The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-05-26

of him. Charles in speaking of him
says, "Our minds and tastes were so
different, however, that l do not think
l owe much to him Intellectually. l
am inclined to agree with Francis
! GaltOn in believing that education and
environment produce only small effect
on the mind of any one, and that most
of our qualities are innate. Mrs. Oar
win died when Charles was eight years
! old, and ne was sent at once to school
where he stayed year. AT that time
his taste for natural history and his
passion for collecting were already well
developed, and he thinks were clearly
! innate, as none of his brothers or sisters
ever showed any fOndness for these
things. He had also at this time quite
a passion for inventing deliberate
| falsehOods for the sake of causing ex-
citement.' By the example and in
structiOn of his sisters be was humane
as boy, even in collecting his much
priced specimens, and he remembered
even to his old age the one exception to
this rule, when he beat puppy, and
remembered the exact spot where the
| crime was committed" He had pas
sion for angling when a boy, and for
| shooting as he grew older. For many
years when he was a young man, he
! took the greatest delight in hunting
and it is characteristic of the man that
he finally gave it up for the reason,
that one day, after he had been shoot
ing the previous day, he found bird
on the grOund-not yet dead-which he
had shot. The cruelty of the sport
which could cause such innocent suffer
ing as this, seemed SO wicked TO his
mind, that he resolved to forego it al
together, and did so.
AS boy he had almost no home life.
Until he was sixteen years old he was
left at school in Shrewsbury, which,
to be sure, was only a mile from home,
and he - often ran there in the longer
intervals between the callings-over and
before locking up at night" The school
was strictly classical one, and Darwin
always felt as if his time was thrown
away there, as he had no taste what
ever for the languages. He was ia
vorite among the boys, and deeply at
tached to some of them. He engaged
much in collecting minerals at this
time, and a little later was fascinated
by beetles. He was fond of general
reading also, especially of Shakespeare !;
and he read other poetry such as
Thomson's Seasons, and Byron and
Scott. In 1925 he was sent to Edin-
burgh University where he remained
| two years engaged in the study of med
| icine. The operations which he was
forced to see (before the days of chic
roform were so distressing to him that
he says they fairly haunted him for
many years. He had no liking for
! medicine, but got in with several young
men here, who had tastes for natural
history-and enjoyed them much, and
learned something from them. He con-
sidered in after life that his time was
thrown away at Edinburgh as much as
at school, and even the three years he
afterwards spent at Cambridge, he
deemed very badly spent indeed. Math-
ematics and the classics were the all in
all, at that time everywhere in England,
! and although he had some lectures on
Geology and Zoology, at Edinburgh, he
found them incredibly dull" AT Cam
bridge he got in for a while with a
| sporting set, from his great fondness
for hunting and riding, and the little
interest he took in his studies. He
afterwaTd regret led very much the
! time thus wasted, as he placed in later
years the utmost value upon every mo-
ment of his precious time. 1t seems
strange to US now that with the decided
bent he showed for natural science, he
should not have had opportunities for
such study as he would have delight
ed in, and that he should not have
been released from the traditional con-
STRUNG and yerse-making. But even
as strong man as DR.. Darwin appears
to have been, did not dare to break away
from the conventions of his day, and
| lay out an original course for his son,
and so much precious time was lost,
before that great son got down to his
real life work. Before going to Cam
bridge it had been decided that he
should enter the church, so great was
his disinclination ID practice medicine.
In order TO do so he must take degree,
and he seems to have studied Just
enough to accomplish his object, and in
a merely perfunctOry manner. Paley's
Evidences of Christianity, and
his - Moral Philosophy were the only
studies which gave him any pleasure.
The logic Of these books delighted him,
as he did not at all trouble himself
about the premises, he easily accepted
the results of the line of argumenta-
tiOn. At this time he seems to have
had no hesitation about taking holy
orders on the grounds Of disbelief, and
even when he did begin to hesitate, it
was on the ground that he could not