The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
From The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
Edited by his Son
Francis Darwin
for Free EBooks,visit: http://esnips.com/web/ebooks4u
[My father's autobiographical recollections, given in the present
chapter, were written for his children,--and written without any
thought that they would ever be published. To many this may seem
an impossibility; but those who knew my father will understand
how it was not only possible, but natural. The autobiography
bears the heading, 'Recollections of the Development of my Mind
and Character,' and end with the following note:--"Aug. 3, 1876.
This sketch of my life was begun about May 28th at Hopedene (Mr.
Hensleigh Wedgwood's house in Surrey.), and since then I have
written for nearly an hour on most afternoons." It will easily
be understood that, in a narrative of a personal and intimate
kind written for his wife and children, passages should occur
which must here be omitted; and I have not thought it necessary
to indicate where such omissions are made. It has been found
necessary to make a few corrections of obvious verbal slips, but
the number of such alterations has been kept down to the
minimum.--F.D.]
A German Editor having written to me for an account of the
development of my mind and character with some sketch of my
autobiography, I have thought that the attempt would amuse me,
and might possibly interest my children or their children. I
know that it would have interested me greatly to have read even
so short and dull a sketch of the mind of my grandfather, written
by himself, and what he thought and did, and how he worked. I
have attempted to write the following account of myself, as if I
were a dead man in another world looking back at my own life.
Nor have I found this difficult, for life is nearly over with me.
I have taken no pains about my style of writing.
I was born at Shrewsbury on February 12th, 1809, and my earliest
recollection goes back only to when I was a few months over four
years old, when we went to near Abergel