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PAGE SIXEOP rINS1LtE KENTUCKIAN FEB 16 1109 C
if
ti 000
1809The Year
Darwin s
t
w Part First The Nineteenth
J Century Newton Unprom
f ising In His Youth His
ifEarly Interest In Science
S S I 000
HE name of
THE marks
the fierce ec
cleslastical con
vulsion of the
sixteenth centu
ry That of Isaac
Newton recalls
the no less mo
mentous refor
mation In the
peaceful field of
thought caused
by his discovery
of the law of
gravitation So In
his chosen de
partmont of
knowledge has
Darwin given
distinction to the
nineteenth centu
ry by his demon
tration that man
Is not a special
creation but u de
elooment from
an CAKED ONLY FOR the humblest form
snOOTINGof life This much
iro > all know of the man and his mighty
Influence also that Darwinism as
It came to be called as a convenient
Toper for our general inability to give
4 concise definition stirred the roll
gious world as profoundly as when
cinder Luthers sway
Jn Darwins case happily the man Is
anaro interesting than his ism to us
who dwell below the clouds for sci
entific subjects float themselves up
among the moonbeams as a halfway
Siiouse until they reach the sunlight
of demonstration Even at this very
jMrar there are Indications that Dar
ylns own strongest convictions are
likely to be modified in one direction
r
CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN
Born Feb 12 1809 Died April 19 1882JI
i
and this we gather from no less au 1
thoritative source than his son Dr 1
Francis Darwin whose address as c
president of the British Association I
For the Advancement of Science at I
Dublin last October arrested univer I
sal attention by Its bold dictum that
plants have eyes and see Dr Dar I
In was his fathers associate in nilI
bis patient botanical Investigations
and our portrait of the apostle of evo
folfon will be drawn from his inter
esting memoir
3rleiparwln himself expressed his I
jjalnJM surprise that orthodoxy i
efioulu have flown into so wild a fury
over his very simple very fascinating I
and reasonable theory that our won
derally complete organization start
faa5 cram the lowest living organism I
ind has been perfected by slow proc
asses of adaptation and variation call
oft for by the struggle for existence
Those that developed their powers
were tho strong ones and reproduced
their kind to develop superior powers
to their turn Those less able to
adapt their organs to the necessity of
finding food were tho weak ones
whose race and generative power per
bhed Wo cannot help but see this
Identical process at work all around
us today and it does not disturb the
faiths of tie multitude Yet even
Leibnitz as Darwin reminds us clear
beaded philosopher that ho was attack
ed the greatest discovery ever made
jby man Newtons law of the attrac
lion of gravity on tho ground that It
rft ubY r8lve of religion Today
N1e law of evolution demonstrated by
wU usa tit ceiered far tmie1f
1Vailtre
j
tMMIMMMp MNNNMFh4M M 0
ot Genius 1809
Centenary
By Oliver Leigh JJ
Copyright 1909 by the
American Press Association
000
ontly to whom reference Is made In
what follows Is accepted In sub
stance by the scientific world A cel
ebrated author and divine unnamed
had the courage to write to Darwin
when his great book The Origin of
Species frst inflamed the church
men I have gradually learnt to see
that It Is Just as noble a conception
of the Deity to believe that he created
a few original forms capable of self
development into other and needful
forms as to believe that he required
a fresh act of creation to supply the
voids caused by the action of his
laws
lawsGreat
Great minds of every school unite
in doing nonage to Darwin as a great
man For the encouragement of am
bitious boys and youths their parents
and friends we now use Darwin nsfln
object lesson which If rightly pon
dered will prove of greater practical
value In life than the usual tales
about genius which often spoil ex
cellent budding brains Here we have
the self revealed portraiture of an
actually average man who some
how In the Darwinian way developed
Into a great man It Is only fair to
admit that his good lu k in not having
to work for his dally bread gave Dar
win the full chance to put his average
abilities to the best use Ho frankly
acknowledges this immense advantage
His good angel if such rarities oc
cur in the evolution of celestials also
favored him with a distinguished
grandfather and a father described by
Darwin as the Wisest man I ever
knew though only a country doctor
of ample private fortune who lived
from 17CO until 1848 Erasmus Dar
win the grandfather was a physician
a naturalist and a poetiror of plant
life His writings had great fame In
their day but only a small part of
their genius was resurrectlonlzed in
our Darwin This resemblance in par
tlcular Is notable Speaking of his
grandfather Charles Darwin says I
am struck with his > Indifference to
