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"Great Writers."
Edited by
Professor Eric S. Robertson, M.A.,
LIFE OF DARWIN.
LIFE OF CHARLES DARWIN
by
G. T. BETTANY
London
Walter Scott
24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row
1887
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Darwin's ancestry; his grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, a
successful physician, and author of "The Botanic Garden," "The
Temple of Nature," &c.; his father, Robert Waring Darwin, also
a successful physician; his maternal grandfather, Josiah
Wedgwood, the celebrated potter; his mother's education and
training; Charles Robert Darwin, born at Shrewsbury, Feb. 12,
1809; Mrs. Darwin dies in July, 1817; her eldest son, Erasmus,
friend of the Carlyles; Charles Darwin's education by Mr. Case,
and at Shrewsbury Grammar School; his character as a boy; is
sent to Edinburgh University in 1825 11
CHAPTER II.
Darwin a member of the Plinian Society, of Edinburgh; makes
natural history excursions; his first scientific paper read
March 27, 1827; friendship with Dr. Grant; Jameson's lectures
on zoology; Darwin enters Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1828;
his friendship with Prof. Henslow; his account of Henslow;
Darwin at this time specially an entomologist; his excursions
with Henslow; takes B.A. degree in 1831, M.A. in 1837; voyage
of _Beagle_ proposed, and Darwin appointed as naturalist;
the _Beagle_ sails on Dec. 27, 1831; Darwin's letters to
Henslow published 1835; 1832, Darwin at Teneriffe, Cape
de Verde Islands, St. Paul's Rocks, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro
(April); excursions into interior and amusing adventures;
his experiences and horror of slavery; at Monte Video,
July; Maldonado, Rio Negro; visit to Tierra del Fuego, Dec.
1832--Jan. 1833; _rencontre_ with General Rosas; many extinct
animals discovered; Buenos Ayres, Sept. 1833; excursion to
Santa Fé; Port Desire, Dec. 1833; Port St. Julian, Jan. 1834;
Valparaiso, July 1834; expeditions to the Andes, Santiago, &c.;
Chiloe, Nov. 1834; the Chonos Archipelago, Dec. 1834; Valdivia,
Feb. 1835; an earthquake experience; expedition across the
Cordillera in March, 1835; voyage across the Pacific commenced
in September; the Galapagos Archipelago and its interesting
animals; Tahiti, Nov. 1835; Darwin's opinion of English
products, and of the influence of Christian missionaries; New
Zealand, Dec. 1835; Port Jackson, Jan. 1836; Tasmania, Feb.;
the Keeling Islands, April; the homeward journey; Falmouth
reached, Oct. 2, 1836; Capt. Fitzroy's opinion of Darwin;
Darwin's first impression of savages 22
CHAPTER III.
Darwin elected F.G.S.; Lyell's high opinion of him; secretary
of the Geological Society, Feb. 1838-41; reads numerous papers
before the Society; elected F.R.S., Jan. 24, 1839; marries his
cousin, Miss Wedgwood, early in 1839; "Journal of Researches,"
published 1839, highly praised in _Quarterly Review_;
publication of zoology of the _Beagle_ (1839-43); extraordinary
animals described therein; other results of the voyage;
plants described by Hooker and Berkeley; work on "Coral
Reefs" published 1842; Darwin's new theory at once accepted;
subsequent views of Semper, Dana, and Murray; second and third
parts of Geology of _Beagle_ ("Volcanic Islands" and "South
America"); other geological papers; Darwin settles at Down
House, near Beckenham, 1842; appears at Oxford meeting of
British Association, 1847; contributes chapter on Geology to
Herschel's manual of Scientific Enquiry; publishes great works
on recent and fossil cirripedia, 1851-4; receives Royal Medal
of Royal Society, 1853, and Wollaston Medal of Geological
Society, 1859 51
CHAPTER IV.
Confusion in description of species; labours of Professors Owen
and Huxley; Darwin's ideas on the origin of species germinated
during the voyage of the _Beagle_; he collected facts,
1837-42; drew up a sketch, 1842; enlarged it in 1844; previous
speculations on the subject; views of Erasmus Darwin, Geoffroy
St. Hilaire, and Lamarck; Darwin's opinion of Lamarck;
influence of Lyell; influence of South American experience;
reads Malthus on Population; "Vestiges of Creation "; Mr.
Herbert Spencer and evolution; Lyell's letters; Sir Joseph
Hooker on species; Mr. A. R. Wallace communicates his views to
Darwin; Lyell and Hooker persuade Darwin to publish his views
together with those of Wallace; introductory letter by Lyell
and Hooker to Linnean Society, June 30, 1858; Darwin's and
Wallace's papers, read July 1, 1858; Sir J. Hooker announces
his adhesion to Darwin's views, 1859 64
CHAPTER V.
