I found to my dismay that in the two intervening years I had actually forgotten incredible as it may appear almost everything which I had learned even to some few of the Greek letters I did not therefore proceed to Cambridge at the usual time in October but worked with a private tutor in Shrewsbury and went to Cambridge after the Christmas vacation early in 1828 I soon recovered my school's standard of knowledge and could translate easy Greek books such as Homer and the Greek Testament with moderate facility during the three years which I spent at Cambridge my time was wasted as far as the academic studies were concerned as completely as at Edinburgh and at school I attempted mathematics and even went during the summer of 1828 with a private tutor a very dull man to bar math but I got on very slowly the work was repugnant to me cheerfully from my not being able to see any meaning in the early steps in algebra this impatience was very foolish and in after years I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics for men thus endowed seemed to have an extra sense but I do not believe that I should ever have succeeded beyond a very low grade with respect to classics I did nothing except attend a few compulsory college lectures and the attendance was almost nominal in my second year I had to work for a month or two to pass the little go which I did easily again in my last year I worked with some earnestness for my final degree of BA and brushed up my classics together with a little algebra and Euclid which latter gave me much pleasure as it did in school in order to pass the BA examination it was also necessary to get up Paley's evidences of Christianity and his moral philosophy this was done in a thorough manner and I am convinced that I could have written out the whole of the evidences with perfect correctness but not of course in the clear language of Paley the logic of his book and as I may add of his natural theology gave me as much delight as did Euclid the careful study of these works without attempting to learn any part by rote was the only part of the academic course which as I then felt and I still believe was of the least used to me in the education of my mind I did not at the time trouble myself about Paley's premises and taking these on trust I was charmed and convinced by the long line of argumentation by answering well the examination questions in Paley by doing Euclid well and by not failing miserably in classics I gained a good peace among the hoy-poly or a crowd of men who do not go in for honors oddly enough I cannot remember how high I stood and my memory fluctuates between the fifth 10th or 12th name on the list 10th in the list January 1831 public lectures on several branches were given in the University attendance being quite voluntary but I was so sick and with lectures at Edinburgh that I did not even attend Sedgwick's eloquent and interesting lectures had I done so I should probably have become a geologist earlier than I did I attended however Henslow's lectures on botany and like them much for their extreme clearness and their admirable illustrations but I did not study botany Henslow used to take his pupils including several of the older members of the University field excursions on foot or in coaches to distant places or in a barge down the river and lectured on the rarer plants and animals which were observed these excursions were delightful although as we shall presently see there were some redeeming features in my life at Cambridge my time was sadly wasted there and worse than wasted for my passion for shooting and for hunting and when this failed for riding across country I got into a sporting sect including some dissipated low-minded young men we used often to dine together in the evening though these dinners often included men of a higher stamp and we sometimes drank too much with jolly singing and playing at cards afterwards I know that I ought to feel ashamed of days and evenings thus spent but as some of my friends were very pleasant and we were all in the highest spirits I cannot help looking back to these times with much pleasure but I am glad to think that I had many other friends of a widely different nature I was very intimate with Whitley Reverend C. Whitley honorary canon of Durham formerly reader in natural philosophy in Durham University who was afterwards senior Wrangler and we used continually to take long walks together he inoculated me with a taste for pictures and good engravings of which I bought some I frequently went to the Fitz William Gallery and my tastes much have been fairly good for I clearly admired the best pictures which I discussed with the old curator I read also with much interest Sir Joshua Reynolds book this taste though not natural to me lasted for several years and many of the pictures in the National Gallery in London gave me much pleasure that of Sebastian del Piambo exciting in me a sense of sublimity I also got into a musical set I believe by means of my warm-hearted friend Herbert the late John Morris Herbert County Court Judge of Cardiff and the Monmouth Sorgate who took a high Wrangler's degree from associating with these men and hearing them play I acquired a strong taste for music and used very often to time my walks so as to hear on weekdays the anthem in King's College Chapel this gave me intense pleasure so that my backbone would sometimes shiver I am sure that there was no affectation or mere imitation in this taste for I used generally to go by myself to King's College and I sometimes hired the Chorister boys to sing in my rooms nevertheless I am so utterly destitute of an ear that I cannot perceive a discord or keep time and hum a tune correctly and it is a mystery how I could possibly have derived pleasure from music my musical friends soon perceived my state and sometimes amuse themselves by making me pass an examination which consistent in ascertaining how many tunes I could recognize when they were played rather more quickly or slowly than usual God saved the king when thus played was a sore puzzle there was another