fame the complete absence of all
signs of overestimation of his abilities I
or of the success of his works By
this we see that modesty may be a
hereditary virtue
In his deliberate matter of fact way
Darwin tells us that he was a slow
and a naughty child teachable but
his little ambitions he fulfilled much
too quickly and easily I was much
given to Inventing deliberate false
hoods and this was always done for
the sake of causing excitement In
other words getting glory He stole a
lot of fruit from his fathers best trees
and hid the plunder in the shrubbery
then he rushed around proudly telling
his discovery of the theft and Us
hiding place When he found that his
wonderful stories were received in
strict silence he realized that the pun
ishment was severer than a thrashing
His mother tiled when he was eight
without leaving any conscious Influ
ence on his nature
Very amusingly Darwin rather brags
of his humaneness as boy and man
Like David of old he pleads that his
slips could be counted on one finger
of one band usually I never stol p
more than one egg out of a nest
It remained on his conscience that
once Just once I beat n puppy clw
ply from enjoying the sense of power
but he tlierlBhes the belief that I
could not have hurt It much AH l +
414 not liowl Perhaps that r
u
1 jrrc hobart it Ho Vas only soso
school rathor
r r a HChoolboy I loft
bolow the common standard in Intel
lect His wisest father seems to
have despaired of tho growing youth
It staggered him when his parent told
him flatly You care for nothing but
shooting dogs and rat catching and
you will bo a disgrace to yourself and
all your family
However humane and thorats may
rise against him on the judgment day
on this Darwin always dwells loving
ly on his mighty shooting exploits
No wonder that in after life I wholly
lost all pleasure from poetry of any
kind Shakespeare was impossible
Ho had read his grandfathers work
on natural history Zoonomla In his
early years fce which one would
suppose must have Inspired his own
work but it left no effect nor on
being read again fifteen years later
First he would follow his father arid
boa doctor A year or two at the
schools sickened him and the dissect
ing table gave him the horrors Then
ho dabbled in geology but soon de
cided that of nil odious professions the
worst was that of a geologist As a
lad he developed a craze for collecting
letter franks seals coins minerals
anything and no ono but himself was
interested He would take long soli
tary walks Then he took a fancy for
beetles and developed an enthusiasm
for catching them He tells how on
stripping a bit of bark from a tree ho
spied two uncommon specimens These
he secured one in each hand when
out popped an entirely new kind of
beetle In his eagerness not to lose It
he put one of the others in his mouth
while he grabbed the third but the I
prisoner gave him a dose of a fluid so
acrid and nauseous that he had to let
him go Another lesson in humane
ness
nessSo
So successful was Darwin In forget
ting everything he had learned but the
humane act of shooting that when he
decided to enter Cambridge in 1827 he
had to engage a private tutor to teach
him his Greek alphabet over again and
rub up the classics on which he had
spent two Industrious years Why en
ter Cambridge Because some one had
the happy thought thattDarwln would
at any rate make a passably good
Church of England parson and ho
thought so top It is a humane profes
sion All the good he got from all his
studies which were 1felpful throughout
his life he credits to Euclid and Paleya
Evidences of Christianity Before be
hid blossomed into a surpliced deacon
Darwin fell under the fascination of
science
scienceProfessor
Professor Henslow the great bota
nist honored Darwin with unwonted
friendship Darwin was dubbed by
his fellow students The man who
walks with Henslow a genial sugges
tion that his reverence bordered on
worship He says somewhere that
Henslows friendship hadthe greatest
Influence on his life The right man at
the right period In ones history can do
more for us than all the schools and
preachers and libraries Henslow Im
planted a living Interest In the despised
geology botany and other such studies
Under Sldpwick the great geologist
Darwin developed unsuspected powers
YetHow I did enjoy shooting On
one of his visits to the family homo in
the old town of Shrewsbury hq found
new Interest in looking at the famllar
big bowlder known as the bell stone
The local wise man had long had but
one answer to questions as to how it
had got there Ah the world will come
to an end before any one will know the
secret Nov that Darwin had learned
how the sliding of the vast primeval
glaciers had transported these mysterl
ous bowlders across Wales and left
them In his town he felt repaid for his
pains I gloried in the progress of
geologyLooking
Looking back he writes I infer
that there must have been something
In me a little superior to the common
