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First issue of this Edition 1906 Reprinted 1908, 1910

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INTRODUCTION

THE Beagle finally sailed on the 27th December, 1831, but her original start was planned for an earlier date, in November. Darwin, then a young naturalist of nearly twenty-three, had eagerly anticipated the day and hour. "What a glorious day," he wrote to Captain Fitz Roy, "it will be to me-my second life will then commence." He had owed his appointment to a remarkable man, Professor Henslow, the botanist, who did more for Darwin and his training than any one else at Cambridge. "I suppose," said Henslow in a letter to him offering the appointment, "there never was a finer chance for a man of zeal and spirit." As Darwin was intended by his father for a parson, grave objection was taken at home to the adventure. Its issue, and its importance both to himself and to the cause of science at large, are to be inferred from the present vogue of what is now a many times reprinted work. Its first appearance was as a third volume of the official "Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836." This third volume, "Journal and Remarks, 1832-1836," was published in 1839. The "Journal" next appeared independently-described as a second edition, "corrected with additions," in 1845. In 1860, it reappeared as "A Naturalist's Voyage." (For the other concurrent writings, that were a result of the same voyage, see the list of works overleaf.) Darwin, speaking of the book afterwards in his "Autobiography," said: "The success of this my first literary child always tickles my vanity more than that of any of my other books." This first essay has an added biographical interest, moreover, in that it represents Darwin in his first period, before he had arrived at the theory by which he revolutionized the modes of science and the interpretation of nature. It is Darwin's pre-Darwinian tractate. After this voyage, the adventures of his life were of the simplest. He never left British shores again. He married in 1839 and lived then in London, but found London life too trying for his uncertain health, and retired to Down in Kent in 1842, his residence for forty years. He died there on April 19, 1882. He was born, the son of a very able practising physician, in Shrewsbury, at a house called "The Mount," on February 12, 1809. His grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, who 252707

anticipated, if ever so slightly, the researches which led in a later generation to the evolution theory as we now know it, and as worked out by Charles Darwin.

The following list includes all Darwin's published volumes :

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Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of Her Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, etc. (" Journal and Remarks," Vol. III.), 1839. Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the World, etc.; 2nd Ed., with corrections and additions, 1845. A Naturalist's Voyage ("Journal of Researches, etc.), 1860. Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in Five Parts (Fossil Mammalia,__Mammalia, Birds, Fish, Reptiles), ed. by C. Darwin, 1840-3. The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (First Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle), 1842, 1874. Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle), 2nd Part, 1844; 3rd Part, 1846; 2nd Ed., 1876. A Monograph of the Fossil Lepadida; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes of Great Britain (Pal. Soc.), 1851. A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, etc. (Ray Soc.), 1851. The Balanidæ (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc. (Ray Soc.), 1854. A Monograph of the Fossil Balanidæ and Verrucidæ of Great Britain (Pal. Soc.), 1854. Of the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 1859, 1860; 3rd Ed., with additions and corrections, 1861; 4th, 5th, 6th, each with additions and corrections, 1866, 1869, 1882. On the Various Contrivances by which Orchids are Fertilized by Insects, 1862, 1877. The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants, 1875 (from "Journal of the Linnean Soc."). The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, 1868; 2nd Ed., revised, 1875. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871, 1874. The Expression of the Emotions in Men and Animals, 1872. Insectivorous Plants, 1875. The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom, 1876, 1878. The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the same Species, 1877, 1880. The Power of Movement in Plants (assisted by F. Darwin), 1880. The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, etc., 1881.

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Scientific Papers by Darwin appeared in the Proceedings of the Geological, Zoological, Geographical and Linnean Societies, and in the "Ann. and Mag. Natural History," 1835-1882; in Nature, 1869, etc.; in "Mind," and the "Gardener's Chronicle." (A posthumous essay on instinct is given in "Mental Evolution in Animals," by Romanes, 1883, and in the " Journal of the Linnean Soc."; some contributions are also included in works by other authors.)

Life and Letters, including an autobiographical chapter, ed. F. Darwin, 3 vols., 1887. Charles Darwin: His Life told in an autobiographical chapter, and in a selected series of his published letters, ed. F. Darwin, 1892, 1902. More Letters of Charles Darwin, ed. F. Darwin, 1903. Life (Great Writers), by G. T. Bettany, 1887.

1906.

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