man with almost as bad an ear as I had and strange to say he played a little on the flute once I had the triumph of beating him in one of our musical examination but no pursuit at Cambridge was followed with nearly so much eagerness or gave me so much pleasure as collecting Beatles it was the mere passion for collecting for I did not dissect them and rarely compared their external characters with published descriptions but I got them named anyhow I will give a proof of my zeal one day on tearing off some old bark I saw two rare Beatles and seized one in each hand then I saw a third and new kind which I could not bear to lose so that I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth alas it ejected some intensely accurate fluid which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out which I lost as well as the third one I was very successful in collecting and invented two new methods I employed a laborer to scrape during the winter moss off old trees and place it in a large bag and likewise to collect the rubbish at the bottom of the barges in which reeds are bought from the fence and thus I got some very rare species no poet ever felt more delighted at seeing his first poem published than I did at seeing in Stevens illustrations of British insects the magic words captured by C Darwin is choir I was introduced to entomology by my second cousin W Darwin Fox a clever and most pleasant man who was then at Christ's college and with whom I became extremely intimate afterwards I became well acquainted and went out collecting with Albert way of Trinity who in after years became a well-known archaeologists also with H Thompson of the same college afterward a leading agriculturist chairman of a great Braille way and member of Parliament it seems therefore that a taste for collecting beetles is some indication of future success in life I am surprised but an indelible impression many of the beetles which I caught at Cambridge have left on my mind I can remember the exact appearance of certain posts old trees and banks where I made a good capture the pretty panagius crux major was a treasure in those days and here at down I saw a beetle running across a walk and on picking it up instantly perceived that it differed slightly from P crux major and it turned out to be P quadra punk Tadus which is only a variety or closely allied species differing from it very slightly in outline I had never seen in those old days Licinus alive which to an uneducated I hardly differs from many of the black carabinous beetles but my sons found here a specimen and I instantly recognized that it was new to me yet I had not looked at a British beetle for the last 20 years I have not as yet mentioned a circumstance which influenced my whole career more than any other this was my friendship with professor Henslow before coming up to Cambridge I had heard of him from my brother as a man who knew every branch of science and I was accordingly prepared to reverence him he kept open house once every week when all undergraduates and some older members of the University who were attached to science used to meet in the evening I soon got through Fox an invitation and went there regularly before long I became well acquainted with Henslow and during the latter half of my time at Cambridge took long walks with him on most days so that I was called by some of the dons the man who walks with Henslow and in the evening I was very often asked to join his family dinner his knowledge was great in botany entomology chemistry mineralogy and geology his strongest taste was to draw conclusions from long continued minute observations his judgment was excellent and his whole mind well balanced but I do not suppose that anyone would say he possessed much original genius he was deeply religious and so orthodox that he told me one day he should be grieved if a single word of the 39 articles were altered his moral qualities were in every way admirable he was free from every tinge of vanity or other petty feeling and I never saw a man who thought so little about himself or his own concerns his temper was imperturbably good with the most winning and courteous manners yet as I have seen he could be roused by any bad action to the warmest indignation and prompt action I once saw in his company in the streets of Cambridge almost as horrid a scene as could have been witnessed during the French Revolution two body snatchers had been arrested and while being taken to prison had been torn from the constable by a crowd of the roughest men who dragged them by their legs along the muddy and stony road they were covered from head to foot with mud and their faces were bleeding either from having been kicked or from the stones they looked like corpses but the crowd was so dense that I only got a few momentary glimpses of the wretched creatures never in my life have I seen such wrap painted on a man's face as was shown by Henslow at this horrid scene he tried repeatedly to penetrate the mob but it was simply impossible he then rushed away to the mayor telling me not to follow him but to get more policemen I forget the issue except that the two men were got into the prison without being killed Henslow's benevolence was unbounded as he proved by his many excellent schemes for his poor parishioners when in after years he held the living of Hitcham my intimacy with such a man ought to have been and I hope was an inestimable benefit I cannot resist mentioning a trifling incident which showed his kind consideration while examining some pollen grains on a damp surface I saw the tubes exerted and instantly rushed off to communicate my surprising discovery to him now I do not suppose any other professor of botany could have helped laughing at my coming in such a hurry to make such a communication but he agreed how interesting the phenomenon was and explained its meaning but made me clearly understand how well it was known so I left him not in the least mortified but well pleased at having discovered for myself so remarkable a fact but determined not to be in such a hurry again to