Charles Darwin

The Classic Autobiography Of Charles Darwin

By the time I went to this day-school (...) my taste for natural history, and more especially for collecting, was well developed. I tried to make out the names of plants (...) and collected all sorts of things, shells, seals, franks, coins, and minerals. The passion for collecting which leads a man to be a systematic naturalist, a virtuoso, or a miser, was very strong in me, and was clearly innate, as none of my sisters or brother ever had this taste. But no pursuit at Cambridge was followed with nearly so much eagerness or gave me so much pleasure as collecting beetles. It was the mere passion for collecting, for I did not dissect them, and rarely compared their external characters with published descriptions, but got them named anyhow. During my last year at Cambridge, I read with care and profound interest Humboldt's 'Personal Narrative.' This work, and Sir J. Herschel's 'Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy, ' stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of Natural Science. - Taken from "The Autobiography of Charles Darwin"