Analysis of the "Origin of Species," published Nov. 1859;
special notes of Darwin's personal experiences; remarkable
growth of morphology and embryology since its publication;
opposition to the new views; criticisms of leading journals and
reviews; second edition of "Origin," called for in six weeks;
third, in March 1861; historical sketch of progress of opinion
prefixed; alterations in successive editions; sixth edition,
1872; foreign translations 79
CHAPTER VI.
Darwin's physical appearance, habits, distinguished visitors;
his kindliness; attachment of friends; his family; he reads
important botanical papers before the Linnean Society;
publishes the "Fertilisation of Orchids," 1862; analysis of
the book; Darwin receives Copley Medal of Royal Society, 1864;
"Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants," 1865; "Variation of
Animals and Plants under Domestication," 1868; the hypothesis
of pangenesis not favourably received 100
CHAPTER VII.
"The Descent of Man," 1871; Darwin's varied use of personal
experiences; his views on the differences between men and
women; his views on happiness and its promotion in mankind;
reception of the "Descent of Man"; _Punch_, the _Quarterlies_,
_The Saturday Review_ 113
CHAPTER VIII.
"Expression of the Emotions," 1872; Darwin's methods of
studying the question; his personal experiences; studies of
children; reminiscences of South American travel; studies of
monkeys; his wide study of novels; his influence on mental
science 126
CHAPTER IX.
"Insectivorous Plants," 1875; how Darwin was led to
study them; analysis of the book; "Effects of Cross and
Self-Fertilisation," 1876; competitive germination and
growth; "The Different Forms of Flowers," 1877; "The Power
of Movement in Plants," 1880 136
CHAPTER X.
Honours bestowed on Darwin; his reception at Cambridge in 1877;
portraits by Richmond and Collier; Haeckel's and De Candolle's
descriptions of visits to Darwin; "The Formation of Vegetable
Mould by Earthworms," 1881; the long series of experiments on
which it was based; obligations of archæologists to worms;
gradual exhaustion in 1882; his death on April 19, 1882 146
CHAPTER XI.
Darwin buried in Westminster Abbey, April 26, 1882; quotation
from _The Times_; subscriptions to Darwin memorial; large
number of subscriptions from Sweden; statue executed by Mr.
Boehm, placed in Museum of Natural History, South Kensington,
unveiled by Prince of Wales, June 9, 1885; remainder of fund
handed to Royal Society to promote biological research; _The
Saturday Review_ on Darwin; his geniality and humour; his
influence on others; his lack of prejudice; extracts from his
letters; letter on experiments on living animals; Darwin as an
experimenter; his attitude towards Christianity and revelation;
his literary style; his imagination; Prof. Huxley on Darwin;
Dr. Masters on his influence on horticulture; Messrs. Sully and
Winchell on his philosophy; conclusion 154
INDEX 171
* * * * *
NOTE.
Darwin revealed himself so largely in his books, that a vivid picture of
much of his life can be extracted from them. Thus it has been found
possible to combine much biographical interest with sketches of his most
important works. Like other biographers of Darwin, I am much indebted to
Mr. Woodall's valuable memoir, contributed to the Transactions of the
Shropshire Archæological Society. But original authorities have been
consulted throughout, and the first editions of Darwin's books quoted,
unless the contrary is explicitly stated. I am greatly obliged to
Messrs. F. Darwin and G. J. Romanes for kindly permitting me to quote
from Mr. Darwin's letters to Mr. Romanes. I must also express my thanks
to my friends, Mr. Romanes and Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, for doing me
the great service of looking over the proof-sheets of this book.
LIFE OF DARWIN.
CHAPTER I.
If ever a man's ancestors transmitted to him ability to succeed in a
particular field, Charles Darwin's did. If ever early surroundings were
calculated to call out inherited ability, Charles Darwin's were. If ever
a man grew up when a ferment of thought was disturbing old convictions
in the domain of knowledge for which he was adapted, Charles Darwin did.
If ever a man was fitted by worldly position to undertake unbiassed and
long-continued investigations, Charles Darwin was such a man. And he
indisputably found realms waiting for a conqueror. Yet Darwin's
achievements far transcend his advantages of ancestry, surroundings,
previous suggestion, position. He stands magnificently conspicuous as a
genius of rare simplicity of soul, of unwearied patience of observation,
of striking fertility and ingenuity of method, of unflinching devotion
to and belief in the efficacy of truth. He revolutionised not merely
half-a-dozen sciences, but the whole current of thinking men's mental
life.