communicate my discoveries Dr. Wewell was one of the older and distinguished men who sometimes visited Henslow and on several occasions I walked home with him at night next to Sir. J. McIntosh he was the best converser on grave subjects to whom I ever listened Leonard Jennings the well known Somme Jennings was cousin to my Jennings father who afterwards published some good essays in natural history Mr. Jennings now Blomfield described the fish for the zoology of the Beagle and is an author of long series of papers chiefly zoological often stayed with Henslow who was his brother-in-law I visited him at his parsonage on the borders of the fence Swapham bullback and had many good a walk and talk with him about natural history I became also acquainted with several other men older than me who did not care much about science but were friends of Henslow one was a Scotchman brother of Sir Alexander Ramsey and tutor of Jesus College he was a delightful man but did not live for many years another was Mr. Dawes afterwards Dean of Hereford and famous for his success in the education of the poor these men and others of the same standing together with Henslow used sometimes to take distant excursions into the country which I was allowed to join and they were most agreeable looking back I infer that there must have been something in me a little superior to the common run of youths otherwise the above mentioned men so much older than me and higher in academical position would have never allowed me to associate with them certainly I was not aware of any such superiority and I remember one of my sporting friends Turner who saw me at work with my Beatles saying that I should someday be a fellow of the Royal Society and the notion seemed to me preposterous during my last year at Cambridge I read with care and profound interest Humboldt's personal narrative this work and Sir Jay Herschel's introduction to the study of natural philosophy stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of natural science no one or a dozen other books influence me nearly so much as these two I copied out from Humboldt long passages about tenor reef and read them aloud on one of the above mentioned excursions to I think Henslow Ramsey and Dawes for on a previous occasion I had talked about the glories of tenor reef and some of the party declared they would endeavor to go there but I think that they were only half an earnest I was however quite an earnest and got an introduction to a merchant in London to inquire about ships but the scheme was of course knocked on the head by the voyage of the Beagle my summer vacations were given up to collecting beetles to some reading and short tours in the autumn my whole time was devoted to shooting chiefly at Woodhouse and Mare and sometimes with young Aten of Aten upon the whole the three years which I spent at Cambridge were the most joyful in my happy life for I was then in excellent health and almost always in high spirits as I had at first come up to Cambridge at Christmas I was forced to keep two terms after passing my final examination at the commencement of 1831 and Henslow then persuaded me to begin the study of geology therefore on my return to Shropshire I examined sections and a colored map of parts Brown Shrewsbury professor Sedgwick intended to visit North Wales in the beginning of August to pursue his famous geological investigations among the older rocks and Henslow asked him to allow me to accompany him editors note in connection with this tour my father used to tell a story about Sedgwick they had started from there in one morning and had walked a mile or two when Sedgwick suddenly stopped and vowed that he would return being a certain that damned scoundrel the waiter had not given the chambermaid the six pence entrusted to him for the purpose he was ultimately persuaded to give up the project seeing that there was no reason for suspecting the waiter of a special profidity Francis Darwin accordingly he came and slept at my father's house a short conversation with him during this evening produced a strong impression on my mind while examining an old gravel pit near Shrewsbury a laborer told me that he had found it in a large worn tropical volute shell such as may be seen on the chimney pieces of cottages and as he would not sell the shell I was convinced that he had really found it in the pit I told Sedgwick of the fact and he at once said no doubt truly that it must have been thrown away by someone into the pit but then added if really embedded there it would be the greatest misfortune to geology as it would overthrow all that we know about the superficial deposits of the Midland counties these gravel beds belong in fact to the glacial period and in after years I found in them broken arctic shells but I was then utterly astonished at Sedgwick not being delighted at so wonderful a fact as a tropical shell being found near the surface in the middle of England nothing before had ever made me thoroughly realize though I had read various scientific books that science consists in grouping facts so that general laws or conclusions may be drawn from them next morning we started for Langolin Conway Bangor and capital Keurig this tour was of decided use in teaching me a little how to make out the geology of a country Sedgwick often sent me in a line parallel to his telling me to bring back specimens of the rocks and to mark the stratification on a map I have little doubt that he did this for my good as I was too ignorant to have aided him on this tour I had a striking instance of how easy it is to overlook phenomena however conspicuous before they have been observed by anyone we spent many hours in swim idwall examining all the rocks with extreme care as Sedgwick was anxious to find fossils in them but neither of us saw trace of the wonderful glacial phenomena all around us we did not notice the plainly scored rocks the perched boulders the lateral and terminal moraines yet these phenomena are so conspicuous that as I declared in a paper published many years afterwards in the philosophical magazine