Creation (Movie Tie-In)

by Randal Keynes

  24 “the enlarged views both of time and space”—John Meadows Rodwell to Francis Darwin, CUL DAR 112, folio 94.

  24 “What a capital hand is Sedgwick”—John Meadows Rodwell to Francis Darwin, CUL DAR 112, folio 94.

  25 Herschel wrote of man as a “speculative being”—John Herschel, A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (London, 1831), pp. 4, 7, 9, 42.

  26 “one huge, dead, immeasurable steam-engine”—Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, ed. Mark Engel and Rodger Tarr (Berkeley, 2000), pp. 124, 189.

  26 a week in August walking with Professor Sedgwick—James Secord, “The Discovery of a Vocation: Darwin’s Early Geology,” British Journal for the History of Science, 41, vol. 24 (1991), pp. 133-57.

  26 Sedgwick discussed his suggestions—Letter from Charles to Professor Hughes in John Clark and Thomas Hughes, The Life and Letters of the Reverend Adam Sedgwick (Cambridge, 1890), 1.380-81.

  26 Sedgwick also showed Charles—John Wyatt, Wordsworth and the Geologists (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 76-84.

  26 “There is an intense and poetic interest”—Adam Sedgwick, Addresses Delivered at the Anniversary Meetings of the Geological Society of London (London, 1831), p. 26.

  27 “No one has put forward nobler views”—William Wordsworth, A Complete Guide to the Lakes, Comprising Minute Directions for the Tourist, with Mr. Wordsworth’s Description of the Country &c. and Three Letters upon the Geology of the Lake District, by the Rev. Professor Sedgwick (Kendal and London, 1842), p. 3.

  27 As HMS Beagle sailed through the mid-Atlantic—Beagle Diary, pp. 22, 23, 42.

  29 a “revolution in natural science”—Origin, p. 293.

  29 During his years on HMS Beagle—Beagle Diary, pp. 59, 444.

  30 Charles responded to the richness and variety—Beagle Diary, pp. 309, 444.

  30 the “zoology of archipelagoes”—Nora Barlow, “Darwin’s ornithological notes,” Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Historical Series, vol. 2 (1963), p. 262.

  31 John Edmonston—R. B. Freeman, “Darwin’s Negro bird-stuffer,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society, vol. 33, 1978, pp. 83-6.

  31 “All answered ‘No.’ ”—Autobiography, p. 74.

  32 A few weeks later—Beagle Diary, p. 58; Voyage (1845), p. 481.

  32 The first Fuegians that Charles met—Nick Hazlewood, Savage: The Life and Times of Jemmy Button (London, 2000) gives a full account of Captain FitzRoy’s taking of the Fuegians in 1830 and all that happened to them in England and back in Tierra del Fuego after then.

  33 “without exception the most curious and interesting spectacle”—Beagle Diary, p. 122.

  33 “an inherent delight in man”—Beagle Diary, p. 445.

  34 two pet tortoises—Frank Sulloway, “Darwin’s conversion: The Beagle voyage and its aftermath,” Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 15, no. 3 (1982), p. 344.

  35 “persistence of type” and “law of succession”—Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging (London, 1995), p. 350.

  35 The ornithologist John Gould—Frank Sulloway, “Darwin and his finches: The evolution of a legend,” Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 15, no. 1 (1982), p. 21.

  35 Charles kept notebooks—Notebooks.

  36 Herschel had himself suggested—Letter to Lyell of 20 February 1836 quoted in Charles Babbage, The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise (London, 1838), pp. 203-4.

  37 how he saw mankind in the scheme of things—Sandra Herbert, “The place of man in the development of Darwin’s theory of transmutation,” Parts I and II, Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 7, no. 2 (Fall 1974) and vol. 10, no. 2 (Fall 1977).

  37 he now explored Wordsworth’s writings—Edward Manier, The Young Darwin and his Cultural Circle (Dordrecht, 1978); Marilyn Gaull, “From Wordsworth to Darwin: ‘On to the Fields of Praise,’ ” The Wordsworth Circle, 10 (1979) pp. 33-48; and Gillian Beer, Darwin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (London, 1983), have dealt with aspects of Charles’s reading of Wordsworth in these years.

