ve collections of plants and animals, fossil
as well as living forms, terrestrial as well as marine. On his return he
was busy with the description of these results, and took up his
residence in London. His 'Journal of Researches' was published in 1839,
and is now familiar to many readers in its third edition, published in
1860 under the title 'A Naturalist's Voyage; Journal of Researches into
the Natural History and Geology of the Countries visited during the
Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle round the World, under the command of Captain
Fitzroy, R.N.'

This was Darwin's first book, and is universally held to be one of the
most delightful records of a naturalist's travels ever produced. It is
to be placed alongside of Humboldt's 'Personal Narrative,' and is the
model followed by the authors of other delightful books of travel of a
later date, such as Wallace's 'Malay Archipelago,' Moseley's 'Naturalist
on the Challenger,' and Belt's 'Naturalist in Nicaragua.' We have given
in our selections from Darwin's writings the final pages of 'A
Naturalist's Voyage' as an example of the style which characterizes the
book. In it Darwin shows himself an ardent and profound lover of the
luxuriant beauty of nature in the tropics, a kindly observer of men,
whether missionaries or savages; an incessant student of natural
things--rocks, plants, and animals; and one with a mind so keenly set
upon explaining these things and assigning them to their causes, that
none of his observations are trivial, but all of value and many of
first-rate importance. The book is addressed, as are all of Darwin's
books, to the general reader. It seemed to be natural to him to try and
explain his observations and reasonings which led to them and followed
from them to a wide circle of his fellow-men. The reader at once feels
that Darwin is an honest and modest man, who desires his sympathy and
seeks for his companionship in the enjoyment of his voyage and the
interesting facts and theories gathered by him in distant lands. The
quiet unassuming style of the narrative, and the careful explanation of
details in such a way as to appeal to those who have little or no
knowledge of natural history, gives a charm to the 'Naturalist's Voyage'
which is possessed in no less a degree by his later books. A writer in
the Quarterly Review in 1839 wrote, in reviewing the 'Naturalist's
Voyage,' of the "charm arising from the freshness of heart which is
thrown over these pages of a st