philosophical magazine 1842 a house burned down by fire did not tell its story more plainly than did this valley if it had been filled by a glacier the phenomena would have been less distinct than they now are at capitol curig I left Sedgwick and went in a straight line by compass and map across the mountains to barn moth never following any track unless it coincided with my course I thus came on some strange wild places and enjoyed much this manner of traveling I visited barn moth to see some Cambridge friends who were reading there and thence returned to Shrewsbury and to mayor for shooting but at that time I should have thought myself mad to give up the first days of partridge shooting for geology or any other science end of section 2 section 3 of the autobiography of Charles Darwin this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Adam Marsatich Alexandria Virginia June 2009 the autobiography of Charles Darwin edited by his son Francis Darwin voyage of the Beagle from December 27 1831 to October 2nd 1836 on returning home from my short geological tour in north Wales I found a letter from Henslow informing me that Captain Fitzroy was willing to give a part of his own cabin to any young man who would volunteer to go with him without pay as a naturalist to the voyage of the Beagle I have given as I believe in my MS journal an account of all the circumstances which then occurred I will hear only say that I was instantly eager to accept the offer but my father strongly objected adding the words fortunate for me if you can find any man of common sense who advises you to go I will give my consent so I wrote that evening and refused the offer on the next morning I went to mayor to be ready for September 1st and while out shooting my uncle Josiah Wedgewood sent for me offering to drive me over to Shrewsbury and talk with my father as my uncle thought it would be wise in me to accept the offer my father always maintained that he was one of the most sensible men in the world and he had once consented in the kindest manner I had been rather extravagant at Cambridge and to console my father said that I should be deuced clever to spend more than my allowance while on board the Beagle but he answered with a smile but they tell me you were very clever next day I started for Cambridge to see Henslow and then still London to see Fitzroy and all was soon arranged afterwards on becoming very intimate with Fitzroy I heard that I had run a very narrow risk of being rejected on account of the shape of my nose he was an ardent disciple of Lovater and was convinced that he could judge of a man's character by the outline of his features and he doubted whether anyone with my nose could possess sufficient energy and determination for the voyage but I think he was afterwards well satisfied that my nose had spoken falsely Fitzroy's character was a singular one with very many noble features he was devoted to his duty generous to a fault bold determined and indomitably energetic and an ardent friend all under his sway he would undertake any sort of trouble to assist those whom he thought deserved assistance he was a handsome man strikingly like a gentleman with highly courteous manners which resembled those of his maternal uncle the famous Lord Castle Raw as I was told by the minister at Rio nevertheless he must have inherited much in his appearance from Charles II for Dr. Wallach gave me a collection of photographs which he had made and I was struck with the resemblance of one to Fitzroy and on looking at the name I found at Charles E. Sobiesky steward Count Dabini a descendant of the same monarch Fitzroy's temper was a most unfortunate one it was usually worst in the early morning and with his eagle eye he could generally detect something amiss about the ship and was then unsparing in his blame he was very kind to me but as a man very difficult to live with on the intimate terms which necessarily followed from our messing by ourselves in the same cabin we had several quarrels for instance early in the voyage at Bahia in Brazil he defended and praised slavery which I abominated and told me that he had just visited a great slave owner who had called up many of his slaves and asked them whether they were happy and whether they wished to be free and all answered no I then asked him perhaps with a sneer whether he thought that the answers of slaves in the presence of their master was worth anything this made him excessively angry and he said that as I doubted his word we could not live any longer together I thought that I should have been compelled to leave the ship but as soon as the news spread which it did quickly as the captain sent for the first lieutenant to assuage his anger by abusing me I was deeply gratified by receiving an invitation from all the gun room officers to mess with them but after a few hours Fitzroy showed his usual magnanimity by sending an officer to me with an apology and a request that I would continue to live with him his character was in several respects one of the most noble which I have ever known the voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career yet it depended on so small a circumstance as my uncle offering to drive me 30 miles to Shrewsbury which few uncles would have done and on such a trifle as the shape of my nose I have always felt that I owe to the voyage the first real training or education of my mind I was led to attend closely to several branches of natural history and thus my powers of observation were improved though they were always fairly developed the investigation of the geology of all the places visited was far more important as reasoning here comes into play on first examining a new district nothing can appear more hopeless than the chaos of rocks but by recording the stratification and nature of the rocks and fossils at many points always reasoning and predicting what will be found elsewhere light soon begins to dawn on the district and the structure of the whole becomes more or less intelligible I had brought with me the first volume of Lyell's principles of