  37 “in the evening or on blowy days”—CCD, 2.440, in a note on recollections from childhood, linked with Charles’s interest in the faculty of memory in Notebooks C (Notebooks, p. 315-C 242e) and M (Notebooks, p. 526-M 28).

  38 Charles noticed Wordsworth’s comments—Notebooks, p. 529 (M 40) “V. Wordsworth about science being sufficiently habitual to become poetical”; pp. 578-9 (N 57) “there are some notes . . . on Wordsworth’s dissertation on Poetry.” The passages in the “Preface” are on p. 881 of William Wordsworth, The Poems, ed. John Hayden (Harmondsworth, 1990). Charles’s comments on landscapes and trees are on p. 529 of Notebooks (M 40-41).

  39 Charles read Wordsworth’s long poem The Excursion—Autobiography, p. 85.

  41 the “innate repugnance, disgust, and abhorrence”—William Swainson, On the Natural History and Classification of Quadrupeds (London, 1835), p. 7.

  41 The first chimpanzee to be exhibited—Henry Scherren, The Zoological Society of London—A Sketch of its Foundation and Development (London, 1905), pp. 59-60.

  42 Mrs Lyell saw Tommy in 1835—Diary, 11 March 1838, commenting on Jenny the orang’s expression.

  42 The Zoological Society’s veterinary surgeon—William Youatt, “Contributions to comparative pathology no. V: Intestinal fever and ulceration,” The Veterinarian, vol. 9, no. 101, New Series, no. 41 (May 1836), pp. 271-82. The other two articles were “Account of the habits and illness of the late chimpanzee,” The Lancet, vol. 2 (1835-36), pp. 202-6, and a piece in The London Medical Gazette, vol. 18, issue 440 (1836), pp. 214-16. Charles read through The Veterinarian in January 1842 (CCD 4.464).

  43 “The personage who has lately arrived”—Reprinted in William Broderip, Zoological Recreations (London, 1847), p. 249.

  43 Queen Victoria saw the second Jenny—Queen Victoria’s journal for 1842, Royal Archives, quoted in Wilfrid Blunt, The Ark in the Park: The Zoo in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1976), p. 38.

  44 Whewell praised Owen’s achievements—Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, vol. 2 (1838), pp. 625-6, 642.

  45 “pterodactyl pie”—Charles Lyell, Life, Letters and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart. (London, 1881), 2.39.

  45 people “often talk” about the “wonderful event”—Notebooks, pp. 222-3 (B 207). Charles probably made this note shortly after Whewell’s speech and had Whewell’s comment in mind, because Whewell spoke on 16 February and the timings of an earlier and a later entry in the notebook fit closely. On B 199e Charles had referred to an article which had appeared in the Athenaeum of 10 February (Notebooks, pp. 220, 658). On B 235 he noted the title of an article which appeared in the Athenaeum of 24 February, possibly to read later (Notebooks, pp. 230, 679).

  45 “speculated much about [the] existence of species”—CCD, 2.431.

  46 “Animals whom we have made our slaves”—Notebooks, p. 228 (B 231).

  46 David Hume—For Charles’s reading of Hume in 1838 and 1839, see Notebooks, pp. 325, 545, 559 and 591-2 (Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding); Notebooks, p. 596 (Dissertation on the Passions); Notebooks, p. 627 (Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals); CCD 4.458 and Notebooks, pp. 591-2 (Natural History of Religion and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion). One part of Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding that Charles noted for special attention was Section IX “Of the reason of animals.” When Charles wrote in Notebooks, p. 564, “Experience shows the problem of the mind cannot be solved by attacking the citadel itself,” he may have been commenting on Hume’s metaphor in the introduction to the Treatise of Human Nature “the only expedient [is] . . . instead of taking now and then a castle or village on the frontier, to march up directly to the capital or centre of these sciences, to human nature itself; which once being masters of, we may everywhere else hope for an easy victory” (Treatise of Human Nature, Harmondsworth, 1969, p. 43). Charles’s page numbers for the passages he referred to in Notebooks pp. 591-2 correspond t
o those of the London, 1788 edition of Hume’s Essays and Treatises. Charles’s uncle Josiah Wedgwood II had a copy of that edition in the library at Maer, together with the Treatise of Human Nature (Sotheby’s Auction Catalogue, 16 November 1846, p. 10). William Huntley wrote on Charles’s reading of Hume in “David Hume and Charles Darwin,” Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 33, no. 3, (July-September 1972). Edward Manier discussed Hume and natural religion in The Young Darwin and his Cultural Circle (Dordrecht, 1978), pp. 86-8. For Hume’s influence on Charles’s later thinking, see pp. 62, 313, 323, 337 and 347 in this book.

