s naturalist on the _Beagle_, a ship sent by the English
government on a survey. At first Darwin thought he could not go
because his father was opposed to the plan. Finally the father said he
would consent if any man of common sense should advise his son to go.
This common sense man "was found in the person of his uncle, a Josiah
Wedgwood, who advised the father to permit his son to go. The voyage
has been described by Darwin, and thousands have been interested and
profited by the reading. Some of the letters that he wrote to his
friends during his trip are also very interesting. Here is one he
sent to his cousin, Fox:

"My mind has been, since leaving England, in a perfect _hurricane_ of
delight and astonishment, and to this hour scarcely a minute has
passed in idleness.... Geology carries the day; it is like the
pleasure of gambling. Speculating, on first arrival, what the rocks
may be, I often mentally cry out, three to one tertiary against
primitive; but the latter has hitherto won all the bets.... My life,
when at sea, is so quiet, that to a person who can employ himself,
nothing can be pleasanter; the beauty of the sky and brilliancy of the
ocean together make a picture. But when on shore, and wandering in the
sublime forests, surrounded by views more gorgeous than Claude ever
imagined, I enjoy a delight which none but those who have experienced
it can understand. If it is to be done, it must be by studying
Humboldt. At our ancient snug breakfasts, at Cambridge, I little
thought that the wide Atlantic would ever separate us; but it is a
rare privilege that with the body, the feelings and memory are not
divided. On the contrary, the pleasantest scenes of my life, many of
which have been at Cambridge, rise from the contrast of the present
the more vividly in my imagination."

From Valparaiso, after he had been two years on the voyage, he writes
to a friend:

"That this voyage must come to a conclusion my reason tells me,
otherwise I see no end to it. It is impossible not bitterly to regret
the friends and other sources of pleasure one leaves behind in
England; in place of it there is much solid enjoyment, some present,
but more in anticipation, when the ideas gained during the voyage can
be compared with fresh ones. I find in Geology a never-failing
interest, as it has been remarked, it creates the same grand ideas
respecting the world which astronomy does for the universe. We have
seen much fine scenery; that o