Victorian Naturalist
BRAEMAN, JOHN
Victorian Naturalist The Autobiography of Charles Darwin. Edited by Nora Barlow. Harcourt, Brace. 253 pp. $4.50. Reviewed by John Braeman Contributor, "Indiana Magazine of History" IN 1876, at...
...In 1871, Darwin affirmed, in The Descent of Man, that man—his intellect, his conscience, his moral sense —had resulted from natural selection, But what place remained for a Supreme Being...
...Darwin reviewed his life with a sincerity, warmth and frankness rarely found in autobiographies...
...Following his return, the youthful naturalist began his first notebook on the species...
...Which animals survived...
...You care for nothing but shooting, dogs and rat-catching," his father lamented, "and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family...
...I cannot look at the universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent design, or indeed of design of any kind, in the details...
...The present day scientist remains a neo-Darwinist...
...Not simply had the Origin of Species denied the scriptural version of special creation...
...If further research has rejected his Lamarckianism, modern science has re-affirmed his principle of natural selection...
...At Edinburgh, Charles found the study of medicine boring...
...When natural selection banished special design, Darwin became an agnostic...
...The result of this would be the formation of new species...
...My theology," he confided to his friend Joseph Hooker, "is a simple muddle...
...that kindly don arranged for the young A. B. to ship as a naturalist with the Beagle on its five-year voyage to survey the coasts of South America...
...Sons of forceful, domineering fathers mature slowly...
...But the naturalist had begun to doubt Christian revelation shortly after the return of the Beagle...
...No student of the Victorian mind should neglect his "Recollections of the development of my mind and character...
...Darwin's granddaughter, Lady Barlow, has published the complete autobiography...
...Darwin had begun his lifelong romance with natural science...
...As a youth...
...reason and duty...
...his father sent him to Cambridge to prepare for the Church...
...Natural selection replaced special design with blind chance...
...A daring answer began shaping in his mind—perhaps the different species had descended after modification from a single form...
...on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth...
...But no predecessor had so firmly grounded his reasoning in scientific data...
...Reviewed by John Braeman Contributor, "Indiana Magazine of History" IN 1876, at the age of 67, Charles Darwin prepared a short autobiographical sketch for his children and grandchildren...
...During this voyage, Charles started to question the dogma of special creation...
...Lady Barlow has indeed performed a notable service for her grandfather's place in modern history by publishing the full autobiography...
...In November 1859, in his 50th year, Darwin published the Origin of Species...
...he gained the friendship of his botany professor...
...His answer became the principle of natural selection...
...Notwithstanding his agnosticism, the naturalist shared the 19th century's faith in progress...
...The autobiography is fascinating reading...
...But Charles spent his days with a "sporting crowd" playing cards, drinking and hunting...
...In 1838, Charles had read Malthus's Essay on Population...
...Man in the distant future," Darwin hailed in his personal reminiscences, "will be a far more perfect creature than he now is...
...Over the last six years of his life, the famed naturalist amplified this draft...
...Darwin rarely spoke publicly of his religious beliefs...
...Perhaps blind chance had shaped man...
...It is surprising how many of Darwin's views remain valid a century after the Origin of Species...
...But man could shape his future destiny...
...In 1831...
...That paper showed how population multiplied in a geometrical ratio if not restrained by famine, disease and war...
...From boyhood...
...At Cambridge...
...What Victorian could gainsay discipline...
...Darwin displayed scant promise of future renown...
...Reverend John S. Henslow...
...In 1828...
...For 20 years, Darwin studied the question, gathered data and qualified his reasoning...
...Darwinism had banished God...
...Darwin could not deny the suffering in the struggle for life...
...When his son Francis published The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin in 1887...
...This struggle for life fascinated Darwin...
...Charles had a passion for collecting—skulls, seals, franks, coins, minerals and insects...
...It at once struck me," Darwin related in his autobiography, "that under these circumstances favorable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavorable ones to be destroyed...
...Without a gift for languages, the boy ranked lowly at boarding school with its strictly classical program...
...Gradually this ardor for collecting became focused in the natural sciences...
...Darwinism scandalized the Victorian mind...
...five years after Darwin's death, the family suppressed about 6,000 words dealing with his religious views...
...Forerunners—Georges de Buffon, Jean de Lamarck, Erasmus Darwin—had presented a similar answer...
Vol. 42 • April 1959 • No. 16
