Life of Charles DarwinBettany, G. T. (George Thomas)
Science
Life of Charles Darwin
Bettany, G. T. (George Thomas)
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882
The high opinion Captain Fitzroy formed of Darwin during this long
voyage is shown by many passages in his own narrative, and by many other
references. He paid him the marked compliment of naming no fewer than
three important geographical localities after him, namely, Mount Darwin
and Darwin Sound (Tierra del Fuego), and Port Darwin in North Australia,
thus connecting his name for future generations with two lands whose
inhabitants were subjects of Darwin's unceasing interest and
investigation throughout life, and served in no small degree to
elucidate the history and rise of mankind in Darwin's mind and for a
world's instruction. Fitzroy complimented his friend markedly when
himself receiving the medal of the Royal Geographical Society; and in
one of his papers, speaking of him as a zealous volunteer in the cause
of science, observed that his perseverance might be estimated from the
fact that he never ceased to be a martyr to sea-sickness; while his
interest in science and his public spirit were evident from his having
presented his valuable collections to the public.
The concluding pages of the Journal are both eloquent and instructive.
Everywhere there had been fascinating visions, and attractive problems
remained unsolved. Was it not significant of future studies that the
contrast between barbarian and civilised man should have been so
impressed upon the future author of "The Descent of Man"? He writes thus
on this subject, "Of individual objects, perhaps no one is more certain
to create astonishment than the first sight in his native haunt of a
real barbarian, of man in his lowest and most savage state. One's mind
hurries back over past centuries, and then asks, could our progenitors
have been such as these? Men, whose very signs and expressions are less
intelligible to us than those of the domesticated animals; men, who do
not possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to boast of
human reason, or at least of arts consequent on that reason. I do not
believe it is possible to describe or paint the difference between
savage and civilised man. It is the difference between a wild and tame
animal: and part of the interest in beholding a savage, is the same
which would lead every one to desire to see the lion in his desert, the
tiger tearing his prey in the jungle, the rhinoceros on the wide plain,
or the hippopotamus wallowing in the mud of some African river."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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