run of youth or these and other dls
tinguished men would not have allow
ed him to associate with them so In
timately The privilege had Its pen
alties He bad his little humiliations
One day he happened to find a shell in
a spot where he thought no shell
should be Ho rushed with it to Sidg
wick expecting fine compliments ToI
his surprise the great geologist did
not think it the prize he had sup
posed Nothing before says Dar
win had ever made me thoroughly
realize though I had read the eaten
title books that science consists in
grouping facts so that general laws
or conclusions can be drawn from
themHere
Here we have the open secret of
Darwins greatness
Ho was now started on his life work
the patient ex
baustlve merci
less task of over
hauling all that
was written
about the facts
of nature of
classifying It for
his special pur
pose of accumu
slating more facts
from every
source and then
slowly building
up a structure
of verifiable the
ory on the mys
tery of what we
call creation
Darwins career
comes near to
justifying the
worthless sneer
that genius h
the art qf taking
pains Ills grout
I ness shows in
1tthe herculean WE womn WILL
labor of thn e e COUB TO AN EKD
twenty rvoMd yenta between the con
ception and completion tf The Orb
IfIin of > BpHe His genius slows in
thetuterp etatipa of bU Inborn
avaww wr1 warwIfl00 boo I e a
I
1809 The Year of Genius 1809 n 1
is f
DLf wins Centenry I I
<
Part Second His Epoch
flaking Voyage In tho
Beagle The Origin Jqf
Species Darwmat Home
000
DarwinatHomeTROLIH
HROUQH I
THnOUGH I
Darwin was
honored with an
invitation to Join
the government I
expedition being j
planned to sail on
H M S Beagle I
as naturalist It I
was to circle the I
globe in three ort J
four years on eel J
CI1entlfic
entitle researches 4
and there was to 4
bo no salary I
Darwin would j
share tho cap j
tains quarters 1
and the ships I
fare On this pegC
hangs a fact of 1
groat significance
groatslgnlficnncebut
but not generally
known If tho
total could bo
calculated of all
the spoils of learning acquired digest
ed and given to the world by Great
Britain during past centuries we would
be astounded to discover what a large
proportion of all the artS sciences and
general scholarship has been freely
contributed by rich and titled men and
their sons who have devoted their tal
ents and wealth to the promotion of
their countrys glory in this direction
as others have in naval and military
service In colonization and statesman
ship
After declining on his fathers ad
vice Darwin changed his mind and
won Henslows ardent applause His
father gave In after arriving at the
conclusion that the voyage need not
necessarily be injurious to his char
acter it on his return he entered the
church The Beagle sailed on Dec 27
1831 a brig of 235 tons and ten guns
Darwin had long been anxious to see
for himself the Indescribable glories of
the South American forests The col
lections he made were to be his own
property The voyage was by far the
most Important event of my life and
determined my wholo career thet
He returned In October 1836 and
married his cousin in 1839 That same
year ho published his Journal of Rf
searches During a Voyage Bound the i
World which won him honors The
long spoil of sea life from which bo
suffered Impaired his health so that
In 1842 he withdrew to the retirement
of the country house at Down not far
from London In which he remained a
recluse until his death
It was curious that he all but lost
the opportunity of his life because of
the shape of his nose Captain after
ward Admiral FItzroy whoso baro
metrical Improvements havo been
adopted had the choosing of the natu
ralist and decided that the owner of
so Inartistic a nose must be deficient
In energy and determination Darwin
only remarks that FItzroy soon learned
that my nose had spoken falsely
Henslow considered that Darwins
letters to him more than justified the
fine things he had said about the
young man to the government so he
had them privately printed and dis
tributed among scientists This doubt
less made Darwin famous in quarters
Where ordinarily genius has to knock
long before it can enter
It is not necessary here to give the
titles of the five important books that
followed the Journal each teeming
with fresh facts and weighty reason
Ings that stirred the scientific world
He covered an Immense field and with
an authority that seemed the summary
of a long Ufo work on each distinct
subject In 1859 appeared The Origin
of Species the book that turned the
world upside down In Its way While
it was accepted and will always rank
as a work of original investigation and
philosophy Darwins opening pages
are devoted to honoring the pioneers
In tho line of thought which ho has
made his own
He name Buffon Lamarck Saint
Hilaire W 0 Wells Rev W Herbert
dean of Manchester cathedral Pro
fessor Grant of Edinburgh Professor
Haldeman and others as having fore