geology which I studied attentively and the book was of the highest service to me in many ways the very first place which I examined namely St. Hago in the Cape de Verde islands showed me clearly the wonderful superiority of Lyell's manner of treating geology compared with that of any other author whose works I had with me or ever afterwards read another of my occupations was collecting animals of all classes briefly describing and roughly dissecting many of the marine ones but from not being able to draw and from not having sufficient anatomical knowledge a great pile of manuscript which I made during the voyage has proved almost useless I had thus lost much time with the exception of that spent in acquiring some knowledge of the crustaceans as this was of service when in after years I undertook a monograph of the syrupedia during some part of the day I wrote my journal and took much pains in describing carefully and vividly all that I had seen and this was good practice my journal served also in part as letters to my home and portions were sent to England whenever there was an opportunity the above various special studies were however of no importance compared with the habit of energetic industry and of concentrated attention to whatever I was engaged in which I then acquired everything about which I thought or read was made to bear directly on what I had seen or was likely to see and this habit of mine was continued during the five years of the voyage I feel sure that it was this training which has enabled me to do whatever I have done in science looking backwards I can now perceive how my love for science gradually preponderated over every other taste during the first two years my old passion for shooting survived in nearly full force and I shot myself all the birds and animals for my collection but gradually I gave up my gun more and more and finally all together to my servant as shooting interfered with my work more especially with making out the geological structure of a country I discovered though unconsciously and insensibly that the pleasure of observing and reasoning was a much higher one than that of skill and sport that my mind became developed through my pursuits during the voyage is rendered probable by a remark made by my father who was the most acute observer whom I ever saw of a skeptical disposition and far from being a believer in phrenology for on first seeing me after the voyage he turned round to my sisters and exclaimed why the shape of his head is quite altered to return to the voyage on September 11th 1831 I paid a flying visit with Fitzroy to the Beagle at Plymouth thence to Shrewsbury to wish my father and sisters a long farewell on October 12th I took up my residence at Plymouth and remained there until December 27 when the Beagle finally left the shores of England for her circumnavigation of the world we made two earlier attempts to sail but were driven back each time by heavy gales these two months at Plymouth were the most miserable which I ever spent though I exerted myself in various ways I was out of spirits at the thought of leaving all my family and friends for so long a time and the weather seemed to me inexpressibly gloomy I was also troubled with palpitation and pain about the heart and like many a young ignorant man especially one with a smattering of medical knowledge was convinced that I had heart disease I did not consult any doctor as I fully expected to hear the verdict that I was not fit for the voyage and I was resolved to go at all hazards I need not here refer to the events of the voyage where we went and what we did is I have given a sufficiently full account in my published journal the glories of the vegetation of the tropics rise before my mind at the present time more vividly than anything else though the sense of sublimity which the great deserts of Patagonia and the forest clad mountains of Tierra del Fuego excited in me has left an indelible impression on my mind the site of a naked savage in his native land is an event which can never be forgotten many of my excursions on horseback through wild countries or in the boats some of which lasted several weeks were deeply interesting their discomfort and some degree of danger were at that time hardly a drawback and none at all afterwards I also reflect with high satisfaction on some of my scientific work such as solving the problem of coral islands and making out the geological structure of certain islands for instance St. Helena nor must I pass over the discovery of the singular relations of the animals and plants inhabiting the several islands of the Galapagos Archipelago and all of them to the inhabitants of South America as far as I can judge of myself I work to the utmost during the voyage from the mere pleasure of investigation and from my strong desire to add a few facts to the great mass of facts in natural science but I was also ambitious to take a fair place among scientific men whether more ambitious or less so than my fellow workers I can form no opinion the geology of St. Yago is very striking yet simple a stream of lava formerly flowed over the bed of the sea formed of trichurated recent shells and corals which it has baked into a hard white rock since then the whole island has been upheaved but the line of white rock revealed to me a new and important fact namely that there had been afterwards subsidence round the craters which had since been in action and had poured forth lava it then first dawned on me that I might perhaps write a book on the geology of the various countries visited and this made me thrilled with the light that was a memorable hour to me and how distinctly I can call to mind the low cliff of lava beneath which I rested with the sun glaring hot a few strange distant plants growing near and with living corals in the tidal pools at my feet later in the voyage Fitzroy asked me to read some of my journal and declared it would be worth publishing so here was a second book in prospect towards the close of our voyage I received a letter while at ascension in which my sisters told