  47 “Such a sight has seldom been seen”—CCD, 2.80. In the same letter Charles wrote that Erasmus had been with Harriet Martineau “noon, morning and night” and she had “been as frisky lately [as] the rhinoceros.”

  48 “the whole fabric totters and falls”—Notebooks, pp. 263 (C 76), 264 (C 79), 300 (C 196).

  Chapter Three: Natural History of Babies

  50 “Is insanity an unhealthy vividness of thought?”—Marginalia, p. 5.

  50 “the accidental discovery”—John Abercrombie, Inquiries Concerning the Intellectual Powers and the Investigation of Truth (London, 1840), pp. 104-25.

  50 a seven-page note—CCD, 2.438-42. See note on “in the evening” above.

  50 “Therefore affections effect of organisation”—Notebooks, p. 525 (M 26).

  51 “To avoid stating how far I believe”—Notebooks, pp. 532-3 (M 57).

  51 “The possibility of the brain having whole trains of thoughts”—Herbert Mayo, The Philosophy of Living (London, 1837), p. 155; Notebooks, p. 538 (M80-81). Mayo’s book was an essay on the “principles which contribute to the maintenance of health and the preservation of the body” (p. iii). In a chapter on diet, there is a section entitled “A first-rate dinner in England the best in the world.”

  51 “the religious sentiment”—Autobiography, p. 91.

  52 “It is an argument for materialism”—Notebooks, p. 524 (M 19).

  52 Charles questioned other historical parts—Autobiography, pp. 85-6.

  52 Dr. Darwin suggested firmly—Autobiography, p. 95.

  53 free will and oysters—Notebooks, p. 536 (M 72-3).

  53 the moral sense was “an impress”—William Whewell, Bridgewater Treatise III. On Astronomy and General Physics (London, 1833), p. 267.

  53 humans, “like deer”—Notebooks, p. 537 (M 76).

  54 “Origin of man now proved”—Notebooks, p. 539 (M 84e).

  54 “Do the Ourang Outang like smells”—Notebooks, p. 560 (M 156).

  54 she “readily put it when guided”—Notebooks, p. 554 (M 139e).

  55 she was “astonished beyond measure”—CUL DAR 119.1-2.

  55 “Jenny understands, when told door open”—CUL DAR 119.1-2.

  55 “The appearance of dejection”—Expression, p. 136.

  56 “Natural history of babies.”—Notebooks, p. 560 (M inside back cover).

  57 “Pain and disease in world”—Notebooks, p. 636 (Macculloch 57r).

  57 “analyse this out”—Notebooks, p. 558 (M 150).

  58 If our motives were “originally mostly instinctive”—Notebooks, p. 608 (OUN 26).

  58 his “principal object”—William Wordsworth, The Poems, ed. John Hayden (Harmondsworth, 1990), 1.869.

  58 “the poorest poor”—Wordsworth, The Poems (Harmondsworth, 1990), 1.267.

  58 “the commonplace truths of the human affections”—Letter from Wordsworth to Coleridge, 22 May 1815, The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The Middle Years (Oxford, 1937), 2.669.

  59 “probably the foundation of all that is most beautiful”—Notebooks, p. 409 (E 49).

  60 her interleaved Bible, reading lists and notes for prayers—Emma’s Bible is in the collection of the Reverend David Smith; her reading lists are in her diaries which are on deposit in Cambridge University Library, and her notes for prayers are in the Wedgwood /Mosley Collection in Keele University Library.

  60 the “perfection of friendship”—Richard Whately, A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State (London, 1830), p. 245.

  61 “I think all melancholy thoughts”—CCD, 2.122-3.

  62 “I believe from your account”—CCD, 2.169-70.

  62 jottings in his metaphysical notebook—Notebooks, pp. 578-9 (N 57, 59, 60).

  62 a long note on the moral sense—Notebooks, pp. 618-29 (OUN 42-55).

  63 she was troubled again by her worries—CCD, 2.171-3.