shadowed the theory which ho was the
first to demonstrate This and many
other features which cannot be noticed
now exemplify the simplicity and loftl
ness of Darwins mind his humility
and modesty
This fine magnanimity was shown by
Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in
equal degree In the remarkable inci
den which we now relate Darwin
opens his introduction to The Origin
of Species with the statement hero
condensed On my return in 1837
from the Beagle voyage It occurred to
me that something might perhaps be
made out on this question the origin
of species the mystery of mysteries
as one of our greatest philosophers had
called It After five years work on
his Beagle facts I allowed myself
to speculate on the subject and drew
up some short notes These I enlarged
In 1S44 Into n sketch ol the conclusions
which then seemed tome probable
or My work is now 1859 nearly
finished but nslt will take me many
more years to Iomplctoit and as my
health Is far from strong 1 have been
urged tq publish this Apatrapt more
cSpcHiUli la Ur Wallace Dab arrived
a t almost exactly the same resent
concluikmi that I but oM tfcf orttte
By Oliver Leigh ill
Copyright 1909 by the
r American Press Association
00O
00of
of species In 1853 he sent mo a
memclr on this subject
This Is a wild telling of how after
you have been pgslnF away for nearly
twenty years at wonting out a great
idea a stranger pops up and shows
tho world that he has got ahead of
you and in lightning speed too
The Linuean society of London met
on July 1 1008 to celebrate the fif
tieth anniversary of the Joint commu
nication by Charles Darwin and Al
fred Russel Wallace On the Ten dell
cy of Species to Form Varieties and
on the Perpetuation of Varieties and
Species by Natural Means of Selec
tion Dr Wallace was present and
made an address Referring to the
undue credit that had been given him
as simultaneous if not the first dis
coverer of the theory he wished again
to state the facts clearly and finally
The Idea of natural selection or
survival of the fittest occurred to
both Darwin and himself Independ
ently But what Is often forgotten Is
that It occurred to Darwin In 1838
n
I
HE TOOK A WALK THROUGH TtfE GROUNDS
nAn on BHINE
and during most of those years Dar
win had been laboriously collecting
evidence and carrying out ingenious
experiments and original observations
As far back as 1844 Darwin had sent
an outline of his views to his friends
Lyell and Hooker who strongly urged
him to publish it at once lest some
one should forestall him but he al
ways refused till he had got all his
materials together for his great work
Then came the fulfillment of their
prediction when he Wallace sent his
essay which fell on Darwin like a
thunderbolt How different Darwins
long preparation and caution to his
own Wallaces conduct The Idea
came to me as it did to Darwin In n
sudden flash of insight I wrote it
out developed it then copied it on
letter paper and sent It to Darwin
all in one week I was the young man
in a hurry Darwin was the painstak
ing and patient student Dr Wal
lace then showed how they had worked
on parallel lines from beetle collect
lug through foreign travel in search
of truth and singularly their final
stage was Malthus Principles of
Population Sir Charles Lyell and
Dr Hooker decided that the proper
course was to couple an early memoir
on the subject by Darwin with Wal
laces just received memoir and so
they were read together at the Lin
nean societys July meeting In 1858
Forty years Darwin lived a hermit
life amid his family secluded from
the outer world In the first year or
two they went n little Into society and
received a few friends but even that
mild excitement prevented sleep and
Induced violent vomiting So most of
those forty years wore lived in the
home circle and the visits of intimate
and valued friends like Huxley and
distinguished men of ilcnce wore per
force Very rare It was an ideally
happy home His only absences were
when overwork drove him for a few
days rest to tho seaside or to tho
London homos of a son and a daugh
ter Ho spent years over each of his
books largo or small All wero great
This was the routine of his average
day Ho rose early summer and win
ter took a short walk before break
fast In winter at daybreak then
breakfasted alone at quarter to 8 and
worked over his plants insects micro
scope and rough notes until half past
Dhe called these hours his best time
then to the common room whore he
would view the pile of letters for him
and rejoice when It was small Ev
cry one was answered They wore
read to him as he lay on the sofa At
half past 10 he listened to n chapter
of a novel Tho kind ho liked were
those of ordinary life told with ordi
nary skill For heroine he preferred a
pretty woman and he said a law ought
to put down novels with unhappy end
Wits
After thus rtcnaffoata Wlfttid
work till tyttttor Wei ia wb n hi
took a walk through ws grounds rain
