The earliest records of the Darwin family show that in 1500 an ancestor of that name (though spelt differently) was a substantial yeoman living on the borders of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.  In the reign of James I. the post of Yeoman of the Royal Armoury of Greenwich was granted to William Darwin, whose son served with the Royalist Army under Charles I. During the Commonwealth, however, he became a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, and later the Recorder of the City of Lincoln.

Passing over a generation, we find that a brother of Dr. Erasmus Darwin “cultivated botany,” and, when far advanced in years, published a volume entitled “Principia Botanica,” while Erasmus developed into a poet and philosopher.  The eldest son of the latter “inherited a strong taste for various branches of science ... and at a very early age collected specimens of all kinds.”  The youngest son, Robert Waring, father of Charles Darwin, became a successful physician, “a man of genial temperament, strong character, fond of society,” and was the possessor of great psychic power by which he could readily sum up the characters of others, and even occasionally read their thoughts.  A judicious use of this gift was frequently found to be more efficacious than actual medicine!  To the end of his life Charles Darwin entertained the greatest affection and reverence for his father, and frequently spoke of him to his own children.

From this brief summary of the family history it is easy to perceive the inherited traits which were combined in the attractive personality of the great scientist.  From his early forbears came the keen love of sport and outdoor exercise (to which considerable reference is made in his youth and early manhood); the close application of the philosopher; and the natural aptitude for collecting specimens of all kinds.  To his grandfather he was doubtless indebted for his poetic imagination, which, consciously or unconsciously, pervaded his thoughts and writings, saving them from the cold scientific atmosphere which often chills the lay mind.  Lastly, the geniality of his father was strongly evidenced by his own love of social intercourse, his courtesy and ready wit, whilst the gentleness of his mother—­who unfortunately died when he was 7 years old—­left a delicacy of feeling which pervaded his character to the very last.

No such sure mental influences, reaching back through several generations, can be traced in the records of the Wallace family, although what is known reveals the source of the dogged perseverance with which Wallace faced the immense difficulties met with by all early pioneer travellers, of that happy diversity of mental interests which helped to relieve his periods of loneliness and inactivity, and of that quiet determination to pursue to the utmost limit every idea which impressed his mind as containing the germ of a wider and more comprehensive truth than had yet been generally recognised and accepted.