James

In the development of any one person, the people who touch their lives, in and out, day after day, and the thoughts and feelings that they stirred are summed and that quantity represents a large portion of the individual. When looking at the development of someone with as great an impact as Charles Darwin, the people with whom he kept aqaintence shine right through. From the love and support of family, to the help and guidance of friends, Charles Darwin had it all, and yet suffered all alone in his genius for years. The people who he encountered sculpted the man that we know of as Charles Darwin, out of a failure at schooling and a timid bearer of the theory that toppled Biblical science forever.

Where did it all begin? What was the factor that started the ball rolling, and gave it the momentum to keep lurching ahead? "As a distraction from his sister's regime, Charles played solitary games in the vast family home. His father had become interested in the fashionable study of natural history and there were rooms full of exotic collections, stuffed animals and old bones. A massive greenhouse attached to the side of the house was a veritable jungle to a young boy and it was in this environment of learned eccentricity and an unforce

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The homogenization of Darwin's newly found interest in the physical sciences and analytical theory (helped by their father's gift of a chemical laboratory) with the slow and patient love of the natural world had repercussions felt around the globe. " (D 9) However silently and patiently his love of nature crept upon Darwin he absorbed it all the same, and with the h!

elp of his brother's love for chemistry, the two blended perfectly. Darwin got a taste of what it means to have to stand up for a belief while aboard the Beagle. With the help of his loving wife and their many children Darwin survivied. Charles' elder by four years, Erasmus became his best friend as the explored the sciences, something that Srewsbury school was seriously deficient in. However later in his life, after returning from the fateful voyage of the Beagle Darwin may have been sorry to have formed a relationship with Grant. "Huxley, having been well trained and prepaired to do for evolution what Darwin could never manage - to fight for its validity against the bigots and disclaimers - stood for the cause, while the author pottered around Down House.

The last thing to mention, the last key in the Development of the Charles Darwin that we have to behold today, is the help and aid of three of his friends and comrades. Edinburgh proved to be yet another one of the major steps for Darwin on the road to his own enlightenment. The development of Darwin as an orator was clearly halted at this point in his life, for FitzRoy was too harsh a man to competently argue with for his stone cold heart and lack of faith in humanity prevented him from accepting alternate views of society and nature. " The first symptoms where stomach cramps and headaches, but during the following years Darwin experienced skin disorders, bouts of eczema, rheumatoid pains, insomnia, odd body swellings, and heart palpatations. " (D 109) The stress created by the work he secretly feared would wipe him off the face of the Earth, is in this students mind the most uneffable reason for his symptoms. At this time Darwin also sought the comfort found in the analysis of the natural world. "His old mentor in Edinburgh, the outspoken Robert Grant, would have been receptive [to his new theory] but would have also been the worst possible person with whom to confide.

This is the point in Charles' life where he first meets Captain FitzRoy.

Approximate Word count = 2234
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

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