or shine With his whlto torrlcr Polly
lie was six feet tall bad a swinging
walk and the ring of his iruu shod
walking stick was cheery While die
tatlug In hiif workroom he would skip
occasionally across tho hall for a pinch
out of tho snUffbox he kept there to
lead him not Into the temptation it
would be nearer at hand Though a
confirmed Invalid ho was ruddy
checked His blue gray eyes hid
themselves In the recesses of the deep t
overhanging brow fringed with thick
projecting eyebrows He talked viva
ciously 1nugbed10udly and w w req
e9tn
ly and clumsily around the house be
cause of frequent giddiness
Ho was forbidden to cat sweet things
and often vowed ho would not then
broke his vow Wine ho enjoyed and
was bettered by it but he took very
little When walking ho observed all
the birds animals beetles flowers
with the double interest of a child and
a scientist Inspecting some seedlings
with which he was experimenting ho
flew into a mock passion with them
tho little beggars are doing just what
I dont want them to dot At 3 o loaf
ho rested in his bedroom on n wfy0
smoking a cigarette and listening to
more light reading It he dozed Mrs
Darwin would continue reading lest
her silence would wake him From 4
to half past 5 he was In his workroom
after which he would rest and smoke
In tho later years he had a plain tea
with an egg or piece of meat Instead
of dinner and would take leave of the
diners saying If visitors wero there
I am an old woman now and must
leave with the ladies He always
wore a shawl indoors and had lined
cloth boots to slip over his indoor
shoes for a walk When intent on
something in his work ho would pullI
off his coat tbough very subject to
chills He played two games of back
gammon with his wife after dinner
with great gusto
Often ho lamented that the nature
and long continuance of his labors had
turned his mind Into a machine for
grinding general laws out of endless
collections of facts The minutest de
tail was as important as a large view
Each book was a final abstract of nu
merous earlier abstracts Ho always
had several distinctsubjects in hand
at the samo time which ho systema
tized his own way in about forty large
portfolios He made a rulo of jotting
down a thought on tho instant and
p1 dug it where it belonged This In
dicates his methodical habit and his
slow and sure way of working
Even ill health had its compensa
tion Though it has annihilated sev
eral years of my life it has saved me
from the distractions of society and its
amusements He laughed at the high
flown talk of artists as if art were
something sacred His library nS > for
use not show and his work wt Wf bn
seven days to the week The village i
parson was an almost dally visitor but
Darwin could not return his calls In
church When he ventured there In
1871 on the occasion of his daughters
wedding he was overcome with the ex ¬
ertion and strain
He gladly serv
ed as treasurer
of the church
and village bene
fit societies With
all around him
and especially
with the serv
e n t ti he was
kind and consid
erate It was al
ways Would
you be so good
as to do this or
that He died
April 19 1882
and was burled
In Westminster
abbey Dr Wal
lace being the
chief pallbearer
The non scten
tific reader will
find many fasci
nating pages in
some of Dar
wins apparently IIE ALWAYS WORE A
driest works Ho SUAWL INDOORS
is not a stylistIn fact he bewails
the difficulty he always had In hitting
on the best expression of what he had
to say He succeeds In being clear and
Impressive In his Descent of Man
and Variation In Relation to Sex the
Expression of the Emotions in Man
and Animals and the Insectivorous
Plants there is a wealth of strange
material which it would bo wjll for
the dissipated novel reader toJS j re
between his and her fiction spls S
A hundred years agd this epoch
marking man of sctcljco was born and
fifty years ago his book saw tho light
Some of Darwins contemporaries
whoso centenaries are to be celebrated
or remembered were born with a gold
spoonful of what Is called genius In
ino
case was father to thems thobalo
adorned their heads from the cradle
according to the fond memories of the I
nursery TIle average lad is a bit dls
heartened fit finding his fingers are
not scorched as they timidly grope
where the ring of glory should be
Let him read the history of th1
alto Darwins body and mind a
ho grew from boy to youth and tromI
youth to manhood It will bo a surer
tonic than any that comes In bottles
Here is an unpromising boya soli
tary an ungainly form a dull brain
sees no good in schooling forgets all
it taught him takes his own unprom
lying course and sp drifts along till
the lucky hour comes that flashes Into
activity the dormant quality that
lurks In every one of us but too often
dies for want of the magic touch < n
Opportunity Parwlqs tomb in VestQ
minster abbey la the rightful dud of a
tJm
m ahoea si lei as ttoirllliilf1h
= M M