Darwin's Origin of Species - a biography of a book, the continuation of the first chapter

By: Janet Brown, Portico Series. Attic Books and Yediot Books. From English: Broria Ben-Baruch. Part two of the first chapter of the book, which describes the process of writing the most influential book in the last 150 years - Darwin's Origin of Species

to the first part of the episode

Continuation of the first chapter - beginnings

From Cambridge to the Voyage of the Beagle

The years Darwin spent at Cambridge University were to be very significant for the rest of his life, although not exactly as he or his father had expected. The historians of science tend to carefully scan his experiences from there to find even the faintest hint of the things that would occupy him later. Everyone agrees that the academic environment in which he lived in Cambridge was very different from the environment he knew in Edinburgh, and that it was crucial to replace the strict and cold medical framework with the abundant theological lawns of Cambridge. In truth, Darwin's future achievements can be described as a fusion of the ideas he picked up in Edinburgh and Cambridge - two traditions that rubbed against each other and sparked sparks in the form of new insights. In Cambridge, Darwin joined the social and intellectual elite that would serve as his natural environment for the rest of his life, and the friendships he made there lasted longer. The most important among his new friends were John Stevens Henslow (1861-1796), a young professor of botany, and Adam Sedgwick (1873-1785), an equally young professor of geology. There he also got to know the scientist-philosopher William Hewell (Whewell) and the naturalist-priest Leonard Jenyns (Jenyns). His closest personal friend was his cousin, William Darwin Fox, who also declared himself to be a priest. During two semesters, the two shared an apartment, as well as some financial debts and a dog.

Three wonderful years passed for Darwin in Cambridge. The academic requirements were not very demanding and left him enough time to engage in his own nature studies. In Ben-Hadovid's company, he developed a strong fondness for entomology (the science of insects), and the knowledge he gained in sorting beetles was so comprehensive that, despite being an amateur, he contributed his information to the author of a certified textbook in this field. He hunted foxes and wild birds, exchanged with friends specimens he found in nature, played cards and enjoyed life in the company of a wide circle of acquaintances. Later he wrote about it in his autobiography: "I fell into the company of partygoers, among them some debauched and frivolous young men. Many times we dined together in the evenings, although in those feasts people of a higher rank also participated, and sometimes we drank too much and then sang songs of debauchery and played cards. I know that I should be ashamed of those days and evenings that were wasted, but since some of my friends were very pleasant to me and our spirits were high, I cannot help but remember those days with great pleasure."

In terms of academic requirements, beyond what Darwin had to deal with in the compulsory courses in mathematics, classical studies and theology, he also attended Henslow's lectures on botany as well as (in his final year) Sedgwick's course of general lectures on geology. Apparently Henslow liked him very much, who may have recognized in him the promise for the future, and so he was invited to evening parties at his house, where he met some of the most prominent personalities at the university. According to Henslow's advice, Darwin read a lot, and later said that he was greatly influenced by the books Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, 1830) by John Herschel, and the English translation (1829- 1814), Personal Narrative, of the book of the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.

He was particularly interested in the theological views of the hegemon William Paley, which he first became familiar with as part of his study material and later through independent reading. Before the final exams he had to memorize Paley's books Evidences of Christianity and Moral Philosophy. After receiving his degree, he read the last part of Paley's trilogy, Natural Theology (1802), in which the famous argument appears that the adaptation of living things to their various environments is so perfect that it proves the existence of God: How is it possible to design everything perfectly? So, argued Paley, unless it emerged from under the careful hands of a planner? When a person is walking along a path and happens to find a clock, he will have every reason in the world to think that this clock was created by a skilled craftsman according to a certain plan or design, since such complex mechanisms do not appear just like that, as some kind of magic trick. They are created by a creator. And just as we perceive the clock, argued Paley, so we must also perceive the world around us.

This position of natural theology dominated the dome in Cambridge in all areas and served as the cornerstone for the study of natural sciences at the university, although there was no lack of criticism of it as well. According to this position, the (Christian) God created a world in which everything had its place and everything was designed so that it properly fulfilled its mission - a point of view that was accepted from the beginning throughout the educated world in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and enjoyed great support especially in Britain at the beginning of the century the nineteenth The physical world is seen as something governed by laws of nature that act as a precise mechanical mechanism, and even the structures at the foundation of society reflect a sort of controlled and well-planned mechanism.
In those days, God was perceived by many people not as an absolute king who sends miracles and lightning into the world, but as a strict and all-seeing guardian who takes care of the proper functioning of the world. And the truth is that the cultural establishment in Britain generally saw natural theology as one of the most effective barriers against social unrest, because it created the ideas of a stable hierarchy, a powerful elixir against civil insurrections and rebellions. In this respect, the theological doctrine was completely integrated into the political and social ethos of the powerful in the early years of the nineteenth century - the "Cambridge Network", as they used to call it.

Paley's bright style gave Darwin great pleasure. "The logic of this book [Evidences for Christianity], and if I may add also of natural theology, made my heart very happy [...] the long chain of arguments charmed and convinced me," he wrote in his autobiography. From the beginning, Darwin would turn to investigating the adaptation of animals and plants to their living conditions in an attempt to provide an alternative to the perfect planning that Paley described so well. In a more literary and emotional sense, Paley also provided Darwin with the words with which he could express his admiration for the marvelous complexity of natural creatures - the sparkle of an insect's wing or the small nectar sacs from which bees suck from the bases of flowers. Later on, although Darwin abandoned the concept of a planning God, he managed to preserve the sense of wonder that he learned from Paley, and he would not completely give up even for a moment those primary religious feelings.