me that Sedgwick had called on my father and said that I should take a place among the leading scientific men I could not at the time understand how he could have learned anything of my proceedings but I heard I believe afterwards that Henslow had read some of the letters which I wrote to him before the philosophical society of Cambridge read at the meeting held November 16 1835 and printed in a pamphlet of 31 pages for distribution among the members of the society and had printed them for private distribution my collection of fossil bones which had been sent to Henslow also excited considerable attention among the paleontologists after reading this letter I clambered over the mountains of ascension with a bounding step and made the volcanic rocks resound under my geological hammer all this shows how ambitious I was but I think that I can say with truth that in after years though I cared in the highest degree for the approbation of such men as Liel and Hooker who were my friends I did not care much about the general public I do not mean to say that a favorable review or a large sale of my books did not please me greatly but the pleasure was a fleeting one and I am sure that I have never turned one inch out of my course to gain fame end of section 3 section 4 of the autobiography of Charles Darwin this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Adam Marsatich Alexandria Virginia June 2009 the autobiography of Charles Darwin edited by his son Francis Darwin section 4 from my return to England October 2nd 1836 to my marriage January 29 1839 from my marriage January 29 1839 and residents in Upper Gower Street to our leaving London and settling at down September 14 1842 these two years and three months were the most active ones which I ever spent though I was occasionally unwell and so lost some time after going backwards and forward several times between Shrewsbury mayor Cambridge and London I settled in lodgings at Cambridge in Fitz William Street on December 13 where all my collections were under the care of Henslow I stayed there three months and got my minerals and rocks examined by the aid of Professor Miller I began preparing my journal of travels which was not hard work as my manuscript journal had been written with care and my chief laborer was making an abstract of my more interesting scientific results I sent also at the request of Lyell a short account of my observations on the elevation of the coast of Chile to the Geological Society in Geological Society proceedings to 1838 pages 446 through 449 on March 7 1837 I took lodgings in Great Marlboro Street in London and remained there for nearly two years until I was married during these two years I finished my journal read several publications before the Geological Society began preparing the manuscript for my geological observations and arranged for the publication of the zoology of the voyage of the Beagle in July I opened my first notebook for facts in relation to the origin of species about which I had long reflected and never ceased working for the next 20 years during these two years I also went a little into society enacted as one of the honorary secretaries of the Geological Society I saw a great deal of Lyell one of his chief characteristics was his sympathy with the work of others and I was as much astonished as delighted at the interest which he showed when on my return to England I explained to him my views on coral reefs this encouraged me greatly and his advice and example had much influence on me during this time I saw also a good deal of Robert Brown I used often to call and sit with him during his breakfast on Sunday mornings and he poured forth a rich treasure of curious observations and acute remarks but they almost always related to my new points and he never with me discussed large or general questions in science during these two years I took several short excursions as a relaxation and one longer one to the parallel roads of Glenroy an account of which was published in the philosophical transactions 1839 pages 39 through 82 this paper was a great failure and I am ashamed of it having been deeply impressed with what I had seen of the elevation of the land of South America I attributed the parallel lines to the action of the sea but I had to give up this view when Agassiz propounded his glacier like theory because no other explanation was possible under our then state of knowledge I argued in favor of sea action and my error has been a good lesson to me never to trust in science to the principle of exclusion as I was not able to work all day at science I read a good deal during these two years on various subjects including some metaphysical books but I was not well-fitted for such studies about this time I took much delight in Wordsworth's and Colleridge's poetry and can boast that I read the excursion twice through formerly Milton's Paradise Lost had been my chief favorite and in my excursions during the voyage of the Beagle when I could take only a single volume I always chose Milton from my marriage 1839 and residence in Upper Gower Street to our leaving London 1842 editors note after speaking of his happy married life and of his children he continues Francis Darwin during the three years and eight months while we rested in London I did less scientific work though I worked as hard as I possibly could then during any other equal length of time in my life this was owing to frequently recurring unwellness and to one long and serious illness the greater part of my time when I could do anything was devoted to my work on coral reefs which I had begun before my marriage and of which the last proof sheet was corrected on May 6 1842 this book though a small one cost me 20 months of hard work as I had to read every work on the islands of the Pacific and to consult many charts it was thought highly of by scientific men and the theory therein given is I think now well established no other work of mine was begun in so deductive a spirit as this for the whole theory was thought out on the west coast of South America before I had seen