The Darwins were originally a Lincolnshire family of some position, and
being royalists suffered heavy losses under the Commonwealth. The third
William Darwin (born 1655), whose mother was a daughter of Erasmus
Earle, serjeant-at-law,[1] married the heiress of Robert Waring, of
Wilsford, Notts, who also inherited the manor of Elston, near Newark, in
that county, which still remains in the family. Robert Darwin, second
son of this William Darwin, succeeded to the Elston estate, and was
described by Stukeley, the antiquary, as "a person of curiosity," an
expression conveying high commendation. His eldest son, Robert Waring
Darwin, studied botany closely, and published a "Principia Botanica,"
which reached a third edition; but his youngest son, Erasmus, born 1731,
was destined to become the first really famous man of the family.
Erasmus Darwin's personal characteristics, his medical talents, and his
poetic writings were such as to overshadow, for his own generation, his
scientific merit. We have not space here to describe his career and his
works, which has been so well done by his grandson, and by Ernst Krause
("Erasmus Darwin," 1879). Horace Walpole regarded his description of
creation in "The Botanic Garden" (part i., canto 1, lines 103-114) as
the most sublime passage in any language he knew: and _The Edinburgh
Review_ (vol. ii., 1803, p. 501) says of his "Temple of Nature": "If his
fame be destined in anything to outlive the fluctuating fashion of the
day, it is on his merit as a poet that it is likely to rest; and his
reveries in science have probably no other chance of being saved from
oblivion but by having been 'married to immortal verse.'"
The present age regards it as next to impossible to write science in
poetry; although few have succeeded better in the attempt than Erasmus
Darwin. It is singular that he should have partially anticipated his
illustrious grandson's theories, but without supporting them by
experimental proof or by deep scientific knowledge. Suffice it to say
now, that Erasmus contemplated to a great extent the same domain of
science as Charles Darwin, having also a mechanical turn; and was
educated at Edinburgh and Cambridge. His observations on Providence in
1754, when only twenty-three, in commenting on his father's death, are
very interesting to compare with his grandson's attitude: "That there
exists a superior Ens Entium, which formed these wonderful creatures, is
a mathematical demonstration. That He influences things by a particular
providence is not so evident. The probability, according to my notion,
is against it, since general laws seem sufficient for that end.... The
light of Nature affords us not a single argument for a future state:
this is the only one, that it is possible with God, since He who made us
out of nothing can surely re-create us; and that He will do this we
humbly hope." He published an ode against atheism, with which he has
strangely enough often been charged, beginning--
"Dull atheist, could a giddy dance
Of atoms lawless hurl'd
Construct so wonderful, so wise,
So harmonised a world?"
and his moral standpoint is shown by the declaration that "the sacred
maxims of the author of Christianity, 'Do as you would be done by,' and
'Love your neighbour as yourself,' include all our duties of benevolence
and morality; and if sincerely obeyed by all nations, would a
thousandfold multiply the present happiness of mankind" ("Temple of
Nature," 1803, p. 124). His principal poetical writings were "The
Botanic Garden," in two parts; Part I. containing "The Economy of
Vegetation," first published in 1790; and Part II., "The Loves of the
Plants," in 1788, before the first part had appeared. "The Temple of
Nature, or the Origin of Society," was published after his death, in
1803. His chief prose works are "Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life,"
in two volumes, 1794-6, the second volume being exclusively medical; and
"Phytologia, or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening," 1800. All
these books are in quarto, with plates. His views on species are
referred to on pages 66 and 67. [Transcriber's Note: Footnote 6.]
Robert Waring Darwin, third son of Erasmus by his first wife, Mary
Howard, was born in 1766. As a boy he was brought much into association
with the Wedgwoods of Stoke, Josiah Wedgwood being one of Erasmus
Darwin's most intimate friends. In 1779 Robert, already destined to be a
doctor, stayed at Etruria for some time, sharing with Wedgwood's
children in Warltire's private chemical instruction; and Josiah Wedgwood
wrote at this time: "The boys drink in knowledge like water, with great
avidity." Before he was twenty Robert Darwin had taken his medical
degree with distinction at Edinburgh, where he had the advantage of the
lectures of Black, Cullen, and Gregory, and had also studied at Leyden,
and travelled in Germany. In 1786 his father set him up in practice at
Shrewsbury, leaving him with twenty pounds, which was afterwards
supplemented by a similar sum from his uncle, John Darwin, Rector of
Elston. On this slender capital he contrived to establish himself, in
spite of severe competition; and his burly form and countenance, as he
sat in his invariable yellow chaise, became well known to every man,
woman, and child around Shrewsbury for many miles. Before long, no one
thought of sending to Birmingham for a consultant, and Dr. Darwin was
for many years the leading Shropshire physician, and accumulated an
abundant fortune.
