Coleridge's poetry; and can boast that I read the 'Excursion'
twice through. Formerly Milton's 'Paradise Lost' had been my
chief favourite, and in my excursions during the voyage of the
"Beagle", when I could take only a single volume, I always chose
Milton.

FROM MY MARRIAGE, JANUARY 29, 1839, AND RESIDENCE IN UPPER GOWER
STREET, TO OUR LEAVING LONDON AND SETTLING AT DOWN, SEPTEMBER 14,
1842.

(After speaking of his happy married life, and of his children,
he continues:--)

During the three years and eight months whilst we resided in
London, I did less scientific work, though I worked as hard as I
possibly could, than during any other equal length of time in my
life. This was owing to frequently recurring unwellness, and to
one long and serious illness. The greater part of my time, when
I could do anything, was devoted to my work on 'Coral Reefs,'
which I had begun before my marriage, and of which the last
proof-sheet was corrected on May 6th, 1842. This book, though a
small one, cost me twenty months of hard work, as I had to read
every work on the islands of the Pacific and to consult many
charts. It was thought highly of by scientific men, and the
theory therein given is, I think, now well established.

No other work of mine was begun in so deductive a spirit as this,
for the whole theory was thought out on the west coast of South
America, before I had seen a true coral reef. I had therefore
only to verify and extend my views by a careful examination of