a true coral reef I had therefore only to verify and extend my views by a careful examination of living reefs but it should be observed that I had during the two previous years been incessantly attending to the effects on the shores of South America of the intermittent elevation of the land together with denudation and the deposition of sediment this necessarily led me to reflect much on the effects of subsidence and it was easy to replace in imagination the continued deposition of sediment by the upward growth of corals to do this was to form my theory of the formation of barrier reefs and atolls beside my work on coral reef during my residence in London I read before the geological society papers on the erratic boulders of South America geological societies proceedings 3 1842 on earthquakes in geology transactions volume 1840 and on the formation by the agency of earth worms of mold geological society proceedings 2 1838 I also continued to superintend the publication of the zoology of the voyage of the beagle nor did I ever intermittent collecting facts bearing on the origin of species and I could sometimes do this when I could do nothing else from illness in the summer of 1842 I was stronger than I had been for some time and took a little tour by myself in north Wales for the sake of observing the effects of the old glaciers which formerly filled all the larger valleys I published a short account of what I saw in the philosophical magazine philosophical magazine 1842 this excursion interested me greatly and it was the last time I was ever strong enough to climb mountains or to take long walks such as are necessary for geological work during the early part of our life in London I was strong enough to go into general society and saw a good deal of several scientific men and other more or less distinguished men I will give my impressions with respect to some of them though I have little to say worth saying I saw more of Lael than of any other man both before and after my marriage his mind was characterized as it appeared to me by clearness caution sound judgment and a good deal of originality when I made any remark to him on geology he never rested until he saw the whole case clearly and often made me see it more clearly than I had done before he would advance all possible objections to my suggestion and even after these were exhausted would long remain dubious a second characteristic was his hearty sympathy with the work of other scientific men the slight repetition here observable is accounted for by the notes on Lael etc having been added April 1881 a few years after the rest of the recollections were written on my return from the voyage of the Beagle I explained to him my views on coral reefs which differed from his and I was greatly surprised and encouraged by the vivid interest which he showed his delight in science was ardent and he felt the keenest interest in the future progress of mankind he was very kind-hearted and thoroughly liberal in his religious beliefs or rather disbeliefs but he was a strong theist his candor was highly remarkable he exhibited this by becoming a convert to the descent theory though he had gained much fame by opposing Lamarck's views and this after he had grown old he reminded me that I had many years before said to him when discussing the opposition of the old school of geologists to his new views what a good thing it would be if every scientific man was to die when 60 years old as afterwards he would be sure to oppose all new doctrines but he hoped that now he might be allowed to live the science of geology is enormously indebted to Liel more so as I believe than to any other man who ever lived when I was starting on the voyage of the Beagle the sagacious Henslow who like all other geologists believed at that time in successive cataclysms advised me to get and study the first volume of the principles which had then just been published but on no account to accept the views therein advocated how differently would anyone now speak of the principles I am proud to remember that the first place namely Santiago in the Cape de Verde archipelago in which I geologized convinced me of the infinite superiority of Liel's views over those advocated in any other work known to me the powerful effects of Liel's works could formerly be plainly seen in the different progress of the science in France and England the present total oblivion of Elie de Beaumont's wild hypotheses such as his craters of elevation and lines of elevation which latter hypothesis I heard Sedgwick at the geological society lotting to the skies maybe largely attributed to Liel I saw a good deal of Robert Brown Fasil princeps botanacorum as he was called by Humboldt he seemed to be to be chiefly remarkable for the minuteness of his observations and their perfect accuracy his knowledge was extraordinarily great and much died with him owing to his excessive fear of ever making a mistake he poured out his knowledge to me in the most unreserved manner yet was strangely jealous on some points I called him two or three times before the voyage of the Beagle and on one occasion he asked me to look through a microscope and describe what I saw this I did and believe now that it was the marvelous currents of protoplasm in some vegetable cell I then asked him what I had seen but he answered me that is my little secret he was capable of the most generous actions when old much out of health and quite unfit for any exertion he daily visited as Hooker told me an old man servant who lived at a distance and whom he supported and read aloud to him this is enough to make up for any degree of scientific penuriousness or jealousy I may hear mention a few other eminent men whom I have occasionally seen but I have little to say about them worth saying I felt the high reverence for Sir J Herschel and was delighted to dine with him at his charming house in the Cape of Good Hope and afterwards at his London house I saw him also on a few other occasions he never talked much but every word which he uttered was worth listening to I once met at