  64 “Your father’s opinion”—Autobiography, p. 93.

  66 “W. Erasmus Darwin born Dec 27th 1839”—CCD 4.410-33.

  66 “anxious to observe accurately”—Life and Letters, 1.132.

  68 a set of Wordsworth’s Poetical Works—Stephen Gill, Wordsworth and the Victorians (Oxford, 1998), pp. 268-9. It was Edward Moxon’s six-volume edition of 1840. Charles wrote on the title page of each volume, “Charles Darwin 1841.” According to his reading notebooks, he finished the first two volumes on 13 March and the third volume on 7 May; he finished “some Wordsworth” on 26 September and the final volume on 17 February 1842 (CCD, 4.462-4). He marked many poems and passages and noted his judgements, ranging from “fine” and “beautiful” to “obscure,” “wretchedly poor” and “stupidest.” Emma also marked a number of poems. The set is in a private collection.

  68 “like the beams of dawn”—“Address to My Infant Daughter, Dora on Being Reminded that She Was a Month Old that Day, September 16,” William Wordsworth, The Poems, ed. John Hayden (Harmondsworth, 1990), 1.622. The poem is on pp. 74-6 of the second volume of the 1840 edition.

  69 Annie’s first smile—CCD, 4.412.

  71 The Polytechnic and the Adelaide—Richard Altick, The Shows of London (London, 1978), pp. 377-89.

  71 “It is a wonderful, mysterious operation.”—Maria Edgeworth, Letters from England 1813-1844, ed. Christina Colvin (Oxford, 1971), pp. 593-4.

  71 “The common remark”—Andrew Winter, “The Pencil of Nature,” The People’s Journal, vol. 2 (21 November 1846), pp. 288-9.

  71 “Photographic Phenomena”—George Cruikshank’s Omnibus (London, 1841), p. 31.

  Chapter Four: Young Crocodiles

  73 a house in Woking—Jonathan Topham, “Charles Darwin of Woking? Emma Darwin’s recollections of house-hunting,” Darwin College Magazine, March 1997, pp. 50-54. The article reproduces and discusses her note in CUL DAR 251.

  75 “The charm of the place to me”—“The General Aspect,” English Heritage Darwin Collection at Down House. Part is transcribed in MLCD, pp. 33-6.

  75 Dr. Mantell gave a vivid account—Gideon Mantell, The Wonders of Geology (London, 1838), 1.368-9.

  75 Charles Lyell speculated—Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (Harmondsworth, 1997), p. 67.

  76 “to stand on the North Downs”—Origin, pp. 296-7.

  77 Emma had read Thomas Carlyle’s Chartism—CFL (1915), 2.52.

  77 The Times had reported a confrontation—15 and 18 August 1842.

  78 The Illustrated London News—27 August 1842.

  80 Little Robert and the Owl—Mary Sherwood, Little Robert and the Owl (Wellington, 1828). CCD, 4.424.

  81 “A few days later some of the copses”—“The General Aspect” as above.

  83 “I had hoped (for experience I have none)”—CCD, 2.352.

  83 All except Betty and Horace wrote accounts of their childhoods—MSS and family papers in CUL Darwin Archive, and recollections by William, Etty, Francis and Leonard in a number of books and articles.

  84 The Complete Servant—Samuel and Sarah Adams, The Complete Servant; Being a Practical Guide to the Peculiar Duties and Business of all Descriptions of Servants (London, 1825), p. 6.

  86 Little Servant Maids—Charlotte Adams, Little Servant Maids (London, 1851). The book was published by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. The British Library’s copy was destroyed by enemy action. There is one in the SPCK archive at Cambridge University Library.

  87
Jessie Brodie . . . a tall, erect woman—CFL (1915), 2.86.

  87 she had worked for the novelist—Lillian Shankman, Abigail Bloom and John Maynard, Anne Thackeray Ritchie: Journals and Letters (Columbus, 1994), Anne Thackeray Ritchie’s journal for Laura Stephen, her sister’s daughter, p. 197; Gordon Ray, The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray (New York, 1945), 1.476-7, 478-9, 2.101, 2.193; Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Biographical Introductions to the Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (London, 1894-98), 5.xiii; Gordon Ray, Thackeray, The Uses of Adversity (New York, 1955), p. 303.