Today, Charles Darwin would be 200 years old. And so everybody’s blogging the man. When he was 50 years old, he published The Origin of Species. So this is a bicentennial and a…whateveryacallitennial.

I’ve been rereading The Autobiography of Charles Darwin on the Kindle. I marked a few passages that I thought you might enjoy.

I will give a proof of my zeal: one day, on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas! it ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out …

Speaking of Fitzroy, captain of The Beagle:

…We had several quarrels; for instance, early in the voyage at Bahia, in Brazil, he defended and praised slavery, which I abominated, and told me that he had just visited a great slave-owner, who had called up many of his slaves and asked them whether they were happy… [you know the rest of this old story]

About Dad:

…on first seeing me after the voyage, [my father] turned round to my sisters, and exclaimed, “Why, the shape of his head is quite altered.”

On Lyell:

I saw more of Lyell than of any other man, both before and after my marriage. His mind was characterized, as it appeared to me, by clearness, caution, sound judgment, and a good deal of originality…. On my return from the voyage of the “Beagle”, I explained to him my views on coral-reefs, which differed from his, and I was greatly surprised and encouraged by the vivid interest which he showed.

Happy birthday, Charles.