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Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters — John Shaqi

Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published LettersDarwin, Charles

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Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters

Name: Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters
Author: Darwin, Charles

Darwin, Charles

Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 -- Correspondence; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Correspondence

In arranging my material I have followed a roughly chronological
sequence, but the character and variety of my father's researches make a
strictly chronological order an impossibility. It was his habit to work
more or less simultaneously at several subjects. Experimental work was
often carried on as a refreshment or variety, while books entailing
reasoning and the marshalling of large bodies of facts were being
written. Moreover many of his researches were dropped only to be resumed
after years had elapsed. Thus a chronological record of his work would
be a patchwork, from which it would be difficult to disentangle the
history of any given subject. The Table of Contents will show how I have
tried to avoid this result. It will be seen, for instance, that after
Chapter VIII. a break occurs; the story turns back from 1854 to 1831 in
order that the Evolutionary chapters which follow may tell a continuous
story. In the same way the Botanical Work which occupied so much of my
father's time during the latter part of his life is treated separately
in Chapters XVI. and XVII.

With regard to Chapter IV., in which I have attempted to give an account
of my father's manner of working, I may be allowed to say that I acted
as his assistant during the last eight years of his life, and had
therefore an opportunity of knowing something of his habits and methods.

My acknowledgments are gladly made to the publishers of the _Century
Magazine_, who have courteously given me the use of one of their
illustrations for the heading of Chapter IV.

FRANCIS DARWIN.

WYCHFIELD, CAMBRIDGE,
_August, 1892_.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] I have not thought it necessary to indicate all the omissions in the
abbreviated letters.




NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION.


It is pleasure to me to acknowledge the kindness of Messrs. Elliott &
Fry in allowing me to reproduce the fine photograph which appears as the
frontispiece to the present issue.

FRANCIS DARWIN.
WYCHFIELD, CAMBRIDGE,
_April, 1902_.




TABLE OF CONTENTS.


CHAP.                                                              PAGE
    I.--The Darwins                                                   1

   II.--Autobiography                                                 5

  III.--Religion                                                     55

   IV.--Reminiscences                                                66

    V.--Cambridge Life--The Appointment to the _Beagle_: 1828-1831  104

   VI.--The Voyage: 1831-1836                                       124

  VII.--London and Cambridge: 1836-1842                             140

 VIII.--Life at Down: 1842-1854                                     150

   IX.--The Foundations of the _Origin of Species_: 1831-1844       165

    X.--The Growth of the _Origin of Species_: 1843-1858            173

   XI.--The Writing of the _Origin of Species_, June 1858, to
        November 1859                                               185

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Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters

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