I’ve been privileged to stand near/on Darwin’s tomb in Westminster Abbey on two occasions. You are requested not to take photographs inside the Abbey so I have no photographs, but this doesn’t stop many people (as evidenced by the photograph to which I am linking).
<img src="http://www.geocities.com/carlgt3/London_Westminster_Abbey_Grave_Darwin.jpg">
Perhaps “privilege” is not the right word as it is extended to anyone who pays their ten pounds to get in. (It’s well worth it, by the way, as the Abbey is an awesome experience. It’s a bit freaky to stand next to so many kings and queens of England and the tomb of a saint.) But then again, perhaps it is the right word to use. I find it humbling that I was able to pay my respects ‘in person’ to the great man.
His head stone (set in the floor above his resting place) is very simple, reflecting the man himself. Darwin was a private and sensitive man. He was deeply hurt by the unwarranted personal and vitriolic attacks that were leveled against him. Because of this he retreated from public view and became a recluse after the publication of his famous books. (This was also partly due to ill health as he had contracted Chagas’ disease in South America.) Most of the defense of his new groundbreaking theory was left to other scientists, such as Thomas Henry Huxley. Followng his amazing world-wide scientific voyage and the publication of his two famous books on evolution, Darwin continued to write and publish his works on biology throughout his life. He lived with his wife and children at their home in the village of Downe, fifteen miles from London.
Fittingly, Darwin lived to see himself vindicated. Despite the controversy his books generated, it is a testament to the quality of his work that in the mere 23 years between the publication of "The Origin of Species" in 1859, and his death on 19th April, 1882, the theory of evolution, one of the most radical and controversial theories in the history of science, became the accepted theory of the majority of biologists of the time. A quotation from Joseph Dalton Hooker, a botanist and taxonomist, sums up the changing mindset amongst scientists at that time…..
"I knew of this theory fifteen years ago. I was then entirely opposed to it; …but since then I have devoted myself unremittingly to natural history; in its pursuit I have travelled round the world. Facts in this science which before were inexplicable to me became, one by one, explained by this theory, and conviction has been thus gradually forced upon an unwilling convert."
Now, of course, in the 21st century it is the best supported and accepted theory in all of science.
<img src="http://www.victorianweb.org/science/darwin/darwin_beard.gif" align="left">
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLES DARWIN! I offer a toast to one of the greatest scientists in history.<P>
