Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!

Yes, Happy Birthday Charles Darwin (September 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882) . . . and you’re looking pretty good for being 200 years old! Matter of fact, we talk about you as though you’re still around to defend yourself! Even today, there is an engaging article about you in The New York Times.

Of interest to Thinkwriter, of course, are your earliest memories and what they tell us about you and your worldview.

Taken from your autobiography, the following earliest memories are just too good to omit even one.

Charles Darwin remembers…..

1. My earliest recollection goes back only to when I was a few months over four years old, when we went to Abergele for sea-bathing, and I recollect some events and places there with some little distinctions.

2. My mother died in July 1817, when I was a little over eight years old, and it was odd that I can remember hardly anything about her except her death-bed, her black velvet gown, and her curiously constructed work-table.

3. One little event (when I was about age eight) has fixed itself very firmly in my mind…I told another little boy that I could produce variously coloured Polyanthuses and Primroses by watering them with certain coloured fluids, which was of course a monstrous fable and had never been tried by me.

4. I remember I once gathered much valuable fruit from my Father’s trees and hid them in the shrubbery, and then ran in breathless hast to spread the news that I had discovered a hoard of stolen fruit.

5. When I was a very little boy I remember stealing apples from the orchard, for the sake of giving them away to some boys and young men who lived in a cottage not far off, but before I gave them the fruit I showed off how quickly I could run and it is wonderful that I did not perceive that the surprise and admiration which they expressed at my powers of running, was given for the sake of the apples. But well I remember that I was delighted at them declaring that they had never seen a boy run so fast!

6. I remember clearly one other incident during the years whilst at Mr. Case’s daily school – namely, the burial of a dragoon-soldier; and it is surprising how clearly I can still see the horse with the man’s empty boots and carbine suspended to the saddle, and the firing over the grave.

7. Once, whilst returning to school on the summit of the old fortifications round Shrewsbury, which has been converted into a public foot-path with no parapet on one side, I walked off and fell to the ground, but the height was only seven or eight feet. Nevertheless the number of thoughts which passed through my mind during this very short, but sudden and wholly unexpected fall, was astonishing and seem hardly compatible with what physiologists have, I believe, proved about each thought requiring quite an appreciable amount of time.

8. Once as a very little boy, whilst at the day-school, or before that time, I acted cruelly, for I beat a puppy I believe, simply from enjoying the sense of power; but the beating could not have been severe, for the puppy did not howl, of which I feel sure as the spot was near to the house.

9. To my deep mortification, my father once said to me, “You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.” (But my father who was the kindest man I ever knew, and whose memory I love with all my heart, must have been angry and somewhat unjust when he used such words.)

10. How well I remember killing my first snipe and my excitement was so great that I had much difficulty in reloading my gun from the trembling of my hands.

Charles Darwin’s worldview is…. (Poll is now closed and correct answer is in red.)
1. I live to imagine. (0%)
2. I am compelled to know. (40%)
3. I see things my way. (40%)
4. I am fit to survive. (20%)
Please vote in the poll to the right . . . and thank you for participating!