DARLEY, GEORGE (1795-1846).--Poet, novelist, and critic, _b._ at Dublin, and _ed._ at Trinity Coll. there, he early decided to follow a literary career, and went to London, where he brought out his first poem, _Errors of Ecstasie_ (1822). He also wrote for the _London Magazine_, under the pseudonym of John Lacy. In it appeared his best story, _Lilian of the Vale_. Various other books followed, including _Sylvia, or The May Queen_, a poem (1827). Thereafter he joined the _Athenæum_, in which he showed himself a severe critic. He was also a dramatist and a profound student of old English plays, editing those of Beaumont and Fletcher in 1840. So deeply was he imbued with the spirit of the 17th century that his poem, "It is not beauty I desire," was included by F.T. Palgrave in the first ed. of his _Golden Treasury_ as an anonymous lyric of that age. He was also a mathematician of considerable talent, and _pub._ some treatises on the subject. D. fell into nervous depression and _d._ in 1846. DARWIN, CHARLES ROBERT (1809-1882).--Naturalist, _s._ of a physician, and grandson of Dr. Erasmus D. (_q.v._), and of Josiah Wedgwood, the famous potter, was _b._ and was at school at Shrewsbury. In 1825 he went to Edin. to study medicine, but was more taken up with marine zoology than with the regular curriculum. After two years he proceeded to Camb., where he _grad._ in 1831, continuing, however, his independent studies in natural history. In the same year came the opportunity of his life, his appointment to accompany the _Beagle_ as naturalist on a survey of South America. To this voyage, which extended over nearly five years, he attributed the first real training of his mind, and after his return _pub._ an account of it, _Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle_ (1840). After spending a few years in London arranging his collections and writing his _Journal_, he removed to Down, a retired village near the Weald of Kent, where, in a house surrounded by a large garden, his whole remaining life was passed in the patient building up, from accurate observations, of his theory of Evolution, which created a new epoch in science and in thought generally. His industry was marvellous, especially when it is remembered that he suffered from chronic bad health. After devoting some time to geology, specially to coral reefs, and exhausting the subject of barnacles, he took up the development of his favourite question, the transformation of species. In these earlier years of residence at Down he _pub._ _The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs_ (1842), and two works on the geology of volcanic islands, and of South America. After he had given much time and profound thought to the question of evolution by natural selection, and had written out his notes on the subject, he received in 1858 from Mr. A.R. Wallace (_q.v._) a manuscript showing that he also had reached independently a theory of the origin of species similar to his own. This circumstance created a