FIVE VALUABLE THINGS THAT I LEARNED FROM READING CHARLES DARWIN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

David George Moore

Darwin’s autobiography is short (about 125 pages). It offers a good way to better understand what motivated one of the most consequential thinkers of the modern age.

Though Darwin’s autobiography is short, I still made over one hundred notes in the margins. It’s the type of book that invites that kind of engagement.

Following Augustine’s counsel to read with charity, here then are five beneficial things that I gained by reading and pondering Darwin’s autobiography.

*Love for a subject may get you further than raw talent

I am grateful for this truth! I know people with extraordinary talent or intellectual aptitude who have squandered it. I also know many with lesser abilities who get much out of what they have.

Darwin talked about his poor memory, but he had some strengths that separated him from many others:

“Therefore, my success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to, has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and conditions. Of these the most important have been—the love of science—unbounded patience in long reflecting over any subject—industry in observing and collecting facts…With such moderate abilities as I possess, it is truly surprising that thus I should have influenced to a considerable extent the beliefs of scientific men on some important points.”

What we love and how much we love it makes all the difference in the world.

*Focus is a key ingredient to success

Those who knew Darwin best, like his wife, understood how absorbed he could get when conducting his research. It is not hard to imagine then why interruptions were not easy for Darwin to deal with.

Darwin’s ability to focus is probably best illustrated by the story of collecting beetles:

“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 injected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as well as the third one.”

Shortly after describing this scene, Darwin adds, “It seems therefore that a taste for collecting beetles is some indication of future success in life.”  

Darwin’s focus is also revealed in what he was willing to give up. He loved to hunt but gave it up so he could concentrate solely on science.

Darwin ran for a perishable crown, but we Christians run for an imperishable crown. (I Cor. 9: 24-27) How much more zealous ought we to be for learning about God and His world?!

*Paying attention is a skill worth cultivating

Throughout Darwin’s book you see the value of paying close attention to the world around you. Darwin invites us to take note of what others might dismiss as unimportant or too obscure for the serious investment of one’s time.

Darwin motivates me to keep reflecting on my life and not quickly discount anything as trivial. Darwin reminds me that so-called lesser things can teach me invaluable lessons.

A great aid for me here has been the habit of writing. For forty years I have captured my thoughts, frustrations, answers to prayer, and reflections on Scripture in various journals (blogging was added later on). I regularly go back to these scribblings. It motivates me to keep paying attention, not only to the spectacular, but to the mundane as well.

*Lavish praise on your family

Darwin gladly praised his wife, Emma. She was an amazing mother and a devoted wife. He said she was his “greatest blessing.” Straining credulity is this comment by Charles:

“…I can declare that in my whole life I have never heard her utter one word which I had rather been unsaid. She has never failed in the kindest sympathy towards me, and has born with the utmost patience my frequent complaints from ill-health and discomfort.”

Darwin’s love for his children was equally intense:

“I have indeed been most happy in my family, and I must say to you my children that not one of you has ever given me one minute’s anxiety, except on the score of health. There are, I suspect, very few fathers of five sons who could say this with entire truth. When you were very young it was my delight to play with you all, and I think with a sigh that such days can never return.”

I resonate with the greatest happiness being the family and with the melancholy from no longer experiencing those days of play with our two sons. I can’t say that the health of our sons has been my only worry!

*How to address criticism

In our nasty age where snarky soundbites make us unwilling to give credence to any criticism, it is striking to see one of Darwin’s regular practices.

“I had, also, during many years, followed a golden rule, namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought came across me, which was opposed to my general results, to make a memorandum of it without fail and at once; for I had found by experience that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape from the memory than favorable ones.”

This kind of careful consideration of one’s critics is challenging, especially for those in the public eye. We can adapt the spirit of the Darwinian model by not quickly dismissing the criticism that comes our way. Sure, we need to be discerning. We also ought to invite trusted friends to say how much credence they would give to the criticism.

In closing, we again find help from Augustine. The African bishop reminds us that “all truth is God’s.” Augustine used the idea of “plundering the Egyptians.”  We ought to grab all the intellectual/spiritual booty that better helps us live the Christian life, no matter its source.

Perhaps it is now less surprising why some of the plunder in Darwin’s Autobiography spurs me to be a better Christian.