According to his son Charles, Robert Darwin "did not inherit any
aptitude for poetry or mechanics, nor did he possess, as I think, a
scientific mind. He published, in vol. lxxvi. of the 'Philosophical
Transactions,' a paper on Ocular Spectra, which Wheatstone told me was a
remarkable production for the period; but I believe that he was largely
aided in writing it by his father. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society in 1788. I cannot tell why my father's mind did not appear to me
fitted for advancing science, for he was fond of theorising, and was
incomparably the most acute observer whom I ever knew. But his powers in
this direction were exercised almost wholly in the practice of medicine
and in the observation of human character. He intuitively recognised the
disposition or character, and even read the thoughts, of those with whom
he came into contact, with extraordinary astuteness. This skill partly
accounts for his great success as a physician, for it impressed his
patients with belief in him; and my father used to say that the art of
gaining confidence was the chief element in a doctor's worldly success."
Sensitive, sociable, a good talker, high-spirited and somewhat
irascible, a man who admitted no one to his friendship whom he could not
thoroughly respect, the friend of the poor, prescribing gratuitously to
all who were needy, pre-eminent for sympathy, which for a time made him
hate his profession for the constant suffering it brought before his
eyes--such was Charles Darwin's father. Miss Meteyard, in her "Group of
Englishmen," 1871, gives a vivid picture of the old doctor, his
acknowledged supremacy in Shrewsbury, his untiring activity and
ubiquity, his great dinner parties, his liberal and rather unpopular
opinions, tolerated for the sake of his success in curing his patients.
His face, powerful, unimpassioned, mild, and thoughtful, was always the
same as he rolled through the streets and lanes, for he sat "as though
carved in stone." His love of children was marked. "He would address
them in his small, high-pitched falsetto voice, and if their answers
pleased him he would reply; and occasionally, lifting them on to a chair
or table, he would measure their heads with his broad hand, as though
reading character, and mentally prognosticating their future fate."
The successful doctor bought a piece of land near the Holyhead road, and
built on it a large square house, of plain architecture, which from its
charming position, a hundred feet above the Severn, received the name
of "The Mount."[2] Having thus provided the nest, in 1796 he brought
home his wife, Susannah Wedgwood, eldest daughter of the celebrated
potter, to whom he was married at Marylebone Church on April 18th.
The character and education of Charles Darwin's mother is a matter of
considerable interest, notwithstanding that her death when he was only
eight years old cut short her opportunities of influencing him. She was
born at Burslem in January, 1765, and a year after her father describes
her as a "fine, sprightly lass:" she became his best-beloved child. She
was partly educated in London, under the eye of her father's partner,
the accomplished Thomas Bentley, in whose heart she won as tender a
place as in her father's. Later she continued her education at home with
her brothers, under good tuition. Many visits were exchanged between the
Darwins and the Wedgwoods, and old Erasmus Darwin became very fond of
Miss Wedgwood. By the time of her marriage she was matured by much
intercourse with notable people, as well as by extensive reading, and
from her experience of London society and varied travel in England was
well fitted to shine as the county doctor's wife. From her father, who
died in 1795, she had doubtless inherited, in addition to a handsome
fortune, many valuable faculties, and probably she transmitted more of
them to her son Charles than she herself manifested. Josiah Wedgwood,
over whose career it would be delightful to linger, is well described by
Miss Meteyard in words which might be precisely applied to Charles
Darwin, as "patient, stedfast, humble, simple, unconscious of half his
own greatness, and yet by this very simplicity, patience, and
stedfastness displaying the high quality of his moral and intellectual
characteristics, even whilst insuring that each step was in the right
direction, and firmly planted." A truly experimental genius in artistic
manufacture, Wedgwood foreshadowed a far greater experimental genius in
science.
Before her famous son was born, however, Mrs. Darwin's health had begun
to fail, and in 1807 she wrote to a friend: "Every one seems young but
me." Her second son (four daughters having preceded him) was born at The
Mount on February 12, 1809, and christened "Charles Robert," at St.
Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, on November 17th following. No doubt her
declining health emphasised her attachment to home pursuits, to quiet
reading, to the luxuriant garden, and to her numerous domestic pets. The
beauty, variety, and lameness of The Mount pigeons was well known in the
town and far beyond. Mr. Woodall states that one of Darwin's
schoolfellows, the Rev. W. A. Leighton, remembers him plucking a plant
and recalling one of his mother's elementary lessons in botany. Too soon
however the mother was taken from The Mount; she died in July, 1817,
when Charles was between eight and nine years old.