Cambridge directed the course of Darwin's life in another sense, because following the connections he made there he was able to take part in the sea voyage of the ship Beagle. All those events of choice and merry debauchery would probably have ended in nothing if Darwin had not gone on this long sea voyage which changed his life. At first, after his final exams in 1831, he intended only to pass the time pleasantly until he returned to Cambridge in the fall to begin his theological training. Inspired by the travel descriptions of Alexander von Humboldt, he asked to go with Henslow to the island of Tenerife as part of a research expedition, but the planning got complicated and in the end the trip did not materialize. That summer, therefore, Darwin found employment as an assistant to his other professional friend, Adam Sedgwick, in field work designed to examine the earliest rocks known in Wales. Sedgwick taught him geology in the field, and introduced him to the reasoning on which valid scientific decisions are based. Those two weeks planted in Darwin a lasting fondness for large-scale geological theories. Then, from here he went to his uncle's village house, for the August hunting season.

Upon his return to Shrewsbury, Darwin found a letter from Henslow, in which he offered to embark on a voyage around the world on a British research ship, His Majesty's Beagle. The order passed through several hands and was very unconventional, even for its time. She left under the hands of the captain Robert Fitzroy (1885-1805), who asked the permission of the hydrographer of the British Admiralty to take with him an educated man who would know how to take advantage of the journey to collect samples from nature. That gentleman, Fitzroy suggested, would be his guest, would live in the captain's quarters, and would be expected to pay for the trip. Since the government officials, the naval administration and the old universities were an integral part of the social elite of those days, the proposal was submitted to the consideration of several professors from Cambridge. At one point even Henslow himself considered going on a journey, and so did Leonard Jennings. But both decided that their commitments to the community would not allow them to do so. Then it occurred to Henslow that Darwin was "just the man" they needed. It was not an offer for an official position, nor was it an offer to be the ship's naturalist, although in the end that is what happened. Robert Fitzroy himself was a young man, only four years older than Darwin, who showed a deep interest in science and the new developments related to marine navigation. He believed that this trip would be a golden opportunity to promote British science.

At first Dr. Darwin thought that his son should refuse the offer. The whole plan is nothing but a "wild idea", he declared. A disappointed Charles put his father's objections on record. First and foremost, this has "to bring a bad name to my character as a teacher from now on [...] I will never be able to settle down in a stable life [...] You must see this as another change of professional direction [...] It will be a useless task". Fortunately, Dr. Darwin's brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood II, was able to convince the father to change his mind. The rest of the summer days were spent in frantic preparations for the trip. "The Beagle voyage was undoubtedly the most important event in my life, and it determined the course of my professional path," Darwin stated in his autobiography. Until the end of his days, he did not stop being moved by that extraordinary experience.

Today it is difficult to remember that the purpose of that famous journey was not to take Darwin on a trip around the world but to fulfill the instructions of the British Admiralty. The ship was sent to complete and expand a hydrographic survey that had already begun earlier on the coast of South America, between the years 1830-1825. Fitzroy joined Beagle's team when the survey was two years old. The area was important to the British government for commercial, national and naval reasons, and to this was added the ardent ambition of the admiralty to promote practical scientific research and to conduct an accurate mapping of the sea routes and safe harbors. In the quiet period after the Napoleonic Wars, the Government Hydrograph Office sent many survey expeditions designed to promote and exploit British interests overseas. Fitzroy's interest in science encouraged him to equip the ship for its second voyage with several sophisticated devices and several chronometers, to record the longitudes around the world.

The voyage lasted from December 1831 to October 1836, during which the ship visited the Cape Verde Islands (Cabo Verde), the Falkland Islands, many places along the coast of South America, including Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Tierra del Fuego, Valparaiso and Chiloé Island, and later The Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, a short visit to Australia and Tasmania, the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean, and finally, the Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena and Ascension Island. Darwin made several overland journeys of his own in South America, including a journey to cross the Andes. On each occasion he asked Fitzroy to drop him off at the beach and pick him up at various other points.

Due to the extensive publicity of the voyage, the image of the captain Robert Fitzroy is greatly undermined. Literature usually presents him as a caricature of a man waving the Holy Scriptures, but he was not like that at all. Admittedly, there is a blatant symbolism in the fact that two people, one a religious believer with all his being and the other a person who is going to shatter the presence of God in nature, surrounded the world together. But Fitzroy was also an enthusiastic amateur geologist, who held advanced views detached from the Holy Scriptures. He gave Darwin the first volume of Charles Lyell's groundbreaking book The Principles of Geology (1833-1830) and discussed with him some of the theories presented in it. During the journey, Darwin also received the other two volumes. Only later did Fitzroy become an avowed biblical fundamentalist. There is no proof that the two disagreed on religious issues on board the ship, although it is clear from what they wrote that sometimes tensions arose in their personal relationship. They argued, once or twice even a heated argument, but the dispute between them revolved around matters of manners and manners and not around religious questions.

In general, they got along very well. Darwin usually dined at the captain's table and talked with him about all kinds of things as a friend. He shared his cabin and workspace with two junior officers, a ship's officer and surveyor's mate named John Lorett Stokes, and a fourteen-year-old petty officer named Philip Gidley King. On their way home, Darwin and Fitzroy together wrote a short article for the newspaper in which they extolled the work of the Anglican missionaries in Tahiti. The picture conjured up in the imagination - Darwin sitting alone with his thoughts on board the Beagle or arguing with the captain on religious questions, a lonely naturalist cruising through his strange days of thought - may appeal to the heart, but it is only partially true.

Tomorrow the last part of the first episode "The Beginnings"