modesty and simplicity of life and manner which was so marked a feature
of both men.

In the circumstances surrounding their early days there was very little
to indicate the similarity in character and mental gifts which became so
evident in their later years. A brief outline of the hereditary
influences immediately affecting them will enable us to trace something
of the essential differences as well as the similarities which marked
their scientific and literary attainments.

The earliest records of the Darwin family show that in 1500 an ancestor
of that name (though spelt differently) was a substantial yeoman living
on the borders of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. In the reign of James I.
the post of Yeoman of the Royal Armoury of Greenwich was granted to
William Darwin, whose son served with the Royalist Army under Charles I.
During the Commonwealth, however, he became a barrister of Lincoln's
Inn, and later the Recorder of the City of Lincoln.

Passing over a generation, we find that a brother of Dr. Erasmus Darwin
"cultivated botany," and, when far advanced in years, published a volume
entitled "Principia Botanica," while Erasmus developed into a poet and
philosopher. The eldest son of the latter "inherited a strong taste for
various branches of science ... and at a very early age collected
specimens of all kinds." The youngest son, Robert Waring, father of
Charles Darwin, became a successful physician, "a man of genial
temperament, strong character, fond of society," and was the possessor
of great psychic power by which he could readily sum up the characters
of others, and even occasionally read their thoughts. A judicious use of
this gift was frequently found to be more efficacious than actual
medicine! To the end of his life Charles Darwin entertained the greatest