The eldest son of Dr. Robert Darwin, on whom the grandfather's name of
Erasmus had been bestowed, is notable as the intimate friend of the
Carlyles. "He had something of original and sarcastically ingenious in
him," says Carlyle, in his "Reminiscences," "one of the sincerest,
naturally truest, and most modest of men.... E. Darwin it was who named
the late Whewell, seeing him sit, all ear (not all assent), at some of
my lectures, 'The Harmonious Blacksmith.' My dear one had a great favour
for this honest Darwin always; many a road to shops, and the like, he
drove her in his cab, in those early days when even the charge of
omnibuses was a consideration, and his sparse utterances, sardonic
often, were a great amusement to her. 'A perfect gentleman,' she at once
discerned him to be, and of sound worth and kindliness, in the most
unaffected form." He died in 1881, aged 77, leaving no memorial to the
public of his undoubtedly great abilities. Like his younger brother, he
was a member of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.B., in
1828.
Early in 1817, the closing year of his mother's life, Charles Darwin was
placed at school with the Rev. George Case, minister of the Shrewsbury
Unitarian church, to which the Darwins were attached, in this resembling
the Wedgwoods. At midsummer, 1818, however, the boy entered Shrewsbury
Grammar School, then under Samuel Butler, afterwards Bishop of
Lichfield. Classics, as ever, formed the staple of the instruction there
afforded, and proved but little to the future naturalist's taste.
Unfortunately for the repute of English schools, Charles Darwin was
little benefited by his schooling; and Euclid, then an extra subject,
constituted, to his mind, the only bit of real education Shrewsbury
school gave him. Seventy years later, the study of mother earth and her
teeming productions, which Darwin made so attractive, is still but
scantily represented in the instruction afforded by our great schools.
Thus out of sympathy with the prevalent studies, the youth showed no
fondness for his schoolfellows' sports. He was reserved, frequently lost
in thought, and fond of long solitary rambles, according to one
schoolfellow, the Rev. W. A. Leighton; another, the Rev. John Yardley,
Vicar of St. Chad's, Shrewsbury, remembers him as cheerful,
good-tempered, and communicative. One of the recorded incidents of his
boyish days is a fall from the old Shrewsbury wall, while walking in a
"brown study." Even at this early period he was fond of collecting
objects which many schoolboys delight in, such as shells and minerals,
seals, franks, and coins; and the mechanical aptitude derived from both
the Darwins and the Wedgwoods was manifested by keen interest in
mechanism. One especially remembered youthful treat was when his uncle
Josiah Wedgwood explained to him the principle of the vernier. No doubt
the pigeons, the exotics, the shrubs and flowers of his father's grounds
impressed themselves indelibly on the boy's mind and unconsciously
prepared him for his future. Schooldays were for him fortunately not
protracted, for in 1825, at the age of sixteen, he went to Edinburgh
University, where his father and grandfather had likewise studied, with
the idea of devoting himself to medicine. The youth of sixteen was well
equipped with the results of long thinking and observing rather than
with book-learning, and was prepared to play an independent part without
noise and show, assimilating that which commended itself to his mind,
and rejecting that which found no appropriate soil in him, in a manner
characteristic of genuine originality.
FOOTNOTES:
[1: This is the Erasmus Earle who forms the subject of "A
Lawyer's Love Letters," in _The National Review_, February, 1887.
Letters of his are also printed in the Tenth Report of the Historical
MSS. Commission.]
[2: "The house is seen," says Mr. Woodall, "from the line
immediately beyond the low tower of St. George's Church. Visitors who
make a pilgrimage there, after crossing the Welsh Bridge, follow the
main street until St. George's Church is passed, and the continuous line
of houses ceases. The next carriage drive, on the right, cutting in two
a lofty side-walk, is the entrance to The Mount. A short street of new
houses, near St. George's Church, has been called 'Darwin Street;' as
yet the only public recognition in the town of the greatest of
Salopians. A memorial of a more private character has been placed in the
Unitarian Chapel, in the form of a tablet bearing the following
inscription:--'To the memory of Charles Robert Darwin, author of "The
Origin of Species," born in Shrewsbury, February 12th, 1809. In early
life a member and constant worshipper in this church. Died April 19th,
1882.' Mrs. Darwin, we believe, was not strict in her adhesion to the
communion in which she had been brought up, but often attended St.
Chad's Church, where Charles and his brother were baptized."]