Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1Darwin, Charles
History
Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1
Darwin, Charles
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Correspondence
Mr. Herbert gives an amusing account of the musical examinations
described by my father in his "Recollections." Mr. Herbert speaks
strongly of his love of music, and adds, "What gave him the greatest
delight was some grand symphony or overture of Mozart's or Beethoven's,
with their full harmonies." On one occasion Herbert remembers
"accompanying him to the afternoon service at King's, when we heard
a very beautiful anthem. At the end of one of the parts, which was
exceedingly impressive, he turned round to me and said, with a deep
sigh, 'How's your backbone?'" He often spoke of a feeling of coldness or
shivering in his back on hearing beautiful music.
Besides a love of music, he had certainly at this time a love of fine
literature; and Mr. Cameron tells me that he used to read Shakespeare
to my father in his rooms at Christ's, who took much pleasure in it.
He also speaks of his "great liking for first-class line engravings,
especially those of Raphael Morghen and Muller; and he spent hours in
the Fitzwilliam Museum in looking over the prints in that collection."
My father's letters to Fox show how sorely oppressed he felt by the
reading of an examination: "I am reading very hard, and have spirits for
nothing. I actually have not stuck a beetle this term." His despair over
mathematics must have been profound, when he expressed a hope that Fox's
silence is due to "your being ten fathoms deep in the Mathematics; and
if you are, God help you, for so am I, only with this difference, I
stick fast in the mud at the bottom, and there I shall remain." Mr.
Herbert says: "He had, I imagine, no natural turn for mathematics, and
he gave up his mathematical reading before he had mastered the first
part of Algebra, having had a special quarrel with Surds and the
Binomial Theorem."
We get some evidence from his letters to Fox of my father's intention
of going into the Church. "I am glad," he writes (March 18, 1829.), "to
hear that you are reading divinity. I should like to know what books
you are reading, and your opinions about them; you need not be afraid
of preaching to me prematurely." Mr. Herbert's sketch shows how doubts
arose in my father's mind as to the possibility of his taking Orders.
He writes, "We had an earnest conversation about going into Holy Orders;
and I remember his asking me, with reference to the question put by the
Bishop in the ordination service, 'Do you trust that you are inwardly
moved by the Holy Spirit, etc.,' whether I could answer in the
affirmative, and on my saying I could not, he said, 'Neither can I,
and therefore I cannot take orders.'" This conversation appears to have
taken place in 1829, and if so, the doubts here expressed must have been
quieted, for in May 1830, he speaks of having some thoughts of reading
divinity with Henslow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account