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
He had a great respect for pure business capacity, and often spoke with
admiration of a relative who had doubled his fortune. And of himself
would often say in fun that what he really WAS proud of was the money he
had saved. He also felt satisfaction in the money he made by his books.
His anxiety to save came in a great measure from his fears that his
children would not have health enough to earn their own livings, a
foreboding which fairly haunted him for many years. And I have a dim
recollection of his saying, "Thank God, you'll have bread and cheese,"
when I was so young that I was rather inclined to take it literally.
When letters were finished, about three in the afternoon, he rested in
his bedroom, lying on the sofa and smoking a cigarette, and listening
to a novel or other book not scientific. He only smoked when resting,
whereas snuff was a stimulant, and was taken during working hours.
He took snuff for many years of his life, having learnt the habit at
Edinburgh as a student. He had a nice silver snuff-box given him by
Mrs. Wedgwood of Maer, which he valued much--but he rarely carried it,
because it tempted him to take too many pinches. In one of his early
letters he speaks of having given up snuff for a month, and describes
himself as feeling "most lethargic, stupid, and melancholy." Our former
neighbour and clergyman, Mr. Brodie Innes, tells me that at one time my
father made a resolve not to take snuff except away from home, "a most
satisfactory arrangement for me," he adds, "as I kept a box in my study
to which there was access from the garden without summoning servants,
and I had more frequently, than might have been otherwise the case,
the privilege of a few minutes' conversation with my dear friend." He
generally took snuff from a jar on the hall table, because having to go
this distance for a pinch was a slight check; the clink of the lid of
the snuff jar was a very familiar sound. Sometimes when he was in the
drawing-room, it would occur to him that the study fire must be burning
low, and when some of us offered to see after it, it would turn out that
he also wished to get a pinch of snuff.
Smoking he only took to permanently of late years, though on his Pampas
rides he learned to smoke with the Gauchos, and I have heard him speak
of the great comfort of a cup of mate and a cigarette when he halted
after a long ride and was unable to get food for some time.
The reading aloud often sent him to sleep, and he used to regret losing
parts of a novel, for my mother went steadily on lest the cessation of
the sound might wake him. He came down at four o'clock to dress for
his walk, and he was so regular that one might be quite certain it was
within a few minutes of four when his descending steps were heard.
From about half-past four to half-past five he worked; then he came to
the drawing-room, and was idle till it was time (about six) to go up for
another rest with novel-reading and a cigarette.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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