I have just finished reading The Reluctant Mr. Darwin by David Quammen (and if you can't tell by reading that sentence, this is going to be a boring post so feel free to stop now). It's a short (but interesting) read, and sheds some light into the period of Darwin's life between his return on the HMS Beagle until his death. It focused mostly on the reasons why it took Darwin so long to publish his theory, something I have often wondered about.
Most people are aware that he didn't publish On the Origin of Species until 1859, yet his idea had begun to solidify in his mind a good 30 years prior. Quammen lists several possible reasons for the delay including fear of the outrage it would cause, the political climate, fear of loss of status and/or wealth, bad health, his desire to gather more data, family life, etc. The one that added a human element to the story (at least for me) was the fear of how it would affect his wife.
Emma was a devout Christian, and he had told her his views on species early in their marriage. Shortly after that she wrote him a letter expressing concern for his ideas. "Don't think that it is not my affair and that it does not signify me," she wrote*. "Everything that concerns you concerns me and I should be most unhappy if I thought we did not belong to each other forever." She added that it had caused "a painful void between us."
Darwin saved that letter, and occasionally would re-read it. At some point he wrote a note back to Emma on the bottom of the letter: "When I am dead, know that many times, I have kissed and cried over this. C. D."
*Most if this post, including the quotes, has been taken straight from Quammen's book.
4 comments:
Yes, but you could see Darwin's fickleness in quotes from his love letters with Gregor Mendel:
"My wife doesn't understand me..."
"You make me feel alive again..."
"You and I are like two peas in a pod..."
Maybe the second one should have said, "You bring my theories to life..."
I also considered suggesting that Darwin and Mendel liked to pass cold nights in the abbey by playing a game called "The Fish On All Fours" but something told me I would be crossing some sort of line.
Or maybe something like this:
Darwin: "I wish I could quit you."
Mendel: "Well why don't ya then?"
At least the word "monkey", "hole" and/or "pound" did not appear....oh wait. They just did.
Damn you Southpark for damaging my fragile psyche!
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