DARWIN THE MAN

Evening Star, Issue 20128, 19 March 1929, Page 11

DARWIN THE MAN

HIS COUNTRY LIFE Charles Darwin’s home at Down, Kent, has been purchased by a. London surgeon as a gift to the nation. The gift is timely, the New York ‘ Times ’ observes, since seventy years ago Darwin made Hie first public announcement of his theory of natural selection. He bad been working on this concept of evolution .during the sixteen years of his residence at Down House. But a letter from Alfred Russell Wallace arrived in 1858, asking him to read the accompanying essay; to Darwin's amazement the paper stated a theory similar to his own. It was arranged accordingly to read the two papers at a meeting of the Lin noun Society. Darwin’s residence at Down House was duo to the precarious nature of hi.s health, following five years of almost constant sea-sickness on Ids voyage in the Beagle. While living in London he attended as regularly as he could tlie meetings of scientfio societies, but such attendance and ordinary society suil.ecl_ his health so ill that he resolved to live in the country. Ho had married his cousin. Emma Wedgwood, daughter of Josinh Wedgwood. founder of the pottery plant at Etruria. Down attracted him considerably by its quiet and beauty. Walking and strolling along its lanes through the years of his life there, Darwin conceived and developed his theory of evolution. The house was badly in need of repairs when Darwin, moved in. He remodelled and extended if, and planted trees to form a long avenue. Daily Darwin took a walk early in the afternoon; he usually stopped first at the greenhouse to look at any seeds that were sprouting, and then with, his beloved Polly, a fox terrier, he would set off. All forms of life had a fascination for him, and he exulted in his ability to find birds’ nests. The almost instinctive .devotion ho received from dogs was a particular source of pride. One little clog used to sleep at the foot of his bed every night, ami another, unfriendly to everyone else, was liis loyal companion. When he returned* from five years’ absence on the Beagle he went to the yard, called iu his old manner, and his dog ran out, and set off with him on a walk, giving no sign of excitement, as though the same tiling had been a daily occurrence.

One of his favourite anecdotes was of a dinner party in London, when .Buckle and Carlyle, both fond of displaying their conversational powers, were present. Carlyle silenced everyone by a long harangue on the advantages of silence. Darwin remarked, “ [ Never met a man with a mind so illadapted for scientific research.” At another dinner the aged Lord Stanhope asked Darwin why Jm did not give up his ‘‘ fiddle-faddle geology and zoology and turn to the occult sciences.” Haeckel, the German scientist, was a guest at Down House, nncl wrote an account of his visit. "As the carriage drew up in front of Darwin’s pleasant country house, clad in a vesture of ivy and embowered in elms, (here stepped out to meet me from the shady porch the great naturalist himself, a tall amt venerable figure, with the broad shonl- , dors of an Atlas supporting a world of thought, his dnpiter-Hko forehead highly and broadly arched as in tho case of Goethe, and deeply furrowed with the plough of.mental labour; his kindly, mild eyes looking forth under the_ shadow of prominent brows; his amiable month surrounded by a copious silver-while heard.” Before breakfast Darwin usually > tonic a short walk, and brought hack accounts of foxes trotting homo in tho dawning to delight his small sons. Tho period between 8 and 9.30 each morning was sacred to his work, and was considered one of his best working times % When the mail came he went over it in the drawing room and reclined on a soft while family letters wore read to him. Sometimes novels wore read, and at 10.30 he returned to ,■ his work. From his travels in South America, he had acquired a taste lor cigarettes, and lie would smoke while listening to the reading. Snuff was a. stimulant taken during working hours. Apparently the habit, formed during j student days at Cambridge, was not j encouraged by Mrs Darwin. On that score he called her his “ cruel wife,” because she induced him to stop' taking r •snuff for a month. Since it was such ' n. temptation, ho kept the jar on the \ hall table, ■■somewhat removed from , his work room, and if he were in tho drawing room and suggested that the .study fire must need stirring the dink of t)ie snuff jar was evidence that stirring tho fire was only an excuse. After dinner out came the board lor a gamo of backgammon between Mr and'Mrs Darwin.

'flic couple had ten children, of whom seven aitaincd_ maturity. His devotion to them is written in page after pa go ol letters to them and his friends. Reading accounts of their family life, one has a, strong impression that he was not a but a playfellow. In 18/ 7 Cambridge ggve Darwin an LL.D., and an enthusiastic ovation. He related with boyish pride his pleasure in walking beside Dr Cartmcll, the master ol his old college, in the academic procession, dad in a, scarlet {town. The ceremony was not entirely serious, as undergraduates contrived to dangle a monkey-like figure from the gallery and a solitary link of a- hugo chain decked in ribbons, representing the “missing link.” Curiously cnou Darwin entered Christ’s College, Cambridge, originally to study for the ministry, as he did not wish to become a physician, and his father had suggested his taking orders. “Considering how fiercely 1 have been attacked by the orthodox,” he says, “it seems ludicrous that 1 once intended to he a clergyman. Nor were this intention and my father’s wish ever formally given up, hut died a natural dentil, when, on leaving Cambridge, I joined the Beagle as naturalist.” From Darwin’s earliest boyhood his love of Nature was supreme. Tho dogmas of theology and the philosophy of natural selection wore both subordinated to his keen enjoyment in experimenting with plants and animals, ami his observations of their various adaptat ions. His lasting ill-health made him unusually sensitive to extremes of heat and cold, and the occasional journeys to London were a great strain, particularly in winter. Observing this, hjs children Emma and Francis bought him a ffir coat, an expenditure he never would have made for himself. Jt was left on the study table, with a letter, so that he would find it when ho started his afternoon work. There were tears in his eyes when he came out. “Tho coat,” lie said, “ will never warm my body so much as your dear affection has, warmed my heart.”’ Unremitting scientific labours wora down his strength, so that in the spring of 1882 he was not able to venture far beyond Down House, hut would sit with his wife in the orchard, listening to the birds singing in tho sunshine. He died peacefully on April 19 in his seventy-fourth ’year, and was .buried in Westminster Abbey, a few feet from the grave of Sir Isaac Newton.