breakfast at Sir R Murchison's house in the illustrious Humboldt who honored me by expressing a wish to see me I was a little disappointed with the great man but my anticipations probably were too high I can remember nothing distinctly about our interview except that Humboldt was very cheerful and talked much reminds me a buckle whom I once met at Hensley Wedge Woods I was very glad to learn from him his system of collecting facts he told me that he bought all the books which he read and made a full index to each of the facts which he thought might provide serviceable to him and that he could always remember in what book he had read anything for his memory was wonderful I asked him how at first he could judge what facts would be serviceable and he answered that he did not know but that a sort of instinct guided him from this habit of making indices he was enabled to give the astonishing number of references on all sorts of subjects which may be found in his history of civilization this book I thought most interesting and read it twice but I doubt whether his generalizations are worth anything buckle was a great talker and I listened to him saying hardly a word nor indeed could I have done so for he left no gaps when Mrs. Farer began to sing I jumped up and said that I must listen to her after I had moved away he turned around to a friend and said as was overheard by my brother well mr. Darwin's books are much better than his conversation of other great literary men I once met Sydney Smith at Dean Millman's house there was something inexplicably amusing in every word which he uttered perhaps this was partly due to the expectation of being amused he was talking about Lady Cork who was then extremely old this was the lady who as he said was once so much affected by one of his charity sermons that she borrowed a guinea from a friend to put in the plate he now said it is generally believed that my dear old friend Lady Cork had been overlooked and he said this in such a manner that no one could for a moment doubt that he meant that his dear old friend had been overlooked by the devil how he managed to express this I know not I likewise once met McCoy at Lord Stan hopes the historians house and as there was only one other man at dinner I had a grand opportunity of hearing him converse and he was very agreeable he did not talk at all too much nor indeed could such a man talk too much as long as he allowed others to turn the stream of his conversation and this he did allow Lord Stan hope once gave me a curious little proof of the accuracy and fullness of McCully's memory many historians used often to meet at Lord Stan hopes house and in discussing various subjects they would sometimes differ from McCully and formerly they often referred to some book to see who is right but laterally as Lord Stan hope noticed no historian ever took this trouble and whatever McCully said was final on another occasion I met at Lord Stan hopes house one of his parties of historians and other literary men and amongst them were Motley and Grote after luncheon I walked about Chevening Park for nearly an hour with Grote and was much interested by his conversation and pleased by the simplicity and absence of all pretension in his manners long ago I dined occasionally with the old Earl the father of the historian he was a strange man but with little I knew of him I liked much he was Frank genial and pleasant he had strongly marked features with the brown complexion and his clothes when I saw him were all brown he seemed to believe in everything which was to others utterly incredible he said one day to me why don't you give up your fiddle faddle of geology and zoology and turn to the occult sciences the historian then Lord Mayhem seemed shocked it's such a speech to me and his charming wife much amused the last man whom I will mention his carlile seen by me several times at my brother's house and two or three times at my own house his talk was very racy and interesting just like his writings but he sometimes went on too long on the same subject I remember a funny dinner at my brother's where among a few others were Babbage and Lyle both of whom like to talk carlile however silenced everyone by haranguing during the whole dinner on the advantages of silence after dinner Babbage in his grimmest manner thanked Carlisle for his very interesting lecture on silence Carlisle sneered at almost everyone one day in my house he called quotes history a fetid quagmire with nothing spiritual about it I always thought until his reminiscences appeared that his sneers were partly jokes but this now seems rather doubtful his expression was that of a depressed almost despondent yet benevolent man and it is notorious how heartily he laughed I believe that his benevolence was real though stained by not a little jealousy no one can doubt about his extraordinary power of drawing pictures of things and men far more vivid as it appears to me than any drawn by McCully whether his pictures of men were true ones is another question he has been all-powerful in impressing some grand moral truths on the minds of men on the other hand his views about slavery were revolting in his eyes might was right his mind seemed to me a very narrow one even if all branches of science which he despised are excluded it is astonishing to me that Kingsley should have spoken of him as a man well-fitted to advance science he laughed to scorn the idea that a mathematician such as we well could judge as I maintained he could of gothers views on light he thought it a most ridiculous thing that anyone should care whether a glacier moved a little quicker or a little slower or moved at all as far as I could judge I never met a man with a mind so ill adapted for scientific research while living in London I attended as regularly as I could the meetings of several scientific societies enacted as secretary to the geological society but such attendance and ordinary society suited my health so badly that we resolved to live in the country which we both preferred and have never repented of end of section 4