When Charles Darwin was about eight years old, he was sent to a day-school, and it seems that even at this time his taste for natural history, and especially for collecting shells and minerals, was well developed.  In the summer of 1818 he entered Dr. Butler’s great school in Shrewsbury, well known to the amateur makers of Latin verse by the volume entitled “Sabrinae Corolla.”  He expressed the opinion in later life that nothing could have been worse for the development of his mind than this school, as it was strictly classical, nothing else being taught except a little ancient biography and history.  During his whole life he was singularly incapable of mastering any language.  With respect to science, he continued collecting minerals with much zeal, and after reading White’s “Selborne” he took much pleasure in watching the habits of birds.  Towards the close of his school life he became deeply interested in chemistry, and was allowed to assist his elder brother in some laboratory experiments.  In October, 1825, he proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he stayed for two years.  He found the lectures intolerably dull, with the exception of those on chemistry.  Curiously enough, while walking one day with a fellow-undergraduate, the latter burst forth in high admiration of Lamarck and his views on evolution.  So far as Darwin could afterwards judge, no impression was made upon his own mind.  He had previously read his grandfather’s “Zooenomia,” in which similar views had been propounded, but no discernible effect had been produced upon him.  Nevertheless, it is probable enough that the hearing rather early in life such views maintained and praised may have favored his upholding them under a different form in the “Origin of Species.”

While at Edinburgh, Darwin was a member of the Plinian Society, and read a couple of papers on some observations in natural history.  After two sessions had been spent at Edinburgh, Darwin’s father perceived that the young man did not like the thought of being a physician, and proposed that he should become a clergyman.  In pursuance of this proposal, he went to the University of Cambridge in 1828, and three years later took a B.A. degree.  In his autobiography the opinion is expressed that at Cambridge his time was wasted.  It was there, however, that he became intimately acquainted with Professor Henslow, a man of remarkable acquirements in botany, entomology, chemistry, mineralogy, and geology.  During his last year at Cambridge Darwin read with care and interest Humboldt’s “Personal Narrative,” and Sir John Herschel’s “Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy.”  These books influenced him profoundly, arousing in him a burning desire to make even the most humble contribution to the structure of natural science.  At Henslow’s suggestion he began the study of biology, and in 1831 accompanied Professor Sedgwick in the latter’s investigations amongst the older rocks in North Wales.